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The Call to Holiness and the Nashville Statement on Human Sexuality

The Apostle Paul said, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word, that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will. For questions and comments send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Yesterday, we considered 1 Thessalonians 4, 3, where the Apostle Paul writes,. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. And then verses 4 and 5, 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 or pagans who do not know God.

And on the same day that we were studying that passage, we got to see an example of that contrast between the Christians who are to control their own bodies in holiness and honor and the pagans who chase after the passion of lust in their flesh.

Yesterday, the Nashville Statement on Human Sexuality was released. John Piper writes about it and says,. Last Friday, August 25, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, CBMW, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, ERLC, jointly hosted a gathering of Christian leaders in Nashville.

The purpose of the meeting was to finalize and approve the Nashville Statement in the hope of providing a biblically faithful standard in our day on these particular issues of human sexuality. Piper goes on,.

The Nashville Statement is a Christian manifesto concerning issues of human sexuality. It speaks with forthright clarity, biblical conviction, gospel compassion, cultural relevance, and practical helpfulness.

There is no effort to equivocate for the sake of wider but muddled acceptance. It is built on the persuasion that the Christian scriptures speak with clarity and authority for the good of humankind. It is permeated by the awareness that we are all sinners in need of divine grace through Jesus Christ.

It affirms with joy that no form of sexual sin is beyond forgiveness and healing. It touches the most fundamental and urgent questions of the hour without presuming to be a blueprint for political action.

And it will prove to be, I believe, enormously helpful for thousands of pastors and leaders hoping to give wise, biblical, and gracious guidance to their people. In fewer words, the Nashville Statement on Human Sexuality affirms what the Bible says about marriage, that it is to be a union between a man and a woman for life.

That is God's design for marriage. It also talks about transsexuality or what the culture has labeled transsexuality. And you can read that in the Nashville Statement itself when you go to cbmw .org slash Nashville hyphen statement, or if you just go to cbmw .org, you will be able to navigate the menu that they have there to take you to the Nashville Statement.

One article in particular is terribly important. And as Denny Burke says, kind of explains the entire reasoning behind drafting the Nashville Statement on Human Sexuality. This is Article 10. It says, we affirm that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.

We deny that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree. In other words, we can't merely agree to disagree on these issues.

They are fundamental. In Romans chapter one, verse 32, we read the following, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but to give approval to those who practice them.

My friends do not be deceived. The Bible is clear that those who give approval to sinful actions that scripture says will exclude a person from the kingdom of God is just as guilty as the person who practices such actions, and they will be held accountable before the Lord.

As we have read on this broadcast many times out of first Corinthians six, verses nine through 11, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you, as this is addressing a church, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. I quoted that even yesterday.

And so the contrast that we got to observe on this day that we studied first Thessalonians chapter four, the section where we are called to sanctification by abstaining from sexual immorality the same day that we studied that we saw on social media, an explosion of those who affirm the Nashville statement versus those who accuse the Christians of being hateful bigots and prejudiced and not caring for their fellow man.

I received that in literally dozens and dozens of comments on Twitter of those who were, I mean, some of the statements that they made of me. I can't even repeat on the program, but this is the kind of thing that we will be facing because we stand on biblical, godly principles.

Persecution for Godly Living and the Call to Endure

Second Timothy three, 12, the apostle Paul said, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And of course, it's not the kind of persecution that somebody would go through in another part of the world where they would be tortured or put to death.

We're not going through that yet in the United States of America, at least not at the hands of our government. There are some places you can go to and preach the gospel and you will get physically harmed if you get in the right crowd that can happen in the US of A as well.

But but overall, we still enjoy the protections of our Constitution and the freedom of religion that is afforded to us. So let us not take that for granted, but use those rights that have been given to us to preach the gospel while we still can, before even our government will attempt to silence us.

The apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians 12, for the sake of Christ, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. For it is Christ who said to the apostle Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.

As my friend Nate Pickowitz pointed out yesterday, that John the Baptist was beheaded for holding to a biblical definition of marriage. The culture will come after us and we must know what the scriptures say and know it soundly so that we can stand on biblical principles and not be led astray when the culture tries to tell us what what, according to the culture, what the Bible really says and really what the culture is doing is repeating the same words of Satan that we read in Genesis 3, 1.

Did God really say and then leading Eve to eat the fruit, giving it to Adam and thus entered the fall of mankind? We are all sinners. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All of us are in need of a savior who cleanse us.

It cleanses us from all of our uncleannesses and makes us righteous before God. That only happens in Jesus Christ. So turn from your from your sin and follow him. And we talk about that a little bit further today with First Thessalonians 4, 9, where the apostle Paul says 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, to 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 upon no one.

Brotherly Love, Quiet Living, and Working With Your Hands

So our intention in good Christian Christian living is that we mind our own business. We work with our hands and desire to live a quiet life. Now, this doesn't mean that we don't make statements like the Nashville statement that was released yesterday.

There are times in which such such statements are right and good and needed in the context of our culture and in the the reality of the things that are going on around us. Such statements need to be made.

This is in no way a violation of the instruction that we have given here in First Thessalonians 4, 11 and 12. But for the most part, we should not be out there trying to stir up controversy. Like how can I make people upset at me?

So I quoted to you from Second Corinthians 12, 10, where the apostle Paul says, I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. But that doesn't mean we go looking for those kinds of things.

Even the apostle Peter said that the world will be surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery that they're in and they will malign you. That is First Peter 4, 4. But we cannot respond to the world in the same kind of harsh tones and insults that they are going to hurl at us.

For we are told this, the chapter before First Peter 3, verse 14, even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.

And even in the chapter before that, First Peter 2, verse 22, he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten.

But he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

So this is how we are to be in the world, not reviling when we are reviled, but entrusting ourselves to him who judges justly, just as Christ entrusted himself to his Father in heaven. And we are told, we are promised in the scriptures, Romans 8, 1, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

What can the world do to us? We cannot be separated from the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord. So live in this world confidently, worship God knowing that he hears you and receives you and loves you through his Son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the grave, that we also might be seated with him in the heavenly places.

The Thessalonians understood the concept of brotherly love. They were practicing it in their midst. Paul told them to practice it more and more and aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, to work with your hands as we instructed you.

So remember this verse 11 pertains to how we exist within the body of Christ. Mind your own affairs means that you don't be a busybody. You don't get up in everybody else's business and try to find the latest gossip so that you might gossip about one another.

So when Paul instructs them to live quietly, he's basically telling them, do not gossip. Don't be a gossip. Don't let your tongues be waggling. A person who multiplies words is a fool, as it says in the book of Proverbs.

So live quietly and mind your own affairs. Know what it is that the Lord has called you to do. The gift that you have received, the responsibility that you have in the church, where you work for the service of the saints and mind your own business in that way.

Be a service to one another, not a burden on your brothers. Paul says this in 1 Timothy 2, first of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

So pray for one another, lift one another up in prayer and in doing this, you may lead a peaceful and a quiet life. Paul goes on in verse 8 to say, I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness, with good works.

Godly Living, Prayer, and Avoiding Quarrels

In his next letter, 2 Timothy 3 .12, Paul said to his servant, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Just as Peter said, I mean, the world is going to scoff at you just because you don't join them in the debauchery that they are in. So just by desiring to live a godly life, you will be ridiculed by the world.

They won't even care to know your theology or your doctrine or the verses that you believe in. They're just going to ridicule you and make fun of you because you don't do what it is that they do. But as the apostle Paul said to the Galatians, am I out to please men or to please God?

We are to please the Lord. We are working for his glory. And so we must understand, as Paul said at the start of that chapter, 2 Timothy 3 .1, understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

And as I seem to be working backwards today, going in reverse order of chapters, previously in chapter two, Paul said this, so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. So when it comes to leading a quiet life, we're not going out looking for trouble and we're certainly not gossiping about our brothers and sisters in Christ, in the body of Christ, but we are minding our own business, heeding the instruction in Micah 6, 8.

What does the Lord require of you, O man, but that you do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. Romans 15, 1, we who are mature have an obligation to bear with the failings of the week and not to please ourselves, but to please our neighbor for his good, to build him up.

So let us work in service to one another, considering others' needs ahead of our own. And I hope that what the Apostle Paul has written here to the Thessalonians applies to you as well, that concerning brotherly love, I don't have any need to speak of this to you.

For you yourself have been taught by God to love one another. And indeed, that is what you are doing. And in your church, there are people that might give testimony to the fact that you love one another, you love your brothers and sisters in Christ.

And I urge you then to do this more and more, to aspire to live quietly, not stirring up trouble, not trying to cause controversy, not protesting loudly as though to heap insults upon yourself so that you can put yourself in a place to be able to say, see, look at how good I am doing for the kingdom because there are people that are heaving insults upon me.

That's going to happen anyway. Don't go up stirring, don't go around stirring up trouble, but mind your own business. Don't go around in your church spreading gossip about your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Work with your hands. Do what you have been appointed to do in the church as you have been instructed so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent upon no one. All right. So that statement probably needs a little more context.

So what was happening in Thessalonica is there were some who were not working and they were praying off of the charity of the wealthy. They were not doing their work. And so the apostle Paul said, don't be dependent upon anybody.

Do your work. Don't get up in everybody else's business, but mind your own and do the work of your hands that you have been instructed to do. In his next letter, in second Thessalonians, he gets even more harsh with him.

He says, if a person is not willing to work, then he shouldn't even get to eat. Boy, that's an instruction that flies in the face of our increasingly socialistic culture, doesn't it? If a person is not willing to work, let him not eat.

Part of the reason why some of these guys may not have been working is because they thought, hey, Jesus is coming back any day now. So why do I need to go find a job? So this is why Paul is telling them, no, you must work because no one knows the day or the hour.

But he does give the Thessalonians an understanding of what the day of the Lord will be like. And that's what we get to next week as we continue our study of 1 Thessalonians 4 on Monday. Let us pray. Our Lord God, we thank you for the grace that was given to us on the cross at Calvary.

Our sins forgiven by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And so you have called us to walk in holiness as Christ was raised from the dead. So we have also been raised to new life in him. And we must put away the old self, the sins and the passions of our former selves that we once walked in, and instead walk in the holiness and the righteousness of Christ.

Not behaving in the passion of lust like the Gentiles and pagans do, who do not know God. But because we do know God, we must conduct ourselves in holiness and honor. And let us hold out the gospel of Christ so that those who don't know God would know him, and they would turn from their sin, and they would rejoice in Christ, being clothed in his holiness and righteousness before God our Father, received into his kingdom, into his family by the blood of Jesus.

In whose name we pray, amen.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt .com.