The sermon delivered by Jason Dohm focuses on the theme of abstaining from sexual immorality, as derived from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. The speaker emphasizes the importance of sanctification, which involves growing in holiness and living a life that pleases God. The sermon highlights the definition of sexual immorality, using the Greek term 'pornea,' and connects it to both Old and New Testament teachings. The speaker underscores the significance of abstaining from sexual immorality by explaining its impact on personal holiness, relationships, and the broader Christian community. Various biblical passages, including Jesus' teachings in Matthew 5, are used to illustrate how sexual immorality defiles individuals and exploits others. The sermon also discusses the role of the Holy Spirit in empowering believers to live in holiness and avoid sins that separate them from God. Additionally, it addresses the cultural challenges faced by early Christians in Thessalonica and how those challenges persist today. The sermon concludes with exhortations to live in accordance with God's will, emphasizing that true freedom and joy are found in obedience to Christ.

Follow along with me as I read 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 1 through 8. Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, That you should abstain from sexual immorality. That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.

That no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us his Holy Spirit." Let's pray. Father, when a text, as Jason has prayed, drills down like this, no one, no one in this room, Father, can stand. Father, this war will be won at the level of desires, and I pray that as Jason preaches, that the beauty, that the gloriousness, that the eternal satisfaction and joy that is in Jesus Christ alone would become clear to us and that the fleeting pleasure, It's actually deceiving pleasure, no pleasure at all to be found in this sin, death and destruction only.

May we see both the beauty of Christ and the vileness of sin and increase our joy that we would choose Christ. Oh Lord God come help us, help Jason in the power of your spirit in Jesus name I pray, amen. The title of the sermon today is, Abstaining from Sexual Immorality. It just comes right out of the text. That's what the whole text is about.

Everything beyond that first little portion of the text, which is the title, ties back to it. So it really is the sum total of everything in view in our text today. Last week we were studying the first three verses of the chapter, at least through a halfway point in verse three. And in 1 Thessalonians chapter four verses one through the first part of three, it was about abounding more and more. It was about growing in how we ought to walk to please God.

So there's a way that Christians ought to walk. And it's a way that actually pleases God. So if you want to know if it's possible to please God, That is the answer, yes. That God has given us a way that we ought to walk, and when we walk before Him in that way, He is pleased by that. And it begins by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ.

If you start anywhere else, you're lost, and you have no ability to please God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So it starts with the blood of Jesus Christ, but it doesn't end there. We need to learn to walk before Him in the King's ways. We are called into a kingdom, and the King has told us how we live in a way that brings honor to him and pleases him.

Our text last week ended with the first part of verse 3, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, colon. We just stopped right there, right on one side of the colon. And so we learned what the will of God is for our lives. Our sanctification, well what is that? Sanctification is the process of growing in holiness.

It's becoming more and more for God's pleasure. You used to live for God. Whatever pleases God, you run towards life of holiness. It's learning to live in a way that you by His blood. So it's about growing in holiness.

This is the will of God, the God of the colon. And it's about sanctification. On the day that they are saved through the blood of Jesus Christ, and every more and more and more set aside for God's pleasure to live to His honor. Something to keep away from. And next week, and so we have before us our sanctification of things that we are not to do, things that we are to culture and cultivate.

We have an important way to understand sanctification. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, and that is there's a body of things that we're prohibited from. In them, if you so much as dabble in them, you are going to be kept from, we're prohibited, we're told to abstain. That's what we have in our text this week. It's a big category, but we should be thinking about holiness, pulled us back from, and What are the things that God would have us nourishing?

You just say, I'm going to stay away from these. Total of your growth and holiness is, I'm not doing that, you'll never be sanctified. The sum total of your holiness is, care about these other things that I'm supposed to stay away from. That doesn't matter to me, then you'll never be holy. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy set before us the things that God would hold us in our lives.

Finally, before we get started, this is a sensitive topic. It's always a challenge in knowing how we should talk about this with young people. Young people just to check out until next week. Young people won't understand it at the depth that they will later in life. In our home, we've handled the youngest people in your home everything there is to know about sexual immorality.

The domes don't skip text. We roll right through them. Sexual immorality is a man living with his wife, but that person isn't his wife. So there's a good in the context of marriage, But if you live with any other person on the face of the earth in that way, it dishonors God. God is displeased by it.

And we leave it at that, and we reveal more as time goes by until the day comes where they know everything that there is to know about it. It actually makes that day a lot easier because they've been growing into the knowledge of what sexual immorality is. Children, when you're hearing the term sexual immorality today, that is what I'm referring to at a basic level. It is two people engaging as God has intended. There is a closeness of living together that God has intended only to close way outside of the context of marriage.

God says not only is that not good, let's go to the text. Those of us who have been in Christ for any period of time, We wish that we just loved them. We find that we have to grow in this. We know that we have come into this world doing exactly the opposite, calling good, evil, and hating the things, despising the things, running from the things. Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Your ways are higher than our ways. Use your word to reform us. Use your spirit in dwelling those who have embraced the work of Christ to make us different than we came into this world being. Father, we pray that you would do a mighty work among us in Jesus' name. So I have two major points today.

The first is just the general admonition that everything in the text links to. The second is why it matters. We're going to spend most of the time talking about why it matters. Here's number one. The admonition.

Abstain from sexual immorality. That's what you have in the second half of verse 3. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3, the second half of it, that's what it says, abstain from sexual immorality. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's abstain immorality. That's what Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are admonishing these new converts in Thessalonica to do, to hold themselves back, to abstain from sexual immorality.

The Greek word that has rendered sexual immorality here is pornea. It's where we get our word pornography from. It's a very broad term, so it's perfectly rendered sexual amorality because that's a really broad category that collects up all kinds of sexual sin. This mirrors Old Testament teaching. Of the Ten Commandments, the Seventh Commandment is, You shall not commit adultery.

But what you find, as you look at the underlying laws, the supporting laws for the seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery in the Old Testament. What you find is that it's a category, sexual immorality with people who are already married. It's actually much broader than what we're going to take the time to do this morning, but you can just note it. If you go to Leviticus chapter 18, all falls under the seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery. You find, which is sexual sin dealing with people who are not married.

You find are closely related. You find homosexuality named, which is sexual sin, people with animals, just two people who are married and a sexuality are meant. In our text it's called uncleanness, which matches up exactly with the word uncleanness. In Deuteronomy chapter 24, which regulates divorce in the Old Testament, you see uncleanness over and over and over again. That's all sexual impurity.

So it's a broad category. And then we have this, starred in Matthew chapter 5, because this is Jesus giving us the mystery, really has always meant in the mind of God, and what 10 commandments. So that is my understanding of ethics at all in any way. There are a bunch of instances, but right now we're talking about the Seventh Commandment. There is no change at all in Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 27. Here's what Jesus says, Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 27. You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her, Has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you.

For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Furthermore, it has been said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality, this is exactly the same underlying Greek word here, pornea, except for sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery.

And whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." So let's just say right up front that Christians are bound to accept Jesus' definitions. Jesus is defining sexual immorality here. This displeases the hearers of His day. Why is that? We always want to shrink the definition to something that is very manageable for us.

So if I can just define it down to any actual physical sexual contact outside of a covenant marriage relationship, then I can manage that and I can probably obey that. Give me a bar I can get over. Be managed And I can easily detonate that. He just blows that up and instead of contracting that is hopelessly unmanageable, Everyone enters adulthood defiled in a hundred ways. Great need of mercy because we are at odds.

We can act outside of a marriage covenant, but it goes all the way upstream. You let your mind dwell on. Jesus says if anyone lusts for a woman, he can't be judged guilty by humans of adultery as guilty of breaking the physical manifestations, but it's also the ungoverned passions that he insists on. Not to govern those passions, but to let your mind dwell on whatever it wants to dwell on. This seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery.

Jesus says the consequences can be eternal so that this is so important, if your right eye causes you to sin, you pluck it out and you cast it from you. Better that than go to hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, you should cut it off and cast it from you. Better that than to go to hell and be tormented for all eternity. Of course, this is figurative language.

It's not literally pluck out your eye. It's not literally cut off your right hand. It is whatever in your life that inclines you towards sinning against God, even in your sin, a ruthlessness with the things that we allow or actually implement. They say, abstain from that. This is, Do you get that?

You can't come away from Matthew chapter 5 without I cut off your hand and cast them from you. Manage it. Don't Minimize it. Here's what Paul says in Ephesians 5. Fornication and all uncleanness are covetousness.

Let it not be among you. There's something that's fitting for saints. One hundred percent of uncleanness not even be named among you. Here's how the king named you. Let it not be.

All fornication, all uncleanness. It's not fair. It's a mismatch with the people of God. Now back to 1 Thessalonians. I want you to think about the placement of this Admin.

Where is it placed? For this is the will of God. We are starting a list that has to do with our sanctity. I talked to you about regarding growth and holiness. It is before love.

Jaw dropping. Love is the greatest. 1 Corinthians 13. Paul's not contradicting that here, but he's just saying, hey, when I'm counseling, commanding, exhorting, admonishing new believers that are coming out of a pagan culture about growth and holiness, about growing and knowing how to please God, I'm going to talk about abstaining from sexual immorality first and then I'll talk about love. Now why?

Why address it at all and why address it first? Well, maybe it was his observation. Maybe it was Paul and Silvanus and Timothy's observation. They had been there for a short time and their leaving wasn't planned. Their leaving was because of pressure and persecution.

So maybe this is unfinished business. They observed that this was something that needed to be addressed, but they didn't have the luxury of time to address it because of the circumstances under which they had to. Maybe it was the report, remember? Paul and Silvester, and he's been and spent time with them and he's brought a report back. This is a problem in the church, maybe, probably.

Is at the crossroads of Greek and Roman. So it's more or less geographically between Greece and the Geo-Greek here for centuries. They're at the crossroads culturally between the Greek culture and the Roman culture. That's the waters they're swimming in in Thessalonica. They are indifferent to or even supportive of sexual activity.

The commentary of F.F. Bruce on this text, and probably the greatest Greek orator. On the quote, listen to this, this is F.F. Bruce quoting Democenees, We keep mistresses for pleasure, concubines for our day-to-day bodily needs, but we have wives to produce legitimate children and serve as trustworthy guardians of our homes. Welcome to Greece.

Welcome to Greece. Then F.F. Bruce says, That was the outlook of a reputable citizen of Athens in the fourth century B.C. So this is 400 years before Jesus. And so Macedonia has been stewing in these juices for hundreds of years.

Demosthenes says, hey, we have mistresses for pleasure, and we have concubines for our day-to-day bodily needs, but wives we have so we can have some legitimate children and somebody to take care of our household. Welcome to a low view of women. There is no higher view of women on planet earth than the one advanced by the Bible. So this has been the environment in Thessalonica for hundreds of years, and religions did not restrain. In many cases, religions encouraged this.

There's a multiplicity of gods, meaning people aren't just worshipping one god, they have a collection on the mantle. You can add Yahweh to the mantle, that's okay, but you can't clear the mantle for Yahweh. That's the deal in Thessalonica. But Paul is saying, no, you have to clear the mantle. Sexual immorality was actually part of religious observance for many of these gods.

So not only was sexual immorality not restrained by the faith of the day, it was encouraged and it was woven into life by the practice of these religions. So here come Paul and Silvanus and Timothy saying, if you want to be a Christian, you have to clear the mantle of the other gods. And Yahweh is the one God, the only God. Not only does Yahweh not encourage that, and he demands that you abstain from it. This is Acts chapter 15.

This has already occurred by the time Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are riding to the Thessalonians. The Jerusalem Council was about What do we have to compel Gentiles to do? Do we have to compel them to be circumcised? The output of the Jerusalem Council is Gentile churches. They are very careful to the four areas.

One of those areas is that they abstain from sexual immorality. To Gentile churches saying, here are very coming into the faith, abstain from sexual immorality. They were drowning in sexual immorality in these cities, in Thessalonica. Why it matters, if you're filling in blanks, matters. Why it matters.

It matters because, number one, we have that right in the text, the first part of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3, For this is the will of God, your sanctification, abstain from sexual immorality." It is the will of God, that's why it matters. And, does that even need to be said? Yes, it needs to be said. The will of God is good. Deuteronomy chapter 5 to 10 commandments are given.

So this is not far. This is 12 through 13. And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require? All his ways and to love him. To serve the Lord your God, his statutes which I command you today for your good Erronomy chapter 10 verses 12 through 13 all of it serving God and then it's punctuated with these last three words given Well one of the key reasons is, the commands of God never in our walk of faith and when we engage in sin, we're saying that's not true.

I'm jumping the fence. Something good. But God's commands never keep us from something good. We have to train ourselves to think about the commandments of God in this way. There are specific things that we are kept for.

The general thing is always of God keeps you for communion with God. To know His presence is to know joy. The things that God has said, don't do that, abstain from that. We say, no I'm going to do that anyway. In other words, we don't believe that you're in the faith, out of the faith, in the faith, out of the faith.

The Bible teaches that when God saves you, you'll never be any more saved. So union with God doesn't come and go, come and go. We can quench the sweetness of being in the presence of God. You're not going to enjoy that when you're living, when you're nurturing sin, even secret sin, especially secret sin. Your communion with God is going to be broken, hampered, impaired.

What was designed to be a great delight by God is going to be withheld from you. It's a key way in which God disciplines. He withdraws and you say, I do not feel the smile of God. I feel so distant from God. Where is God?

So that's the general thing that God is keeping us for is communion. Maybe today sitting here you're feeling very distant from God because you have nurtured secret sin. No one else knows. Everyone is oblivious to it, but you know it and you feel it in your relationship with God. You feel distant.

That is God's discipline. You should thank God for that. It's designed to make you run back to Him, to repent, and to turn away from that thing that displeases Him and run to him. In this case, in the case of sexual immorality, the thing that we're being kept for by the commandments of God is a wonderful, wonderful part of life and marriage. Sexual immorality harms that.

It can do something good. He might be keeping us from some cheap thrills, but that's all they are. They are expensive thrills. That's what you learn over time. You think they're cheap thrills.

God's not keeping us from a good thing. He's keeping us for a good thing. He designed to be part of our marriages, to be one of the great joys of our marriages. That's the reason it matters. All Christians are vessels.

That's why it matters that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. It's a useful thing, the third rendered vessel here means. First Corinthians chapter 6. I believe Paul really unfolds this in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I'd like to read 13 texts.

1 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning in verse 13, reading through the end. And the stomach for foods, that God will destroy both it and the body. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? Glorify God in your body and in your spirit. Arguing that our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit.

They're a place with Christ through His Spirit. Go and join yourself physically with a harlot and thereby join Christ. Every Christian, every son of God or daughter of God should recoil at the thought of Christ with a harlot. To Genesis 2, 24, It's marriage talk. He leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two become one flat in physical union.

But it starts with and includes physical union. No other two people are joined. All the other sins are outside your body. This is a direct sin against your own body. So you're a temple of the Holy Spirit and dwelt.

You're not just carrying the Holy Spirit. So your body and in your spirit which are God's. When you live for God, this is how in our text. How do I possess my vessel in sanctification and honor? I live for God.

That's what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians. I had time to do both, so I picked 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I could have very much done chapter 6. Where Paul argues that because we are crucified with Christ, we are free to present our members as instruments of righteousness to God. Did you get that?

We are crucified with Christ. That's true of you if you are in Christ. That has a breathtaking implication. The implication is you are now free to Offer your members back as instruments of righteousness to God. You never could do that before you died with Christ.

Before you were joined together in His death. That's what it means to be in Christ. You never could do that. You could turn over a new leaf and try to do better, but you could never offer your members back as instruments of righteousness because you hadn't been cleansed. But those who have been cleansed can now offer back their members as instruments of righteousness to God as a sort of thank offering to Him.

That's the argument of Romans chapter 6. That's what it means to possess your vessel in sanctification and honor. Finally, turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. You have to see this one. This is Paul writing to Timothy.

2 Timothy chapter 2, I'm going to read verses 19 through 22. 2 Timothy chapter 2 beginning in verse 19, Paul writes to Timothy, Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal. The Lord knows the name of Christ departs from iniquity. But in a great also of wood and clay, some for honor, from the latter. He's talking about cleansing yourself from the wood and the clay so that there's gold and silver.

It will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for them also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love. So you can see how closely this argument mirrors what at the end here in 2 Timothy 2 he says, that, that's exactly how things unfold in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 where theology. There are vessels for honor and vessels for dishonor. The vessels of iron and clay, Paul says, cleanse yourself from that so that you'll be used to honor. A vessel that is set aside for the Lord's pleasure.

A vessel that has been taken out of the filth of the world. And it's in view. In our text. That's the second reason why it matters. Real Christians are vessels.

They are changed. Look at verse 5. Not in passion of lust like the Gentiles. Real Christians are changed. They used to be that and now they are different.

You used to be a Gentile who didn't know God that way. Unbelieving Gentiles don't dominate them. They have to serve those things and they do serve those things. Christians aren't like that. Christians don't have to be dominated by every inclination and passion.

Christians shouldn't be dominated by every inclination and passion. Christians are free from that kind of bondage. Hebrews 12 says, don't get tangled up again. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles." Hebrews 12.1. Don't get tangled up again.

Don't be re-enslaved again. In Philippians chapter 3 verse 19, Paul uses this phrase. He speaks of those whose God is their belly. Philippians 3.19. He's talking about people who walk in a way that tells you they're out of Christ.

In Philippians 3.19, he's talking about professing Christians, but he says, Oh, look at their walk. They're enemies of the kites. And that includes gluttony, but it certainly doesn't stop at gluttony. Their god is their belly. I try to keep the cross references that we go to, to two or three a week, and I go to these places.

Turn to 1 Peter chapter 4. I think this really unfolds for us, unpacks for us, a Gentile life where our God was our belly and we were dominating you in Christ. 1 Peter chapter 4, I'm going to read verses 1 through 4. Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles. When we walk in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it's strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation speaking evil of you. Peter is talking about the experience of anyone who has been saved out of a group of Gentiles who don't know God. What are those Gentiles who still don't know God?

Why can't you do all the stuff we used to do together? You remember all the fun we used to have together? I'm doing that. You don't, now that you're in Christ, you don't have... You can't live that way anymore.

You used to be enslaved to that. You cannot live that way anymore. ...That there's a fight to be had. And he points to Jesus who suffered forever from those inclinations and passions. But you don't have to be the sling to suffer some in the flesh to live the new life.

Suffering in the flesh and living the new life, There's going to have to be a denial of those passions. But now you're free to deny those passions. Changed. It matters because number four always exploits and defrauds someone. Sexual immorality always exploits, always being taken advantage of.

That no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy mean the outward physical acts of sexual immorality. So we're talking about outward sexual immorality. And It looks like within the church is in view because he's saying, don't defraud your brother. You just have to come to this verse and then recognize the modern lie, which says that whatever happens between two consenting adults is fair game.

That's the terminology used. Two adults and they agree to it. It's fair game. God's ethic of right and wrong couldn't be further away from that. He says that someone is being taken advantage of, someone is being exploited, someone is being defrauded, cheated.

He says, don't. Our second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor from love of neighbor. It masquerades as love, It's not love. Rebellion against God in this way is a million more. It is always the exploitation of another, bringing them into sin.

It is as your self. It's to run headlong to get it. Sexual immorality always exploits it. I want to go beyond our, there's an implication, so I want to be careful because it's not in the text. But I want to say that even quote unquote just lust defrauds someone.

I think what's in view in the verse is the actual physical act of sexual immorality and how that defrauds someone. So I'm going beyond what Paul and Silvana and Timothy are teaching in the text, but I want to argue that there's no such thing as just lust that only hurts me. That's not true. Just lust hurts way more than just you. When you allow yourself to view tantalizing images and allow your mind to dwell on tantalizing images.

Images that fuel sexual past more than just you, than is cheated. We are interrelated. And so when My spiritual vigor is driven by your defrauding. I'm defrauder. Bleeds away to nothing.

You're defrauding me. When we don't abstain from sexual immorality, it matters. If you don't put this at the, you haven't been alive for very long. You haven't been in Christ for very long. Churches are impotent because spiritual vigor bleeds away because of just lust.

And they lose their testimony. And they lose their testimony and they lose the ability to impact their world. And you can believe it's happening here. And we should consider again how interdependent we are and how our cumulative spiritual vigor is being diminished by this today. It matters because number five, the Lord avenges all such conduct.

This is the Lord avenges all such conduct. Look at the second part of verse six. As we also forewarned you and testified, Paul and Silvanus in our letter, we forewarned you, we testified that God, go read Leviticus 18 and then Leviticus 20. Leviticus 18 reality, Leviticus 20 lays out the penalties, 20, and tremble. Adult incest, death.

Homosexuality, Death. Bestiality? Death. Fornication? Either restitution or marriage.

It's so different than the rest. It's striking. For most of the sexual sins laid before us in Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20 gives us a death penalty. This is how God thinks about it. We should keep this before our eyes as our culture drifts further and further and further from these moors.

God believes it's worthy of death now. It's treason to our creator, But these are ones of weight. We're talking about taking advantage of, of exploiting, of defrauding his son or daughter in this way. Or his son, taking advantage of. It matters because number six, He didn't call you to this if you are in Christ.

Read verse 7. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. He is a holy God. Holy, holy. Sinners to bring them into his kingdom is a calling in holiness and it is Jesus didn't die so you could live that way.

That's the argument being made. That you could live the same old way as before you were in Christ. Why? Because God is different. He is holy.

So we are to be holy. It matters because number seven, a rejection of this, Paul and Sylvainus and Tate, therefore he who rejects this does not reject man but God, who has also given us his Holy Spirit. Remember in verse 1, same chapter, verse 1 we saw this, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus. In verse 2 we saw this, for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy in writing to the Thessalonians have been so clear, this isn't us, this is God.

We're exhorting you in the Lord Jesus. We're giving you the commandments from the Lord Jesus. Listen to what Jesus says in Luke chapter 10 verse 16 to his disciples. He is sending his disciples out to teach. Here is what he says to them.

Luke chapter 10 verse 16. He who hears you, you who I'm sending out, hears me. Me. And he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me. He sends them to make a declaration from the king.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have been clear, these are not our words, These are commandments from Jesus Christ. Jesus said, if I send you and they reject you, they've really rejected me, which means they've really rejected God the Father. Now, why do They say, who has also given us his Holy Spirit. It's a little bit curious. If you reject the words we're saying, You're not rejecting man, you're rejecting God.

Then they tack this on, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. Why do they say that? Turn to Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel chapter 36 is about the new covenant and a new age.

This is Ezekiel This is from Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 25 through 27. Clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your idols." This is looking forward to Jesus and his mess and idols. Picking back up in verse 26. "...within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will.

Ezekiel 36 describes the new covenant in Christ. All the filthiness from all the idols and the heart of stone is taken out and the heart of flesh is given to you and he puts his spirit within you. This is exactly what we are talking about in 1 Thessalonians 4. The result is you are caused to walk in his statutes and you keep his judgments and do them. That's a way you know that the heart of stone is gone and you have the heart of flesh.

You've got a new spirit that God has put His Spirit within you that He causes you to walk in his ways. If you profess Christ and you don't walk in his ways, there's no way of not indwelling you. When the Spirit is there, he causes you to walk. That's why Paul and Silvanus and Timothy object to this. The admonition to abstain from sexual immorality.

You object that. No Christian wants that. He's given us His Holy Spirit. It's the promise of the Names. There's not another state to be teaching sinless perfectionism.

This is not teaching that Christians don't sin every day, they do. There's growth in holiness, there's growth in being the Lord's, there's growth in living life, declare that. What are the patterns of your life declaring. That's the question. I'm going outside of the text for this one.

I've just been going through the text. Now I'm importing from outside the text. Married, physical picture of a spiritual reality. Right to you concerning Christ and the church. This is after a long portion where he's talked about how husbands ought to treat wives and how wives ought to treat husbands.

So marriage is a physical picture that God has of a spiritual reality which is greater. This is an easy one. A spiritual reality that is greater between husband and wife which includes physical union of a spiritual reality. Christ's intimacy, not one to be restrained. It's a physical pick.

Bride's longing for her husband is. And so, the perversion of this, a perversion of the physical picture is a declaration. That's why it matters. That's why it messes up the picture that God has given to us. God did say, but the world is in these conversations with the world, in these engagements with the world, on issues, to go to the heart of the matter, which is given to us by God, of something far greater.

It transcends just the physical. Never accept that, because it can't let stand. It's about the Gospel. Consider this. When God confronted him about apostasy and idolatry, what language did he use?

He used the word of the prophets. Raising up men and putting words in their mouth to declare to the people, and idolatry, worshipping other gods. What language did he use? Did he just say, they're idols? No, he uses the language of sexual immorality.

That's just Christ's. His people are His. It's held back for him to live. When God sees people, he shuffles. Why are you chasing those other lovers?

At the most fundamental level, it matters because it goes way beyond pointing to spiritual realities. The most precious and important spiritual realities. That's why Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy say, abstain from sexual immorality. Applications. I have three.

The first one is really easy. Are you abstaining from sexual immorality? God gives you commandments to hold you back from that and to keep you for something better, something good. He holds you back from something harmful to keep you, preserve you for something good. Are you abstaining from sexual immorality with Jesus' definite purpose of his day?

Do you want to contract it down to something that can be managed, Jesus explodes it out. Or are you dabbling? You won't just dabble forever. These are trajectories. It just remains dabbling.

Your spiritual vigor is draining away to nothing. It might already be there. How dare you think you've gotten away with it. So we're to be like the priests in the Old Testament who had a gold plate on their blood. He owns you if you're in Christ.

Do you now live like it? That's what Paul and Silvanus and Timothy were saying. He owns you now live like it. Number two, our only hope is a new heart in the spirit. In other words, you have no footing for this if you're not in Christ.

If you don't have a new heart and if God's spirit hasn't been for you to abstain from sexual immorality. Yet, this is not passive. Meaning, if you're born again, it is not a foregone conclusion that you'll live free. You got that? If you're born again, it's not a foregone conclusion.

It's not guaranteed that you'll live free. You can be re-entangled By sin. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 8 verses 13 and 14. Paul writes, For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, this is not passive. You can't read Romans chapter 8 verses 13 and 14 and say, if that were true, Paul wouldn't make an exhortation in his letter. He wouldn't. And they need to, by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body.

We are no longer slaves to sin, and as in-live as captives. As many as are led to do this. If you are indwelt by the Spirit, the Spirit is leading you to do this. Number three, we must acknowledge and compensate for the radical shift that has transpired. It's not the same to preach this sermon in 2015 as it was to preach it in 1970, the year I was born.

It's a different world. Even then, the world was shifting fast. The sexual revolution happened in the 1970s and then it sort of leveled off and we've just gone through another massive sea change, another massive shift in ethics, sexual ethics in our culture. So that the things that were unthinkable just a few years ago are now celebrated and if you don't celebrate along you're in big trouble. As for us, we're not celebrating along.

We're not playing along. We're not clapping for that. And very recently in our culture, and We're going to have to be recognizing that we are probably comfortable with too much. It's very possible that you're still imbibing things that you should not be imbibing. Your neighbor looks at you and says, why are you so uptight?

Why won't you be spiced for your difference, but you're not different enough? And the temperature's been raised recently a few degrees, insensible to it, and we're about to be boiled in the pot. How many degrees will it take before you say enough is enough? Father, I thank you. Thank you for this tech.

I thank you for the promise of the new covenant that we see laid out in Ezekiel chapter 36, that you and the new covenant cleanse from filth and idolatry. You take out the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. Only the work of Christ could do this. So I thank you that there's not only a pathway to condemnation, oh It would be so easy to come to this text and just come away condemned by it, but I thank you that beyond that there is Christ who has stood in the place of sinners and bought our freedom with His blood. Thank you that it is possible for your sons and daughters to live free and to have victory.

God, where we've been re-entangled by sin, I pray that you would free us today. God, don't wait another day to free us. Please move in us by your Holy Spirit to make us free again in Christ, abstaining from sexual immorality. God, show us where we are dabbling. Thank you God for bringing us to this text.

Thank you for the confrontation that the Bible is always confronting us through your word. How good it is that you have not just left us to our own thoughts, but you are correcting us. Thank you Lord. You are so gracious to bring us to these texts week after week and to train us as a father trains his children. Thank you for your tenderness towards your people.

In Jesus' name, amen.