That's a new song to me, but it's worthy of me learning that song. The text exalts what we say we want to exalt today, and that's the lordship of Jesus Christ over everything and everyone, including us. I hope we can sing that song again and enjoy those lyrics again soon. Open your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians 6, I do hope that you have a copy of the notes you were given when you came in as we continue on with our series, Swimming Upstream. After today, I only have three more planned sermons for this series, so we're driving towards the sunset, if you will, on a very important, very heavy topic, swimming upstream. And I wanna just jump in heavy right here from the beginning. I'm going to read to you in just a moment as you follow along, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 12 through 18. But I want to give you some homework ahead of time. As I read through these verses, I want you to count how many times you see either the word body in its singular or plural form. It's the Greek word soma. It's consistently that word when you see in the English body. It's talking about our physical body. But I also want you to count the inferred references to our bodies. You're going to see that Paul has something heavy on his heart. Whether inferred or directly mentioned, you're going to see the body brought up. no less than 13 times in just a few verses. Paul not only has something on his heart, but he's building towards something. Now you help me with this. You count them and you note as I read. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 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. 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 for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be. Do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For he, God says, the two shall become one flesh. But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body. But the immoral man sins against his own body. You feel the tension? Do you feel the weight? Do you feel that Paul is working towards a crescendo of some sort? He is. Let's pray right now. Lord Jesus, we hear in these verses 12 through 18, that your spirit through the pen of Paul is talking about our physical bodies. And we get the feeling that what he has said here is introduction for something he's building towards, the capstone, the crescendo of his idea. Open our eyes to it, Lord. With great clarity, with great urgency, and I pray in the end will result in great rejoicing. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. If you live on the eastern seaboard of our country this time every year, you tend to be on high alert to West African weather patterns. You say, what? You do. You do watch the Weather Channel. And you watch for storms that are exiting the northwest part of the continent of Africa and starting a voyage across the ocean. You say, why is that? Because if you're on the eastern seaboard during the months we're in right now, you are in the heart of the United States hurricane season. I know. As you know, I used to live there for over a decade. You become very familiar with the ins and the outs of hurricanes. You understand that a hurricane, by definition, is a tropical cyclone with minimum sustained winds of 74 miles an hour. That's the breaking point to where it becomes a hurricane. You hear of Cat 1, Cat 2, Cat 3, Cat 4, Cat 5. Those are the five categories of hurricanes. that refer to the actual potential property damage based on the strength of a storm. A cat three or higher is considered a major hurricane. A hurricane watch is often given through the local weather authorities. And a hurricane watch means that there's the possibility of a region that could experience hurricane conditions within 48 hours. A hurricane warning, however, indicates that sustained winds of at least 74 miles an hour are expected within 36 hours. You just kind of get used to talking like that when you're in town at the grocery store on the eastern seaboard of our country and in the Gulf region. Already this year, this far into the hurricane season, we've had several storms already named. Of course, there was Tropical Storm Alberto in June. You may have heard that in the news. You had Hurricane Beryl in July. Hurricane Chris in June, Hurricane Ernesto in August, and you also had, in August, Hurricane Debbie. And that really lashed against Georgia and South Carolina. Debbie did. It's personal for me. As I mentioned, we lived there 11 years. My wife and I ministering there in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, Virginia. And to this day, and even through text messages as recently as this morning, with people living there, we have many friends and loved ones in that area and in that church, Colonial Baptist Church. So we still pay attention to the weather there. But it's not just that we live there, and it's not just that we have friends in Virginia Beach, but my brother-in-law and his family, Mike Knight, he's a church planter in the Raleigh area, the Raleigh-Durham area. And they have put up with hurricanes and tropical storms on a regular basis as well. My own mom makes it personal, because when she was alive, she lived in Melbourne and in Vero Beach, two different homes there, in Florida. And her condo and then her home had what's called hurricane shutters she could shelter in place. But it was my own daughter and her family and my son and his family who even experienced the rains this past month of Hurricane Debbie. My daughter and her family are in Savannah, Georgia, right on the coast. My son, Jared, and his family are in the upstate of South Carolina. So yeah, if you ask anyone on the eastern seaboard over the next few weeks about what's on their mind, at some point you will no doubt hear, my home. My home. I want to protect it at any cost. That's just a way of life during hurricane season. And I think of that, and I can't help but think of our topic we've been covering this summer in our current series. Because our culture here in the West is saturated with what I think we can call the hurricane of immorality. From morning to evening, every moment that we are awake, waking moment, whether it's through tech, technology, whether it's through standard utilities like a phone, whether it's through experimentation that our culture is prescribing all age groups, whether it's something that you're being tempted to engage in with other people or alone, this hurricane of immorality is wreaking havoc, leaving carnage, and homes and lives are being destroyed. The warning is real. And it creates an urgency. when we come to this text that we're looking at this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. A chapter, and in a particular portion of this chapter, that is laser-focused on the believer's body, and Paul's writing about this focus, about the believer's body, to a city nonetheless immoral than Corinth, where immorality was expected, it was prescribed, and it was easy. Paul's words here are sounding a warning to not only that church and that culture but to ours as well. And I'm confident that after we are familiar with some basics from this portion of scripture that you and I will understand we must guard our bodies with the same extreme focus. Look back at verse 18 again. In two words, Paul communicates it. Flee. Flee immorality. Let's change the picture in your mind from hurricanes back to our series, which is a series called Swimming Upstream. Swimming upstream against the culture of immorality. And I want you to see in this text this morning that there are basic swimming reminders that will protect your home, if you will, will protect your life. In particular, I think you'll see five truths that will protect you. And we're gonna find those five truths in the capstone, in the crescendo of what Paul is building towards. Verses 19 and 20. Look down at these verses that are familiar to you. And again, for the third time in this paragraph, he's gonna start by saying, do you not know? Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own. For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. This is the crescendo, and there are five truths here that you and I must own. in this fight of swimming upstream. First of all, I want you to note the nature of my body. The nature of my body. Again, it says in verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Do you not know that your body is the temple? Paul is saying when he starts out a question like that, don't you know, don't you know? He's saying, you may be living as if you don't know this. If you do know it, it's worth going back and highlighting and underlining and remembering and embracing. He's talking about here the nature of my body. Now let me just put a little pause here. On your notes, I've chosen to put it in the format of a chart today. And you can already tell we're going to go through these five truths. That's the first column. And we're going to, for each of these truths, use the same outline. We're going to state the characteristic. We're going to summarize the meaning of that characteristic. And then we're going to have a truth that emerges from that characteristic. So the first truth here is this. The nature of my body, characteristic-wise, is one word. Temple. Temple. The nature of my body is that of a temple. Do you not know that your body is a temple? I was talking with one of our church members not long ago who has to commute early morning, really early every morning, towards downtown Detroit, taking I-94. And when he told me that, I said, oh, you know what I enjoy whenever I have to drive I-94 towards Detroit? Once I crest Wayne Road, I think it is, On the horizon, you're on a little hill, and on the horizon, you can see the top of the Renaissance Center already. Just for a moment, as you're at the top of that hill. And I always think that's really cool, especially at night, if the air is clear. I mean, that's a big building. You say, well, there's a lot of buildings in downtown Detroit, but there's one you can see from Wayne Road. It's a building that towers, it's a complex of buildings, five buildings, I believe, or three or five, I can't remember now, three or four, right? The big one in the middle, how many are around it, three? You don't know either, okay, cool. Yes, yeah, there might be seven. Okay, the main ones, if you look at the cityscape, the skyline of downtown Detroit, one stands out. often eclipsing even the Fisher Building, and it's the Renaissance Center. I think that's so cool. You say, well, it's just another building. Well, yeah, it is a building, and there are other buildings, but this one stands out. You know, if you and I could travel back to ancient Jerusalem, the time of Solomon, King Solomon, and we crested over the Mount of Olives, you would see explode into your sight a beautiful city called Jerusalem. But your mind, as you marveled at the landscape and the cityscape, if you will, of that beautiful, ornate city of King Solomon, immediately your attention would be wrapped up in one particular building, the temple. And you would never say, what? I mean, there are other buildings there. That's just another building, and yes, there are other buildings, and yes, it is a building, but it stands out for a reason. I think that's important as we come to this characteristic, listen, that Paul paints and describes as being true of your physical body. He says, do you not know that your body is a temple? You're not just another body against the backdrop of the mob, of the population. You're not just a face in a seating capacity of the football big house here in town that can hold 111,000 or so. You're not just one more of you. It says here, writing to believers, your body is the temple And he doesn't use the Greek word for just a normal building. You know what word he uses? It's naos. And this brings us to the meaning I want you to get. If your body is a temple, what does that mean? In the way Paul's describing it, it means this. My body is not just an ordinary building. It is the innermost, if you will, the holy of holies part of the temple. As you think of the tent of meeting in the Old Testament in the desert or in the wilderness as the children of Israel moved from Egypt to the promised land, or as you think of Solomon's temple, It's a huge complex, but there was one room within that building that was the holiest place of all. It's where the Ark of the Covenant was. It's where God would meet and reveal his will. It's where atonement was made. Looking forward to the ultimate atonement that our Lord Jesus Christ would make. It's the holy of holies. That, listen, is the word that Paul's using for your body. My body is not just an ordinary building. It's the innermost, the holy of holies part of the temple and stands out from all other buildings. You say, which temple is Paul talking about as he writes to the Corinth? There's only two options most likely coming to his mind. It could have been the false god, Aphrodite, and the Corinthians had built a temple to Aphrodite, or in Paul's mind, these Corinthians would have heard about and maybe some have even seen the temple at Jerusalem. The point is, your body is set apart in a wonderful way, in an amazing way, as a Christian. You see, there's a truth that simply emerges from this. And the truth is this, I am never insignificant. I am never insignificant. I'm not here trying to stoke your self-esteem right now. I'm not saying you're significant because of what you've accomplished, or the name you've built, or the resume you've constructed. Your significance has everything to do with what God has done in your life. You say, why is that important in this topic of holiness in this topic of swimming upstream against immorality. Because there's a lie that you and I can believe. Whether we're contemplating being involved with someone else or just by ourself in sinful behavior, and it's this. Here's the lie. It usually starts like this. It won't really matter if I fill in the blank. Everyone else, I'm sure, also, and then fill in the blank. That's a lie. It does matter what you participate in. It does matter the porn that you seek out and indulge in. It does matter the inappropriate physical or affection relationship with someone not your spouse. It does matter if you, with either technology or with touch, remove the mystery of someone else's body. It does matter if you experiment with your sexuality, because you stand out. You've been set apart. If I can stay with Paul's imagery, you're not just another building. You are a holy, of holies. And since we've been set apart as God's children, and the nature of our body is that it is a temple, we must be distinct. It does matter. Paul would say elsewhere, in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. And Peter chimes in as well. You might recall this from studying through Peter. In 1 Peter 2, verse 9, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Your very presence, wherever you are, sets you apart. Whether that's in a car by yourself or with someone else, whether that's you alone with an iPad or a streaming service, whether you're resting, whether you're dating, whether you're meeting up with someone, whatever you're doing on your phone, your presence as a temple sets those moments apart. And you know, it's interesting, when you think of special buildings, special buildings are made to house special people, or special guests, right? I remember when I was at one particular Shepherds Conference out at John MacArthur's church several years ago, many years ago, actually, probably closer to 15 years ago, I stayed over for Sunday, the conference usually ends Friday night, And on Saturday, if you stay for Sunday because you want to go to Church of Grace Community, you find something to do on Saturday in LA. And the guy I was with says, I'd like to go to the Reagan Library, the Reagan National Library. I'm like, sure, let's do that. I was too young to vote then, but I'm very much intrigued in this. And we went to the Reagan National Library. I didn't realize there was a plane in the building. Air Force One. that President Reagan flew on. So many displays, and so ornate, and so royal, I would say, and just beautiful. The entire complex. Only to, towards the end of the tour, you walk outside and you actually stand at his grave. See, why the ornateness? because of the story they're telling, because of who technically is there, at least the remains, a president of the United States. It's the presence of his remains and his legacy that make the facility so important and awesome. Well, it's the same for you. I mean, the first truth that you've engaged with here is the nature of your body. It's a temple. But I want you to see the second truth, because special buildings are made to house special people or guests. I want you to see, secondly, the resident of my body. The resident of my body. Look at verse 19 again. Do you not know that your body is a holy of holies of the Holy Spirit? The resident of my body is the Holy Spirit. That's the characteristic of my body and your body as a believer. You say, what does that mean? Well, here's the meaning. It's simple, yet profound. The meaning is this, my body is completely, completely, I want to say it appropriately, every square inch, every square inch of your body is completely, not partially, And, a second word, always. Not sometimes. Your body is completely and always the dwelling place of God's Spirit. Go to many passages, one will suffice, and it's going to be the same author, it's Paul, and writing these words to the Roman believers in Romans chapter 8, verses 9 and 10. He says, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. He's saying, if you're a believer, a true believer, the spirit of God himself indwells you. Paul will use this kind of wording when he writes to the church and the believers at Colossae. He'll say in Colossians 1.27, in one sentence, Christ in you, the hope of glory. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30, Paul will say as he sets his sights against the sin of sinful anger, and language, he says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God which is in you, by which you've been sealed. And even as we saw when we looked at 1 Thessalonians 4, one through eight earlier in this series, we came to chapter four and we read these words, this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that is that you should abstain from fornication. And then he gets to the end of that paragraph in verse 8 and we read these words. He who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. If your body is a temple holy of holies, what makes it significant is who is in residence. It's the indwelling Holy Spirit in the fullness of his Godhead and glory and power. That's why when Paul writes to the church at Philippi and he tells the believers in chapter 2 verse 12 to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. What's true on the inside, let it show on the outside. And then he throws in verse 13 to explain why that happens. It's God that works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. This is not a passive resident in you that indwells you. It's the active, powerful Godhead and the person of the Holy Spirit. That's the resident of my body. My body is completely, not partially, and always, not sometimes, the dwelling place of God's spirit. What's the truth that comes out of this? The truth is very obvious. The truth is simply this. I am never alone. I am never alone. Even when I have to set the alarm or hit the snooze button, God is not depending on an alarm to wake up and reengage with me or with you. He never ceased. A.W. Tozer, in his wonderful classic book, The Attributes of God, says this, God dwells in his creation and is everywhere indivisibly present in all his works. He is transcendent above all His works, even while He is imminent within them. It's not just a little bit of God that He has to slice up thin so there's enough to go around to every believer. In His fullness, He indwells you. You are never alone. So you know what that means? That means that you and I can never say, Holy Spirit, please wait outside this door. You and I can never say, Holy Spirit, please step to the other side of my screen. Holy Spirit, please do not read what I just texted. Holy Spirit, would you please plug your ears as I return a flirt? Holy Spirit, for the next 10 minutes, will you please pretend you are not my father, my king, my provider, my forgiver, and my protector? We can't ever do that. We can't ever say that. The resident of my body is the Holy Spirit in all his fullness of the Godhead. I'm never alone. You're never alone. You say, well, I have a question. Who placed the Holy Spirit there? in me, making my body a holy of holies. Who did that? That's the third reality I want to point out to you this morning. I call this one the monitor of my body. The monitor of my body. Look at chapter 6, verse 19. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Look at this next phrase. Whom you have from God Now here I need you to think the Father, but we'll say more of that in a moment. The monitor of my body, the one who is, the temple that is indwelt by the Spirit is fixated on by none other than God the Father. What does that mean? What's the meaning of that? Here it is. Since God has made such an investment as the Holy Spirit in my life, I am always under his watchful eye. That's heavy. Let me add some more weight to it if that's possible. In the Gospel of John, in chapters 13 through 17, as you know, we have what's called the upper room discourse, teachings of Jesus to his disciples just hours before his betrayal, hours before the cross. And he's going to show us that every member of the Trinity not only is invested in you, but is therefore constantly with you and seeing you. Listen to his words in John 14 verses 15 through 18. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Who's that? That's God the Son talking. And he says, I will ask the Father, who's that? That's the first person of the Trinity. And he will give you another helper. Who's that? The third person of the Trinity. We're barely two lines in, and every member of the Godhead, the Trinity, is invoked here. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever. That is, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be where? In you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Look at it this way. God has invested himself to indwell you. His spirit indwells you. Do you think he takes his gaze away from that? From that temple, which is your body? We so often think, well, when we talk about immorality and purity and all that, we're talking about the heart. We're talking about the eyes and the heart. And Paul's saying, well, yes. And James will write about that. Every man is drawn away and enticed by his own unique desires. And lust, when it's conceived, gives birth to sin. That's where it crosses over from heart to your body. And sin, when it is finished, or after the passing of time, it brings forth death. We make a transition. It's not just heart. It's body. If God has invested this in your body, can you blame him for keeping his attention fixated there? I remember when I was pastoring in North Carolina, gathering a group of a bunch of couples to go to a couples retreat with me and Lori at the Wilds Christian Camp near Asheville. Some of you are going to that in a few weeks, about 18 of you I understand. I remember taking these guys. One was a newer Christian, recently, I mean, he'd probably been a Christian for a while, but he'd only recently gotten serious about his faith. Very successful investor. Very successful. Younger than me, and hugely successful and blessed financially, if you get the point. And we're in the mountains, the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina at a couple's retreat, doing camp things, hearing good preaching, good songs, good skits, the whole thing. And I see him looking at his phone all the time. All the time. And I at some point nudged him. I said, Steve, why do you keep looking at your phone? And the market was kind of volatile going into that weekend. And he just mentioned that to me with a look of panic in his eyes, and then a smirk on his face, like, I know I shouldn't be checking this out. But he had a lot invested in a volatile market, and he was just keeping an eye on how that was going. There's a personal investment. I get that. And maybe that's a picture of the love, the leaning in from God towards you because of what he's invested in you, and not only giving you faith, as Micah read earlier. It's by his doing that you're in Christ, and part of that whole thing means the Godhead indwells you. Well, that brings us out to the truth for number three. You already know. I am never unseen. I am never unseen. Hebrews 4.13 kind of removes any doubt on this one, right? It says, there's no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. This is the reality, this is the truth that the father tells his son in Proverbs chapter 5. As he's talking about immorality and the immoral person and for his need to avoid that. He drops at the end of chapter 5 this verse, Remember when David fell into sin, into immorality, as we studied in 2 Samuel chapter 11? It wasn't until the very last verse of that chapter that we read these words, but the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of Yahweh, in the sight of the Lord. I think David learned that lesson through his repentance. I'm not sure on the timing of the writing of Psalm 139, but he does say in Psalm 139 verses 17 or 7 through 12 of Psalm 139, where can I go from your spirit? I can't. You're always with me. And let me just tell you something about this investment. What brought this about? It was no easy investment, I assure you. And this brings us to the fourth reality. The fourth reality is this, the cost of my body. The cost of my body. Now look at the end of verse 19. You are not your own, for you have been bought with a price. You have been bought with a price. What's the cost of my body? What's the cost of your body? Not just your inner man, but the humanity that incarcerates the eternal part of you. What gives God the right to own that too? What's the cost? The characteristic here is this, Jesus Christ. You have been bought with a price. You say, what does this mean? What's the meaning of this? It's this, God purchased me through the blood of Christ. And I no longer belong to myself. That's what it means. Every aspect of me, the eternal part, the inner man, as well as what incarcerates it now. Or as my father-in-law said, Not a long time before he actually went to heaven, as he was talking to us about his funeral planning, he said, I want you to understand that that's not me. When you see me, that's the part I'm leaving. The rest of me is going to be with Jesus. But during his lifetime, the outer and the inner man belonged to the Lord because the Lord had purchased him. So much so that one day my father-in-law was going to have a brand new body at the resurrection. God purchased me through the blood of Jesus. I no longer belong to myself. It says you've been bought with a price. That word price there is an interesting Greek word. It's teme. It means I've been honored. I've been considered valuable. I've been marked out as unique and exalted in value, not because of anything I'm doing or am, but because of his move towards me to redeem me. It was a high price. You know, Micah read earlier in our service, 1 Corinthians chapter one, Latter half of the chapter. Chapter two opens with these words. When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's the price. The cost of my body, if you will, is Jesus Christ. Not just my body, the entirety of who I am, but that includes the body in this pilgrimage. It's Jesus. So what's the truth? The truth is, listen, I am never my own. I am never my own. I will, and if you're in Christ as well, you too will get a new body in the future. But he has all claims on this one now. That's why we call him Lord. Can I share a pastoral pet peeve I have? As if you care, right? This is something I gripe to other guys that are in ministry. My skin crawls when I hear another pastor talk to me about his church. Or he'll ask me, how's it going at your church? And man, I want to correct that every time. That conversation, I just want to say, I don't have a church. And your church isn't yours either. I don't say it that way, because especially if he's buying lunch, I won't say that. But I'm just like, come on, man. Can't say my church. Jesus kind of has a claim on that one. Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church. We don't have a church. It's not mine. You say, okay, well then you can go to, when you're at church, you can go to your office, Jim. You know, the office isn't mine. The office is part of facilities that God's given a body of believers here to be good stewards of. I can't say I can go to my office. You say, well, talk about the shelves in your office. Well, they're not my shelves either. You say, well, talk about the books in your office. You brought all those books. I've been building my library since high school. But I can't even claim that I own my books. They've been given to me. And you, as a church family, continue to invest in my library. You say, well, it's your time in your office. Well, that's not my time either. I mean, we all are to be good stewards of our moments and apply a heart of wisdom, as Proverbs says. You say, can you even claim the pen in your office? No, Carolyn ordered that for me. And she got it from Target with money that you gave. And God worked in your heart to give faithfully to the church. I can't claim anything here. You say, what about your phone? No, the church people help with that as well, and I do the other part of that with money that God's allowed me to earn through your kindness. You say, okay, you can't claim anything at what we call Calvary Baptist Church. How about, can you claim your own body sitting in the chair that doesn't belong to you? I can't even claim the body. Why? Because I've been bought with a price. Paul would say, well, you can see it in the page here. If you go one page to the left, 1 Corinthians 4.7, he says, what do you have that you haven't received? If you received it, why do you act as if you didn't receive it? What's the cost of my body? Jesus Christ. He purchased the entirety of me through the blood of Christ. I no longer belong to myself, and I hold precious the doctrine of his lordship over everything. Hebrews 9.14, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Or Paul would say to Titus in Titus 2.14, He gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. You see, what's the application for this one? Simply this, that is not your body. She or he is not your property. It's not your choice. It belongs to God. What a transaction. That brings us to our final truth. The final truth. It's the purpose of my body. The purpose of my body. Look at verse 20. For you have been bought with a price. Look at this. Therefore, Here's the conclusion that Paul's been building towards, going way back to verse 12. This is the conclusion. Glorify God in your body. In your body. The purpose of my body, the purpose of your body, is to glorify God, period. I mean, here's the meaning in light of the above four truths of the nature of your body, the resident of your body, the monitor of your body, and the cost. My body is all about God and his glory, not me and mine. It's about God and His glory. And the truth is very evident. Here's the truth. I am always to give the right impression of God. That's what it means to glorify God. To give the right impression of God. Through what I say. Through what I do. People gasp and they say, I know more about God now. Missionary martyr Jim Elliott back when he was in college or shortly after graduating from college wrote these words About his body not gonna use that word, but you'll hear in his diary in his journal He wrote God so he's about 22 years old God. I pray thee light these idle sticks of my life that I may burn for thee and Consume my life, my God, for it is thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one like you, Lord Jesus. Great words for the journal. A great understanding of why he existed in his body, so that through his body he would glorify God. His wife would later do a lot of writing as well, Elizabeth Elliot. And she would write later in life these words. Discipline for the Christian begins with the body. We have only one. It is this body that is the primary material given to us for sacrifice. We cannot give our hearts to God and keep our bodies for ourselves." Elizabeth's right. Of course, we need to hear from a Puritan on this. Puritan Thomas Boston said, They that would keep themselves pure must have their bodies in subjection, and that may require in some cases a holy violence. End quote. You say, I don't know if I'm comfortable with that. Well, that's what Jesus said. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it far from you. We're not talking of literal amputation, but something no less extreme. Remove anything? He's not talking about other people, he's talking about you. When you know you are going down, you remove what pulls you down. John Piper says, staying pure in our culture is like scaling an iceberg. Doesn't sound like fun, sounds very hard and would take long. But that's the point of Piper's picture. Because scaling an iceberg is so hard, but what a testimony, Piper says, what a testimony of God's grace and glory in your life when others see you on top of that iceberg. There's no other way to explain how you got up there and stay up there except God. Well, our culture is saturated with the hurricane of immorality from morning to evening through our tech, through private temptations, other people, aberrant attraction, and the carnage our homes and our lives. So we would do well to guard our bodies with extreme vigilance. Again, look at verse 18. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body. But the immoral man sins against his own body. We're swimming upstream. And these are basic swimming reminders. Your nature, your resident, your monitor, your cost, your purpose. This is really practical Paul, isn't it? Practical Paul is teaching all of us this morning in these two verses a really good doggy paddle that can survive swimming upstream, and it will save your life. Because we've learned today you are never insignificant, you're never alone, you're never unseen, you're not your own, and you are not to do anything else but give the right impression of God. This is urgent. You say, how urgent? Pastor Heath Lambert, First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, puts it this way. Employing radical measures is the path to life, while indulging in sin is the path to hell. God does not forbid sexual immorality because he wants you to be miserable God forbids it because sexual immorality leads to brokenness, sadness, emptiness, death, and hell. We started reading in verse 12. Just look back in closing at these verses that preceded verse 12. Look at verse 9. Don't you know, there's that question again. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. That's what Heath is saying. Heath Lambert. I'm so thankful for verse 11, aren't you? And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. I wonder, have you accepted this gift of eternal life? If you're still in verses 9 and 10 of what I just read, there can be rescue of you. Come to Christ. Place your faith in his finished work on the cross and the reality of his resurrection. Believe today. Repent of your sin. And you know what will happen? He himself will move into your life. And what you've heard here will be true of you. He will be the resident, and there will be an indwelling of the Godhead himself to survive this amazing current that pulls at you every day. These two verses, these are just swimming basics. These are the basics not just of swimming, but of hurricane resilience. It's basic stuff. And that's where we live our lives. Lord Jesus, thank you. for the basics. These basic swimming reminders that we need. Since we've started this series, many, if not all, under the sound of my voice, have felt this current in one way or another. Some have started to go down, perhaps some have drowned. This is serious, Lord. So, these basic swimming reminders about our body, and what you've done, we need them. And Father, I pray for those who have yet to place their faith and trust in you. Would you please open their eyes right now to see their sin, to own it, to be urgently concerned about it, to run to you as Savior, you who died fully for sins. And if someone accepts you as their Savior and Lord, there's enough covering for them. And you, yourself, set up residence inside of them. And the power of the Godhead's at work to keep us pure, to make us holy, and to glorify you even through our bodies, whether seen or hidden away. It's your glory, and we give you praise for that. In Jesus' name we pray.