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Can you hear me now? Would you please stand with me? We'll start our service by reading a passage out of Lamentations three, verse 22 through 24. The loving kindness of Yahweh indeed never cease, whereas compassions never fail.
They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Yahweh is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I wait for him.
Oh, God, until God stands.
Commander for the year. Get excited. But before we talk about Adventure Club, one announcement. I think you all know, but next Sunday is. Try to if you haven't signed up, there is a QR code here in the bulletin.
Do it should be good. OK, I'm here to talk about Adventure Club. It is Adventure Club Sunday. If you or a clubber, would you please stand up? This is your Adventure Club team for the year. And we want to thank you all and recognize you all.
Go ahead and have a seat. OK, so about four years ago, almost to the month my family and I rolled into Sandpoint from another place. We call it south of Boise. That's all you need to know. And when we first came to Kootenai Church, one of the things I really noticed was the congregation on Sunday was full of kids.
Screaming kids. But you know what that meant was that our church, this church really cares about children and we don't put them off in their own thing. We have them as part of what we do here. As disciples of Christ, we are all on the journey together.
That really stayed with me. And one of the ways we do that here at this church is Adventure Club. Right, that's a big ministry of what we do. But maybe you don't know what Adventure Club is. Let me tell you.
Put my glasses on. Adventure Club is a curriculum designed to provide children with essential doctrine and biblical truth that applies directly to their salvation and sanctification. This year, we will cover the topics of man, sin and salvation over the course of 30 lessons.
OK, this is this is deep. We're really digging into it. We also happen to have games, music, small group time and everybody's favorite snacks. OK, now, if you're of any age here in this church, you might think to yourself, hey, I would like to know more about man, sin and salvation.
Right. This is not a topic that's only important to kids. So if this is content that you think you need in your life, I am here to welcome you to Adventure Club. Because here's a secret. Adventure Club is not just for the children of our church.
It is a ministry for our whole church to do together. Isn't that cool? So here's a few ways you could be involved. If you are four years old to sixth grade, we would love to have you come join us at Adventure Club.
And please bring your friends. We are open to all kids. Right. We're making an effort to do that this year. OK, if you're a parent with kids at Adventure Club, we encourage you to engage in this content together.
Here's a hot tip for dads. This is ready-made family devotional time. OK, if you just crack open this book and look at the scripture, this is this is really good stuff. OK, now, if you're a family who's coming, we also would love to have you come serve together.
There's a number of families in our church that serve together in leadership and as students. It is a sweet thing to see that happening. And we're praying for that. If you're a middle schooler or high schooler, we would love to have you as a leader in training, which is really fun.
OK, and if you are an adult. We would also love for you to come and be a leader with us if you feel so called. So that is Adventure Club. If you have more questions, please find me. There will be a table at the back today for sign ups and questions.
And we look forward to doing that with you. And as far as dates go, just so you know, it's it's in a handout here. But we have a week of adventure starting August 19th, which is a solid week of Adventure Club, a lot of fun.
And then our regular. Weekly meetings start on September 6th. OK, now we're going to transition to scripture reading. If you would open your Bible with me to Romans one, twenty one through thirty two.
OK, Romans one, twenty one through thirty two. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they came futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.
And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
They are gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. And though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things will deserve to die.
They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Amen.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity to introduce Adventure Club for the year to the church. We thank you that. You have this ministry in our church, and we do pray for your blessing over it and the leaders and the students throughout the year.
Lord, we thank you for this scripture and the message that Cornell will bring to us. We pray that you would bless this word and his preaching. And Lord, I thank you for this body. In Jesus' holy name, we pray.
Amen.
Will you please stand and sing with me?
Jesus, keep me near the precious fountain, free to walk.
Versions three, one through four. Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above. Not on things that are on the earth.
For you died and your life has been hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with him in glory. Good morning.
Would you turn with me to the book of First Thessalonians chapter four? And we will read the text we will be studying this morning. And then our second scripture reading, there'll be a lot of scripture today, which is a good thing.
It's a wonderful thing. First Peter one, 13 through 19. So first, First Thessalonians four, three through eight. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. That is that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all those things.
Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man. But the God who gives you his Holy Spirit, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
And then First Peter three, 13 through 19, one, 13 through 19. Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children.
Do not be conformed to the former lust, which were yours in ignorance. But like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.
If you address his father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of a lamb, unblemished, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
Let's pray, Father.
All of us are expectant lumps of clay, knowing that as you pour your son, the Lord Jesus Christ out. To pay for all of our sins, you pour into us your Holy Spirit. To enact in our lives the scripture that we study and understand through you.
This morning, might we be ready to receive doctrine, correction, instruction and reproof from the loving hand of a father who has nothing but the very best in his heart for his children, his elect. We thank you that you have saved us.
We have no idea why you did, but we are grateful. Might we hear you this morning? And if we come away from this, remembering the scripture, it will be a morning well spent. We thank you in Jesus name.
So the last time we were together, we went through a section of First Thessalonians and and. Today's section is, I would say. A little bit more pointed and hard. And so I would like for us sometimes. When we have a nice rack of books on each end of those books, we will have a bookend on this end and on this end, and sometimes they'll have little sayings on them or or pictures or something in it.
It it appropriately frames. The row of books. So for this morning's message, I'd like us to start with two bookends that I want you to be thinking about all the way through this message. The first bookend is.
First Corinthians six, 11, and such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God.
That's the first bookend. We need to remember when we're looking through the scriptures and we see. Doctrine and correction and instruction, we think, well, that's for them. No, it's for me. This is a whenever I go through a passage of scripture, I first think about.
Where are my failings? And I can't spend all the time I need to on that because I'd never get up here. The second bookend is First John one nine, which is absolutely. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins.
Did you hear that? He's faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So with that, those two bookends, but such were some of you. Such were some of us. If we confess, let's launch into this.
So the last time we were together, we looked at First Thessalonians four, one and two. Paul had called the Thessalonians, who were an exemplary church in Asia Minor, obedient to the word of God to excel even more.
I think I remember if I remember right, I titled that message more, please. They were doing many right things and he wanted more. He challenged them to never settle for good enough, but to always press on for more righteousness, more holiness and all things that would be found pleasing to God.
He continues that plea. But in this next section of verses, he becomes blunt and more specific. We live, we live in an age where sexual, sexual immorality is rife. It is celebrated and it's even considered part of life's adventurousness, if you will.
I had I had to be very careful to try and frame this in a PG -13 message because Paul doesn't. And therefore, I'm not saying I'm better or smarter than Paul. You all that know me know way better than that.
But I wanted to make it so that you would feel comfortable to have everyone here listening to it. So sexual immorality is considered good, wholesome and in many respects, desired, especially before marriage.
That's that's the age we live in. Witness the opening ceremonies of last month's Olympic game. Well, no, don't witness them. Read about them. But observe, observe some of the comments maybe that were made.
This at least one of its conventions, one of the things that was trying to be communicated, there was a direct attack on one of Christendom's most important sacrament, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
In the Lord's Supper, we celebrate the incredible gift of life, the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we celebrate the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, recognizing his the significance of his obedience to his obedience to death and the shedding of blood to cover the sins of those who would believe.
Modern demonic media did everything they could to blaspheme that incredible remembrance. Now, imagine yourself living in a time that was worse than what we are living in today, where every second woman you saw on the street was someone else's mistress, where pedophilia was commonplace and celebrated.
Transvestitism was common and even expected in one's journey into adulthood. If you chose to become somewhat moral in this society and expected to marry a woman who was the same, you were expecting the near impossible.
It was into this society that the gospel came to the through the Apostle Paul and the gospel raised expectations to the level of the impossible. We understand that the standards of God that God requires of his people are not attainable without the indwelling Holy Spirit.
We also understand that he will not require what he cannot provide. The Thessalonians would have seen much of what Paul was saying is completely impossible to attain. It is only through the changed life that comes from regeneration, trusting in Christ and cooperating with the indwelling Holy Spirit that the Thessalonians would have any chance to represent the kind of lifestyle that Paul preached about.
And Paul was not suggesting this. He was demanding it. He was commanding it. And so it is in these next 10 verses, we won't hit all 10 today, but in these next 10 verses, Paul becomes a bit focused about some of the difficulties that would have been experienced by the Thessalonians living in this incredibly depraved time culture.
So verse three says, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality. People wonder what the will of God is. You've heard it asked, what do you think the will of God is?
Well, what is what is the will of God for my life? Note that here there's no article in the original Greek before the word will. So this is not saying that this is the whole will of God, but this is one of the aspects.
God's will is encapsulated throughout his word, and that requires that we study all of it. As you learn of his character and his desires for his children, step by step, you begin to walk in his will, which is an obedience to his precepts.
It starts very early on when we see God approve of Abel's sacrifice, but not Cain's. He disapproves of Cain's sacrifice. When he gives specifics, we would do well to pay attention. Commentator Leon Morris puts it this way.
He said, thus, a process has begun in which the old ways and the old habits are increasingly done away and replaced with new ways that fit the service of God. This is a long and necessary process, and much of the New Testament is taken up with the instruction as to how it may be furthered.
Here Paul lays it down firmly that it is God's will that God's people live in God's way. Then we see it again later in Genesis, when we discover that one of the aspects of the will of God is for us to believe what he has said and trust him for it, just as Abraham did.
In Deuteronomy, we are reminded that there are certainly secret things that we cannot know about, but there is plenty that is revealed that we can observe and do. I'm trying to remember the old saying, there's much in the Bible that I don't understand, and there's much in the Bible that I never will understand, but there's plenty in the Bible that I cannot misunderstand.
Start there, beloved, start there. Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong to the Lord, our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever that we may observe all the words of this law.
So this is a study in itself, and it's just a few things to note. Later in 1 Thessalonians, we will discover that one aspect of the will of God is to in everything give criticism. Oh, wait a minute, that's what we learned about this morning.
I didn't plan this, David. In everything, give thanks. Are there things in your life that are happening right now that you can't give thanks for? That's where God is focusing. In that, give thanks, in everything, give thanks.
Psalm 40, verse eight, we discover that the will of God is encapsulated in his law. In John 4, 34, Jesus remarks that, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. So we can truly say here, what would Jesus do?
It's a proper statement here. And look at the many things that he did throughout his incredible life here on the planet, and to the degree that God's spirit enables us, copy them. Romans 12 tells us that doing the will of God is refusing to be conformed to the world.
What does the world require for you to get along? Now, this is not a litmus test, but it's appropriate to think through that likely, God's will is for us to do the opposite of what the world requires us to do, especially in these days.
Colossians chapter one reminds us that increasing in the knowledge of God, being steadfast and patient in joy is the will of God. There's no dearth of information in God's word about what his will is.
And his will is good and just and perfect. And as his people serve him in following his will, they discover that and they show it to the world. First Peter 4, two stipulates that whatever men inappropriately lust after, this is not the will of God.
Ephesians five calculates that some of the aspects of the will of God are found in speaking to one another biblically, making melody in our hearts to the Lord and always giving thanks for all things, simple, but not necessarily very easy.
And here directly stated, the will of God is our sanctification, that is our day-to-day growth and the knowledge of the king and our living out of that knowledge. Sanctification is a direct result of salvation.
It is one of the proofs that one has been saved. Paul takes it one step further, though when he gives the Thessalonians, always wanna start out and call the Thessalonians the Thessalonians. The Thessalonians, he gives them a specific application, run from sexual immorality.
The word for sanctification is the Greek word for holiness as well. It comes from the concept of being set apart for a purpose, a good purpose. This is what God has done when he saved you. He set you apart to become holy like his son is holy, like he is holy and to glorify him in all you do.
But in Thessalonica, Paul specifically applies the idea of sanctification to the incredible sexual immorality that permeated Greek culture in that day in first century Rome. The Greek here, the Greek word is pornea and it's a general term that covers all deviation from sexual purity that God demands in the life of a set apart Christian.
And the first century Thessalonians did not see sexual immorality as sin. They didn't see it as sin.
They were comfortable with it.
It was the way it was. It was good. And make no mistake, any culture that begins walking that path, sin is never static. It is always moving in one direction or another. It's always getting worse and worse or if God has come into your life, it is becoming less and less.
They didn't see it as sin. They saw it as a normal part of everyday life. They did not have the benefit of several generations of Christianity to create what we had in the Western mindset as a concept of morality.
To them, it was moral to have a mistress. Demosthenes said it this way. This is what Demosthenes said about the culture.
He lived in.
We keep prostitutes for pleasure. We keep mistresses for the day to day needs of the body. We keep wives for the beginning of children and for the faithful guardianship of our homes. It's disgusting to me to read that.
That is pretty perverse. Brothers and sisters, that's where we're headed. That's where this nation, this world is headed. Here, Paul uses the word for abstain. He says abstain from sexual immorality, which means to be distant from, to maintain a distance from, to get away from it, to be completely disassociated with.
The idea is complete abstinence. In 1 Corinthians 6 .18, he uses the word flee. The best way to get away from something and to put distance between it and you is to flee from it. Run, don't look back like Lot's wife.
In that verse in 1 Corinthians, Paul also warns the Corinthians that every other sin one commits is outside the body. But sexual sin is a sin directly against the body. It's against one's health. It's against one's future relationships.
It's against purity. It violates in a special way the oneness that was designed to occur between a man and a wife that no other sin can. If you're stupid enough to steal your wife's laptop, it will lessen her trust in you.
But if you steal her right to own your body in a way that God designed the one flesh relationship to be, it will destroy that relationship in a way that no other sin has the potential to do. Now remember the bookmark.
If you confess your sin, he is faithful and just, faithful and righteous to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. I wanna keep going back to those bookends because this is a difficult passage of Scripture.
It's very telling, it's very pointed. And whatever God wrote through Paul to the Thessalonians, he wrote to us. So 1 Corinthians 6 .8 says flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body but the immoral man sins against his own body.
And what is the sexual immorality that Paul is commanding them to abstain from? All of it. Pornography, adultery, incest, pedophilia, transvestitism, premarital sex, postmarital abuse, self-abuse. I thought this thesaurus is gonna get really boring really quick and really, so just fill in the blank.
All of it, all of it. The word is, it's comprehensive. The victory that Christ brings into the individual life over sin is intended to be comprehensive. In the same way Paul is warning the Thessalonians and by extension us to flee from every type of sin like that, the victory that Christ brings is over every one of those.
Over every one. Paul here is echoing a teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew. In Matthew chapter five, 27 and 28, Jesus said, you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Jesus is looking at the heart. This is what this kind of sin does. It destroys the heart. Now when I say destroy, I didn't say annihilate. Remember 1 John 1 .9. So this is hard work. This is inside work.
Holy Spirit work. It's about behavior to be sure, but it's not just about behavior. It is about the desire and the delight to do what is right and to live in that doing. Refusal here is likely a demonstration that one is not a believer.
If you refuse to heed this verse three, I would take serious account of my own salvation. I'm not talking about the occasional deviation that happens in the life of a sinner saved by grace, falling, repenting, and then getting back up to battle again.
A refusal to abstain indicates that one is deceived about what it means to be a sanctified believer. This is the kind of things that proves one is not an inheritor of the kingdom of God, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6.
He said, in 1 Corinthians 6, verses nine through 10, he said, or do you not know that the righteous, the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do you not be deceived? Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
So here, Paul is talking about specifically secular immorality. In 1 Corinthians, he's talking about all the other sins. They're all barriers to God, barriers to coming into your sanctified life in God.
Later in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul recounts the sin of Israel. While Moses was receiving the 10 commandments, and he remarks that one cannot partake of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons in one sitting at the same time.
1 Corinthians 10, 21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Much of what men do in the realm of sexual wickedness is truly demonic.
It never stays simple. Just looking at pornography, for example, it always moves in the direction of more or less. If controlled by self and lust, it will move in the direction of more and more filth until one is openly demonic.
If under the control of the Holy Spirit, it will become less and less, and one will begin to resemble the Lord Jesus Christ more and more in their life. Sin is never static. It's never static. It is always on the move.
Here and again in 1 Corinthians, Paul warns the believers. He wants them to completely abandon these activities, run from these thoughts, to inculcate the words of Scripture into their hearts and minds.
As one writer put it, Christians are to have a clean cut from sexual immorality of all kinds. And the only thing that can do that for you is the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. You can't do it yourself.
Accountability is necessary, yes, but in the end, it's God's Word. It's God's Word and the Holy Spirit. Verse four, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. It is unfortunate that both in Paul's time and today, people live so completely under the control of their emotions.
All you gotta do is go on Facebook for 10 seconds and you can see it in the responses, the comments, or even the, what's it called, the OP.
What's that mean?
Original post?
Did I get that right?
Hey, I'm a Facebook guy. Wow.
Okay, so decisions are made on how one feels about something. Whether it's a decision to buy a house, a car, groceries, or get involved in an affair, people make decisions very often solely on how they feel about the decision.
What Paul is talking about here is that we must develop, now get this, develop the skill of controlling our bodies in sanctification and honor. It's a skill, like using a power tool correctly, which has harnessed certain kinds of electricity and power to do a thing which, if used incorrectly, will harm you.
Ask me how I know later. So we're looking at very specific words here that in context paint a wonderful yet difficult picture. From the time of Augustine on, interestingly enough, and possibly even a little earlier, some of the research I did, many commentators reviewed the word vessel as one's wife.
So what they would say was for each of you to know how to possess his own wife in sanctification and honor. I wanna talk to you about that. I think that's incorrect. I believe that's incorrect. Numerous commentators, as well as a cursory study of Paul's use of the word for wife, indicate that this is very likely incorrect.
I believe it is. Paul's teaching and Christianity in general produce a very high view of marriage. In marriage, the man and the woman are equal heirs of the grace of God. To reduce the word vessel here to simply mean one's wife has several problems.
Some people refer to Peter's reference in 1 Peter to the wife being the weaker vessel. That's not what is at point here. Further, this verse was written to the church at large in Thessalonica. It was written to the men and to the women and probably to the children who would understand it.
The command to know how to possess his own vessel should be considered to be directed at the entire congregation, not just the men. Remember, both men and women are the vessels of the Holy Spirit. So the word translated vessel, skuos, is often used in the New Testament for utensils, Romans 9 .21, or does not the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump of one vessel, skuos, for honorable use and another for common use?
It's also used of implements in 2 Corinthians 4 .7, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power of God will be of God and not from ourselves and of implements or tools, excuse me, that was implements or tools as in 2 Timothy 2 .21.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared for every good work. Other often rabbis use this word to denote the body.
So Paul here is instructing the Thessalonians to exercise proper, skillful control over their own bodies to produce by the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, sanctification and honor. What a great concept.
What a wonderful, what a wonderful, I mean, we get to be sanctified by the sovereign of the universe to begin to resemble his son. He got a really bad deal with me, but some of you are doing just fine.
Don't let it go to your heads. So anyway, a thoughtful manner that exudes the dignity that the Holy Spirit brings into one's life. God will use his Holy Spirit through his word to make you a proper vessel.
Skillfully use his word to make you a proper vessel. Verse five, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. So it was common for the Greeks in the day of Paul's time, of the Thessalonian time to whom Paul is writing to give into their passions.
It was even looked at as part of the worship of their pantheon of gods. And so it was good, it was good. These things were considered not just acceptable, but actually good, desirable. Paul is reminding the Thessalonians here that those kinds of actions and lifestyles are commonplace among those who do not know Yahweh,.
Who do not know him.
Unregenerate people have an uncontrolled desire for sexual gratification. It consumes them, it defines them, and they require others to recognize their deviance as their personality. This happened in Thessalonian times.
Do you know my pronouns?
I hope not. That's what's going on today. That is such a consuming thing that it forces, it doesn't force, they require others to participate in it because it's good to them, it's righteous to them. Today it plays its ugly destruction out in the lives of especially young people who think they must give in to the spirit of the age and adopt the opposite sex as their identity because apparently the sovereign God of the universe wasn't smart enough to know what he was doing when he bestowed upon them their sex.
When I say it like that, it really sounds stupid,.
Doesn't it?
Newsflash, it is, but it consumes them and they need the gospel. Oh brothers, they need the gospel. So these filthy passions produce the parades that one sees in places like San Francisco and Portland where people march down the streets of those degraded cities in various stages of undress as though it's correct.
They are completely controlled by their passions and not by the Holy Spirit. That's an understatement. Have you ever noticed how incredibly angry they are as well? Has that ever, it's just one of the things I've noticed.
The two words used here, by the way, are the opposite sides of the coin of self-gratification. I was gonna bring a coin, but you all know what a coin looks like, so you don't need that. The word translated here as lustful denotes an active pursuit of wrong desires, a knowing active pursuit of wrong desires.
That's the working part of this wickedness. The word translated as passion, not in lustful passion, signifies an overmastering feeling in which one is borne along by evil as though one is a passive instrument of that evil, but they're never passive because there's an active part.
It is the feeling part of this deviance. Combined, combined these two things result in the decided, the decided surrender of one's faculties to the wicked activities that result. These are people that Paul has said, and I repeat myself, who do not know God.
They do not know God.
Verse six, and know 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. It's not like this hasn't been warned before.
Paul is warned, God is warned throughout the Old Testament. The warnings are there. Some believe, by the way, that this is a change of subject in this section. And that now we are talking about business matters.
Paul went from sexual sin to financial insecurity. No, contextually, I think this is incorrect. One can defraud one another in the matters of sexuality. The word defraud means to swindle someone out of what is rightfully theirs, to selfishly, greedily take for personal gain and pleasure at someone else's expense.
In the matter of sexuality, one can take from someone's future marriage partner the sexual purity that was their right to receive when they get married to that individual. One can take the innocence and purity from a child in the same way.
This was so serious that the Lord Jesus Christ gave an ominous warning to any who would do that. In Matthew 18, six and seven, he said, but whoever causes one of these little ones to believe in me, who believe in me, to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks, for it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to that man to whom the stumbling block comes. First John 1, nine. Beloved, first John 1, nine.
That's our bookend, one of our bookends, remember that. So this is the defrauding that Paul is speaking of. It has nothing to do with silver and gold. It speaks of premarital promiscuity, horribly improper visual gratification that we call pornography and a host of other things that seem to be proliferating then and proliferate today in today's world.
Then Paul says that the Lord is the avenger. The Lord is the avenger, that is the punisher of all these things. This alludes to future punishment as well as temporal punishment. Bodily destruction results from much of the depravity that these activities, that comes from these activities, that the Thessalonians were engaging in and that what people engage in today.
But future permanent eternal destruction awaits those who never repent of and walk away from those activities. We should upon regeneration discover a whole new world of service to God and delight in it.
It should be a blessing as we grow closer to him to serve him and to do things that bespeak his sovereign glory, do things that tell the world about who Jesus is, who the Father is, who the Holy Spirit is.
But it is also good to be warned of the great danger that awaits those who will not put off the wickedness of their former life and put on the garment of holiness. That garment is the birthright of all who have been born again.
If you are not disgusted by your sinful behavior, if you are not distraught when you sin, if you are not energized to do better when you fail, you should question yourself. As Peter said, judgment should begin at the house of God.
That's one of the applications of that verse. We need to look at ourselves and make sure that we're disgusted by sin. And let me tell you something that's good news, bad news. The good news is as you become more and more devoted to the word of God and to it excising the sin from your life, that's a good thing.
The bad news is as you become more and more devoted to the word of God, you find out just how bad you really are. And that's a good thing too. So it's tantamount and personal. It's personal, I should say.
Beloved, there isn't any question about what Paul is speaking of here. He speaks of it much more horrifyingly in Romans chapter one, which Matt read to us at the beginning of this morning. So therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity.
You have that verse before, we have that verse before us this morning. The people who do not know God will continually exchange the truth that God gives for the lies that confirm their passions. We will always exchange if we are following sin, if we are not obeying God, we will continually exchange the truth for what confirms the things that make us feel good in life or that we think make us feel good.
These people serve themselves and worship themselves. Therefore, as it talks about in Romans, they spiral into a continual lifestyle of degrading wickedness that includes sodomy, which is homosexuality, and is very clearly spoken of here in Romans.
It seems that this particular sin is the underpinning for most of what went wrong with the Thessalonian Roman society and what is going wrong in society today. I'm not, of course, saying that this is the only sin we need to be on the lookout for, but it is certainly a foundation for much of the teaching of the spirit of the age today that is destroying our youth, our marriages, and thus our society.
First John 1 .9. I'm gonna keep telling you 1 John 1 .9. Be warned, Paul says, those who practice these things, God will avenge them, and he will avenge today and in eternity. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
So this command in verse seven is to live in purity and possessions of one body, skillfully living a life that honors God, and this warning to those who would not do that fits perfectly into the general purpose for which God has saved the elect.
He did not call us for the purpose of impurity. That is, lustful, profligate living. He called us to be set apart, holy, effective in propagating the gospel, and demonstrating that his will is good and profitable, as it says in Romans chapter 12.
This reminds us also that none of this rests on human initiative. Did you save yourself?
Did you seek God all by your lonesome?
You know you didn't. Neither did I. He sought you. And in that seeking, when he regenerated you and turned you to him, the next step is he also provides your sanctification.
He is sanctifying you.
He is sanctifying us. Whenever I mouth things that I didn't have down in my text here, I lose my place. So give me a second here. So this does remind us that none of this rests on human initiative, but rather on the call of God.
We did not seek him in a life of sexual purity. Rather, he called us to it. And what he calls us to, he will accomplish. He will supply. And it will be in sanctification. That is, in personal holiness, resulting in an effective life that lives out the good and perfect will of God.
Philippians 1 .6, another great verse that I, I suppose we're not supposed to have favorite verses, but I do have a few. For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it into the day of Jesus Christ.
He had to drop it. I'm going to read some more scripture regarding sanctification, because this is what this section is really about. Philippians 2 .12 and 13. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
John 6 .28 and 29. Therefore they said to him, what shall we do so that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him who he has sent.
Who did he send? He sent Jesus.
Ephesians 2 .4 through 10. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love of which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of work so that no one may boast, but for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
He will not leave you flailing in life, trying to serve him. If you are truly born again, your sanctification is his priority in your life. Mortify sin and focus on your relationship with him through his word, which is called, this is Paul's command to the Thessalonians and to us.
Remember that the call to salvation as the call to sanctification is the call of God. It is not dependent upon our will,.
But his,.
So you don't have to worry. And what he has begun, he will continue. If you are truly one of the elect, you will begin to detest your old lifestyle. You know how that is. You just, you look back at some of the things that you did with detestation and the folly that you committed with just sometimes humor, but the right kind of humor, which is the humor that forces you to recognize it as wrong think.
Where have I read that before? And go forward in the Holy Spirit. Paul desires to present the church of Thessalonica as a pure bride to God, and sexual sin is completely antithetical to that. Since it was one of the prevalent sins of the Roman world that was destroying that world, that is why you see Paul call it out specifically.
Verse eight is very telling as, it's not necessarily the original closing for this thought, but it's what I'm using as the last verse for today. And you're all saying, amen. So he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
The disobedience that is described here is not a disobedience of the elders. It's not a disobedience to your family. It's not a disobedience to your parents. It's not a disobedience to society or to the law, although it may be all of those things in retrospect.
It is the direct disobedience to God, and it bespeaks the heart of one who is not interested in being sanctified. It could very well be referring to someone, most likely is referring to someone who's not even saved.
The standard God calls men and women to after salvation is impossibly high, and that is why he gave his Holy Spirit to complete that work on the hearts and lives of the believers. The word for rejecting here is a word that means to cast off, to despise, to dismiss.
It's the word that your children live in when you tell them to clean up their room. I ain't doing that. They cast it off, they despise it. I know, I used to be one of those children. You should have seen my room.
It's in this case, though, it's referring to utter disregard for God, utter disregard. The idea is that someone is treating something that they have been told to do as something of no consequence. They believe it doesn't matter.
It's unimportant and it's inconsequential in life. This is directly treating God as if he is of no account. It's a direct rejection of God himself. That's what Paul is telling the Thessalonians here. This is a direct rejection of the sovereign God of the universe.
It's an interesting word order that Paul uses here. He emphasizes the majesty of the holiness of God. The verse actually is worded this way. It says, so he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives you the spirit of him.
Paul also, so this emphasizes the majesty of the Holy Spirit and the severity of the disobedience. Paul also makes it very personal in that he says he gave the Holy Spirit to who?
To you.
The Holy Spirit is not some overarching presence that is available to generally prod people into good behavior. He is the indwelling presence of the sovereign God of the universe who actively works to make those whom he has saved like the beloved son of God.
That's who the Holy Spirit is. Are you saved? Then you are on the way to being sanctified. That's part and parcel of salvation. It will be a bumpy road. One man put it this way. He said it's like three steps forward, two steps back.
Occasionally in my life, it's been three steps forward, five steps back. That may be very well, but the progress will be forward. The progress will be forward. Spend the time in God's word that will help you get to know him and his will for your life.
It's throughout his word, and it is promised for you to be able to understand it. And that is to live your life in God's way in his time. It's tough. It's a tough and high calling, but remember the Holy Spirit is given to you personally to assure that it happens.
On the day of your salvation, which was given to you wholly by a work of God, God vouchsafed to you the promise of a change of life, a change of heart, a change of direction that would render you a changed person.
Your sanctification is positional, but it is also practical.
We'll finish with this.
Philippians 1 .6, we read earlier. For I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. So in Philippians, Paul reminds the believers and us by extension that the confidence in our salvation rests in the one who began it and who will finish it.
1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, as faithful as he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass.
Later in this book, chapter five, Paul encourages the Thessalonians that sanctification will be entire and it is done by God himself and that we will be presented to Christ without blame.
Can you imagine that?
No blame. 1 John 1 .9, can I remind you of that? Have I reminded you of that? What a wonderful verse. He called us, he will bring it to pass. Acts 26 .18, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me.
It is faith in God that results in the forgiveness of sins and the inheritance that God promises to those who have been sanctified. Acts 20 .32, and now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
What did he commend us to? His word, himself and his word. It is his word. That is what God uses to make the difference in the lives of his saints. John 17 .17, sanctify them in truth. In the truth, your word is truth.
And finally, as Jesus himself said, the truth will be our sanctification. And where do we find that? We find it only in the word. He promised not to leave us as orphans, but to send his helper to us and to all who will continue the work.
The helper will continue the work that was begun at salvation throughout our lives to become more like Christ. John 14 .15 through 17. So we are not left to ourselves, beloved. We're not left to ourselves.
We're not left to thrash about trying to become something we can never be, but rather we are empowered by the living Holy Spirit within us through the study and application of the word of God in our everyday lives.
Mortify sin and he will work it in your lives. Tremble at that sin that is in your life and desire the removal of that sin. Are you on the way to resembling the Son of God more and more every day? This is an evidence of God living in you because of faith and the work of the Holy Spirit.
And there is no place to get any of this except within the scriptures. It's so simple. And I see so many making it so difficult with so many strange applications and strange things to do. Spend time in God's word.
There's nothing like it.
His word is the gateway with the work of the Holy Spirit in your life to produce a walk of obedience that will bring praise and delight to the Lord Jesus Christ. And is there anything that the saints of God want to do more than bring praise and delight to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Let's pray. Father, your word is simple. It's difficult. It's full of doctrine. It's full of reproof. It's full of correction. And it's full of instruction for us to live righteous lives. And without your Holy Spirit, your word is just another book.
But it isn't just another book. To the Christian, to the elect, to the one who has been saved by you and is on the way to being sanctified by you, positionally already done, working out in our lives, trembling day to day, it is the power of God.
Let us simply spend the time necessary, which is a lot of time in your word, learning of your glory, learning of your grace, learning of your righteousness and applying your truths to our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit.
Might we become a people that is blessed to call you our Lord and Savior and it will be seen by the world at large that we are indeed that. Thank you, Lord, for this morning. Thank you for these words.
Thank you for your word.
And if everything that I said is gone, but people remember the scripture, this has been a good morning indeed. And we pray these things in the Lord Jesus Christ's name and for his sake and for his glory.
Please stand.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless, with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time and now and forever.
