1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 - The Pure Walk
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Introduction:
Have you ever been hiking and come to a fresh stream of water? Maybe you were desperately thirsty and that water was exactly what you had been waiting for. It looks so pure and safe as it flows over the rocks. It’s peaceful music that is produced by its flowing is like a sound machine that is relaxing and calm. Surely this water must be safe to drink.
While sometimes the water actually is fairly pure, many times there are microscopic parasites and germs that will make you regret drinking that water.
Today we are going to see a church that seemed to be doing pretty well. From afar, they were walking with Christ. They were loving one another and Paul, Silas, and Timothy. They seemed to be pure. However, we are going to get a more microscopic view of this infant church today. And when we pull out the microscope, we are going to see that there were some parasites that threatened the integrity of the church.
As we study these first eight verses of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, I pray that we are able to reflect on our lives and zoom in on any impurities that we might find in ourselves as well.
Lets look at our text for today:
Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Let us pray.
Prayer.
Today we are going to discuss three actions that a Christian should make top priority in his or her life. The first is...
I. As a Christian, You Should… Please God (1-2)
I. As a Christian, You Should… Please God (1-2)
Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
Paul has just finished giving a wonderful prayer on behalf of this church at the end of chapter 3. He has prayed for their readiness at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and has prayed for their holiness.
In verse 1 he asks and even moves on to urge them to walk in a way that is pleasing to God. Note that he doesn’t just give a suggestion here. He doesn’t stop at the word ask but moves on to urging or exhorting the church to walk in order to please God.
He actually admonishes them to do so more and more. Some translations use the word abound or excel here as well. We should abound or excel in pleasing God.
I think it is important for us to understand a little more about what it means to please God. This is a topic that comes up time and time again in Scripture.
Here are a few Scriptures that show us how we can walk in a way that pleases God:
1. We must walk by faith. (Hebrews 11:6)
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
2. We must not walk in the sinful desires of the flesh. (Romans 8:8)
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
3. We must keep His commandments in obedience to Him. (1 John 3:22)
and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
4. We must trust in Him alone, fear Him alone, and hope in Him alone. (Psalm 147:10-11)
His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
5. We must seek His will and not ours or anyone else’s and we must serve God lovingly from our heart. (Ephesians 6:6)
not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
6. We must be humble. (Psalm 149:4)
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.
7. We must allow Him to work in us. (Philippians 2:13)
for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
8. We must walk in holiness and be above reproach. (Colossians 1:10)
so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
In summary, those who seek to please God are not just those who do what is right. Yes, obedience is definitely part of it as we saw above. But those who seek to please God seek Him because they love Him, because they appreciate the sacrifice that He made by sending His son to die on the cross for them, because they appreciate the free gift of eternal life that comes through repentance (turning away from sin) and putting their faith in Christ alone for salvation, and because they desire to be with Christ for all eternity in heaven.
Those who seek to please God see His will as their primary motivation for living.
As Christ so beautifully gave us an example of this when He said:
saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Are you seeking to please God my friends? Paul had heard that the church in Thessalonica was walking with the Lord as we saw from the good report Timothy gave him as mentioned in chapter 3. Yet he still pled with them to continue moving forward in the race of life. He still encouraged them to excel and abound.
You see, life is always in a state of motion. As believers, we are either moving closer to Christ or we are moving further away from Him. Paul understood this and so he urged the church in Thessalonica to continue on more and more. He knew that even though this young church was following Jesus, there was still spiritual growth needed. There was still a battle of the flesh at hand.
This battle of the flesh is what he discusses in the next point of our sermon...
Scripture References: Hebrews 11:6, Romans 8:8, 1 John 3:22, Psalm 147:10-11, Ephesians 6:6, Psalm 149:4, Philippians 2:13, Colossians 1:10, Luke 22:42
II. As a Christian, You Should… Practice Purity (3-6)
II. As a Christian, You Should… Practice Purity (3-6)
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
Verse 3 starts off with one of the most important instructions that he gave them. It was that the will of God for them was personal holiness.
We will see this phrase ‘will of God’ again in chapter 5 and will go into more detail at that time. But in this context, we see the will of God in relation to personal purity and holiness. God wants to see His children becoming more like His Son Jesus Christ. And this happens through sanctification. This is a big religious word that we use often.
The word sanctification refers to the process of making one more holy.
Once a person is saved, the Holy Spirit fills them and starts conforming them more and more to Jesus Christ. This process occurs through the work of the Holy Spirit and through spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible reading, quiet reflections with the Lord, worship, fasting, and serving.
These spiritual disciplines are key in the sanctification of the life of the believer. The Holy Spirit actively sanctifies us through His work in these spiritual disciplines.
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
Note that Paul then urges them to abstain from sexual immorality at the end of verse 3. This word abstain means to keep far away from and to avoid. It means not to partake in.
Paul is speaking to a church that is in the midst of a pagan culture. It is a culture that celebrates sexual immorality even among their religious activities. There were cult prostitutes that participated in rituals that celebrated immorality. Even the revered great thinkers and philosophers of that day such as Cicero argued for sexual freedom and expression.
Sounds fairly familiar doesn’t it, Church? We are in a time much like this church in Thessalonica. We are in a time where immorality is celebrated. We are in a time where the lines of truth are blurred. We are in a time where homosexuality and trangenderism is normalized. Not only is it becoming widely accepted and normalized - it is being celebrated with pride in the month of June. We are in a time when marriage is considered optional. And we are in a time where explicit images are available to anyone at any time.
However, we are called to abstain and avoid all forms of sexual immorality.
Some people read the phrase sexual immorality and do not understand the layers of teaching that are in this one command.
This command specifically means that believers should avoid any sexual relation outside of heterosexual marriage. Any sexual contact that is not in the bounds of a covenantal marriage between one biological man and one biological woman is sin.
Jesus even went so far as to let us know that we can sin sexually even in our minds (Matthew 5:27-28).
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Note the high calling from Jesus here. Even thoughts of lust are as if one has committed the actual act in the eyes of God.
My friends, we live in a culture that idolizes sexuality. How are we to practically fight against the impurity of our world today? How are we to purely walk in a world full of impurity?
Lets look at verses 4-5 and see some practical steps that we can take to abstain from immorality.
that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
He starts exhorting the church on how to fight against sexual immorality by mentioning the importance of self-control. Sexual sin has its roots in being a self-control problem. If one is able to control his or her own body in holiness and honor, sexual sin loses its grip.
What does self-control look like for us today in these areas?
Self-control starts with appropriate boundaries. We have mentioned these before, but it is extremely beneficial to remind ourselves.
1. We must set boundaries for our body.
Do not be alone with someone of the opposite sex that is not your family or spouse. Have self control of where you are. (Proverbs 7:6-9)
For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
Note that this young man has been foolish with his body. He has placed himself in danger by being at the wrong place and certainly at a dangerous time where darkness begins. Satan works his best in the dark. That is why night clubs are called night clubs. People think that their sins are hidden in the dark. Yet, God sees them all. Set appropriate boundaries for your body.
2. We must set boundaries for our eyes.
Do not be alone with a computer or phone that does not have surveillance/accountability software. Have self control of what your eyes see. (Matthew 6:22-23)
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
See how Jesus compares what our eyes see to the entire state of a man or woman. This is why the media that we take in matters so much. The movies that we watch, the pictures that we see, the magazines that we read, the social media sites that we visit, the books that we read - all of this matters. Good input for your eyes results in a life that exudes light. But darkness into the eyes leads to darkness into your life.
Don’t think that protecting our eyes is important today? Satan most certainly does. That’s why Christian run Accountable2you and Covenant Eyes have been removed from the Google Play store recently because of an article found on an online liberal website called Wired.
The author who starts off his own biography with letting us know that he uses the choice pronouns of he/him says the following:
“What’s common across Covenant Eyes, Accountable2You, and EverAccountable is their zero-tolerance approach to pornography. All three suggest in their marketing materials that not only is watching porn a moral failure, but any amount of porn consumption is bad for your health (1).”
Wired - Dhruv Mehrotra “The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps”
Note the fight against calling sin sin here. They are most certainly leaving out grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. But not only is sexual immorality bad for your health - it is bad for your soul!
See their expert quote moving forward as well:
“I’ve never seen anyone who’s been on one of these apps feel better about themselves in the long term,” says Nicole Praus, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies the effects of pornography on the brain and the spread of disinformation on sexual health. “These people just end up feeling like there’s something wrong with them when the reality is that there likely isn’t (1).”
Wired - Dhruv Mehrotra “The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps”
And there it is. Humanism at its worst. Because these apps might not make you feel good about yourself then they must be bad. See the dangers of the self-esteem movement at work?
And In reality - there isn’t really anything wrong with watching pornography she states.
My friends - as we have already seen - the Bible is clear that there is. It is called sin. And when not dealt with and repented of - when not covered by the blood of Christ - it leads to an eternity in Hell. Don’t buy the lie that sexual immorality is normal and acceptable. Yes, there is grace and mercy for those who repent and follow Christ. But that doesn’t make this sin a grievous evil.
3. We must set boundaries for our mind.
Do not allow your mind to wonder to places of unholiness. Have self-control of what you think. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
We must take control of our minds through the power of the Holy Spirit. We must throw out all thoughts that are against the will of God and instead think about things that are holy. We do this best by regularly reading the Word of God and by regularly praying to God.
Friends, as believers in Christ, our passion is to be for Him and not for ourselves.
Our passion should be to please God and not to please the sinful desires of our flesh.
Moving to verse 6, Paul says the following:
that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
Paul gets pretty candid about God’s righteous anger when it comes to adultery here. He says that God is an avenger in all of these things and that one should not wrong his brother in this sort of way. God cares deeply about marriage. Hebrews 13:4 shows God’s concern that the marriage bed be left undefiled. Sexual intimacy is only given to one man and one woman under the covenant of marriage.
Our culture of sexual liberation today is in direct opposition to the will of God. God created sexual intimacy to be in the covenant of marriage alone.
Theologian Warren Wiersbe said the following:
God’s commandments concerning sex are not for the purpose of robbing people of joy, but rather of protecting them that they might not lose their joy.
Warren Wiersbe
Joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is given as a gift to those who seek to please and love their Savior above themselves. It comes to those who are obedient to the Lord.
And finally…
Scripture References: Matthew 5:27-28, Proverbs 7:6-9, Matthew 6:22-23, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Hebrews 13:4
III. As a Christian, You Should… Pursue Holiness (7-8)
III. As a Christian, You Should… Pursue Holiness (7-8)
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
Paul summarizes his teaching again with a charge to pursue holiness. God has not called us for impurity. We are not to act like the world. We are set apart.
We should not look like the world or act like the world. There should be something noticeably different about a conversation with a believer and a conversation with an unbeliever. There should be something noticeably different between the actions and values of a believer compared to the world.
We as believers are set apart for the works that Christ has laid out for us (Ephesians 2:10). We need to see ourselves as vessels that are to be used for God’s glory and that alone. We need to see ourselves as bought with a price by the blood of Christ. We are not our own as the Scriptures so clearly teach. We must glorify God with our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20).
This same body that glorifies God should not be used in ways that bring reproach to Christ. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, let us stand firm in the ways of Christ and fight against the sinful desires of the flesh and the temptations from the evil one. We can’t resist all of this evil on our own. But with God’s help - it is attainable. (Philippians 4:13)
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
In the last verse in this section Paul states:
Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Finally, Paul wants them to remember that to disregard the commands that he has given is not to just disregard him and his companions. It really means that they are disregarding God, Himself. These words that he writes are the very words of God.
And how can one disregard and disrespect the God of the universe? The One who has all power and authority over your eternity - whether you have eternal life with Him in heaven or whether you suffer eternal torment away from His presence in Hell. The One who loved us enough to send His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins on our behalf. The One who bore our sins on that tree and rose three days later so that we could be given eternal life with God forever. And the One Who after saving us - gives us Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit who helps us obey and walk with God day by day.
As theologian Gene Green stated in his commentary on this book:
...the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is antithetical to a life given over to sexual immorality.
Gene Green
In other words, believers may struggle with sexual immorality. Believers may struggle with many types of sins. But a true believer is not entirely given over to sexual immorality or any other type of sin. What this means is that the true believer continues to struggle and fight against the sins of the flesh. Yes, there will be seasons of victory and there will be seasons of defeat. And God’s grace most certainly covers the struggling believer. But the believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit cannot continue to live in habitual sin. Sin in the life of a true believer grieves the Holy Spirit and grieves their own regenerated soul as well.
We see this teaching in 1 John 3:9:
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
Last year we went through 1 John. It was actually the first book I preached through at CrossPointe! And it was quite a very difficult book to preach! This is one such difficult example from this book. What John is saying is that if you have been born again - if you have put your faith and trust in Christ alone and repented of your sins - then you will not continue in unrepentant, habitual sin. Because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, you will feel conviction and God will discipline you as a beloved child of the King (Hebrews 12:6). Once you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you have given up any chance that you can be happy in sin. The Lord’s discipline and conviction will rob you of happiness when indulging in the pleasures of sin.
I want you to take a moment and reflect on your life currently. Are you able to enjoy prolonged seasons of unrepentant sin? Are you able to sexually sin without any guilt or conviction? Are you able to participate in any type of sin without guilt or conviction. If so, I want you to evaluate whether you are truly born again. Test your heart. Seek counsel. I’d love to chat with you about this further as well. So many people over the years have bought into a cultural Christianity that isn’t truly Biblical. True believers have given everything to Christ. Yes, we sin and fall time and time again. But we continue struggling against sin. We do not live as those who are defeated - but we live as those who have victory in Jesus Christ.
You may lose battles on earth - but the war has been won if you are in Christ! Salvation has come for those who are in Christ.
Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Moving to the end of this final verse, I find it interesting that after saying all of this, Paul mentions the Holy Spirit who is given to believers. He wants to remind them that it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that one can be sanctified and made holy. We cannot fight against the evil one without the power of the Holy Spirit. But with His help, we can do all things.
Scripture References: Ephesians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 6:20, Philippians 4:13, 1 John 3:9, Hebrews 12:6
Conclusion:
We started off today’s sermon talking about a stream of water. And we discussed how there can be microscopic parasites and bacteria in the water despite the clarity that you may see to the eye from afar.
Today we have went through how those in the church may have hidden impurities and how we are not pleasing God when we are not walking in holiness and purity. We are not pleasing God when we are walking in disobedience.
So what can we do to help us become more pure. When it comes to impure streams in the forest, we now have filtration systems that you can take with you on your long hikes.
These water filtration bottles filter out dirt, debris, parasites, and bacteria and allow you to be able to drink more pure water. They filter out the bad stuff and leave the pure water.
In a similar way, the Holy Spirit is our filtration system for sin. Through His working in our lives and through the Word of God and the spiritual disciplines we mentioned earlier, He filters out the sin in our lives. He helps us deal with the secret sins that no one else knows about. He helps us combat these sins and helps us reach out to those who can help us along as well. And He makes us more holy.
My friends, I ask and I urge you - as Paul did the church of Thessalonica - to walk in a way to please God. Walk in a way that practices purity. And in the power of the Holy Spirit, walk in a way that pursues holiness.
Let us pray.
Prayer
If you would like to learn more about salvation through Jesus Christ or want to obey Jesus by obeying the first commandment of a believer in going through the waters of baptism - please let me know.
Have a blessed week.