The Moral Standard of God

Introduction:

Our own society—including even, to some considerable extent, the Christian community—has set at naught the moral standards of God. As a result, pornography, perversion, decadence, and depravity are destroying our homes, blasting our lives, and undermining our nation. Every form of sexual misbehavior is running wild and out of control. Children are born out of wedlock. We have child abuse, wholesale divorce, sodomy, rape, prostitution, and moral anarchy. The courts make little or no attempt to control it. The church looks the other way. But these sins bring their own punishment.

The media, with its humanistic leanings that gives free rein even to sodomy, does not intimidate God. God detests liberal laws that condone so-called alternative lifestyles. Congress, the courts, and even the church itself set at naught God’s laws. But God upholds His Word. Rebellion will bring its own retribution.

Scripture Reading:

1 Thessalonians 4:1–8 KJV 1900

1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

Proposition: In Today’s section of scripture there are 3 commands that God expects from His children

Transition:The first command is

Run From All Forms of Fornication

Exposition- The sense and root of these words open the doors wide!

Abstain- not just “don’t do it” but to run from it, to forbear it, to avoid it, to leave it alone!

Fornication- This Greek word is where we get the word for pornography today

Application-

There are all types of fornication that we could get into. The physical is the most obvious.

There is the mental aspect, where we lust after someone in our minds. This is a sin as well.

Between the internet and TV there is a constant pipeline of sex pumped right into our homes and phones. Satan isn’t even trying to hide it anymore!

This presents a huge problem and temptation for every Christian out there today and you must RUN FROM IT!

Illustration- I have a great friend in the ministry and he is deathly afraid of heights. He knows he is afraid of heights so he is not going to get close to the edge of something because he doesn’t want to fall off. He said that if we ever find out that he fell off a roof, you can guarantee it was murder because he will not willingly get that close to the edge. We need to view fornication and sexual impurity the same way. We need to treat it as if it is the most dangerous thing in the world and run from it.

Transition

Learn To Take Control of Your Desires

Exposition-

Your Desires do not control you!

In Adam you are dead, In Christ you are reborn.

You are a new vessel. You still have a sin nature, but now you have the help of the Holy Spirit to get you moving in the right direction.

Paul gives the example of the Gentiles, Greeks and Romans who practiced open sexuality in worship. They did not know God, they were lost.

Application

If you don’t know how to do this, ask yourself would it bring honor and glory to Christ?

1 Cor 6:19

1 Corinthians 6:19 KJV 1900

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Most people have heard this verse and instead you treat your body like a playground instead of a temple.

How then do we control our desires? Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1–2 KJV 1900

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

There has to be a transformation in your life. You must renew your mind daily. We do that through prayer and fellowship with God. He says that is your reasonable service. In other words that is the LEAST YOU COULD DO SINCE HE DID WHAT HE DID.

When you compromise your moral values and give in to your lust and desires you are acting as if you don’t know God.

Dabbling in it is dangerous. It leads to acting on it and before you know it you are completely consumed with it. It becomes an addiction and a disease with destructive outcomes!

Illustration- Radio personality Paul Harvey tells the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into the consuming, self-destructive nature of sin:

First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.

Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare.

Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his “own” warm blood.

His carnivorous appetite just craves more—until the dawn finds him dead in the snow! It is a fearful thing that people can be “consumed by their own lusts.

Transition

Stay Within the Boundaries That God Has Set

Exposition- Now we come into the section of scripture that as I studied it, it opened my eyes. The sense of this verse shows that God has drawn a line in the sand that no one should cross. There are boundaries to be maintained. Let me first say these boundaries:

Sex before marriage is wrong.

Homosexuality is wrong.

Marriage between 2 men or 2 women is wrong.

Am I going to hate the person. No, I hate the sin, not the sinner and I would pray that they would repent and turn to God.

Here, Paul says that when two people get married God has set a boundary, a property line that no one should cross. A no trespassing sign if you will, violators will be prosecuted.

To defraud his brother is to take something that belonged to him. Adultery is breaking up America more now than ever before. This robs the family of joy, trust, passion.

Sex before marriage robs that person of a beautiful experience with the person God intended for you to share it with.

Application

God said don’t do it! Repercussions happen! He said God is the avenger of all such things!

What does this mean? Punishment for sexual sin is severe.

It might take the form of unbearable feelings of guilt that haunt you and spoil all of your legitimate relationships.

It might take the form of exposure and shame.

It might take the form of venereal disease, herpes, or AIDS.

It might take the form of one’s own wicked behavior being reproduced by one’s own children.

The defrauded person, the one whose wife or husband has been seduced, might take vengeance into his or her own hands.

The Lord, however, gives the solemn warning that sexual sins will be punished. God has no lack of means—physical, psychological, or spiritual—to punish the transgressor.

What does it look like then to stay within your boundaries? You must choose to run from the temptation of fornication, you must learn to control your desires. Simply put must choose to follow the instructions that God has given you in His Word or pay the penalty for your actions.

Illustration- If you have a machine that you bought and got it home and the instructions read “you must press button A before button B. Failure to do so will result in catastrophic damage to the machine”. However, you chose to press button B first and all of the sudden the machine starts smoking and catches fire resulting in a total loss and failure. Who would you blame for it? Not the manufacturer, he warned you. You are the only one who can make the choice to stay within the boundaries that God has set. You can’t blame Him when the machine catches fire.

Transition- Run from fornication, control your desires and stay within the boundaries of God’s Word and watch what He will do in your life.

Conclusion: Vs 8 states plainly that if you continue to follow the path of sexual impurity and choose to give in to those desires you are rejecting God and His plan for your life.