Islington Baptist Church
August 11, 2002
I Thessalonians 4:1-8
Scripture reading: Leviticus 18
Sexual purity: the result of a commitment to holiness
In Leviticus 11:44a God says to the Israelites “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”
In I Chronicles 16:29 it says “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness”
In I Peter 1:13-16 it says “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
The call of the scriptures to us is this: God is holy, we must be holy.
Jesus’ work in us who are his followers is, by the Holy Spirit, to conform us to His image, hence making us holy. This process is called sanctification. It’s a process that began when…. and it won’t be finished until we get to Heaven.
Our being sanctified is all about us having been set apart unto God for a special use. Ours is a special calling: being called into a holy service, for a holy use. Not only have we been set apart for special use, we are to set ourselves apart from the things of this world for God’s use.
In responding to God’s call to be holy our express goal is to become more and more like God. This is what being holy is about. It means increasingly separating ourselves from anything that is not pleasing to Him.
God’s call to us to be holy as He is holy is very practically oriented. Whenever in the scriptures the call to “be holy” is issued there is a practical matter in mind.
Today we are going to be considering I Thessalonians 4:1-8. The big call of this text is that we “be holy and pure” and “that we live in a way that pleases God”
As just mentioned the call to be holy is very practically oriented. In our text which really stretches to 4:12 Paul addresses 3 very important topics as they pertain to pleasing God and living a holy life. The subject we are going to focus upon today is that of sexual purity. If we are to be holy then we must be sexually pure.
READ THE TEXT
Verses 1-2 of our text are transition verses.
Like most every preacher, when Paul says “finally”, he doesn’t really mean it. What this phrase really means is this: Much has been said, yet there is still more to deal with.
In v.1-2 Paul in essence is saying: We have instructed you in how to live in a pleasing manner to God and now we are going to continue to instruct you in such things. And then he says this: remember and note this; the things I am teaching you don’t come from me, they come from God and I speak such things to you in the name and in the authority of Christ. (note v.8 and how it emphasizes this point)
One of the things we can take away from v.1-2 is this: the job/responsibility of those who have teachings gifts is to instruct the brethren, from the Bible, in how to live in order to please God.
This is the object that every Bible teacher must bear in mind: There task, there call, the purpose behind the gift they have is that they might faithfully instruct their brothers and sisters in the Lord in how to live a life that is pleasing to God.
The responsibility of all us is to hear and listen to the expositions of God’s word and to give ourselves to the doing of the teachings we receive.
As it says in the book of James “We are not to be merely hearers of God’s word but doers of it”
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In v.3-12 Paul continues on in instructing us how to live a life that is pleasing to God.
How is it that you and I can live a life that is pleasing to God?
The short and definitive answer is this: We must commit to living a holy life: this is God’s will for us.
Living a holy life entails and encompasses many different things: One very important thing as it pertains to living a holy life is that we commit ourselves to being sexually pure.
1. It seems that it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to live sexually pure lives.
We live in an age where the motto is anything goes and a popular catch phrase is “consenting adults”
One can hardly pick up a newspaper, turn the television on, or listen to the radio without being bombarded by sexually explicit material.
A man can hardly walk down the street without seeing some girl or women in some stage of being undressed.
Today’s young person is often preoccupied with having sex with someone at their school.
On the dating scene it is fairly common for people to be having sex after several dates.
Inside the establishment of marriage, husbands and wives have their own struggles to—pornography, affairs, flirting with others.
Homosexuality is continually being promoted to us as something acceptable and legitimate.
It’s unfortunate but true: sexual sin is a big problem for the Christian community.
2. The call of God’s word, the very will of God for us is that we avoid sexual immorality.
The term refers to any sexual relationships that are not endorsed or blessed by God. The terms is broad in its meaning and covers all forms of sexual sin.
i.e: Homosexuality, bestiality, incest, pornography, rape, sex before marriage, adultery, fantasizing in the mind.
How can we avoid such things?
The scriptures tell us to flee temptation
Begins with a commitment made in our minds and hearts to being holy and pure
Practically extends to:
-internet and t.v locks, not filling our minds with the world’s values
-memorizing God’s word on the subject: Job: “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look upon a woman lustfully”
-dressing modestly and teaching the girls and boys of our church the same
-becoming accountable to someone
-not frequenting places of temptation
-etc depending on your circumstance
3. Our standards and values when it comes to sex, needs to be radically different than the worlds. As Christians the sexual conduct of our lives is supposed to be night and day different from the people of our world who do not know Christ. v. 5
We need to live like saints, not the sinners of our world.
If we are to be salt and light. If we are to be like God, then we must be different. If our lives are not different then we must examine ourselves to see if we really do belong to Christ.
In respect to sexual behavior we are not to live like non Christians do. We are to go against the flow of our culture.
In Paul’s day things we just as bad and perhaps even worse in regards to sexual purity.
One of the philosophers of his day said this “we have go to prostitutes for pleasure, we have concubines so that we can have regular sex, and lastly we have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately and for looking after our household affairs”
In coming to Christ are lives are supposed to change. Sometimes the change that God is in the process of working in our lives is one that we fight against. The Corinthians certainly did. Many who became Christians in that city came from incredibly raunchy and impure backgrounds. Leaving all that behind was something that did not happen easily for them. Yet God’s word stands: Don’t live like a non Christian: Avoid sexual immorality.
4. We need to learn how to control our bodies.
A saying we sometimes quote that Jesus said to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane regarding their praying is this: “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”
Indeed our flesh is weak, we are prone in and of ourselves to give in to temptation.
However, victory can be ours because of Christ living within us. Additionally, the scriptures teach us that the fruit of the Spirit, a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is this: self control. The Holy Spirit lives within us and His work is to give us strength to resist temptation and to live a holy life
You and I are not helpless in the face of sexual temptation. We have the resources to fight and win against sexual temptation. We are responsible to learn how to control our bodies.
“I couldn’t help myself” just doesn’t cut it. We are responsible to God for what we do in and with our bodies.
We must discipline ourselves. In I Corinthians 9:25-27 Paul says “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
5. Sexual sin always makes a victim of somebody. When we don’t control our bodies in the matter of sex we harm and do wrong to others v.5
One thing the people of our culture hardly ever stop to think about when it comes to sex is this: How are my actions affecting those around me.
The people of our world are so selfish that they never stop to think: I’m sinning against another person, I’m hurting other people by my actions.
When a trust is broken whether it be between a husband and a wife, a parent and a child, etc. such is a sin before God. Such is a betrayal and an act of violence against the other person.
When a guy or a girl talks the other into bed it is actually a harmful act for their motives and actions are wrong and sinful.
In marriage, when one spouse unduly with holds sex from the other it wrongs the other person
When a marriage is broken because of a person’ unfaithfulness great harm is done to the spouse and the children in question.
When a woman has an abortion because, which is a result of her having sex, think of the great harm that is done to that babies life.
One of the natural consequences of people’s sinning sexually is sexual disease. Such ones who have taken up such illicit behaviors pass one disease and germ from one person to the next.
Another harm that is inflicted on others when sex is outside of marriage is that of mental strain and wounding.
6. God does not and will not let sexual sin and the harm it brings to others go unpunished
In Romans 1:18 it says “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness……v.24ff Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator- who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion”
Sodom and Gomorrah went up in smoke because of sexual sin.
King David lost a son because of his sexual sin
King Solomon’s walk with God was ship wrecked because of his sexual practices
Veneral diseases, herpes, A.I.D.’s, mental illness, etc. In many cases, though not exclusively, these are direct consequences of rejecting God’s holy standards in relation to proper sexual expression.
God will not and does not let sexual sin go unpunished.
He does not let it go unpunished because of the harm it brings to others.
So, if there is sexual sin in your life that you are unrepentant over and you find yourself miserable or with great hardship it could be that such is the judgment is the judgment of God.
7. The call of the scriptures: Repent and be refreshed. Repentance brings restoration
CONCLUSION
Sex is a good gift from God. God didn’t just invent sex for the reason of having children either. God made sex to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife. There is only 1 legitimate arena for sexual expression: the marriage bed which must be kept pure.
Living a life that pleases God ought to be a primary concern of each one of us.
Holiness is what you and I are called to.
Holiness is a very practical subject.
When one is sexually pure that is a mark of being holy. Our being sexually pure pleases God
The call of God’s word is that we avoid and flee sexual immorality
We need to learn how to control our bodies: it’s doable
Our standards and values when it comes to sex needs to be radically different than the worlds
Sexual sin always makes a victim of somebody
God will not and does not let sexual sin go unpunished.
Repentance brings restoration and forgiveness
