I was driving around with Jordan and
Brynley doing some errands when the subject of school and faith came up. Jordan told me how as soon as someone finds
out he’s a Christian, there’s first response is always so that means you don’t
have sex before marriage, right? I could
sense his frustration by the fact that that is how his faith is being defined
by his peers.
And Brynley gets the response, oh,
that means you homophobic, right? Again
frustration, because it all comes back to how it relates to them sexually.
So, here we are, we live in a culture
where we are often defined first by our sexuality. I have even non-Christians share with me
about their frustration how our sexual orientation is the dividing line.
We live in a place where we have The
International Day Against Homophobia May
17th and Gay Pride Day on the Canada Day Weekend. They are run like
evangelistic crusades with a mission to convert your way of thinking.
Here is the kind of news that makes
headlines… Mayor Rob Ford chooses to opt out of the festival and go to his
cottage instead
We are living in a culture today
where…
The Ontario Court of Appeal has also
basically ruled in favor of bawdy houses, places of legalized prostitution.
The Toronto District School Board is
piloting a new program to teach the KG students that there are 6 genders now.
Over 1 billion dollars is spent on
pornography in Canada every year and it’s an epidemic all around the world. It completely outdoes sales on gambling,
sports, you name it.
You can say there are
many people living in enslaved to sexual sin.
For so long the message that has been
preached is all about the evils of illicit sex and yes, that is a very strong
message; however there is a positive
message here and that is the beauty and expression of purity and love expressed
between a husband and wife in a marriage relationship.
We only have to go back to Genesis to
see the way that God designed us – Genesis 2:24,25 24 For this reason a man
will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will
become one flesh. 25 The man and his
wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
I know that many of the people we
encounter in our post Christian culture think the Bible is hopelessly naïve on
the subject of sex. However, the message
was given in a time when women were treated as possessions, where there was all
forms of illicit sex taking place, where there was sexual slavery.
The challenge for our generation is
that we live where the opportunity to see the lowest forms of sexuality are one
click away. Our children are being confronted with these issues earlier and
earlier in life.
My outline follows the theme of the
passage we are going to look at today and that is a good news / bad news
approach. I want to tell you everything
that is right about purity. However I
would not be a good steward of God’s Word, if I failed to tell you the
consequences of sexual sin.
The Call To Moral
Purity
1 Thessalonians
4:1-8
The Incentive To
Honor God with our Bodies v1-5
- It
is pleasing to God v1
Paul starts by
saying, here are instructions on how to please God. Do you want to live a life pleasing to God? He first asks the believers and then to
really add emphasis, he says “I urge you” because he recognizes just how huge
this is in our lives. Now, just in case
they think, ‘Paul, you are such a prude’ He comes with the authority of Jesus
on this one.
When we follow
His guidelines in this area of our life, we really do win. As John Piper has said, God is glorified when
we are most satisfied in him. Sexual
purity is pleasing to God.
- It
is the will of God v3
Sexual purity is God’s will, and
Christians should desire and trust the will of God. As we desire to become more
like Christ, we will delight to do God’s will
Psalm 40:8 - I delight to do your will, O my God; your law
is within my heart
Hebrews 10:7 – I have come to do your
will oh God.
to avoid …kind of
sounds optional…let’s use a better translation
(abstain – don’t even go there)
I want to give
you a challenge
Take the opportunity to see how easily you
have become preconditioned to the world around you by making the decision to
fast – for a week / two weeks.
Fast from pop
culture, ( for example mainstream music, don’t surf the net aimlessly, don’t
take in any inappropriate movies or TV shows then watch what happens in your
spirit.
I have talked
with people who have decided to fast from sugar and the kind of withdrawl their
bodies go through with headaches, but eventually they talk about the incredible
energy and stamina that they feel and how they don’t feel as tired as they used
to. So, what happens to our spirit once
we do this? I believe it will come alive
and have greater sensitivity to the Lord’s leading as well!
The phrase
“sexual immorality” comes from the Greek word porneia, which is a very broad
word encompassing every kind of sexual activity outside the circle of God’s
will. It covers sins of the mind, body, eyes, ears and lips. It includes
premarital sex, extra-marital sex, every form of homosexual act, adultery, every
form of pornography, you name it, they are all the same in his eyes...sexual sins of the body.
Sanctified –
positionally it is being set apart for God and practically it is a progressive
act of becoming more and more driven by our appetite for the Lord and His
righteousness than our own selfish desires.
‘they that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled’
- It
is a matter of holiness and honor v4
Learn to control
his own body – Now if you have notes in your Bible for this verse, what does it
also say this could refer to ( ‘learning to live with your own wife’ or
‘learning to acquire a wife’) We do that in a way that is holy and honorable. So, whether it is learning to live in an
honorable way for your future wife or husband or for the one you have, it is a
matter of honoring them.
I believe the
greatest person who is able to control the body is not us but the Holy Spirit
as we see later in the paragraph.
1
Corinthians 6:18-20
The High
Price of Disregarding God’s call for our Bodies v6-8
- The high price of cheating v6
Paul
doesn’t mince words here and he says ‘God will punish him’. We know in Hebrews that God is a Father who
disciplines us for our good. The absence
of discipline is the absence of love.
Immorality
is like that. It always cheats someone else—usually someone you love very much.
Just ask any wife whose husband left. Just ask any parent of a child who has had
an affair. Just anyone who has been to a church where their pastor fell into
sexual sin.
Perhaps the
saddest thing about lust is that it never satisfies. Someone has said that lust
is “the craving for salt by a man dying of thirst.” It promises everything and
delivers nothing. No great release. No lasting satisfaction. Not even any swift
punishment.
“The Lord
will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.”
Sometimes he punishes the body, sometimes the mind, sometimes our speech, our
eyes, often our health, and almost always our memories. Lust produces that
inward deadening that is both unexpected and inevitable.
Pornography
is like cocaine…you can be addicted the first time. Pornography is just like that, you can be
addicted to it the first time you open the door to it. That is why 1 Corinthians 6:18 tells us to
flee …RUN
The most likely judgment is that God will
simply leave you alone to suffer the natural consequences of your sin.
It is often
the fallout and consequences to families that unfortunately more are affected
and punished by the decisions of a few.
Don’t take
advantage of your brother in this way.
He is putting this challenge out in the context of a brother to brother
relationship. The decisions that are made
don’t just affect those caught in sexual sin, they ripple out and affect
families, children, churches.
So, last
week the youth met at our house for a Bible study and I challenged them to look
at this passage and give me their thoughts and I told them I would quote them
if it was worthwhile. So James Sabatini said
and I quote
“Every man
is our ‘brother’ and to be politically correct every woman is our sister and
when we engage in sexual immorality we are hurting our brothers or sisters.”
We had a
good discussion of how we need to relate to others and see a young lady. How would I want someone to treat my sister
or how would I want to someone to treat my future wife. How would I want someone to treat my
daughter.
Remember if
you are tempted to watch that movie or look at that image, that is somebody’s
daughter, that is someone’s sister and they are precious in God’s eyes.
I have
personally been crushed by the devastating effects of immorality in my extended
family and have seen the consequences of sin in the loss of trust and respect
and fractured relationships that are still affected over 10 years later. I have seen it in a previous church ministry
where I served when a pastor and our worship leader had an affair. I saw a vibrant and growing church become a
place that would go through disillusionment and take a number of years to
recover. I watched a fellow youth pastor
lose his ministry and lose the job he loved and I have watched how his family
has struggled for many years.
It’s not
worth it.
- Rejecting purity is in fact rejecting God
v7,8
The
Takeaway
How God
Gets The Glory In Our Bodies!
1
Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are
outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you
not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you
have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your body.
Sexual immorality is a threshold sin. On
one side of the threshold is immorality and on the other is purity. On one side
are guilt, lying, deceit, addiction, and shame, an on the other side are
freedom, honesty, transparency, liberty, and a clear conscience.
Bruce Wilkinson
1. Remember who you are. You are a child of God, a totally new creation,
you are saved, redeemed, justified, forgiven, regenerated, and seated with
Christ in heavenly places. All the promises of God now belong to you. You bear
the name of your Heavenly Father. You are called to live to his glory.
2. “Your dominant thoughts will become
the preview of your future.”
As a man
thinks in his heart, so is he Proverbs
23:7; As water reflects a face, so a man’s
heart reflects the man Proverbs 27:19 So, guard your heart for it is the wellspring
of life. Proverbs 4:23
3. Resources – www.xxxchurch.com
– take the purity challenge. Also check
out www.defenddignity.ca and let your
voice be heard!
Today, tell
God that He gets the glory in this body!
Let the Spirit transform your soul.
