Are You Pleasing God? - [1 Thessalonians 4:1-6]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

2 views

0 comments

00:00
God is a consuming fire and think about that as we go through the message this evening our
00:06
God is a Consuming fire, so I appreciate that. Thank you for your reading today
00:14
So let me ask you the question I like to always start off sermons with a question because it gets you thinking a little bit and the question
00:20
I have today is Are you growing in holiness? You don't have to answer that but think
00:28
And let me see if I can answer if I can ask it in just slightly different way Are you growing in holiness now,
00:37
I understand that was the same question But I was hoping to kind of wake some of you up.
00:43
Looks like you're a little sleepy out there remember free food afterwards, so But if you took any exam to your life today, if you really took your life and you examined it and you said
00:57
Today compared to yesterday or today Compared to last week or today compared to last month or today compared to last year or today compared to five years ago
01:09
Have you grown in your holiness? Have you seen over time that you've grown closer and more and more like your
01:20
Savior Jesus Christ Now don't get me wrong.
01:25
I don't want to say every day as roses and we always see this increasing Movement towards holiness
01:35
But there should be a steady climb in your maturity if you were to look back in your life from the time you were Saved and it may even been just a short time to today
01:43
You may be saying I only go on a little bit But for those of us that are a little more mature, we should see a path of continued growing in holiness
01:54
So are you growing in holiness today I'll ask it again Can you see this?
01:59
Arching upward in your faith Where you want to plateau or even are you on a downward spiral for some people?
02:10
It's really an important thing to understand in your own life You really need to kind of stand back sometimes and think about your own spiritual life as how things are going
02:19
So the second question I have the first was are you are you growing in holiness?
02:26
The second question is Are you pleasing? Yourself more today than you're pleasing
02:33
God Are you pleasing yourself? Are you pleasing other men?
02:39
Are you pleasing anything but God or is your desire this evening to please
02:46
God? and as I talked about even this morning when I was asked to come up and just talk a little bit about what
02:51
I'm going to Preach here about and that is are you pleasing God? When you wake up in the morning, are you looking to satisfy your needs first?
03:04
Me are you looking to satisfy the needs of others first? Or are you looking to satisfy?
03:11
the desires of your God Do you even know what it means to please
03:18
God and we'll talk more about that in detail But do you even know what it means if someone were to ask you today?
03:23
Are you pleasing God? Do you know what that means? To please him The third question
03:31
I have is one that is a Little more theological in perspective and the question
03:36
I have is are you? Growing in your sanctification Are you growing in your sanctification have you been sanctified?
03:49
More and more each day and we'll go into what sanctification is as we get a little further down in the message
03:55
But think through these things Because they'll be important and as we heard our
04:01
God is a consuming fire We should desire to please this God not out of fear of hell and damnation
04:07
But we should be willing to serve him and desiring to because his son Died and rose again to take the punishment that you and I deserved upon a bloody cross and Today I'm going to share with you three imperatives three commands in the scriptures
04:25
That when rightly understood One will make you think about your own desire to please
04:33
God and why I desire to please God And not only do you want to please him, but you'll want to do his will
04:38
You'll want to do his will now. It sounds simple. It sounds real simple.
04:44
I want to please God and do his will And in a lot of ways it is simple and you'll see from our text it can be
04:51
But it's a lifelong process it is something that we are continually striving for So let me begin why don't you open up your
05:02
Bibles if you don't already have them open to 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 1st
05:07
Thessalonians chapter 4 I Believe in the pew Bibles. It'll be somewhere around page 987 1st
05:15
Thessalonians chapter 4 and I'm going to be reading verses 1 through 8 of 1st
05:21
Thessalonians chapter 4 I'll be reading from the ESV version Follow along with me if we as I read in your own
05:30
Bibles it says this 1st Thessalonians 4 1 through 8 Finally then brothers we ask and we urge you in the name in the
05:40
Lord Jesus that as You received from us how you ought to walk and to please
05:46
God Just as you just as you are doing That you do so more and more
05:54
For you know what instructions he gave you through the Lord Jesus for this is the will of God your sanctification
06:04
That you abstain from sexual immorality That each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor
06:13
Not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God That no one transgresses and wrong his brother in this matter because the
06:25
Lord is an avenger of all things as We told you beforehand and solemnly warned you
06:33
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness Therefore Whoever disregards this disregards not man but God Who gives his
06:49
Holy Spirit to you and if you were here this morning pastor Harrington preached all about the acts of the
06:56
Holy Spirit from the book of Acts and Remember our God is a consuming fire again as we go through this text fits in so well.
07:06
I Think it's appropriate again as I preached in Sunday school right context context context if you're here for Sunday school to understand
07:14
Why Paul was writing to the Thessalonians in the first place? Why was it why did he find it important that he had to write this letter at all is the question you should be?
07:23
Asking it's believed to be the first letter and possibly the oldest letter penned by Paul to this church and It's a great piece of material that we can read
07:40
Describing what God sees important in the Christian life? Thessalonica if you have your maps in your back of your
07:50
Bible was actually located in Greece and at that time in Greece Thessalonica was the capital of the modern
07:58
Roman occupied Macedonia So it was actually a very large city, and and it was actually a central point
08:05
It was actually a central trade route where many various trades would come into the city and then
08:12
Branch off and go different directions So it was this great intersecting of roots and people coming and going and it was said that Thessalonica itself had some of the best of the best of objects and spices and luxury items and all sorts of things they had that they could indulge in because of this trade route necessity
08:34
With that also came many foreign visitors there were people from all over that would come through Thessalonica either pass through or stop in And trade and and give their goods and then leave but again would indulge in what was there at the at the church or at the city itself
08:51
Paul is said to have actually visited this area in his second missionary journey and During this journey he was actually driven out due to Jewish opposition and actually the hostility that he was
09:02
Experiencing while trying to preach the gospel to these people in Thessalonica So he fled the region probably fear for life, but instead he actually sent
09:15
Timothy another worker to actually be there and Teach these people
09:20
Timothy was there to train up the local church this newly developed body of believers and Paul's letter here
09:27
He's he's writing back to the church and he and he wants to encourage them as best as he can saying I've heard what you've done
09:33
I've heard what you've done and we even see that in some of our text and we'll see it in other places But I've heard what you've done
09:39
But in standard polling fashion, he says do more do more excel all the more in your
09:48
Christian faith and a little background just on the book itself Paul moves in this letter from the first three chapters and the first three chapters really are dealing with declarations their statements their
10:02
Announcements involving one's Christian walk and most of that is chapters 1 2 & 3 all about doctrine and and these declarations and then he moves into chapters 4 & 5 which really cover exhortations
10:17
Exhortations, how do you apply? I've taught you what you know in chapters 1 2 & 3 now take this information and apply it to your life
10:25
And that's what Paul is doing here as we get into our text Now I think it's important to to just cover a couple details
10:33
I think that you know The majority of our text as we'll see is found in verses 3 through 6 that I'm going to be going over But I really want to cover some of the details in 1 & 2
10:42
Versus 1 & 2 just to really give you some things to kind of build a foundation on The first word you see there
10:52
In your translation depending upon what you have is probably the word finally Finally, right?
10:58
Some may have some other things now, it's a good translation finally and if you again, we're at Sunday school we talked a little bit about the differences on how words change over time now if I were up here and I was saying and finally
11:11
Some of you may be closing your Bibles putting down your pens Getting ready to leave maybe thinking about what
11:17
I'm gonna have for dinner now or whatever. It might be right finally is in our minds a ending of something and Paul isn't using it in that context here the
11:29
NIV does a does a great job actually here translating this and it translates it if you have an
11:34
NIV it says as for other matters As for other matters again, this is
11:40
Paul's change. This is his move his direction from chapters 1 2 3 Then he says finally now we've seen in other places where Paul has said finally and he was ready to end the letter and he realized just how glorious a
11:52
God is that we serve and how great Jesus Christ is and how preeminent he is and he goes off for two more chapters That's not the finally here.
11:58
Paul is actually saying finally, let's move from this and go into this subject Let's get into what
12:04
I want to talk to you about is what he's saying here when he uses the word finally Then you'll see the next or the third word probably in your translation prices brothers sisters don't feel left out this is actually a generic term brothers and sisters is more of a
12:21
Familial type of a family type of Representation here. So it's he's saying brothers and sisters in essence
12:31
And he's using this as a term of affection he's saying brothers brothers in Christ brothers and sisters in Christ Here comes some some hard things to hear
12:43
Here it comes, you know, I had doctrine you had some basic things that you know about in chapters 1 2 & 3 But here comes some difficult teachings so brothers
12:53
You know, it's I'm trying to think of the old saying in the south with you know Where they are just about to say something really bad about someone but they always say, you know in love or some other type of thing
13:02
Where it's you know, she sure is nice, you know kind of a thing But you know, this is where he's saying brothers affectionately be be ready.
13:09
I'm with you in this He wants to come alongside of them He loves them as brothers and sisters and as one commentator said it's really the calm before the storm
13:20
The calm before the storm it's coming And then there's two additional words in in that same area.
13:27
You'll see them in verse 1 right after brothers It says we ask and urge you
13:32
And you may be thinking to yourself. Well, those those are similar words in our English They actually sound like synonyms or could be used as synonyms
13:41
But they are a little different in the Greek the way that they're laid out For example, if ask is there it would be something like I would ask
13:49
My daughter to clean her room. I would ask someone to pass the potatoes at dinner that's really they ask it's just kind of a
14:00
It's it's a pleasant pleasing kind of could you please pass the potatoes kind of thing?
14:07
And Then we have the word urge. So not only is he asking them he's being polite about things He urges them and this is a very different word very very different word and it's actually pretty neat because the word itself when you look at it is really related to what a military commander would say as a order to a subordinate they would be saying
14:28
I Demand that you obey this and the consequences of not obeying something this urging the consequences of not obeying it for Roman military would often be death and It's similar to what we see failure to obey
14:48
God and and obey his commands can bring death as the scripture says verse 2 and Also in verse 1 we also see
15:00
Jesus used twice the word Jesus It's a small portion of text and yet Paul uses it twice in such close proximity
15:08
It's kind of interesting if you read through and you say Lord Jesus And he goes a little further in Jesus, right?
15:15
So we have this Jesus twice in very short proximity Why does he do that?
15:22
And what Paul is really trying to say here again is brothers. What is coming is not for me There had been times where Paul has sat back and said what
15:30
I'm writing is about me. I'm writing this But here he's saying
15:35
I know it's gonna be difficult. I know it's gonna be hard to listen to I know What I'm gonna tell you is is is not easy to to swallow
15:44
But it comes directly from the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about the sphere of authority
15:50
He is the king of kings He is the Lord of Lords and these commands these imperatives that are coming down come directly from him
16:01
And just like the Thessalonians if you're here today You need to understand that these imperatives are just as important for you to obey these commands that Paul gives
16:10
Need to be taken seriously It's not just something we can pass over. It's not something we can ignore
16:16
It's not something that is optional No, these commands cannot be taken lightly.
16:26
What's interesting though? If we look again back in verse 1 of chapter 4 We see that they're already pleasing
16:34
God Right, you see that you see where they he asks and he urges them and he says you already know how you ought to live
16:43
And ought to please God in essence. He's he's saying you already know these things And he's encouraging them you're faithful brothers and sisters in Christ He's encouraging them
16:55
But at the same time as Paul always says he says do more strive for more excel all the more in your faith
17:01
Keep fighting the fight. He's saying it's not gonna be easy and he points to sanctification
17:12
Paul points the Thessalonians to sanctification He was encouraging them to fight this fight to keep fighting this fight to beat their bodies into submission
17:22
Because he knows that there are eternal rewards He's saying don't think about the pleasures that you will see from the temporal side instead have a eternal focus
17:32
That's what's important in life focus on the things of God Paul wants to ensure that the members of the church have been sanctified and you may be asking yourself.
17:47
Well, what is sanctification? It's one of those great big theological words at times. I don't understand it. What does it mean?
17:54
It's rather simple Sanctification is simply put as the setting apart for a specific purpose the setting apart the setting aside
18:05
And one of the great examples we have in the Old Testament a couple great examples in the Old Testament, but Israel itself
18:11
Israel was sanctified to God Israel was set apart
18:16
They were to be different they were to be unique They were to have a purpose that was solely to please
18:23
God and to proclaim his word Where else do we see sanctification
18:30
We see the utensils That were used in the temple were said to be sanctified
18:37
They were set up only for the worshiping of God and nothing else
18:42
They were not used to eat dinner and then used to serve or to deal with holy things they were sanctified
18:50
They would be desecrated if used for anything else and Paul wants to ensure
19:00
That the church is being sanctified. They are being set apart They're gonna be different than the area that surrounds them and in this sanctification process
19:14
God really is just saying he wants us to be more holy He wants us to be more like him as we continue to study
19:20
God's Word as we pour over God's Word and we and we Desire to know him more It's kind of a catch -22 because we see our sin all the more and Then we want to get rid of that and we
19:34
Study more and we see even more sin and we study more and we see even more sin But that's what the process of sanctification is.
19:40
It is that Understanding that we are wretched and only a
19:45
Savior Can save us? so we are to be set apart and Again, Paul is saying you already know these things again in verse 4 in verse 2 of chapter 4
20:00
We see he says in this text for you know, they already knew But he says keep going keep going these things.
20:09
I'm gonna tell you again are not optional They must be obeyed the commands of God must be obeyed and and you may be sitting here today and you may be going
20:18
Well, that doesn't sound very very Nice, that doesn't sound very fair. It doesn't sound very just when someone can command me to obey
20:29
Right, who is this God that can command me of such things? And if you have those questions you need to remember
20:36
God is the creator of everything in this universe Including yourself and myself and he has the right and the privilege to demand whatever he wants from us in Bible says clearly who are you to question the things of God?
20:53
You aren't we are not Paul also we see in verse 2 a couple words into verse 2.
21:03
He says instructions Instructions So just before we get into the imperatives, he says here comes some instructions and this word itself in its context
21:19
Is to bring attention to the reader. It's essentially one of these Wake up attention
21:27
Instructions are coming here comes some commands
21:34
It's similar to what those who drive you're driving down the road and you see a construction site and there's a warning sign
21:41
Big orange sign says warning, right? That's what Paul is essentially putting up in front of them warning
21:48
Here comes something or with your appliances when you buy an appliance and it's got this great big warning sticker that says
21:56
Don't mix this hairdryer and put it with water Because you will suffer the consequences
22:04
You will suffer the consequences you can do it, but you will suffer the consequences and these in instructions have connotation of authority
22:15
Coming from them. They are powerful So Paul is saying here comes something big and This authority that it talks about the best way
22:24
I could describe it if you've ever been near or around military bases You may see a sign on some military bases and they'll often be posted on on Chain -link fences or something that extent where they will say something the event of warning restricted area
22:41
You've probably seen those warning restricted area and if you get the chance to ever go to some of those top -secret
22:47
We're not supposed to know about bases out in the desert Where there aren't a lot of fences, but there are signs it will often say something like warning restricted area
23:00
Use of deadly force is authorized Well, that should tell you something you should be going.
23:07
Whoa. Whoa. Well, that's what Paul is saying here essentially saying warning What I'm coming at you with use of deadly force is authorized
23:17
Now you as an individual walking in the desert running against this sign have the right to go
23:22
And keep walking Into this restricted military base, but you have to be ready to face the consequences
23:31
There will be consequences the same thing with God's commands as we get into these imperatives
23:36
God's commands will have consequences either temporal consequences and or eternal consequences
23:47
Lastly in verse 3 before we get into our section that I want to get into from the imperatives You'll see that Paul talks about the will of God here
23:56
I don't have time to dig into this at all in in what time I have But Paul wants to show how people can find the will of God And what's interesting is if you've ever done a
24:09
Google search or a Bing search for those really cool people out there nowadays If you've ever done one of those and you said will of God, how do
24:15
I find the will of God? What's the will of God for my life? You know, there are thousands of questions out there and there's just as many answers and the majority of them are wrong
24:25
No surprise But finding the will of God Paul says here is very simple
24:32
It's your sanctification God wants you to be sanctified. That's the will of God if you learned anything today and you walk out of here
24:39
You don't hear anything else the will of God for your life is your sanctification your continued growing in holiness
24:46
You continued study of your of his word and as you do that more and more you will sin less and less
24:53
But that's the will of God Everything else you do get great wise counsel that make wise decisions
25:00
But if you want to take a job that isn't sinful take the job. God will bless it as long as you are
25:06
Following his commands and in his will simple When I was looking up some of this there are
25:12
TV shows there are Camps you can go to week -long camps
25:18
There are books and everything about finding the will of God and I think Paul lays it out pretty simple here be a pretty short book
25:25
Sanctification So the question I have is are you sanctified? Are you set apart for the glory of God?
25:31
Are you even growing in your faith? Are you reading your Bible? Are you praying to God?
25:37
Are you desiring him more and more? And are you fellowshipping with other believers?
25:42
It's important Christians So Paul now wants to expand he's prepared them
25:50
He's got them ready in verses 1 2 & 3 and he kind of steps back and he's getting ready for here comes the hammer
25:56
Here it comes. I have tonight three
26:03
Imperatives as I talked about earlier and they'll be in question form First question is this not an easy question, especially from the pulpit.
26:12
It's not an easy question But Paul here says are you avoiding sexual immorality?
26:18
Are you avoiding? sexual immorality We see
26:24
Paul in 4 verse 3 B. He says abstain from sexual immorality And again, this is a command.
26:31
It's not optional. It's not a I I'll obey it if I can For the Christian it's a command
26:39
You are commanded to stay away from sexual sin. No matter the cost Are you staying away from sexual sin?
26:46
No matter the cost? Are you doing that today? Paul couldn't be any clearer here these are the times where people want to take and go well the
26:56
Greek says or the Hebrew says or if we Translate it into Aramaic and then into this and into that it then says this it's clear
27:05
It's clear in the Greek and in the English. It's translated here That it would not permit any form of sexual sin
27:16
Oftentimes when I've talked to people and I'm sure you've probably heard this too. They'll say How close can
27:22
I get before I've sinned? How close can I get to that cliff before I?
27:29
fall off and I and Christian That's the wrong question You should be asking your question should be if you perceive that as sin if the warning sign is there if the danger do not
27:38
Enter restricted is already posted and you see it before falling over the cliff. The Bible says turn repent
27:47
And go the other direction Run Flee do whatever you can
27:53
What is the word?
28:01
immorality mean simply defined as immoral behavior often in sexual matters lasciviousness or promiscuity
28:15
It's the transgression of moral norms as the dictionary says normally with laws
28:21
Established by another and that other is the creator God the word here for sexual
28:30
Most of you know the Greek word here for sexual when I say it you'll know exactly what I'm saying. The Greek word is porneia porneia
28:39
We get our English word Pornography out of this word or porn for short and the word is not specific to imagery
28:51
Pornographic imagery or images at all But it includes all matter of sexual behavior and any sexual behavior that goes against what
28:59
God has commanded You could include such things as lust adultery sexual perversion sex out of marriage, etc
29:09
For what Paul uses here in his word So, let me ask you this
29:16
Sisters Are you lusting after that character in your romance novel more brothers?
29:27
Are you lusting over images? Or others that might be walking around Do you have trouble turning your eyes away?
29:41
That's what Paul is talking about here and ask yourself if you're doing these things if you were to step back and think to yourself
29:50
Am I pleasing God are These activities pleasing to God and we see he commands not to be involved in these things
30:00
Now I need to just give a little bit of background a little bit about Jewish History and and the society that the
30:09
Church was living in even Jews as we talked about earlier were set apart. They were different They were what were considered monolithic and yet all the other cultures all the
30:23
Gentiles all the non -jews any Person outside of Judaism had what would be considered a very loose loose view of marriage
30:35
Pagan cultures were very different and remember not only in Thessalonica. Did we have this?
30:41
We also have Paul who's writing this letter from Corinth Corinth was said to be one of the worst places one of the most perverted places of sexual things
30:53
And Thessalonica was not much better with all of the activity that went in and out of their place with the travel
31:03
Both of these cultures had a very depraved view of intimacy The Thessalonians and even the
31:09
Corinthians, but the Thessalonians were being taken out of a culture that was completely opposite if you wanted to Commune with the gods if you wanted to worship a
31:21
God Most times you would go into a temple and you'd be be be greeted by a priestess
31:28
Who would either take you into the back? Where you would commune with the gods through a temple prostitute
31:36
Or some other means of sexual perversion That's how they communed with the gods and Paul is saying here children
31:45
You are not to be like this the children of God you are not to be like this You are set apart you have been sanctified for something better Than your temporal temporal pleasures
32:00
Jewish non -jewish societies it was known very well It was clearly documented most of the time what they would do is you would have a wife and that wife would be there to assist with raising the kids
32:12
Teaching them what they needed to know before going off on their own and mature and so forth all the while you would have
32:20
Slaves concubines and or mistresses that would fulfill your other desires
32:27
It's a very different life, and it was difficult for the church Again, these people were being saved out of this society that it was a hundred and eighty degree turn for them to understand
32:38
What Paul is saying because that's all they knew that's what they grew up in To them that was normal It's not much different than it is today in our society
32:50
We see what God abhors as being normal So first Paul commands the church to abstain from sexual immorality strong words here
33:02
And he shows what God thinks of these things that he's not pleased with those who disobey these commands
33:07
But look with me now in verses 4 and 5 of our text and let me get quickly into the second one the the second one here
33:16
The question I have out of this is are you living in a way that is holy and honorable to the
33:21
Lord? Are you living in a way that is holy and honorable to the Lord is your wife one that?
33:28
Exemplifies the great grace and mercy you were shown by your Savior Or are you like the
33:34
Israelites in the desert grumbling and complaining every day? The second command that Paul gives here in our text says each one of you
33:45
Know how to control your own body in holiness and honor Again, this isn't a nice to have this is a command you are to control your own body
33:56
You are to control your own body Paul makes no slight grammar change or Paul does make a slight grammar change here
34:04
And you may see it if you look at the first imperative to the second imperative as we get into it here There's a slight change Just kind of interesting if you see it, that's great
34:12
But Paul in the first is really the imperative is in the negative The second imperative as we're going through now is is really in the positive
34:19
But focusing more towards the sinner or the individual than the sin itself where the first was directly
34:27
Pointed towards the sin focused on that the word control here the word control in in the
34:36
Greek Translates in our Bibles it gives emphasis It's strong language in it and actually means to possess to to grasp a hold of to master over You are to be a master over your own body
34:50
And why would Paul be writing such language to this church Why would he need to write to them and and and ask them to do these things to have?
34:58
Mastery over their own bodies, and I think it's clear. We talked about that earlier very distinct From the conduct in their society that they were being asked very different They were to be set apart they were to be sanctified
35:13
They were to be a beacon to those in the pagan culture They themselves were to be the light in the darkness and are you a light in the darkness tonight?
35:25
Where does the world have trouble seeing your light The word body here the word body that Paul uses quickly has
35:35
Two different really interpretations when you look at the text if you study this in depth the word literally translates into object or container or vessel and Here we definitely see the word used metaphorically
35:52
But the argument comes down to the word body and what body really means and you may be saying well body says body
35:57
It's body right here. It says body, right? The Greek word again is translated as object container or vessel and it can either mean one's body
36:09
My own or as you've seen in other parts of Scripture There is one that's called the weaker vessel and it's the wife
36:18
So some theologians will say well Paul must be talking about the wife here Now I've studied this myself and I've I've done some in -depth and really neither of them change the overall
36:30
Command here based on how you understand it but I find it difficult that Paul is specifically talking about a wife here when he's talking to a church of Those that are married and unmarried.
36:44
I really think that Paul is focused on your own body You need to have mastery over your own body.
36:51
You need to control it The body includes both the flesh and the mind we are to control our our minds one
37:02
Which is where everything pretty much comes out of? But we need to stop it before the act actually occurs and that's our bodies
37:10
So we need to be in control. We need to have this control as Paul talks about there's mastery over our bodies physically and our minds
37:20
Specifically Paul is referring to sexual sins here But in general he's commanding all sins.
37:26
We must have mastery over our bodies in all sins And what is it here in our verse in our verses that Paul asks that we need to have control over?
37:37
Is it is it control over our anger as he's saying, you know church, you're really angry You need to have control over that.
37:43
Is it control over our finances? Is it control over our eating?
37:49
Were they just a gluttonous Church? That's not what Paul is saying Paul here is saying you need to have control over your passionate lusts your uncontrollable urges
38:02
The best way to describe again what pagan culture was like is that Nike slogan just do it Just do it.
38:09
If you want to do something just do it. It doesn't matter Such actions
38:15
Christian are selfish to the core You're fulfilling your own desires
38:24
Christians are to have the fruit of the Spirit Christians are not to have the the opposites of the fruit to the
38:30
Spirit Now Paul says here we shouldn't expect any more from the unsaved
38:37
They're pagans. They don't know God. They haven't been sanctified. They haven't been set apart We should expect nothing more of them, but you
38:43
Christian we expect more from you You have been sanctified. You've been saved out of hell by Jesus Christ death and resurrection on the cross
38:54
And yet you want to continue in your sin and your lust Doesn't make sense
39:03
Does it make sense and if you say to me, but I'm really not that bad go read
39:08
Romans chapter 1 If you need a refresher We are said that we are as Christians.
39:17
We are in the world, but we are said not to be of the world Are you living too much in the world today
39:23
Christian? Are you desiring so much the things of the world and not the Word of God? Are you not able to control your urges when you're away from your own brothers and sisters in Christ?
39:37
We've been set apart we've been sanctified So the two questions the two commands are are you avoiding sexual immorality and are you living in a way that is holy and honorable
39:49
To God, those are two commands Christian that you need to ask yourself today. Am I doing these things?
39:55
Am I doing these things These weren't just given to the church in general They were given to all
40:01
The last command that we'll look at today in the time that we have the last section here is found in verse 6 a of chapter 4 and here
40:11
Paul instructs believers not to transgress or wrong his brother Are you willingly transgressing and wronging your brother today?
40:20
Would you even know what that means what that is to do the word transgress here.
40:27
It's kind of an interesting word I found it actually means to go beyond a boundary often in reference to law to go beyond a boundary now
40:37
The picture I had when I was reading this I I thought to myself, you know Yeah, you got the dad out there right the loving dad who says don't you cross that line?
40:45
Don't you cross that line right? I've seen that probably before what's the kid do what line right?
40:54
And then do this and do this they do this, right? That is what this is talking about, this is the transgression
41:00
It's just like that child who's skipping back and forth between the line going. I'm not laying
41:06
I'm not obeying. Oh, yes, I am I'm not obeying. Oh, yes, I am. That is what Paul is saying here and If you as a parent didn't like that think about what
41:16
God thinks of that as we as Christians are doing that on a daily basis Every day we are not to transgress the moral laws of God and the commands that God lays out
41:31
It's not merely the moral laws But all the commands given in Scripture that God has given to us and here specifically in our context really focuses on Sexual sins because that is what the church was struggling with so much
41:44
And we struggle with today ourselves The second word
41:50
Paul uses here to wrong is another word to take advantage of it means to actually willingly
41:57
Cheat or defraud you willingly are cheating or defrauding your brother is what they're saying and in Extra -biblical texts if we look at this word used in in other places other than the scripture
42:13
It actually comes down to this a violation of trust a complete violation of trust
42:23
You say I'm not that bad. I haven't done that to my brothers and sisters Maybe you haven't
42:31
But you need to understand if you have It's a sin before God Paul understood the importance of unity so Paul here is is probably saying
42:42
Thessalonians You can't wrong your brother and again in the context. It's it's a sexual context
42:49
He's saying do not defraud your brother or your sister out of unity
42:55
For the church if one is hurt We know that a body if something doesn't work right the rest of the body doesn't function properly and Paul could right here
43:04
Be pray praying and asking the church To make sure they don't violate this trust of unity it harms the church
43:15
Not just an individual so Paul is using this command and in a general sense to instruct believers not to defraud one another
43:25
And it oftentimes if we look at it. It's used in in reference to business affairs Living in a community of people.
43:32
It's kind of the the context somewhat and some will say that Specifically in this context it can only refer to sexual sin
43:41
There's there's two different ways that this can be handled and you may be looking at your Bible, and you say But it says right here it says in this manner
43:51
In this manner, so how can it be anything different? He's talking sexually we we are not to Do immoral acts to our brothers and sisters?
44:03
But Some will argue that this interpretation is has changed based on how you take this word
44:09
Paul and some parts of the scripture has used this word specifically around business transactions doing business with one another and We are not to be dishonest in that area and again.
44:18
It doesn't change our context It just narrows the focus of it a little bit We can you say that Paul specifically was focused on sexual sin due to the previous two
44:29
But even if we didn't and said no he he moves and there's some grammatical issues and some some
44:34
Greek that would kind of tell That some would say that there's a change here in order that it moves to business, but it doesn't matter
44:42
Doesn't matter we are not to defraud Our brothers and our sisters here
44:51
Most scholars accept that Paul is linking this command directly to its current subject matter and it's talking of Sexually immoral behavior
45:02
Because of the use of singular and plurals and a couple other grammatical issues discussed here by Paul It appears that the subject matter continues from the previous verses that we covered in this instance
45:19
Paul is essentially stating the importance of not taking advantage of others in a sexual way
45:25
You are commanded not to defile another person's wife future wife
45:35
Through lust or even adultery by having sex out of marriage You are not to defile the marriage bed through an act of adultery
45:43
You are to abstain from immoral practices that are only to be done in the marriage bed
45:49
God has designed you in a way that is better than again ourselves having the quick and temporal indulgence in our own
46:00
Selfish gratification so there you have it
46:05
These are the three commands that Paul gives and though and the warnings he gives ahead of time and if you continue to read through through chapter through verse 8
46:14
If I had time to cover it goes into the reasons you should be holy and we see that it's because God is the
46:21
Avenger God is the fire. He's the consuming fire as we read earlier
46:29
So first we saw that Paul commanded believers in Thessalonica to avoid sexual immorality and the question
46:36
I have for you today Christian And even non -christian, are you doing that today? Secondly Paul commands them to live in a way that is holy and honorable
46:46
Are you living in a way that is holy and honorable to God? His standards are so much greater than ours
46:54
And lastly he commands Christians not to harm your brothers and sisters in Christ Are you not defiling and harming this trust this violation of trust between brothers and sisters in Christ?
47:06
Are you doing that? Are you able to do that? So let me ask you this question again
47:15
Are you living a life that's pleasing to God? Are you living a life that you can turn around even with these just three commands and say
47:22
God I'm able to do this I am pleasing in your sight Is your life pure from sexual immorality if not if your life isn't today?
47:37
I Beg you to come before Jesus The only one who can forgive you of your sins
47:45
Come to him and he will take your transgressions and he will cast them as far as the east is from the west
47:51
And I want to make it clear. I want to be as clear as I can Before I'm done and that is
47:58
I'm not to say that these commands are easy I'm not here saying it's such an easy thing to do people struggle with these all day every day
48:07
Day in day out What I'm saying here though is it requires a renewing of our minds and our hearts
48:18
Only by the work of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit Can we even attempt to overcome these
48:24
Christian if you are trying to overcome these things on your own? I can do it on my own. I can do it on my own.
48:30
You will fail and I'll tell you that right now You will fail It's only by God and God alone that you can overcome these desires and I'll be obedient to his commands as he has
48:42
Commanded us in these pages of Scripture Let's pray Lord, we thank you and we praise you that you are the consuming fire
48:55
Lord, we know that you are a Great and holy God, but Lord, we also know that you are the judge of all
49:04
Lord you have the right You have the right and the privilege to command your creation in any way and Lord as we've heard from even other preachers you command the stars to light and they light you command the waters to to rise and fall the tides and they do you command the animals and they obey and Lord when you command us so often we look you straight in the face and we say no
49:39
Just like that child who continues to step over the line Hoping that they will continue to get away with it.
49:47
But Lord If we are doing that show us the consequences discipline us lead us away from those things that would lead us from you