Sermon: God’s Will: Your Sanctification

Turn in your Bibles, uh, with me to uh, first Thessalonians four. You can find it in your pew Bibles on page 9 87. If you were here with us two weeks ago when we had our last sermon in First Thessalonians, we wrapped up the first half of First Thessalonians. We had a little bit of an odd service. You have vague memories of tornado sirens and First Thessalonians three and a musty church basement and basketball. You are probably there.

So we're going to be continuing on and now we're in the second, uh, this uh, next part of First Thessalonians, which is where Paul is giving, uh, commands about now this is how you should live as Christians. We actually see at the end, uh, of chapter three that he prays for the fir the Thessalonians that they would increase and abound in love and that God would establish them blameless and holiness. And we actually see this week is that as he begins

to exhort them, that he, in fact, what he prayed for for them, he now instructs them in he'll, instruct them in holiness and in brotherly love.

So with that in mind, let us turn our attention to the word of the Lord verse Thessalonians chapter four. We'll be reading verses one through 12.

Finally then brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus Christ, that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God. Just as you are doing that, you do so more and more for you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus for this is the will of God, your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles

who do not know God, that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this manner because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you, for God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards, not man but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God

to love one another for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you brothers do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Let us look to him once again in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we come before you and we ask that you would please bless the hearing of your word that we have just heard to our hearts, please by your spirit, work in us through your word read and preached. And may you please make us holy by the work of your spirit. We ask that you would do that in and through this time. We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Well, this morning if you are here, our counseling director Pat Quinn, gave the pastoral prayer. And the first words that he prayed as he was praying through Psalm 16 were these. He said, heavenly Father, you have sent your son Jesus into this world to give us abundant life. And as we look at this passage this evening that in fact is Paul's desires for the Thessalonians that they may have abundant life in our passage, you see that

twice, pause. He is giving these commands, these exhortations, he says, more or less he says along these lines, as you have been doing these things, now do so more and more. He says that in verse one, and at the end of verse 10, now in the Greek, it's the same verb that he uses in his prayer chapter three, verse 12, when he prays that they would abound in love, that they would abound. So what Paul's saying is he's encouraging these believers.

He's saying, Hey Thessalonians, you're doing very well and this is a fledgling church. And Paul could have said all sorts of things to this church to say, you need to do this and this better. But, but what Paul says is he says, you have been doing these things, but now as you seek to please God and walk according to his ways, do so more and more or abound more and more the life of sanctification, the holy life that we're called to live as cre as

as Christians, is a life of abundance. It's not a life that is meant to make us haughty, it's snobby. It's not meant to make us look down upon other peoples, this holiness that Paul is calling us to here. It's a holiness that leads us to abundant life in Christ. That is Paul's vision for the Christian life. That is Christ's desire for us today, a life full of delighting in Christ, a life lived in God's presence, in whose presence,

as we saw in Psalm 16, it says there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Now, in this passage, Paul primarily discusses two topics, discusses sexual purity and brotherly love. Now, because this topic of sexual purity is, is such a weighty topic because Paul spends a lot of time on it, we're going to devote the main focus of this sermon to the topic of sexual purity. So as I go through this passage, what I'm going

to do is first I'm going to briefly walk through verses nine through 12 where he talks about brotherly love and make uh, some quick applications from it. And then the lion's share of this sermon will be looking through verses one through eight and considering the topic of holiness in the area of sexual purity. So first, looking down towards the end of this passage verses nine through 12, look at brotherly love. So Paul concludes this section by addressing brotherly love.

And what he says is, you guys are doing a great job of this. And he's already said before as he's been uh, telling the Thessalonians, he's, he's told them that he knows about their love. He says it in chapter one, verse three and chapter three verse six. What Paul says is, you are doing such a good job of this. You're actually loving Christians outside of the city of Thessalonika. You're loving Christians all around your area, your whole region.

So Paul says, I don't even have to write to you about this. You've actually been taught by God himself to love one another. And he, he actually makes up a word to say this. He says, you have been God taught. He's not saying they've received any special revelation. What he's saying is that God is genuinely at work among them, that the Holy Spirit is at work in them and they are loving each other as a result of it. He's saying, you are part of God's people

promises in the Old Testament that said God's people would be taught by God in the messianic age. That's true of you. He says, keep it up. He says, you are abounding in this, keep abounding. But then he does say, there's actually one area related to this that I want to address briefly. He says, and so he talks, you see in verses 11 through 12 about working hard, being diligent in your work. And he addresses this problem in Second

Thessalonians in greater detail. So apparently there were people whose response to all this brotherly love in the Christian community was to say, you know what? My brothers in Christ are taking such good care of me. I don't really have to to work so hard. You know, they were basically living on Christian welfare. And so what Paul says is, no, no, Christian life is not an excuse for lazy living. So he says, keep working.

That's his one, his one clarification. His one caveat to this, living lazily is not a good witness. So he says, keep working, work hard work to sustain yourselves, uh, and keep on in brotherly love. Now, as a quick application, uh, for this section, first I, I would like to say with Paul to you URC, you are great at brotherly love. You do a great job of this. And so I call you to keep abounding in this. Keep abounding in brotherly love.

It has been a blessing to be among you these past years. We're so thankful for you. Keep on at it, keep at it. And specifically I'd encourage you look to love on newcomers. Look for people outside of your immediate circle at this church. I think especially this week as it's holy week, we're going to have visitors here who don't usually come inside the doors of a church, have an eye for them, look out for them, love them.

He has just, Paul has just prayed for the Thessalonians to abound in love for one another and for all, please have an eye out for all and continue in brotherly love. Look for people on the outskirts. Look for newcomers.

Keep at it. That is Paul's encouragement to the Thessalonians. That's my encouragement to you. Keep at it.

All right, that's the easy part. Now let's look at this topic of sexual purity.

So as Paul begins this section, as I said, he tells them he wants them to abound in these areas that he's just prayed for them. And he says a couple of times as he gets into this, he says, now these topics that I'm teaching you about here, they're not new to you. Paul says in verse one that these are things you've already received from us. Verse 11, he says, work hard as we instructed you. Even though Paul had only been with these Christians

for perhaps as little as three weeks, maybe at most a couple of months, he has already instructed in them in these things. And I point that out at the beginning of this discussion of sexual purity. Just to underline that Christian teaching on sexual purity is not new. This isn't something Paul made up to then voice on these believers in Thessalonica as something that, let's add this on. This is the teaching of the church

because it is God's teaching. This is God's will for us. And it has always been God's will for his people. There are no innovations here in this teaching.

Now, as Paul gets into this topic, it appears this isn't again an area where there is a glaring weakness, grievous sins that are plaguing the church. Otherwise I, I'm not sure he would say that they are, uh, abounding and ex doing excellent in brotherly love for each other. Uh, this isn't like Paul where he addresses the Corinthians about this topic and he brings up specific cases and takes them to task for approving of gross sin.

Instead, he reminds them about this because it's important And it's also an area where they are constantly facing temptation. Lest you think that sexual temptation that we experience today in our culture in our world is new. Nothing's new, nothing is new. These Christians, by and large in Thessalonica were gentile Christians, which meant their background for their sexual ethic was the Greco-Roman world. And the sexual ethic of the Roman world was

there really wasn't much of one.

Basically the one rule if you are a married man was that you shouldn't satisfy your sexual desires with other married women. So ha you have concubines for that or even house slaves or prostitutes as outlets. But even this one social norm wasn't followed very well in the ancient world. And so in fact, Caesar Augustus, the Empire emperor of Rome in 18 BC tried to institute marriage laws to reign in adultery. But these laws weren't very popular.

So the the sexual norms of the day were loose and this is what these believers came out of. And on top of that, there were many religious rituals and some of the cults we that we know were prominent in teal ICA had sexual activities tied into their religious worship and the persecution that these believers were facing. As we've seen in these first couple of chapters, they've faced persecution. And a lot of it was social.

A lot of it was why are you all of a sudden so weird, stop being weird, be normal like the rest of us just fit in. And you can imagine how, especially in this area,

the culture around them was saying, get back in line here, come on, stop being so restrictive prudish.

And that's why Paul reminds them of this teaching 'cause they need encouragement in this area. They have their own past sins and they have a culture calling them back to the sexual norms of the day.

And instead of following the cultures understanding of what abounding in life means when it comes to sex, Paul is calling them to the truly abundant life that is found in Christ. Paul is calling them to abound in pleasing God as he says through their sexuality. And that's something that you as a Christian today can do as well. Abound in pleasing God with your sexuality

and abundance in this area is not measured by your appetite being satiated or your physique. It's not measured in the number of partners you've had or the number of children you've had. You could never have sex with anyone in your entire life and abound in this area. You could be married and never have children and abound in this area. You can be a teenager, a college student, a young woman, a young man, an old woman, an old man

and abound in this area and live a life pleasing to God. You could be someone who has committed a whole lot of sexual sin. You could have sinned in this area as recently as last night. And you can still, by the grace of God, live an abundant life pleasing to God with your sexuality.

And so to you today, just as Paul says to the thesal and aikens, I say, keep at it. Keep at it. The temptations are great, but as we'll see, so is our source of strength. So as Paul is calling these Christians to holiness in this area, he says, first you see in in verse two,

sorry verse three for this is the will of God, your sanctification. And then he follows that up with three excitations, three ex expectations all relating to sexual purity. And we'll go through these three excitations and that's in verses three through six. And then he follows up these three commands with three motivations, three reasons why to do this and that will be how we walk through this passage is these three commands

and these three, three reasons why we should do this. So here's his first command. He says, this is the will of God for your, for, for, for you, your sanctification. First that you abstain from sexual immorality. So Paul here starts off with a negative command and there's a negative aspect to our holiness. Part of holiness is abstinence in this case abstinence from sexual immorality. That term in the Greek is just meant

to be a broad category for sexual sin. It encompasses everything from Jesus teaching on the sermon on the mount that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 'cause just to the lustful, looking to anything above that fantasy, masturbation, pornography, sex outside of marriage, adultery, incest, homosexual sin, we are to abstain. Christian, you must abstain

from this sin abstain. And this isn't just a call to be somewhat passive in this area. This is, this is active abstaining one Corinthians six. When Paul addresses this, he says, flee sexual immorality. Flee. Jesus says, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. Take action to avoid and abstain from this sin.

Often this starts with our electronic devices. Get software that blocks access to salacious websites. And if you're doing this for yourself, you need someone else to have the password. Don't don't think that you can have the password and it'll be okay.

Parents, don't be naive about your children. Please consider installing this on your devices, on shared devices as well. And brothers and sisters seek out accountability in this area. This sin grows in the dark and it dies in the light. And part of being in the light is having fellowship with others that is Christians in your life who will disciple you in this area now and not encouraging you to go and tell the first Christian you come across.

Be wise, confess your sins first to God and find mature Christians who are part of your life.

And if you don't know where to start with this, our church has a ministry grace and truth. You can find it on our website under the ministries tab. It's a ministry for accountability for men and women who are seeking discipleship in this area. There you can find women's contact, men's contact, you can contact those people, get in touch with them, seek accountability in this area.

Abstain. That is our first call in living life of sexual purity, abstain.

Now here's Paul's second command says in verses four and five, abstain from sexual morality that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. So the second command, know how to control your own body. So Paul first calls us negatively abstain, but then he says positively exercise control. And notice what he says, not in the passion

and lust of the Gentiles who do not know God. Saying we're not called as Christians to be governed by our fleshly desires. We want to be clear that desires for sexual intimacy are not in themselves inherently bad. It's not wrong for someone to want a sexual relationship provided they desire it in the context of marriage between a man and a woman. But it is wrong for us to be driven by these desires consumed by these desires.

It's true of sex, it's true of other desires as well. It's not wrong to have favorite foods that you want to eat, but it is wrong to find yourself living your whole day for dinner or for dessert.

Food is made for the body, not the body for food. And that's what Paul says again in one Corinthians, whether we're talking about gaming or eating or drinking or smoking or sex, living in the control of your passions and lusts, Paul says that's like living like the Gentiles who don't know God. Now the Thessalonians are Gentiles too. Paul is saying you are a different kind of person. Now the Gentiles who do not know God,

what else do they have? But you know God, he's saying you, you're not a stranger to God. There is something, someone far greater, more all consuming that is laid a claim to all of your life God. And there is no desire that God cannot satisfy. There's nothing greater to live for than for him. His smile pleasing him. This is the will of God, your sanctification. You know this God, this is his will for you.

So control your body in sanctification or holiness. We're all aiming at holiness in the way that we control our bodies and we're aiming at honor. He says not not honor in the world's eyes, we're not aiming for what would my classmates approve of? We're aiming for what would my God approve of and downstream from God's approve, what would God's people approve of? Live in such a way that that other Christians in your life,

the the godliest Christian, you know that, that they would honor you for the way that you control your body. Live in a way that doesn't demean your own body for you were made for nothing less than communion with the living God and live in a way that doesn't denigrate or objectify your brothers and sisters bodies

control your bodies and holiness and honor. And then we see Paul's third ex verse six, that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter.

No one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter in this, in this third ex, what he has in view is the impact that this sin has on others. So he's mentioned abstain from sexual immorality, thinking about the person who's committing themselves the sin themselves. And he says that don't live like someone who doesn't know God. So he has in view your relationship to God. And now he says, don't harm your brothers and sisters in this area.

Don't transgress or wrong, which behind that word wrong, it almost is like a, a business word. It could mean cheat or defraud. Don't defraud your brother. Some people think that Paul is talking to uh men here, that it is referring to the idea that don't defraud a brother through uh, committing adultery with their spouse. Think likely that he has in view brother or sister the inclusive understanding of brother that he is in fact thinking of other Christians.

I think what he's getting at here, the idea that Christians who commit this sin are sinning against their brothers in a way that is uniquely selfish and deceitful. So he says, don't wrong or defraud your brothers.

The sexually immoral man or woman takes advantage of their fellow Christian in numerous ways. Obviously if you're committing adultery or having extramarital sex with another Christian, you're taking advantage of that person or their spouse or parent. I don't think that's the limit of the scope here. This sin takes advantage of all of your fellow Christians. You you're presuming upon their friendship, their trust, their forbearance and kindness.

You're lying to them, brother, sister, do not defraud your blood, bought family with the sin. Confess it. Leave it in the open deceive no more and take, do not take advantage of your brothers and sisters. Come not only to God with the sin, but bring it to your brother. Bring it to a brother, a sister.

There is Paul's exhortations.

And then he gives us three reasons, three reasons to motivate us and our purity, our walk or aim for sexual purity. And each of these three reasons, he actually interestingly enough, tethers to a different person in the Godhead to a different person in the Trinity. So he has these three reasons or motivations and he says, first of all, why should you do this first? Because the Lord is an avenger in all these things. It's the end of verse six

and contextually when when Paul uses Lord and First Thessalonians, he's practically always referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that N next week he uses the Lord a lot. He's always referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the first motivation is Jesus is coming to judge the world and he will avenge himself in all these matters in matters concerning sexual sin.

That is if you think you can defraud your brothers and sisters, if you think you can get away with it, that you can commit this sin and keep it hidden. Paul says, you will ultimately be found out even if you could make it your whole life without others finding out, Christ will avenge himself upon you. Paul says, your sin will find you out. Our God will destroy evil doers. And if you live your whole life like those who do not know God, you will be treated as those

who don't know God. And this sin will come back upon your head. Especially when Christ comes to judge the world at the last day. It will be exposed.

It's a fearful motivation, but it is in fact a true motivation. The Lord knows Jesus Christ knows everything.

He will avenge himself on these things. And so come into the light

and here's his second motivation, second motivation. You see it in verse seven. For God has not called us for impurity but in holiness. So next Paul points us to God. And when he refers to God, often he's referring to the Father and he says, our God and Father has laid a call upon your life

and he's reminding us of our purpose. Why did God the Father call you to Christ? Why did he draw you to himself? Why did he set his love upon you? Why did you receive the immense privilege of being called a child of God

saying he didn't pull you up out of the mud to drop you back in it? I don't wash my son's hands after dinner just so he can go back to playing with his ate food on his messy tray. Though he often does,

this isn't what we were made for and this isn't what we were remade for. God calls us to something greater. We're not called for impurity.

He says, you're not called for impurity. You're called in holiness. Now. He says in holiness, he doesn't actually say for holiness, which you might expect not for impurity, but for holiness. He says, we're called in holiness. That is to say when? When God calls us to himself, when we are brought alive by the spirit, we are now breathing a different air. The atmosphere we live in and move in is different. It is an atmosphere of holiness, of sanctification,

of always increasing in purity. What Paul's saying is he's motivating us by the new nature that we already have.

He's saying for you to live in sexual sin is like being a fish on dry land. You're made to swim. You've been definitively changed. You're called by God, you are different. You've been set apart. You've been made his own. That's why you should pursue this. And that's why you can have confidence as you pursue living your whole life and sexual purity for the glory of God. 'cause he's called you in holiness.

He's called you in it and you get to live into it. God's calling is irrevocable, it's unchangeable. This holiness is yours. Grow into it.

That should give you confidence. God has called you in holiness. It's called you in holiness.

Lastly, he closed with a a third motivation says therefore whoever disregards this disregards not man but God who gives his holy spirit to you, here's his last reason. And it's, and it's really, it's a two-pronged reason. There's almost four motivation he gives. So first in this motivation, he focuses on God's authority. And then second, he focuses on God's gift to us. So first he focuses on God's authority. He says, if you ignore this,

the one you're ignoring in this command, you're not ignoring Paul, you're not ignoring the teaching of me. If you ignore this, you're not ignoring the teaching of this church or a denomination. You're ignoring God.

You're rejecting God. It's not Victorian's standards you're throwing aside. It is God you have to throw aside.

That's been Paul's emphasis throughout this passage is that the authority behind what he's saying is not in himself, it's in God. He says in verse one, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus is the one who gives Paul the right to ask and urge these things. Verse two, he says, these instructions that we gave you were through the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, he's the one authorizing them. Verse three, this isn't Paul's will for your life.

This is God's will for your life. Verse seven, God not Paul has called us for impurity, has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. And to make it crystal clear, again, it's not men you're rejecting. He says it is God himself.

And if you're hearing this today and you are struggling to accept the Christian sexual ethic, if you want to reject this, you are rejecting God himself.

And you can't have Christianity and fudge on this issue. You reject this, you reject God. This is in fact a salvation issue. Paul says in one Corinthians six, verse nine, do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunker, nor revilers nor swindler, will inherit the kingdom of God. Now you notice those first four terms, sexually immoral,

idolaters, adulterers, those who practice homosexuality, they're all sexual sins except he throws idolatry in the middle. And he's trying to tell you that that's what's at the heart of this sin. That's what's at the heart of sexual sin. It is worshiping another God. It is worshiping another goddess. You cannot worship Jesus and sex God has authority over you. God is the one calling you to this ethic of holiness and purity.

And to reject it is to reject him. So please listen to him.

And lastly, notice how he qualifies this. He says, the one who rejects this rejects not man, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. And there you see, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit says, Christian, if you live in sin and you're not confessing it, you're not fighting against it, you're rejecting God. You're rejecting God who has given you himself, who has given you his Holy Spirit.

God. The Father sent God, the Son who died and rose again for us. And he ascended to pour out his spirit upon us. And Paul is emphasizing here that spirit is a Holy Spirit. It's a point of emphasis in the Greek. It's like he's saying God gives you the spirit, his spirit, the holy one. He's given you a spirit of holiness. God gives you God dwelling inside of you for the end of your holiness

to make you holy.

So if you're here tonight, you say, Josh, let's fight for sexual purity is hard. I've seen countless times I stumble again and again and I just don't think I have it in me.

Brother, sister Paul says, you do have it in you. It's not you, but you do have it in you because God has put his spirit,

he's poured it into you. He gives you his Holy Spirit. He has set you apart. He gives you himself. You have every resource to grow into that holy identity. It is yours. It is at your disposal. Depend on him.

Paul says, why walk in holiness? Why pursue sexual purity because of your future, your past and your present. You Christian will be judged at the future judgment of Christ.

So walk in sexual purity. You Christian in the past were called by God and holiness. So walk in sexual purity. And you Christian, at this present moment have been given, are being given God's spirit who is holy to bring about this work in you.

That is good news.

'cause again, Paul is talking to a bunch of previously Gentile Christians about sexual purity. And many of them had been mired in sexual sin and we're still wading through that mire

and they're being pressured to abandon Christ to go back to what they once were. And Paul makes it clear, this is God's will, your sanctification that is intimately tied to sexual purity. This is important. This is God's teaching and he has given you the resources for this fight.

Abstain from sexual immorality, control yourselves. Live in line with your identity as those who know God.

The struggle with sexual sin is a struggle. It's a great struggle. It's can be long and drawn out. It can be ugly

and you can feel like you will never be clean enough.

Brother and sister, you already have been made clean at the cross, you have been washed, you have been sanctified.

So keep going, keep crying to God for help. Keep, keep coming back to the cross. Keep coming back to the cross. Keep looking to the one who buy his blood bought. You. Hate your sin for what it is to God. Hate your sin for what it costs. Christ and love Christ.

He is your beloved. And you have all abundance in him,

all abundance in him. He's given you his Holy Spirit and you will have victory over this sin in Christ and nowhere but in Christ, he has conquered even this,

even this rejoice not owe it for me, owe my enemy. When I fall, I will rise again. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you and this is a weighty matter. Lord, none of us are clean in this.

And we pray that you would please help everyone here to see the beauty of the abundant life that you call us to Lord. For the non-Christian here, I pray that you would please show them the emptiness of this life, that they would see the beauty of Christ and of this call to sexual purity. This isn't restrictive, this is life giving. Lord, I pray that for the mature among us that they would keep on, that they would come alongside those who are suffering.

And in the midst of this fight, I pray that those who feel trapped in grievous sin, that you would enable them to trust the promises of Christ for renewed cleansing, for grace in this battle. To your Lord, we pray, take our lives. Let them be consecrated. Oh Lord, to thee pray this in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.