1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
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Good morning.
Yesterday our country celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
And that document, the Declaration of Independence, was essentially the colonies formally announcing that they were breaking away from England and they would govern themselves as and independent nation… and they were stating that this was something they were willing to fight for.
And so they did fight.
For many years in the 1700s, our country was involved in this struggle known as the American Revolution. Or the revolutionary war.
And so we celebrated the success of that revolution yesterday because we were successful in our revolution. and because now we live in a free country where we govern and rule ourselves.
And so all across the country yesterday, fireworks went off, hot dogs, and hamburgers were cooked.
And you played patriotic music.
Everybody wore their red white and blue.
Or maybe you had your birthday cake with Happy Birthday America on it.
But this morning, I don’t want to focus on that revolution.
That revolution, I am in favor of and I am thankful for it and I celebrated yesterday with everyone else.
But I do want to talk about the term revolution for a moment as we enter our text this morning.
You know the term revolution is actually a euphemism.
Which means it’s a word that is used as a nicer way of saying something rather than just saying what it truly is.
And so an example of this is- when someone dies, the euphemism is “they passed away.”
When someone gets fired, we say they were let go.
Revolution is a euphemism.
Here’s why I say that.
If you look up the definition of revolution- this is what you will find.
A revolution is a sudden, radical, and fundamental change in society, often involving the forceful overthrow of an existing government or social order. It redefines the structure of power, institutions, and the foundations of authority.
And so boil that definition down, to put it very simply, revolution is organized rebellion.
Now again in some cases, organized rebellion may be warranted.
I do believe that the American Revolution was one such example.
But not all organized rebellion is right.
In the 1960s, in America and really across the world, there was another revolution.
It has become known as “The Sexual Revolution.”
And that revolution was primarily a movement, where there was an active, organized, rebellion against what they then called traditional and what I would call biblical definitions, practices, and ethics regarding sexual issues.
To put it simply the sexual revolution was an organized rebellion against what God had created in this world and what he had stated in His word.
During that time, the rally cry of that revolution was “Free Love”— And the fundamental doctrine of that revolution was the belief that romantic and sexual relationships should be entirely free from any outside authority.
The thought behind it was, I will do what I want with my own body.
You and I, in 2026, in America, we live in the wake of the sexual revolution.
The LGBTQIA+ agenda is an outworking… it is the result of this revolution.
Biblical marriage, which is defined as one man and one woman in covenant relationship and faithful to each other for their lives.
We live in a world where that definition of marriage is under attack.
We live in a world where basically all sexual ethics have eroded to essentially it comes down to everyone’s own opinion.
The driving ethic of today, in the world at large, is “whatever feels good in the moment , just do it.”
The popular thought process, is that every individual gets to decide for themselves, what they will do and even what they will be sexually.
To put it in biblical terms—Every body does what’s right in their own eyes.
And here is the fundamental issue.
People believe they are in control, and they believe that individuals are free to determine what is right for themselves.
And so, It is seen as an infringement upon that freedom to speak against a certain lifestyle or to call that lifestyle wrong.
Because the only thing that is really seen as wrong in our culture, sexually speaking is to say definitively that there is a standard.
That God has created marriage to be between one biological man and one biological woman for a lifetime.
That is unacceptable.
Why, though?
Because at the heart of every revolution, the one revolutionizing is saying to some authority, “You can’t tell me what to do.”
In the American Revolution, the colonist were telling King George, you can’t tell us what to do.
And in “The Sexual Revolution,” people with depraved and sinful and rebellious hearts are saying to God, you can’t tell us what to do.
Now, as a pastor, I know that we preachers have a tendency to rail against the outside world, and I think that we do have some prophetic duty to do that.
There is a sense in which every preacher and pastor ought to declare God’s standard, and God’s law unapologetically in the face of an evil world on such matters.
But, this morning, the letter that we are in is not a letter written to the world.
It is a letter written to a church much like ours.
A local body of believers seeking to follow Christ in our area.
And in this portion of the letter, Paul is addressing the church and the Christian’s calling to holiness in a world of sexual rebellion and idolatry.
Thessalonica was an area where idolatry was rampant, and much of idol worship centered sexually immoral acts.
And so Paul is addressing this here to give them instructions on how to live in the world in which they reside.
And so as we begin this morning, I want to answer one question from our text this morning and it’s this—
As Christians, how should we live in a sexually rebellious world?
Look at verse 1 of chapter 4.
1 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus,
The first thing I want you to see is that He calls them brothers.
And he grounds his request and his urging in the Lord Jesus.
This letter is written to those within the family of God with Paul.
It is written to the people of God.
Those chosen by God according to chapter 1:4.
Those who have received the word of God with power through the Holy Spirit.
So let us make sure we understand this morning that Paul is writing to Christians.
And he is urging them in the Lord Jesus.
And from the tone of verse 1-2, it doesn’t seem that Paul is rebuking them for something they are not doing.
It seems he’s encouraging them to keep doing what they are doing.
Read those verses again.
1 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.
Paul is saying to this church: you remember what we taught
You remember what you received from us.
You remember how we taught you to walk in a manner that was pleasing to God.
Paul says, you are doing it, but also increase in doing that.
Paul says do it more and more.
In other words… though you have been faithful up to this point, You haven’t arrived. This is something to devote steady attention toward.
Increase in this.
Why? Verse 2.
2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
Paul here reminds them that he did not speak from His own authority.
He spoke as an apostle. One sent out by the LORD Jesus Christ.
And so everything they had heard from Paul, was given by Jesus.
We must understand this morning:
Jesus, as the Lord of the church, not only saves His people but makes commands of His people as the Lord of his people.
There is a way in which the Christian is to live that is pleasing to God.
SDFS
And according to verse 1, the way the Christian is to live his or her life is in ever-growing and ever-increasing obedience to the Lord Jesus.
Now, before we move any further, it’s very important that we understand here: He is not telling them how to enter into the kingdom of God.
He is telling them how to walk once they, by grace through faith, have already entered in.
He is speaking to people who are already in Christ.
By God’s grace, they have already believed that Jesus is the Christ, that he lived the righteous life required by God’s Law, that He died and in His death presented Himself as the substitute for sinners, they have believed that he rose from the dead, that he ascended and that he is coming back and they have professed Jesus as Lord.
And so when Paul says in verse 2, the instructions are through the Lord Jesus, these are people who should be listening.
Those who claim Jesus as Lord.
And so, as we think about this question:
As Christians, how should we live in a sexually rebellious world?
The very reason we should be willing to ask that question is that we are, in fact, Christians seeking our Lord’s will.
We should desire to know and to follow Jesus’s instructions, because we believe he is our Lord.
Paul is urging and pleading, to increase more and more in obedience to the Lord.
And He summarizes it all beautifully at the beginning of verse 3…
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification:
That is abundantly clear. Isn’t it?
This is God’s will for you.
Your sanctification.
That word Sanctification is a word that we hear often in the church.
We understand, This is Jesus’s desire for all His people.
We know this because, prior to His death, John records Jesus praying for His people.
And as a part of that prayer, he prayed this
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Sanctify them.
But what does that mean?
What is sanctification?
The Baptist catechism answers this question very well.
Answer: Sanctification is a work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
Repeat the Answer.
That is a wonderful definition. I believe it captures what Jesus desires for His people. That we are renewed. That we are more and more enable to die to sin and live unto righteousness.
That is God‘s desire for us.
You know— I think at times, as Christians, we get frustrated in our lives because we don’t know what is next.
You often hear the question- what is God’s will for my life?
And most of the time what people mean by that is— what direction or life decision should I make next?
For example—
What area should I work?
What school should I attend?
What place should I go and settle down?
Which person should I be involved with?
And while those are important questions to be sure, I think those are secondary to what we find here.
Because, it seems clear to me that God, here, in His Word has told us what His will is in the life of His people.
And it’s as clear here as it is anywhere.
This is the will of God- your sanctification.
This is God’s will.. Renewed in the whole man… and by grace, More and more, we are able to die to sin and live in righteousness.
Paul, tells the Thessalonians, unapologetically, I know what God’s will is for your life.
It’s that you be sanctified.
It’s that you be set apart.
It’s that more and more you began to reflect the image of God as you put sin to death and you live a God pleasing life.
PSE
Mt Pisgah—this is God’s will for us as well as His church and His people.
And so, if Jesus is our Lord, and we know that’s his will, there ought to be a desire to submit to His will.
There ought to be a desire to live a life, as Paul said in verse 1, “pleasing unto God.”
And so, As Christians, how should we live in a sexually rebellious world?
The foremost, is that we, as God’s people, submissively live under the authority of God and His word.
And so, while the world actively rebels against Jesus as Lord, those who are His people, are actively fighting against those rebellious thoughts and actions in our own heart, as we submit to His Lordship.
And so understanding the Will of God is our sanctification, The rest of our text this morning gives specific instructions for what this means when it comes to sexual immorality and how the believer ought to conduct themselves.
In verses 3-8 there are three exhortations, and there are three reasons given for these exhortations.
And so follow with me here.
Exhortation #1- is that we are to Exercise Self Control Over our body.
Look at verse 3
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
Abstain from sexual immorality.
This is an all encompassing command.
Notice here, there is not one specific sexually immoral act listed.
The word here translated Sexual immorality covers it all.
This means if you live your life under the authority of the Lord Jesus— Have nothing to do with any kind of immorality—Which includes
Adultery, Fornication, Pornography, Affairs of the heart, emotional adultery, Homosexuality, Bisexuality, Transgenderism, Sexual abuse, Incest, Bestiality, Casual sexual relationships, Open marriages, immodesty, And this even extends to Any deliberate cultivation of lust in the mind. And sadly there are more…
That’s the short list.
Paul says ABSTAIN from it.
Choose to separate from it.
Be done with it.
Get it out of your life.
Get it out of your home.
By the power of the Spirit, put to death the worldly and lustful sins for which Jesus your Savior was crucified.
Abstain from it.
Don’t do it.
Protect your life from it.
Now— That’s the negative side.
Beloved, I hope you understand- There are things that we just should not do.
But there’s a positive side to this as well.
Look at verse 4.
4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
We have to understand this morning.
There is a way that we can control ourselves and conduct ourselves in holiness and honor.
Paul is saying here, there are wrongs things to abstain from, but there is a way in which we can live controlled lives, in which our sexuality is both beautiful and right.
Sexual immorality is wrong not because sexuality is wrong.
God created sexuality, He created gender, and he intends for us to know how we should use our bodies in the proper way.
God designed sexual relationship for a male and a female inside the covenant bonds of marriage, and in that context we should rejoice and be thankful in God’s gift to us.
God in His goodness, has given us an arena in which sexual activity is a blessing.
And in that context, it can be done in holiness and honor, and in that context it is a wonderfully God glorifying thing, but anything outside of it is sinful and rebellion against God’s design.
SO Exhortation #1 is obtaining from immorality and controlling our bodies for the purpose of holiness and honor.
Exhortation #2- is that we be set apart from the world at large.
Continuing his expression of how we are to act sexually speaking, Paul says we are to conduct ourselves:
5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
Paul is telling the Thessalonian church that there is to be a marked difference between the church and those who do not know God.
There’s to be a difference in the way we approach these things.
There’s to be a difference in the way we live our lives.
And the reason for that is that we have a completely different foundation for our lives.
The pagan, the person that does not know God, what they do is determined by what would be satisfying to their flesh in the moment.
And the reason for that is, they don’t know God.
Because knowledge of God equals knowledge of God’s will, and for the believer it means submission to that Will.
And so The reason why our lives should look different as Christians, is that we know God.
We know His salvation.
We know His word. We know His commands.
We’ve been saved by the work of Jesus.
We’ve been indwelled by his Holy Spirit.
We participate weekly in the regular preaching and hearing of the word of God, so that our lives would be encouraged towards holiness.
This is who who we are.
We know God.
Richard Phillips says this “Wherever the knowledge of God flourishes, there results a flowering of purity, holiness, and honor.”
But the opposite is true as well as the world.
They don’t know God, and where there is no knowledge of God there will be impurity, unholy living, and lives that dishonor God.
But the Christian upon salvation by Grace is transformed
Remember what Paul told the Corinthian Church
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
God has called us out of the world to live as his people.
To live set apart and to look different.
As our culture continues in its rebellion, I believe the exhortation here is relevant—Don’t live like the world. Live as those who know God.
So as Christians, how are we to live in a sexually rebellious world?
Under the authority of Christ, controlling our bodies, and distinct from the world.
The final exhortation here is one related other people.
Look at verse six as we look at exhortation
#3 Do not wrong your brother.
6 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.
It is a distinctly Christian and godly thing to think about others before you think of yourself.
You and I have a loving obligation to other people as Christians.
I think this is important to state because
Often times sexual immorality is viewed to be a private matter that is my business and not yours.
But the reality is, other people are affected by this kind of sin.
We know this right?
Spouses and Children are affected when a man or woman chooses to live adulterously.
Churches and people are affected when pastors engage in a sexually immoral lifestyles.
A young dating couple who engage in immorality will cause trouble for future marriage relationships.
Young Christians, I want to exhort you in your dating relationships that you only date those that you would intend to marry.
But I also want you to understand that you are not married when you are dating, and it’s just true that most dating relationships end.
And so regardless of what that young man or young woman may tell you in a moment, you are not married and your future marriage relationship will be affected by your choices even now.
And so young man, if you are not married, she is not your wife.
Young woman, if you are not married, he’s not your husband.
That is one example, but there are many examples that we could list here.
But the point is clear already isn’t it? This kind of immorality does not happen in isolation of other people.
It affects them.
I’m certain that every single person in here in some way shape or form has been affected at one point in your life by someone else’s sexual sin.
This is why he includes this.
As Christians, we are to think of others before ourselves when it comes to this issue.
Out of love for your brother and sister in Christ, consider them.
That’s the third exhortation.
So we have our answer to the question-
As Christians, how are we to live in a sexually rebellious world?
Under the authority of the Lord Jesus we are to control our bodies. We are to live distinct from the world. We are to consider our brothers and sister and avoid sinning against them.
But Now, I want to spend the rest of our time giving you the reasons WHY we should obey these three exhortations?
And the three Reasons are attached to the three persons of the Trinity.
It is the Will of the Father that we be pure.
We saw this earlier in verse 3.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification:
We see it again in verse 7-8
7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
And so this is the will of God.
There are people who want to toe the line and act if there are some areas that are gray and unclear.
This is not unclear.
God‘s will for us is our sanctification.
God has called us to holiness and purity.
And as verse 8 says, whoever disregards this— disregards God.
In other words, you are putting yourself at odds with God.
Which is why when David committed his sexual sin with Bathsheba, what does he say?
He prays to God and says- Psalm 51:4
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
It is the Will of the father that we be pure.
Secondly, We are to live in purity and holiness because of
The Lordship and the Judgment of the Son. (Verses 6-7)
Look at verse 6.
6 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.
He says there in verse 6— The Lord is an avenger in all things.
In other words, the Lord Jesus is the judge.
He is the one who has the final say over this.
We understand that the Father has given all judgment to the Son. (John 5:22)
And so, There is coming a day where each one will stand before the judgment seat of Jesus.
Paul said this—
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Here, he encourages the Thessalonians in the same way. That it matters how we live, because judgment day is coming.
As Christians, we know this.
We are given constant encouragement in the Scriptures to prepare for the coming of Jesus.
One of the ways in which we prepare to meet Him is to live our lives, honoring him.
The third and final reason why we should obey is:
The Indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit.
8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
As believers, we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
When we are united by faith to Christ, God the Holy indwells us for the sake of sealing us for redemption, illuminating our minds to the Scriptures, and sanctifying us according to the will of God.
I think Paul reminds the Thessalonians that it matters what they do with their bodies, because God has given his Holy Spirit.
Paul says it elsewhere.
1 Corinthians 6:18–20
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
The third and final reason we should live holy lives is the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives.
SDFS
Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s ground for sexual purity is the Trinity: the will of the Father, the judgment of Jesus, and the presence of the Spirit in the spirit.
So let us return to the question we asked at the beginning:
How should Christians live in a sexually rebellious world?
According to Paul, we do not join the rebellion.
We live under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
We pursue holiness rather than impurity.
We exercise self-control over our bodies.
We live distinctly from the world around us, and seek to honor God.
And we seek to love our neighbor in all that we do.
Our culture in the spirit of self idolatry, says, “I’ll do what I want.”
The Christian says “I want to please my God whose will it is for me to be pure, who will one day judge the world through the Son, and who has given me His Holy Spirit.”
As we close, I want to make sure to say one last thing.
Some of you may hear a sermon like this and immediately become confronted in your failures.
Maybe your past is marked by sin or maybe your present is marked by sin.
Maybe there are things in your life that no one else knows about.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
Our hope this morning is not that we have never sinned.
Our hope is that Christ died for sinners and rose again.
And because of that, there is forgiveness for the one who has lived in rebellion against God.
Remember the words of Paul to the Corinthians— after laying out a list of all kinds of sinners who will not inherit the kingdom of God, he reminded them that they were once in that condition but God had been gracious.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
So if this morning, you are convicted and confronted, if you feel the guilt of your sin, look to Jesus and rest in Him.
And I believe he can transform you as well.
The same Savior who justifies sinners also sanctifies sinners.
He pardons us.
He changes us.
He forgives the guilty.
He makes the unclean clean.
Will trust in Him today and then seek to follow his will for your life which is actually the best possible way to live.
Let’s pray.
