1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

We are going to learn something special in todays message, what is the will of God? There is absolutely no ambiguity about what God expects from us in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. I hear people talking about what is God’s will in my life? This answers one of the clear expectations He has for us.

What we are going to look at today affects every single male sitting in this room without exception. We are going to see what God has to say about moral purity and how do I abstain from sexual immorality.

In today’s society we are completely bombarded with sexual iniquity. It is in our music, it is on TV, in the movies, in books, magazines and I can’t even drive on the freeway without being assaulted with advertisements for gentlemen’s clubs. But most recently it has become the preoccupation of millions of people on their computers as they access pornography over the internet.

We are drowning in this sea of sexual evil and we don’t even know it. In today’s society we don’t care if our leaders are full of sexual sin as long as they agree with our politics. We don’t care because with think it is a private issue and it is a personal matter. What is even more of an oddity is the idea that it is becoming increasingly strange for those who stay faithful and married to their spouses. We make fun of men who desire to be sexually pure. There are movies created to mock a 40 year old virgin like there is something wrong with that if someone chooses to wait till they are married. All I have to do is look around me at my place of work and I am constantly faced with the talk of pornography, glorifying of sexual sins and married men gawking at other women and talking complete trash amongst one another.

We are so like the frog in hot water that we don’t know we are being cooked. Think about this just over 40 years ago on the Ed Sullivan show refused to show Elvis Presley from the waste down shaking his hips. Now days that is comedy for us, we think how silly is that. But I ask you, where are we today with simulated sex on the stage of MTV. We are lost in a world of sexual sin.

But there is hope my friends. There is hope from God’s word how we can truly separate ourselves from this world. You know God calls to live in the world but not of the world. He tells us does not want us to conform to this world but be transformed by a new mind set that is focused on His will. Romans 12:2

And do not abe conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Here we see that we are to renew our minds so we can prove what the will of God is, and His will is good and acceptable and perfect. Lets take a look at what God’s will is for our life. Please open your Bible to 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8.

1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.
2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

In verse 1 we see that the Thessalonians were doing a pretty good job of walking in the ways of God. They were being an Acts 2 Church who were continually devoted to sound doctrine, fellowship, communion, prayer, worship and giving. But Paul wanted to them to excel even more. Paul knew sexual immorality was a problem in the Thessalonian Church and he wanted to make it perfectly clear that God is calling them to be holy.

When we look at our society and know we are in a society filled with sexual immorality. Well the Thessalonians were in a society that compared to us or even worse. They were involved in prostitution, adultry, homosexuality, pedophilia, the only difference from then to today is the exposure of it. We can’t get away from it today because it penetrates everywhere. We need to learn how to be holy in this perverse world of ours.

In verse 2 Paul tells them you know these commandments and these commandments came from God. They are well aware of the need to abstain from sexual immorality. This is not something man has made up but it is the will of God.

Verse 3 tells us that, it is His will for us to be pure. God care so much about this topic to clearly state this is His will. He tells us it is our sanctification. Sanctification means to be set apart. Not to be like the world. God is telling us the world is full of sexual sin but I require from you to be pure not to be like the pagans and their lustful passions. God is telling us to be set apart from sin to holiness. James 4:4 Says

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God

Let’s take a look at scripture and see why God takes sexual immorality so seriously. I want to look at several passages so we get a broad understanding of what God is telling us and why. You might want to write these down and just listen instead of turning to each passage. You can go back and take a look at them later.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

9 Or 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,
10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 10:8

Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.

Ephesians 5:3-5

But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which bare not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Colossians 3:5-6

5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,

Jude 1:7

just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

Revelation 21:8

“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Do you think God is serious about this subject? So how do we overcome this, how do we stand against sexual immorality? Verses 4 and 5 tell us how. First, We need to learn to posses our own vessels to deny ourselves. Don’t let your body control you. We need to gain mastery over our bodies. Paul says in

1 Corinthians 9:27

but I discipline my body and make it my slave


Verse 5 really gives us the root problem of sexual immorality and that is not knowing God. The lustful passions of the gentiles were a result of not knowing God. I want to read a quote from John Piper because I think he articulates what it means to know God.

“It's knowledge that stuns you, and humbles you. It's knowledge that wins you and holds you. It comes like it did for Lydia when the Lord opened the eyes of her heart. At one moment you think you will burst with its fullness, and suddenly there is a chasm of longing for more. It's the knowledge we call faith—the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen.

It's a knowledge that is so real, so precious, so satisfying to your soul, that any thought, any attitude, any emotion, any addiction which threatens to hinder this knowledge will be attacked with all the spiritual zeal of a threatened life. This is the fight of faith that rages in the godly soul when lust lures the mind away from God.”

How do I know God? There is only one way gentleman and that is through His word. How do I stop being sexually immoral, how do I become pure? I want to tell you how and it is a passage that I have held unto with complete conviction and passion. Pastor John has gone over this verse in the last few weeks and it is found in Pslam 119:11

Your word I have treasured in my heart,
That I may not sin against You.

This is it guys. This is what we need. We need the word of God in us, through us it is everything. It is the only way I know what God wants from me. We need to want to consume it, meditate on it, live it, obey it, and most of all apply it to our lives. This is the solution men. This is what we need to stand upon. This is what will give us victory in our bondage to sin. It is the guide book on how to live our lives and to keep from sinning. This is what will convict your heart to stop slapping Jesus in the face with our sins.

God gives us free moral will to choose between right and wrong. Now God has a sovereign will that will get accomplished no matter what moral choices we may make. Look at verse 8 if we reject this idea and say that I don’t care what God thinks about this then are we not only sinning against God but we are rejecting Him. We are not rejecting some human philosophy but the actual will of God.

Why does Paul mention the Holy Spirit in this verse. It is because the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins. If we are not convicted by this type of sin then God is not in us. J. Vernon McGee writes:

A child of God is in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit. He cannot continue to live in sin because the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. The time will come when the child of God will long for holiness in his own life.”

So what does the bible say about practical steps of dealing with sexual sin. Here are 5 steps

Confess your sin 1 John 1:9, God is faithful to forgive us of our sins. Then confess it to a brother. Get an accountability partner who you can discuss these things with. This is part of the fellowship of the Acts 2 Church.
Be like Joseph and RUN. He was confronted with the potential of a sexual sin and instead of pondering it, going over it in his mind, toying with the idea HE RAN from it. What does this mean to me and you today. Throw the TV out, Get rid of the computer, run from the temptation.
Hide God’s word in your heart. Make the word a daily part of your life. It is the only weapon we have against the evil one.
Prayer, we need to be on our knees praying for holiness, praying to God to help us obey his commandments.
Stop, whatever it takes stop it now. Just stop. Stop your complete selfishness. Deny yourself and pick up your cross.

James 1:21
Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.