Embracing Purity

Theme: Biblical Purity

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 and Romans 12:1-2

Objectives (from the D6 Sunday School Guide)

Know: The Scriptures indicate that what the Christian does with his or her body involves Christ.

Think: Be conscious that real intimacy is more spiritual than physical.

Do: Flee from sexual sin and commit to honoring God with a pure lifestyle.

Notes and questions:

B1 Introduction

• The Corinthian church had many problems.
• Paul was a faithful servant of Jesus Christ and as an Apostle sought to correct attitudes and lifestyle issues.
• Corinth
• Major city
• Commercial
• Religious
• Most famous god was Aphrodite
• Most well known worship was sex
• Church was mostly Gentile converts
• Church too often brought and kept cultural aspects of Corinth into the church.
• Paul needed to teach and discipline them to know and do God’s way, not Aphrodite’s and/or Corinth’s way.
• See Acts 18:1-18 for some of Paul’s experiences in Corinth.
• Paul was there teaching for about 1.5 years

B2 Our passage mainly deals with the sins of the flesh

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: adultery, fornication, immorality, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envies, murders, drinking bouts, revelries, and the like; which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21 EMTV)

B3 Outline

• Permissible--some unimportant things as foods 1 Corinthians 6:12
• Not permissible--sexual sins 1 Corinthians 6:13-20

B4 Physical relationship

• Permissible--what God wants humans to do
• Not permissible--what human’s evil flesh wants to do

B5 True love, spiritual, emotional, and physical, are not known without God’s revelation of it.

B6 Song of Solomon is our source of God’s description of proper physical love.

B7 What is permissible? (Physical love only between DNA male and female who are married). What is not permissible? (Anything else).

B8 Someone will say, “I am allowed to do anything.” Yes; but not everything is good for you. I could say that I am allowed to do anything, but I am not going to let anything make me its slave. Someone else will say, “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food.” Yes; but God will put an end to both. The body is not to be used for sexual immorality, but to serve the Lord; and the Lord provides for the body. God raised the Lord from death, and he will also raise us by his power. You know that your bodies are parts of the body of Christ. Shall I take a part of Christ's body and make it part of the body of a prostitute? Impossible! Or perhaps you don't know that the man who joins his body to a prostitute becomes physically one with her? The scripture says quite plainly, “The two will become one body.” But he who joins himself to the Lord becomes spiritually one with him. Avoid immorality. Any other sin a man commits does not affect his body; but the man who is guilty of sexual immorality sins against his own body. Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and who was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God; he bought you for a price. So use your bodies for God's glory. (1 Corinthians 6:12-20, GNB92)

B9 The word for prostitute is πόρνη porne.

• It means [Source: Mickelson's Enhanced Strong's Dictionaries of the Greek and Hebrew Testaments]
• a prostitute
• a sex worker (by extension)
• one who deliberately stimulates or fulfills unwedded sexual desire by dress, speech or conduct (figuratively) an idolater
• Question
• Why use the word prostitute? (Corinth was famous for its temple prostitutes).
• Why use the wording “temple of the Holy Spirit?” (The false temple of a false god versus the true temple of the living God. This temple to us Christians is our body).
• Is porn allowed? (No, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28, WPNT)

B10 What does it mean when Paul says that everything is lawful?

B11 What is the meaning of the words not brought under the power of any?

B12 How are our bodies members of Christ?

• Temple of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:30)
• Since His Body is holy, He wants us to be holy.

B13 How does the previous question apply to sexual sins?

• Using our body in ways God does NOT want
• Makes our body unholy
• The only acceptable joining is ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,  (Mark 10:7, NKJV)
• Consider
• I speak in human [terms] because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members [as] slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness [leading] to [more] lawlessness, so now present your members [as] slaves [of] righteousness for holiness. (Romans 6:19, NKJV)
• Utley in his commentary on this verse writes: My colleague at East Texas Baptist University, Dr. Bruce Tankersley, reminded me that in cultic prostitution the prostitute is a surrogate for the deity. Therefore, sexual relations were not only immoral, but idolatrous.

B14 What type of temple did the Jews have? What is the Christian temple?

B15 What was the price that we were bought with? 1 Peter 1:19

B16 According to 1 Corinthians 6:20, what are we to be doing with our bodies? Name some practical examples.

B17 The words and in your spirit, which are God’s are not in most translations. Wilbur Pickering writes: The eclectic Greek text currently in vogue omits, “and in your spirit, which are God’s”, following 3.7% of the Greek manuscripts—this includes the earliest ones, that are of objectively inferior quality (it is followed by NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

B18 Romans 12:1-2

• Why does Paul beg of us by the mercies of God?
• How do Christians sacrifice our living body?
• For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be [in the likeness] of [His] resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Him,] that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For [the death] that He died, He died to sin once for all; but [the life] that He lives, He lives to God. (Romans 6:5-10, NKJV)
• How do Christians conform to this world?
• How was our mind renewed? What can we do to maintain this renewal?
• He saved us—not because of righteous deeds that we ourselves had done but according to His mercy, by means of the bath of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5, WPNT)
• as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, (1 Peter 2:2, NKJV)
• All Scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NKJV)
• Ironside in his commentary writes: We are not to suppose that non-conformity to the world necessarily involves awkwardness of behavior, peculiarity of dress, or boorishness in manner. But the entire world system is summed up in three terms: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, or the ostentation of living. Therefore non-conformity to the world implies holding the body and its appetites in subjection to the Spirit of God, subjecting the imagination to the mind of Christ, and walking in lowliness of spirit through a scene where self-confidence and boasting are the order of the day.
• The word prove means to test, examine. How are we to examine ourselves and the actions we might do?
• There are different wills in the world. Which one do we choose and why?

B19 Next week

• On Guard
• Theme: Guard Your Heart
• Scriptures
• Philippians 4:7-8
• 2 Corinthians 10:1-6
• 1 Corinthians 16:13

Death is sure

Death, in the Bible, is called

• Sleep
  
  • These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” (John 11:11, NKJV)
    
  • Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:60, NKJV)
    
  • and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as [they were] from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4, NKJV)
    
• Putting off
  
  • For we know that if our earthly house, [this] tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1, NKJV)
    
  • knowing that shortly I [must] put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. (2 Peter 1:14, NKJV)
    
• Requiring the soul
  
  • “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ (Luke 12:20, NKJV)
    
• Going into silence
  
  • The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor any who go down into silence. (Psalms 115:17, NKJV)
    
• Yielding up the spirit
  
  • Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying [her] out, buried [her] by her husband. (Acts 5:10, NKJV)
    
• Returning to dust
  
  • In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you [are,] And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19, NKJV)
    
  • You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. (Psalms 104:29, NKJV)
    
• Departing
  
  • For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, [which is] far better. (Philippians 1:23, NKJV)
    

Regarding the term sleep

• A cultural term of Jews ( Deuteronomy 31:16; 2 Samuel 7:12; 1 Kings 1:21; 2:10; 11:21,43; 14:20, and others). For example, And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame [and] everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2, NKJV)
  
• Appears as sleep. When the body is in the casket, it appears to be sleeping.
  

We are more than a body. We are body, soul, and spirit. If one cannot accept this, we have a physical part and a spiritual part.

• Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, [Yes,] my soul and my body! (Psalms 31:9, NKJV)
  
• Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn [for] my transgression, The fruit of my body [for] the sin of my soul? (Micah 6:7, NKJV)
  
• And it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, Both soul and body; And they will be as when a sick man wastes away. (Isaiah 10:18, NKJV) Even if the word body is translated creature, the word body means flesh. It would make no sense to translate this as both creature and flesh. Many modern translations simply interpret soul and body as person.
  
• “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28, NKJV)
  
• Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NKJV)
  

People are seen living, thinking, and doing after the flesh is in the grave.

• Luke 16:18-31. Even if one takes this as a parable, the parable shows consciousness after death.
  
• For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, (1 Peter 3:18-19, NKJV)
  
• And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on [God] and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7:59, NKJV). It would make no sense for Stephen to pray, “Lord Jesus receive my breath.” The Lord Jesus also had a spirit: And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last. (Luke 23:46, NKJV)
  
• For we know that if our earthly house, [this] tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in [this] tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. (2 Corinthians 5:1-4, NKJV)
  

Jesus and the thief of the cross: Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? “And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43, NKJV). It makes no sense to tell someone that you are talking today. They are not stupid. So, “Assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise” is totally nonsense. What sense it is to tell someone that you are talking to them today, when they already can figure that out. Also, where Jesus will be, the thief will also be. If Jesus went to Paradise at death, so will the thief.

He's Coming Back

Theme: The King’s Return

Scriptures: Matthew 24:1-44

Notes and questions

B1 Different views on the passage

B2 Basic

• Matthew 24 & 25 are Jesus’s answer to the disciple’s question in Matthew 24:1-3.
• Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what [will be] the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3, NKJV)
• When will these things be?
• What is the sign of your coming?
• What is the sign of the end of the age?
• Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, says Israel must call for the Lord to rescue them as a condition for the second coming, based upon Matthew 23:39. Dr Fruchtenbaum explains: But then He declares that they will not see Him again until they say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. This is a messianic greeting. It will mean their acceptance of the Messiahship of Jesus. So Jesus will not come back to the earth until the Jews and the Jewish leaders ask Him to come back. For just as the Jewish leaders lead the nation to the rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus, they must some day lead the nation to the acceptance of the Messiahship of Jesus  Link   “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under [her] wings, but you were not willing! “See! Your house is left to you desolate; “for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed [is] He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ ” (Matthew 23:37-39, NKJV)
• Cross references (Mark 13 and Luke 21)
• Does this passage mainly speak of the time before the Rapture or of the time in the Tribulation? (Tribulation)
• The are two main views of Matthew 24-25
• Preterism, which is that all has been fulfilled by 70 AD (most hold that Messiah, Lord Jesus, did not return then).
• Literal interpretation sometimes
• Symbolic interpretation sometimes
• So it depends how they can wrest the Scripture to support their view.
• One point: The Temple was totally destroyed in 70 AD as predicted in Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2; Luke 19:44. But the Temple in Matthew 24:15 is desecrated, not destroyed.
• Tribulation time
• Plain, normal sense interpretation throughout
• Some things cannot have happened yet as in “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31, NKJV)
• Tribulation
• 7 years
• First 3.5 years are the tribulation.
• Last 3.5 years are the great tribulation.
• In the tribulation, God is dealing with Israel primarily, not Gentiles.
• The Church is gone. Jesus came in the air to take us home. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, NKJV)

Link to above: https://bible.org/article/biblical-prophecy

B3 Questions

• Matthew 24:1-3
• The people of Israel, both leaders and citizens, have rejected Messiah. What is the result of this rejection?
• What stones is Jesus referring to?
• How does He know this information?
• What is the role of prophecy?
• Proof of Jesus being Yahweh
• Warning, comfort, and knowledge of the future.
• Why did He speak to them privately?
• Did the Lord Jesus answer the question when?
• Matthew 24:4-14
• What is the first thing that the Lord Jesus tells the disciples? (Don’t be deceived).
• How many Messiahs are there? (One)
• How many claim to be Messiah? (Many)
• What is the motive for all the wars? What is the spiritual condition of these people?
• Why are there so many false prophets during this time?
• Why does the love of many grow cold?
• In light of Matthew 24:13, what does persecution accomplish for believers? (It separates the true from the false. When we are persecuted, God’s grace will help us endure. Now to Him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to make you stand before His glory, blameless with exultation, (Jude 1:24 [EMTV]
• Four things in light of Matthew 24:14
• This is speaking of the tribulation period.
• There will be 144,000 Israelite evangelists. Revelation 7:14
• There will be the 2 witnesses. (I think they are Elijah and Enoch; most others believe Elijah and Moses. Regardless, there will be 2 witnesses). Revelation 11:3
• Finally an angel will go through the earth, traveling in the sky, to preach the Gospel. Revelation 14:6
• Matthew 24:15-28
• Matthew 24:15 refers to the actions of The Antichrist: desecration of the Temple, self worship, causing others to worship him, and ultimate rebellion. The passage refers to Daniel 9:27 and Daniel 12:11.
• Matthew 24:16-22 refer to those wise Jews who believe God. Note the word Sabbath, for Jews had limitations on travel. Those who believe God will flee, those who don’t will stay. Is it OK to flee persecution?
• Matthew 24:23-28, who is our deliverer, our Messiah? Why do people turn to false messiahs? Do all false messiahs have to be religious figures?
• The New Living Translation has Matthew 24:28 as: Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.
• Matthew 24:29-31
• Has this happened yet?
• Will it ever happen?
• Matthew 24:32-35
• Who is this generation? Some believe it is the people Jesus is speaking to, while others believe it is the people living at the time of the things happening in this chapter. It is most likely those who are living the incidents in this chapter, thus it is not those to whom Jesus was speaking but those living in the future.
• Note the words all these things.
• Tommy Ice writes: Since "all these things" did not take place in the first century then the generation that Christ speaks of must be future. Christ is saying that the generation that sees "all these things" occur will not cease to exist until all the events of the future tribulation are fulfilled. Frankly, this is both a literal interpretation and one that was not fulfilled in the first century. Christ is not ultimately speaking to His contemporaries, but to the generation to whom the signs of Matthew 24 will become evident. Dr. Darrell Bock concurs: What Jesus is saying is that the generation that sees the beginning of the end, also sees its end. When the signs come, they will proceed quickly; they will not drag on for many generations. It will happen within a generation. . . . The tradition reflected in Revelation shows that the consummation comes very quickly once it comes. . . . Nonetheless, in the discourse's prophetic context, the remark comes after making comments about the nearness of the end to certain signs. As such it is the issue of the signs that controls the passage's force, making this view likely. If this view is correct, Jesus says that when the signs of the beginning of the end come, then the end will come relatively quickly, within a generation. Link: http://www.pre-trib.org/articles/view/an-interpretation-of-matthew-24-25-part-31
• In light of Matthew 24:35, does Jesus make mistakes in His words?
• Matthew 24:36-44
• “Nor the Son,” “Ed Glasscock echoes this understanding: "The Lord did not attempt to display His deity but rather, in contrast, emphasized His humanity. As an obedient servant in His humanity, Jesus did not know the day or the hour of His return." Source: Ed Glasscock, Matthew: Moody Gospel Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997), p. 476.
• What happened in the days of Noah? How does that compare to the time the Lord Jesus is referring to?
• In Noah’s day, were the people aware or did they make fun of the dire warnings from Noah? How do people today view the judgments coming on the world?
• How are people to be ready?
• Next week:
• Embracing purity
• Theme: Biblical purity
• Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 and Romans 12:1-2