ABSTAIN FROM SEXUAL IMMORALITY-1 Thess. 4: 1-8
Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon, many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound. All of the dead shall rise; righteous meet in the skies, going where no one dies, heavenward bound.
I. JESUS IS COMING; 1 THESS. 4: 16-17.
A. This is the underlying theme all the way through the book of 1 Thessalonians.
1. Paul uses this theme to encourage, motivate, and warn us.
2. No one knows when He will come.
3. When He does many will meet their doom but the righteous will be heavenward bound.
4. Which are you?
B. Many claim to be Christians and thus heavenward bound.
1. Just calling yourself a “Christian” doesn’t make it so.
2. Just because you have been baptized does not mean that you are automatically going to heaven.
3. Baptism is where it all begins but that is not where it ends.
4. God tells us as Christians what we must do in order to be ready when He comes again.
II. THINGS CHRISTIANS MUST DO TO BE READY WHEN CHRIST COMES AGAIN.
A. Walk In A Way That Pleases God.
1 Thess 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more.
1. These brethren had been Christians for less than a year.
2. In the short time that Paul was there he taught them that they were to “walk and please God.”
3. This was a “first principle” teaching.
4. This teaching is counter to what many have in mind when it comes to being a Christian.
a. Many believe that “Once you are saved you cannot be lost again no matter what you do.”
b. As the “church of Christ” we say we do not believe in “once saved, always saved” but we practice it; “I have been baptized so I am going to heaven no matter what I do.”
c. Paul does not teach this in this passage.
5. Paul taught from the very beginning that you must “hear, believe, confess, repent, be baptized, and walk in a way that pleases God.”
6. 1 John 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
7. Rom 6: 4-6 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;
8. Satan doesn’t care what you call yourself; all he wants is for your walk to be dirty.
9. Jesus is coming back and if you are going to be ready just being baptized is not going to be enough; you must be walking in a way that is pleasing to God.
10. 1 Thess 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification;
a. “Sanctification” means “holiness” or “to be set apart.”
b. God wants us, as His people, to live “holy” or sanctified lives that are set apart from all the ungodly things of the world.
B. Paul gets more specific: 1 Thess 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
1. This is not a maybe; it is a must if you are going to be pleasing to God.
a. In vs. 2, Paul says that his instructions are commandments from the Lord.
b. This is not something that is “Okay if society permits it.”
c. Christians are a “set apart” people who are set apart from the sexual immorality that the world endorses.
2. The command is not to stay clear of sex; it is to stay clear of “sexual immorality.”
a. “Sexual immorality” in the Greek is the word “porneia” from which we derive the word “pornography.”
b. It refers to any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage.
c. Paul is saying that sex outside of marriage is immoral no matter what the world might say.
d. Sexual immorality includes sex outside of marriage no matter how old you are.
e. Sexual immorality includes various immoral sexual acts.
3. Christians are not “called out” to participate in any immoral acts:
Vs. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
4. Eph 5:3-6 But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
a. When it comes to sexual immorality there are a lot of “empty words.”
b. Do not be deceived by the “empty words.”
c. You cannot be and are not pleasing to God when you participate in sexual immorality of any kind.
C. The damage of sexual immorality; vs. 6.
Let no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
1. This verse destroys the myth that “If you commit sexual sin you haven’t hurt anyone.”
2. Sexual immorality always does damage to someone.
3. God will not let the individual who practices this go unpunished.
D. The abuse of sexual immorality; vs. 8.
Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
1. The N.T. never says, “Be pure so that you don’t get a disease, or get pregnant, or ruin your reputation.”
2. The N.T. says, “Be pure because your body houses the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 6: 18) and immoral conduct insults the giver of the greatest gift He has ever given you.”
3. When you sin sexually as a Christian you are using the house of God to commit that sin.
E. Paul writes these things for two reasons:
1. To tell Christians that, if they are not involved in sexual immorality then continue to remain that way.
2. If you are, stop it now before the Lord comes again.
F. What about NON-CHRISTIANS?1 Cor 6:9-11
Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1. These deal with sexual sins and those practicing these things will not “inherit the kingdom of God”; vs. 10.
2. But, notice vs. 11: And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.
3. God can and will forgive you if you will believe, confess, repent, be baptized, and walk in a way that is pleasing to God.
4. Jesus is coming soon…no one knows when…are you ready?