GodAvenges#

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.

When I gave Lorna my sermon title and outline this week she was concerned that some of you might thing she had made a typo. The title is a play on the social media phenomena called a hashtag. People used hashtags to show their support of ideas, movements and produces. Most recently thousands of women have been using the hashtag MeToo# to show their solidarity to other women who have been sexually assaulted.

Like any other movement, there are those who will hijack a movement like the The Me Too to further their own agenda, but don’t let such people distract you from the fact that sexual assault is a problem. Thousands, if not millions, of women have been sexually assaulted and exploited in recent years in our country.

As I was studying this passage this week, it struck me that the problem of sexual exploitation is much greater than the Me Too movement understands. All sexual immorality is exploitation, but more importantly all sexual immorality is a sin against a holy God. Moreover, this holy God is an avenger against every sexual sin! The message people really need to hear is God avenges sexual immorality.

The reasons Paul give for this are threefold. The first is because...

Sexual Immorality Violates God’s Boundaries

1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

To say that we must “abstain” from sexual immorality, is to say that there are certain sexual acts that are outside the boundaries God has set. God designed the sexual union to take place only within the context of the marriage between a man and a woman, anything outside that boundary is rebellion against God.

Ministers and youth pastors often get asked if this or that activity is OK. The answer is always the same: “Not unless you are married.”

We make this way too complicated. The real issue is not that we don’t know the right answer. The real issue is we don’t want to obey God’s Word. We want to hear another word that affirms what we have already decided in our hearts we are going to do. Paul cuts right to the heart of the matter in verse 8:

1 Thessalonians 4:8 ESV

Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

God is not prudish. He even inspired a whole book of the Bible celebrating the marriage bed, it is called the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon!

Moreover, He knows what He is talking about. He is the one who created and designed us. His boundaries are designed to protect us, not to harm us. This is why He is an avenger of those who violate His boundaries. If God did not enforce those boundaries the whole human race would suffer—God’s boundaries are there for a reason—to protect us!

Secondly, God avenges sexual immorality because it violates His calling upon humanity:

Sexual Immorality Violates God’s Calling

We find this in verse 4:

1 Thessalonians 4:4–5 ESV

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;

In this verse, Paul says that those who practice sexual immorality “do not know God.” In the Bible, knowledge of a person is not mere knowledge of their existence or facts about them—to know someone is to have a vital, personal, intimate relationship with them. When God created humanity, he created us in His image. This means we were created to have a relationship with Him and represent Him in creation by exercising His dominion and reflecting His glory.

This is why the issue of “control” is a huge issue in this verse. We can’t exercise His dominion and reflect His glory if we don’t have control over our own bodies! None of us are “private” citizens, who are free to do our own thing. As “image bearers” we are public servants of the King. We are God’s official representatives on this planet and the eyes of the whole heavenly host are upon us! As representatives, our calling is to be holy as He is holy!

In this verse “Gentiles” is being used the same way we use the term “pagan.” Up until the coming of Christ, the only nation that remembered their original God-given calling were the Jews. What Paul is saying is that when a person who claims to know God by professing faith in Christ practices sexual immorality they are revealing their true relationship with God—they are pagans who don’t know God!

Once you understand God’s high calling upon humanity, the vengeance of God against sin makes sense. Our sins are not mere violations of rules, but they are high treason against the King of the universe! Jesus warns us of how serious this treason is when He said:

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

People often object to the vengeance of God, because they say “God is too loving to be vengeful.” But it is the love of God that demands vengeance. This is made clear in the final thing Paul says about sexual immorality:

1 Thessalonians 4:6 ESV

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.

Sexual Immorality Violates God’s Servants

Paul is saying something amazing here: He is saying ANY time we engage in sexual immorality we are transgressing and wronging someone else. The first word here means to go beyond the bounds. We have already looked at this in the first point of this sermon—God has set boundaries for us in our interaction with other people. The second word means to take advantage of someone, usually as the result of a motivation of selfish greed. This is why in some translations this word is translated as to defraud or to exploit. Sexual immorality is always exploitative. Outside of the protection covenantal marriage offers, we are always exploiting and being exploited when we engage in sexual activity.

Notice I did not simply say marriage, I said Covenantal Marriage. Biblical marriage is to be a covenant between a man and women in which they promise to love, honor and cherish each other until death do them part. There should be no abuse (be it physical, mental or emotional) in true marriage. Covenant marriage creates a safe place to be “naked and not ashamed.” This is why sexual activity outside of such protection is a trespass and is exploitative.

The world thinks that mutual consent makes sex outside of covenantal marriage OK, but they are wrong. All forms of sexual activity outside of marriage are a form of sexual assault!

Our text says God avenges such sexual assaults on other people. This is why I used the hashtag GodAvenges# as my sermon title. The popular hashtag MeToo# does not even come close to revealing the extent of the problem, only when we see things in God eyes do we realize how horrific sexual immorality is.

Some of you who are hearing this message need to repent. You are hiding behind the respectability of a legal marriage, but not living up to the vows of a covenantal marriage. You don’t love, honor and cherish your spouse as you should.

God sees and He avenges!

There may be others of you who hear this message who are single, who are using their singleness as an excuse for sexual immorality, reasoning in your mind that if there is not legitimate means to express your sexual desires, you are justified in using illegitimate means. There is no justification for sexual immorality, God is the one who sets the boundaries and He expects you as His image-bearer to be in control of both your desires and your body. This is especially true of Christians, because as verse 8 says He has given you His Holy Spirit.

Finally, some of you may be dismissing this message because you think I am old-fashioned and out of touch. Some of you may be thinking I am intolerant or insensitive to your struggles. But again, verse 8 says this message is not mine, but God’s. Don’t dismiss this message, because God avenges!