Well, if you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Our text tonight is the first eight verses. 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 through 8. Paul writes, Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has given us His Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, if I were to ask you tonight, What is your greatest longing in life? What is your heart's desire? The foremost desire of your heart. If the Lord were to grant you the answer to only one more prayer, and you knew that He would answer it, what would you pray? What would you ask for? Would that prayer be, oh God, let me live a life that is pleasing in your sight. Is that your greatest desire? To live a life that is pleasing in the sight of God? Is that the greatest longing of your life? Is that what you wake up with each morning? With a desire and a drive to please God? We live in a day when almost everyone, and unfortunately many, within the church live so as to please themselves. Many seek their own pleasure, their own comfort, their own pursuits. But as Christians, we ought to have a different goal. We ought to have a different desire and a different longing in our heart to please God. That ought to be the driving motivation in our life, to live for God's pleasure, not to serve ourselves, not to pursue our own fleshly lust, but to look to God in His word and say, God, how would you have me to live? What pleases you, oh God? In everything we do, in all of life, we are to live with an eye to the pleasure of Almighty God. Do you always have an eye to God's pleasure in all that you do, in all of life? Well, that's the primary exhortation in our text tonight. Live, he says to the Thessalonians, live so as to please God. Walk in such a way as to please God. He says, finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more just as you have received from us how you ought to walk and to please God. The apostle, the great apostle is pleading and urging and exhorting them, go on in a life that is pleasing to God. The Christian life is a life aimed at the very pleasures of God. And surely this teaches us at the very beginning that the Christian life is a relational life. It's God that's at the forefront. Paul is not here primarily focused on the rules or on following the rules, but he's saying to the Thessalonians, look to God, live to please God. Yes, he'll give us commands in a few moments, and we'll work through those. But in the first place, he's calling them to develop their relationship with God. He's urging them and exhorting them in the first place to seek God and to focus upon God in all that He does. That's His primary focus. Look to God in your life and walk so as to please God. This must be our starting point as well here at Redeemer Baptist Church. Our starting point must be a relationship with God. This is what must motivate and drive us forward in all of our obedience, in all of our keeping of the commands of God. It must not be done that we can puff out our chest and walk around, as Calvin says in one place, like proud peacocks fanning our feathers all over the place. We don't obey for those reasons. We obey because it brings pleasure to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to our Creator and our Redeemer. And so we live so as to please Him. A life pleasing to God must flow out of a relationship with God, a relationship in which we have received His love and love Him in return. But a life that is pleasing to God is a life of growing and increasing holiness. That's what he says in verse 7. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. The life that goes on pleasing God is a life of holiness before Him. When Paul urges and exhorts them to walk and to please God, he's urging and exhorting them to a life of greater holiness. greater purity in His sight. He's calling them to a life marked by God-like character. He's saying to them, be like God. Mimic your Father. Bear the family resemblance. He says, in effect, this is what God has called you to. This is what's pleasing to Him. In fact, He says in verse 3, and you hear today people say, how do I know God's will? What is God's will? Paul tells the Thessalonian church in verse 3, this is the will of God for you. Your sanctification. Your holiness. God's will for your life is to be ever increasing in the likeness and character of God. That's what it means. What is sanctification? The Baptist catechism asks. And the answer is this way. Sanctification is a work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, growing in likeness with him. and enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. This is God's will for your life, that you would be renewed in the image of God, conformed to the very likeness of His Son. We all know Romans 8.28. That's a well-known and famous passage. All things work together for good. But do you remember Romans 8.29? For whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. He has called us out of this world. He has saved us and redeemed us. He has elected us from before the foundation of the world, before time began, not merely that we could go into heaven and avoid hell, but that we might be like Him, that we might be conformed to His image. Or Ephesians 1-4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world for what purpose? That we should be holy and without blame before Him. He has chosen you that you might live a holy life that is pleasing in His sight. He has called us to this. He has declared this to be His will for your life. He has declared that this is a life pleasing to Him, that we, that you, would be more and more conformed to the image of Christ, that you would bear His likeness and His character in your life. And this is not something that happens all at once at the beginning of the Christian life. It's not even something that happens as a part of the Christian life as some dramatic event in your life for most of us. There's no second blessing that we're saying will zap us and make us holy. This is something that we grow in gradually and increasingly as we spend time with God in the Word. It is something that we are to grow in, to be ever increasing in us. We're to progress in it. And that's the very image that we have in verse 1. How you ought to walk. You walk so as to go somewhere. You're making progress in a certain direction. Paul is saying walk in this way. Grow in this way. Make progress in your sanctification and in holiness. And he says that they're capable of growing in it. He has praised them for their order. He has praised them for their zeal, how they received the Word as it was indeed the Word of God. He has praised them for the way that they have sent the Word out all over the region. You would say, Paul, they're pleasing God. Look at how you've praised them over and over and over again. And he says, now do it more. Abound in it more and more. Don't let up. Don't stop. Don't sit down. Keep walking in the way of holiness. Go on and grow in holiness before God. Abound more and more in a life that is pleasing to God. In other words, for all that He had to praise them for, He says that they had not yet arrived at that state of full conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. And do you know what? Not one of you have arrived either. I have not arrived. We all must press on in the way of holiness. No matter what we've achieved in the Christian life, no matter what He's blessed us with, no matter the level of holiness you may possess, we can abound in it yet more and more. in a life pleasing to Him. There's still progress to be made. And yet, here's the good news. You are, by God's grace, capable of living a life pleasing to Him. He receives our work and our effort through Jesus Christ. But what is the foundation of a holy life? We said that it must flow out of a relationship with God. It's relational. But what is the very foundation of a holy life? The foundation for a holy life is faith. A faith that unites us to Jesus Christ. And Paul makes that very clear with this connection in verse 1. Most of your translations probably say, finally then, brethren. As if Paul has finished what he really wants to say, and now he's going to just string along some extra commands. While I've sort of got you on the other end, let me give you a series of commands. but is maybe more correctly translated, furthermore, or even now therefore. Now therefore, because of what's come before, go on to live this life. It connects us to what has come before in the passage. And what's come before in the passage is this great visit from Timothy. He sent Timothy back to check on them, to see. He says, I was concerned about your faith. I was concerned to see that you were continuing in the faith. And Timothy has now brought news to Paul saying, Paul, the brothers and sisters live a life of faith. They're eager to see you. They're going on in the work. The work continues with them. They have a true and a real faith there. And so receiving that report, praising them for what Paul himself knew, and now hearing that they continued in the faith, Paul says, now therefore on this foundation, live a certain way, live a life of holiness. We can keep rules without faith, but we cannot please God without faith. He doesn't just throw in a lot of rules here in the last two chapters of the book. He's building on a foundation of faith. Yes, there are commands in the Christian life that you must keep, but however you may keep them, if you do not have faith, and if your life of holiness does not flow out of faith, you cannot please God. A life pleasing to God is a life of faith. That's just to say that a true, truly holy life cannot be achieved by technique. It can be achieved by programs and technique. We heard this morning of Bill Gothard. That is a technique to holiness. There are other techniques. People have different variations. A holy life is not a programmatic life. If you do these things, you'll be holy. It doesn't consist primarily in rule keeping. because holiness is primarily an issue of the heart. That's why Paul first secured their faith and secured a knowledge that they were continuing in the faith before he laid down these commands to them. It is the heart that God is concerned with. And it is obedience from the heart that He is concerned with. However clean you may be on the outside, if your heart is not clean, I promise you God is not pleased. Matthew 23, 27 and following says this, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Why does he label them so strongly? For you are likened to whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Matthew 15, 19, for out of the heart precede evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. We may by technique and we may by the following of certain programs, we may sort of dam up all our iniquities and all our propensities towards sin. We may build a wall and hold them all back. But if we do not have faith, the dam will eventually break. And everyone and everything downstream from us will be destroyed. That's just the truth of the matter. We can hold back sin only so long without faith. We must live a life of faith. Mere rule keeping will never suffice to put away sin. It will always rear its head Again, while a holiness that pleases God is not achieved by technique or by legalistic rule keeping, we are nevertheless commanded, this is a strong term, commanded to avoid certain things and to pursue other things. Look at verse two. For you know what commandments, military orders is the word, that our Lord and Savior has issued orders to us, commandments to us. You know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ. These orders, these commandments come from the authority of the Son of God, our Lord, who has bought us with a price. He has given us commands, and we are to follow those commands from a position of faith. Specifically in our text, we're told we are to abstain from fornication or sexual immorality. Verse 3, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality or fornication. This word translated sexual immorality is the broadest term used for sexual impurity. That is to say it this way. There is to be no form, no place in any way for sexual impurity in the life of a believer. None at all. He's saying put it under the broadest umbrella that you can find. There is no place for sexual immorality in the life of a believer or in the church. Sexual desires outside the bounds of marriage. If you're single, he says it should have no place in your life. That you should mortify those desires. They're to have no place. Adulterous desires, if you're married, they are to have no place in your life. Homosexual desires are forbidden by the command of Jesus Christ, by his military orders, with his authority. Galatians 5.3, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for the saints. is not even to be mentioned among you. There is to be no place for it in your life. Colossians 3.5, therefore, put to death your members which are on earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion. Put it to death. First Peter 2.11, beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Notice that in our text and in the text quoted, we're not told to moderate our desires for immorality. We're not told to keep them at bay or to check them a little bit. We're not told to keep them within some sort of reasonable bounds. We're not told that You know, if they break out from time to time, that's okay. We're told that they must be put to death, destroyed, crucified, mortified. We're not to control them. We're not to moderate them in that way. They are to be killed off in our life. I want to say here just a word about some of the things that go on in our day and are, we're being told are acceptable in the church. A word about LGBT and trans Christians, they're homosexuals and trans people who claim to be Christians, we're being told now. that we ought to accept them into the life of the church, that God has made them this way, that these are desires they cannot control, and now, I think the term they use is side B Christians. So, what they mean by that is, I'm a Christian, I'm homosexual, but I recognize that the practice of that is wrong. I can't do anything about my desires and my attractions. You should accept me in as a homosexual Christian or as a transgender Christian. I would submit to you that this is a great lie and has deceived many in our day and is deceiving many in the church today and is sweeping away many of our young people today who hear this message that I can be a Christian and yet be homosexual. or that I can have these homosexual desires and as long as I don't practice them, that's okay. But would we ever say to a married man, it's okay if you have adulterous desires. As long as you don't act upon them, that's okay. We would never say such a thing. The very desire is sin. It is wrong. It is forbidden in the Scriptures, and it must be crucified. It must be acknowledged as sin, and it must be confessed as sin, and it must be put to death as sin. And you know the passage in 1 Corinthians 6. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Listen to how he describes them. Do not be deceived. Many are being deceived in our day. Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were. some of you, not are. not content to live with these sinful desires and attractions, just not practicing, you were. They're no longer labeled in that way. Those things have been crucified in their life. That's what a Christian is. A Christian is one who has crucified these lusts and passions. Were some of you, not are some of you. Brothers and sisters, we must be clear about this. This fight, this war, he says, Peter says, is a war for your soul. It is a war for the souls of our young people. These temptations, these attractions and desires drag people down into hell. We must never concede the war with our sinful desires and be content to live with them with the intention that we just won't act on them. whether they're aberrant heterosexual desires or homosexual desires. So then I've said holiness flows from a life of faith, it's not primarily a matter of rule keeping, and yet here are some rules that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us. So now I want to ask this question, how then do we follow this command in a gospel way? How do we square those two things? It's not primarily about rules, and yet here are the rules. How do we mortify these sins and live this way, live so as to please God in a gospel way? Well, first of all, we need to say this. When I say that we must not pursue it by way of technique or program, I do not mean to imply that we should not put safeguards in place or guardrails in place. That is not incompatible with the gospel to put safeguards in place. We are to make no provision for the flesh. And that means at times we put safeguards. If you have these struggles, It may be wise to move your computer to a more public part of the house. You may need to put certain locks on your phone so that certain sites aren't available to you. I don't know what it is in your life, what safeguards you need, and I'm not going to legalistically pronounce to you what they are, but that's not incompatible with the gospel. What is incompatible with the Gospel is to put these safeguards in place, live according to the safeguards, without ever having this increasing faith and love for God, without ever dealing with the heart of the issue, without ever mortifying the sins of the flesh. So how do we keep it in a Gospel way? First, by knowing God. Did you see it in verse 5? He's telling them, you shouldn't live like the Gentiles in their lusts and passions who commit all these sexual immoralities that the Roman Empire and the Greek world was known for. Why do they live that way? He says, because they do not know God. They live the way they live because they do not know God. Distorted views of God always lead to a distorted Christian life. We need to know God more. We need to love God more. Wasn't this one of Eve's problems in the garden? God had blessed her with everything in the garden. And Satan came and distorted that view so that all she could focus on is, you've kept me back from this one tree. You must be some sort of an ogre. The tree looks so good to me. It looks like it would taste good. It looks like it would be healthy and helpful to me. And with that distorted view, she reached for the fruit of that tree. And that happens to us in this realm, where we look around and we think, well, his wife looks like she would be so good to me. Her husband would be so much better than my husband. God is surely restraining me from something that everybody else enjoys. This is to live like Gentiles who do not know God and are not convinced of the unbounded goodness of God in what He's given to us. How do we keep these commands in a gospel way? by knowing God. Love for God drives out and displaces love for our sinful desires. It pushes out all of those desires. Secondly, we keep it in a gospel way by being assured that this is what God has called us to. We touched on it earlier. Our culture questions biblical norms of sexuality every day. And they're calling on us as the church to question biblical norms for sexuality as well. Andy Stanley pastors a huge church in Atlanta. immensely influential in leadership circles in evangelical churches. And in the very near future, he's having a conference calling church leaders to come and hear all these pastors and men who are going to teach them that it's okay to be homosexual and Christian, and that they, in many cases, have more faith than straight Christians, and that we ought to welcome them into our church, not tell them about their sin, and embrace them. And there may soon be great pressure applied to us by the government to accept new norms of sexuality. We keep it in a gospel way when we're not unsure about these things, when we don't listen to all the voices, when we are convinced this is what God's Word teaches us. Thus saith the Lord, you must be convinced from Scripture. Paul says to the Corinthians, don't be deceived here. You will not inherit the kingdom of God. Then he says in our text, he who rejects these things doesn't reject man, he rejects God. This is God's word, we must be convinced of it. Unless you think that I'm picking only on homosexuals out there somewhere. Let me be clear, men, You must be clear here. Your seemingly harmless addiction to pornography will drag you to hell. You will not inherit the kingdom of God. It'll drag you to hell just as fast as your homosexual coworker. And women, you may not struggle with visual temptations in the sexual realm like men, But yet you're in the ordinate longing for the stability that someone else's husband provides. That adulterous thought will drag you down to hell. It has wrecked many a home. We must mortify these things. They're not games. We can't play with them. Eternity is in the balance with these issues. God himself has commanded us. Thirdly, We keep it in a gospel way by maintaining a high and holy view of marriage. Marriage is a great help in this struggle with sexual immorality, and it is a gift from God. Verse four teaches us that. Each of you should know how to possess this vessel in sanctification and honor. If we are to keep biblical norms of sexual relationships in the life of the church, we must have a high view of marriage. view it as one of the great gifts God gives us on this earth. And I know Paul's exhortation, and I've heard it said by many a young man, is better to marry than to burn. And that is true. That is God's Word. But we must be careful that our marriages are more than an outlet for us to exercise sexual passions and lusts. There's no place for that sort of selfishness in marriage. It is to be in sanctification and honor. It is a high and holy thing that God has given us and given us our spouses. Marriage is not merely an outlet for lustful desires. It is a real friendship. It is a deep companionship. And God has not given you your spouse so that you can be selfish in this way and go beyond and defraud your partner in this way. He's given you a spouse that you might hold them in sanctification and honor, that you might love them, that you might give to them, even sexually, in a non-selfish way, in a giving way, I might say, again, in a God-like way. Within marriage, sex is to be fun and free and frequent. It is not at all to be selfish, self-centered. It is not the fulfilling of lustful passions which dishonor the spouse, but it is a giving of oneself to another in a way that honors the Almighty. And because it is good, and because it is a great gift from God, it is something that we ought to pray about. You ought to pray about this aspect of your relationship. You ought to pray about it with your spouse. We ought not to have a sneaking suspicion that God has given the gift of sex within the bounds of marriage as somehow this sort of slightly dirty or wrong or at best as a concession to our weaknesses. He's given it to us because He loves us and He recognizes that this is good and positive and it honors Him. Fourthly, we keep this commandment in a gospel way by the grace and power of the Holy Ghost. Notice in the latter part of verse eight, therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us his Holy Spirit. He has not left us alone in the struggle. He has not laid down the law, issued His commands, and then says, by your own strength and power and the grit of your teeth, go out there and keep my commands. He has given to us this gift of the Holy Spirit. He's not left us alone. Romans 8, 15, For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. God, by His Spirit, listen, He's ever ready to help. He's ever ready to come to our aid in our struggles, in our temptations, in our trials, in all of our sin. He's ready to help. He's ready for us to cry out for that help. And this, in Romans 8.15, this cry of Abba Father, sometimes we think of that as, man, that's for the super Christian. That's for the one that's really close to God. That's for the one that's really made progress in holiness. This crying of Abba Father is for the weak and the struggling, for the one who's fallen down, who cannot continue, who feels as if they will not make it, who is dying and struggling in their sins, to cry out, Abba Father, God help me. And He's given us the spirit that we might do it. This is our great help in this struggle against sexual immorality. God is not asking or commanding you to grit your teeth and power through in your own strength, but He's given the Spirit that you might call on Him in time of need. Now, I want to close with a brief word to those who have failed or are failing in the area of sexual immorality. It must be stated plainly, you are in great danger. Every other sin that is committed is outside the body. The Lord himself makes a distinction that this sin, by several reasons, aggravations is more serious than other sins. This is a serious sin. And in our passage, Paul says, the Lord is the avenger of all such. If you are failing or have failed in this area, you are in great danger. 1 Corinthians 6 again, if you continue in this way, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. Romans 8, 13, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. You are in danger. Repent. Why will you die? Repent. It is a bad trade to trade eternity for a momentary pleasure. But secondly, you're not doomed. You are not doomed yet. If you have air in your lungs, you are not doomed to hell. Yet, there is real hope in helping God. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins. Do not listen to the lie of the evil one that says, you've gone too far. There's no way back. He'll not receive you now. Yes, it's serious. Yes, you're in danger. But through Christ, He has provided for you a way back into His presence, a way back into communion with Him, a way to restore that fellowship with Him. Just like in the story of the prodigal, the father stands with arms wide open, eager to receive all who come to him, confessing their sins. acknowledging their failures. Jesus promised us that all who come to Me, I'll cast none out. That's not only for initial conversion. We may come to the Lord Jesus Christ over and over and over again. There's boundless mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Our God is a gracious Father. Come to Him confessing and acknowledging your sins, and He has promised He will not turn you away. That's the greatest news you'll ever hear. However you may have failed, however often and however much and however far you have fallen, if you return confessing your sins through the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be accepted by Him. that is pleasing to God, and I hope that is the longing of your heart. A life that is pleasing to God is one that by the gospel and help of the Spirit turns away from sexual immorality, confessing it as sin, and comes confessing to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a life that's pleasing to God. It may not be a perfect life, but it's a life of increasing holiness. always practicing repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we acknowledge the confusion that we see in the world as it relates to these issues. And we acknowledge our own propensities and desires and we pray that you would grant us more of your spirit, that we might be enabled to cry out, Abba, Father, and receive help from you. I pray for those who struggle here, for those who have fallen, for those who feel there's no way back, I pray that you would make the gospel clear to them, that they might see your smiling face, that they might recognize the grace that you have given to them, that they might come to their senses and flee to the Father's house. and receive grace to help in time of need. In Jesus' name, amen.