WWUTT 507 This is God's Will for You, Your Sanctification?

Many times as a pastor, I have been asked, what is God's will for my life? And sometimes my answer goes like this, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Paul’s Apostolic Instructions in 1 Thessalonians 4

Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Thessalonians, again in chapter four today. Yesterday, we really only looked at verses one and 10. So today we'll be looking at a section that covers verses three through eight.

I'll start at the beginning of the chapter. As Paul writes, finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you received 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 matter 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. So we start back again at the beginning of the chapter, finally then, brothers.

This past weekend, as I had mentioned to you, I was down in Arkansas for the In Christ Alone Conference. On Sunday evening, I had the chance to visit Beryl Baptist Church. And the preacher that night was a guest speaker, Pastor Alan Nelson.

He and his wife, Steph, were also my hosts while I was visiting there in Arkansas. And he preached from First Peter chapter three. And there in chapter three, Peter begins a section by saying, finally then, brothers.

And Pastor Nelson pointed out, you know this guy's a Baptist preacher because we're halfway through his letter and he's saying finally, still has half the letter to go. So I like that joke. I thought that was pretty good.

That can apply here as well. We've still got all of chapter four and chapter five to go. And yet Paul is beginning here with finally then, brothers. But this is concluding a series of instructions that he's given the Thessalonians that they've already heard from him way back at the start of the letter when he was reminding the Thessalonians what they observed when Paul and his missionary brethren were with them.

And even here in this section, you know what instructions we gave to you through the Lord Jesus, as he says in verse two. When we get to verse 13 here of chapter four, Paul's gonna begin a section of brand new instructions, teachings that they have not heard from Paul, namely concerning the day of the Lord and his return.

And then we've got a bulk of a lot of individual or kind of singular instructions that Paul will start listing off in chapter five. And so this is concluding the instructions that he's reminding the Thessalonians of.

We've already told you this once. We're reminding you of the love that we have for you, encouraging you in what you have been doing and to do that more and more. Finally, then brothers, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you received from us, how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

You received this from us. We hear that you have been steadfast and persevering in it. And so we're encouraging you to grow, to mature in this all the more. And then in verse two, which I already read to you once, but there's a word here that I wanna kinda highlight.

For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. The word instructions is translated from the Greek word parangelia. And it is a military word. It is a stern authoritative command. And it's as though Paul is appealing to his authority as an apostle in these instructions that he's given the Thessalonians.

Yes, I am your brother. Yes, we served you when we were with you. We didn't take anyone's bread, even though it would have been our right to do so, but we worked with our hands and set an example for you.

But Paul's still kind of in a very gentle way reminding the Thessalonians, I am your teacher. I am your instructor. I am an authority as designated by Christ. So these instructions that we give you, these must be followed.

It is imperative for the church to listen to what it is that we have to say and follow these instructions. Later on in his next letter to the Thessalonians, so in 2 Thessalonians chapter three, he says, take note of those who won't listen to what we have said to you in this letter and have nothing to do with them.

Do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as brothers. So Paul's saying to the Thessalonians, what you're reading here essentially is scripture. This is from the word of Christ. We have been designated by Christ as carriers of his word.

So obey what it is that we have to say to you, especially following the instruction that he just gave to walk in a manner that is pleasing to God and do this more and more. How can you do this more and more?

Obey the instructions that we have given to you. You know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. And so now verses three through eight, Paul is gonna talk about being sexually pure. This is one of the biggest instructions that he gives over the course of all of his letters, often talking about the need to be sexually pure, to present the body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

And this is your spiritual act of worship. I basically just quoted Romans 12 one to you. Often when Paul gives lists of sins, sexual immorality is listed at the top. He will mention that one first because all other sins are committed outside the body, but sexual sin is committed with the body.

So it is unique in that sense. He says that to the Corinthians and to the Ephesians, he says, let there not even be a hint of sexual immorality in you. And so here is the several verses that we have on this particular instruction to the Thessalonians.

Verse three, for this is the will of God, your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality. Whenever I have been asked by somebody, what is God's will for my life? Usually the answer that I give them is one of two answers.

There's a verse in chapter five where Paul says, be thankful to God in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus, to be thankful in all circumstances. So I might respond with that, or I might respond with this passage if I know the individual and know that they need to present themselves as holy.

They need to pursue holy living, even in the ways that they handle their own bodies. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, God's will for you, that you grow in holiness by abstaining from sexual immorality.

Now, what is sexual immorality? It is any kind of sexual activity that is outside the marriage bed. God created sex to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife only. And any other sex outside that context is sexual immorality.

Sex is not even to be enjoyed by one person by themselves. Do you understand what I mean by that? I hope I don't have to articulate that any further. It is a gift that God has given to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife.

And so that is the way that it is supposed to be handled. And in Hebrews, when we have the instruction given to us in Hebrews 13, let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous.

When we have that instruction in Hebrews 13, four, that's not just for the married, that's for everyone, even singles, that the marriage bed be undefiled. Don't use sex for anything other than what God created it to be.

An act of intimacy, of love and consummation to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife. There is a responsibility among all members of the church to keep the marriage bed undefiled, to not lead anyone else astray in matters of sexual immorality, which is how this instruction is gonna play out even further as Paul is giving it to the Thessalonians as well.

So let's come back to 1 Thessalonians 4, 3. This is the will of God for you to grow in holiness. You are instructed to abstain from sexual immorality, that sex be held in honor by all, the marriage bed be kept undefiled, and that sex is something that is enjoyed only between a husband and a wife together, that each one of you know how to control his own body.

That's verse four. Each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor. Now, there's a unique thing about the phrasing of this particular verse. I don't know why the ESV translators rendered it the way that they did because it literally comes out that each one of you know how to control his own body.

More literally, it is that each of you know how to possess his own vessel. And that could actually be translated two different ways. It could mean how to take a wife for himself, that each of you know how to take a wife.

So if it is difficult for you to control your urges, your passions in your flesh, then you need to take a wife for yourself. That way you will not fall into sexual temptation and sexual immorality. And Paul talks about this with the Corinthians as well.

He says, I wish that you would remain as I am because times are tough and marriage can be hard. But if you feel sexual urges in your body, it would be better for you to get married so that you would not fall into sexual temptation.

He goes on to say that a husband's body does not belong to himself, but belongs to his wife. And a wife's body does not belong to herself, but belongs to her husband. So the husband and the wife should not deprive their spouse of their body.

Rather, they should enjoy one another and enjoy this intimacy that God has blessed them with because it helps to protect them from being sexually tempted by the snares of the devil and the, I mean, just the way things are in the culture.

And the Thessalonians were experiencing this too. This was a highly sexualized culture, even in Thessalonica. We might think that here in our American culture would have been the way for the Thessalonians as well.

So they probably came from a lot of idolatry that involved having sex on an altar before a false god. And now they are supposed to do away with all of that sexual immorality and present themselves as holy.

This might've been very, very difficult for the Thessalonians to discipline themselves in this way. So this is why Paul comes to this instruction very urgently and very strongly. He seems to be a little bit more direct about this instruction than any other that he has come to in this letter up to this point.

So he says, this is God's will for you, that you would grow in holiness. And how do you do that? First of all, he says, abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and in honor, that you know that your body does not belong to you.

And I mentioned in the case of a husband and a wife, it belongs to your spouse. But even more than that, you've been bought with a price. You are not your own. So therefore honor God with your body. That's exactly what Paul said to the Corinthians.

And it's a very similar instruction that he's given to the Thessalonians as well. I would believe that as Paul is telling them things that he's already told them before, they're understanding this point as he's coming back to it again.

You are not your own. You were bought with a price. What was that price? The body of Christ, his body on the cross that was broken for your sins. His blood spilled for your transgressions. He has bought and paid for you.

We have it said in Titus chapter two, that Christ came to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. So we belong to Christ. We do not belong to ourselves.

We belong to Christ. So therefore we do need to submit our bodies in holiness unto the Lord because we belong to him. And our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit of God who has been given to us, God dwelling within us.

So if we indulge in sexual immorality, we are defiling the very temple where God's spirit resides. So this is what makes sexual sins more unique than any other kind of sin. So again, control your own body.

You have to learn self-control. That is a fruit of the spirit that is talked about in Galatians chapter five. You can't just do the other fruits of the spirit or the other fruit, it's singular. Fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness.

And there I'm good. I've done all of the fruit of the spirit. Now you forgot self-control. That is also important because Paul has said that you could keep all the rest of the fruit of the spirit but if a person is sexually immoral, he says in first Corinthians five, have nothing to do with him.

He needs to be removed from the church, purge the evil person from among you. So this guy might be the biggest giver in the church. He might give the most money. He might sing the best choruses. He might be the most charismatic guy, gives the firmest handshakes, hands out bulletins like nobody's business.

But if he is sexually immoral, he is indulging in sexual immorality on the side, outside of church, outside of the marriage bed, then the instruction in scripture is clear. He is to be handed over to Satan, the way that Paul puts it.

And he would feel grieved because he had to be separated from the body of Christ over his sin. He gets a little taste of hell, what it's like to be separated from the fellowship of God so that he would repent from his sin and come back to the church and desire forgiveness.

The church shows him grace and welcomes him back in and what a testimony that is. But if he is in sexual immorality, he must be disciplined. Church discipline must be exercised. So you could show love, joy, peace, and patience, but if you don't have self-control, then you are among those of whom it is said in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, will not inherit the kingdom of God.

This is how serious sexual sin is. It could actually keep you from God's kingdom if you don't master it. And the instruction is simple. You must learn how to control your own body. Pray to the Lord, no matter how hard it is, no matter how much you've tried, no matter how long you've gone, you still have to continually submit yourself to God in prayer, your thoughts, taken captive and make them obedient to Christ, the instruction that was also given to the Corinthians.

Abstain from sexual immorality and learn to control your impulses. In holiness and honor, submit yourself unto the Lord. This is God's will for you, your sanctification. Do not continue in the passion of lust like the Gentiles.

Paul goes on to say in verse five, they don't know God. So of course they give themselves over to all manner of impurity and passions and lusts and impulses. They don't have any self-control because they do not know God.

There is no need or desire for them to honor anyone with their body. They believe that by defiling the body that they're getting some sort of favor from the gods when the reality is they worship the gods that give them what they want.

That's why they worship those gods. They want to be sexually immoral so that's why they worship Aphrodite, you know, something like that. So don't follow in the lust like the pagans do. Gentiles could also be translated pagans who do not know God.

That no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter. Don't even joke about this or discuss it in such a way that it would cause a brother to stumble in a matter of sexual immorality or your brother sees that you are doing it and so he falls into it.

Says, oh, well, if my Christian friend over here can do it then I can do it too. Or you might even translate this as brothers and sisters. That would be perfectly acceptable in this case. Not just causing a brother to stumble but causing a sister to stumble.

You have a lust for this other person. They're attracted to you. You give in to one another's desires and passions and now you have caused each other to sin. Or maybe it doesn't even go as far as having an adulterous affair, it's just flirting.

But yet you awaken a desire or a lust in that other person's mind and now you have caused them to sin. This is very serious. These matters must be taken seriously because the Lord is an avenger in these things.

He will judge you and he will judge even the person that you have led astray by your sexual immorality. He is an avenger in all these things as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. So this is Paul's way of saying to the Thessalonians very gently because he's taught them these things before.

This is his way of saying the way that he says it to the Corinthians in a much harsher tone because they needed that harshness. The Corinthians needed a more harsh word from Paul when he said in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral nor adulterers, nor idolaters, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor liars, nor drunkards, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And he goes on to say, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were justified, you were sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of our God. So we once walked in those sins, but we are to walk in those sins no longer, presenting ourselves as holy and living sacrifices unto the Lord, for God has not called us for impurity.

Paul goes on to say in verse seven here, but for holiness, not to be impure, but to be pure. Holiness means to be set apart. So we don't do the things like the rest of the world does. We are holy in Christ Jesus.

Verse eight, therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God. This is not man's instruction. This is God's instruction, because again, this is the will of God, your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality.

Whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. So you are holy before God because of what Christ has done, justified by his blood and growing in sanctification because of the Holy Spirit that dwells within you.

So when God looks at you, he receives you as holy because of what his son did for you and because of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you. Do not defile the temple of God. Present yourself as a holy and pleasing sacrifice.

If you have stumbled in this way, ask God for forgiveness, but you must not let this sin master you. You must master it. That's the instruction that God gave to Cain. When Cain's hatred was welling up against Abel, God said, sin is crouching at your door, but you must master it.

That was related to the hatred that Cain experienced, but it might be related to the sexual immorality that you struggle with in your own flesh. Master it, take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

And do not think that you're doing this on your own or by yourself because as we are told in Hebrews, that we have a savior who is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses for he himself was tempted and yet was without sin.

He did not give into that sin. So if you go through that temptation, know that Christ is with you. He suffers with you in that. But if you give into that sin, you are breaking your fellowship with Christ in order to indulge in that.

You must come to God and ask for forgiveness. When we are faithless, he remains faithful. This is not permission for you to persist in that sin for if you do that, the likelihood is that the sin controls you rather than you having control over your own body, in which case you have not been set free by the grace of God, but are still enslaved to your own sin.

I urge you, whatever it takes, take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. Submit mind, heart, body entirely unto the Lord. This is your act of worship. Let's pray. Our Lord God, I pray that you forgive us of our sins and lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.

Sometimes when it comes to struggling with these sins, we cannot do it by ourselves. We need accountability.

We need help.

So let us have the courage, the fear of God, really, to go before a brother or sister in the Lord and confess these sins that we are struggling with. For a man, a man needs to confess to another man. For a woman, a woman needs to confess to another woman that we find accountability.

Those who are able to convict us of the sins that we experience and will pray with us and that we may be forgiven and walk in holiness as you have commanded us to. The instructions that come from the apostle that we are commanded to follow.

So let us walk in holiness as God, our heavenly father is holy. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen.

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Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study When We Understand the Text.