1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

Watch

Read

Plea for Purity

1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 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. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Thess 4:1-8

• Transcript

  Okay all right. Hey, hey, welcome to coffee and devotions. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. It's so good to be back with you. I'm gonna jump on the computer here. Make sure everybody is able to join us live. Just make sure we're going alive ever send out the text message to everyone. Make sure we're going live over here. Okay, I think we're just about ready to go. This is exciting. Wonderful. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2022 Well, I don't know what we're gonna do. I was humbled by the Lord. He sat me down on my bed and said you're gonna go to sleep. And I mean, I was sick as a dog for days and days and so I thought it was getting a little bit better and then it took a turn for the worse. And I shouldn't say for the worse, I got a got worse, but ended up at the hospital. Thanks so thankful for one of our ruling elders who drove me up to the university and they were able to do some X rays and had pneumonia and so it's been a long haul to get back. This is my first day of feeling like I'm functional again. And I said I've been struggling this morning getting all the hardware problem figured out. I don't know what the problem was. But now the cameras connecting so I'm thankful for that. And so thankful for my wife, Olivia. That dear poor woman has been holding down the fort for these many days. She herself was sick, the kids were sick. And I was I was not very helpful to her at all. And she she's an amazing woman. So if you see Olivia, give her some accolades. So well. Why don't we go ahead and we'll pray. We'll get into First Thessalonians chapter four. And I'll tell you what, it's always up to the Lord's will how far we get. So we'll just see how far the Lord let's get this year in First Thessalonians Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is, to be able to breathe. What a blessing it is. To get to read your word which is breathed out by you. Lord, we thank You that we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from your mouth. So Father, we thank you for the blessing it is to get to read your word. And we pray that your spirit might help us now to understand it in Jesus's name, Amen. All right, we're at First Thessalonians chapter four. And we're going to read the first eight verses together. First Thessalonians chapter four, the first eight verses. Finally, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus, that you should have bound more and more just as you received 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 loss 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 for warned you and testified for God did not call us to uncleanness but holiness. Therefore He who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. While we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? B, what's the best verse that summarizes this and see, what are we called to do in response to this? So first a What is this about? Well, he's got some concluding matters to pick up here. And so he wants to remind remind them again, exhort dome urge them, that they should have bound more and more and walk in a way that is pleasing to God, right, the pattern of their life, how they're doing things should be pleasing unto God. And so he's got a kind of a specific thing he wants to talk about here and, and so in verse two, you know that what, for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. So this isn't just coming from Paul nor just from the Holy Spirit, but this is coming even from the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself, for this is the will of God. Right? So a lot of people ask, well, what's the will of God in my life? Right, here's the answer, in part here, verse three, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality. This whole there's this whole idea in the church that's going on right now that's a reaction against like the Joshua Harris type stuff going on against the purity culture and this overblown idea of, of you know, keeping yourself absolutely pure in that that broken up relationships where people can't just be friends and stuff like that. Yeah, you know, we are sinful people, and we mess stuff up all the time. Right. And so, there are unbiblical ways in which to practice these things. But sexual immorality or sexual purity is a biblical concept and it's God's will for your life. It's kind of tool for my life. This is the blessing of sexual intimacy within the bonds of covenant marriage is the will of Jesus Christ. It's his teaching. It's not just made up. Right? It's not just a church thing. It is a God thing. That's why specifically verse seven, For God did not call us to unclean this, but to holiness. One of the fruits of the Spirit is self control, and God wants you Christian to not be an anemic Christian, to be filled with His Spirit to have the power of His Holy Spirit. To be able to control your own vessel your body not to chase after the lesson passion of your flesh like the Gentiles do, right? This is calling our minds back to like Romans chapter one. And he saying you're not supposed to live that way. You once walked according to the flesh, but now you walk according to the spirit and so this is what the Lord wants you to walk in holiness. What's the best verse to summarize as well? I would say verse seven, I've got for seven double underlined in my Bible. This is for God does not call us to unclean us, but to holiness. I might also underlined verse three, if I want to choose another one. What, what are we called to do in response to this? Well, uncleanness and sexual immorality can start all over the place, but we need to recognize that this is a heart issue. At first. This is not necessarily an external issue, but it starts internally and we need to work with the Holy Spirit to cleanse the inside of our cup. And so if you are a person who struggles with sexual immorality struggles with impure thoughts, struggles with impure desires towards others, than you ought to be honest with God. Right. Jesus himself was the one who says it's not the person who who just goes out and commits adultery externally. But if you've even looked with a woman lustfully with your eye, you've already committed adultery. In your heart. And what's the remedy for that? He says, If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out, less your whole body be thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin. Cut it off. I feel it's better for you to enter into heaven maimed than for your whole body to be casted to hell, right? Radically repent from the sins. I don't think Jesus is saying that what you're called to do is literally rip out your eye. But he's calling you to radically repent. Maybe for some of you it means you need to get rid of your smartphone. Maybe for some of you, it means you need to put on a blocker on your computer like covenant eyes. Maybe for some of you, you need an accountability partner where you're able to just be honest with them and tell them your struggles and they're able to pray with you and encourage you and ask you Hey, how's this going? Maybe for you it's it's you just need to be honest with your spouse. about the things that you've been thinking about. Maybe there's television shows that you need to be turning off and I'm not doing these things telling you do not handle do not taste Do not touch right. The problem is internal. But I'll tell you what, if you are flooding yourself with all this garbage, you're not pursuing holiness, and God's will for your life as sanctification. Let me tell you, as someone who by God's grace has not seen any pornography in well over a decade, it is possible. The Holy Spirit can do this work in your heart. The question is what do you love most? Do you realize that your thoughts the things you see the things you're cherishing in your soul will either bless your marriage or destroy your marriage? Do you come to the real realization that the things that you treasure in your heart the things that you that are satisfying your mind in your eyes? The things that you listen to? Are they things that Jesus Christ smiles upon? Or are they things that make him if he saw you, what expose you as a hypocrite? This is hard. You need to come to that breaking point in your life to ask yourself, Do I long for sanctification? Do I long to be holy as Jesus Christ as holy? God is going to transform you from the inside out. But you've got to be willing to give up this world, the temptations of this world, the desires of the flesh, to put them away and to control your own vessel in holiness. This is the will of God in your life. And he who is powerful and has begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of perfection. pursue holiness, Christian, pursue purity. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank you. For the regenerating work of Your Holy Spirit. God we pray that you would turn us more and more away from those things of darkness and turn us on to your marvelous light. Let us love your son. Let us bask in your glory. Transform us and make us more into His image we pray in Jesus name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai