This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Ignite the Light Ministries radio and podcast. It is our mission to help listeners develop a deeper relationship with Jesus by sharing what the Bible says and what it means. We aim to encourage and equip you to serve others, share the gospel, and reflect Christ in every aspect of your life. I'm Pastor Wyatt Cudd.
Thank you for tuning in.
Alright, uh today we're gonna be continuing in our First Thessalonians series that we've been going through Today we're going to be in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Versus one. Through eight.
Now we've been looking at this Series them, the Thessalonians as the model church, and there's certainly a lot we can learn from them. We've been looking at You know, what makes for a strong church? What makes for a strong conversion? strong people and a strong leader and now we're going to kind of shift gears here. And we're going to be looking at looking at A model church is strong, but what does the model walk?
look like? What does it look like to walk? Scott.
So chapter 4, verses 1 through 8, starting here at verse 1. As for other matters, brothers and sisters, We instructed you how to live. in order to please God. as in fact you are living.
Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. for you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality. That each of you should learn to control your own body. in a way that is holy and honorable.
not in passionate lust Like the pagans, who do not know God. and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all of those who commit such sins. As we told you and warned you, Before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction, does not reject a human being. But God The very God Who gives you? His Holy Spirit.
So in this in these verses we have What? How And why? What do I do? How do I do it? And why do I do it?
Verses 1 to 2, We have Paul's truthful yet loving exhortation, walk to please God, this is the what? What do I do? Walk to please God. Verse 3 to 5, we have this major commandment to be sanctified up and out of lustful passions. This is the house.
How do I walk to please God? We are sanctified and we grow towards God in a way. From sin. Verse 6 to 8. Paul gives some clear reasons to the impact.
of falling into lustful passions of the flesh. This is the why. Why do I walk to please God? There's very good reasons to do so.
So starting here at verse one to two. As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living.
Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. Paul's tone to the Thessalonians is so different than some of his other letters. The Thessalonians, Paul was like, you know, we told you to please God, and you are. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep doing it more and more.
Keep growing in the direction you are growing. You know, that's interesting to me because it's an exhortation. He's telling them what to do, but man, it feels like a pat on the back, doesn't it? Feels like I'm going the right way. Awesome.
Praise God for that. That is not the tone he takes with, say, the church of the Galatians. In the introduction to the Galatians, Paul is like, Grace and peace to you through the Lord Jesus who gave himself to you. I am amazed by just how quickly you have deserted him. That's the tone he takes with the Galatians.
It's totally different. But the truth that Paul speaks in the book of Galatians and in Thessalonians. It is two glimpses of the same truth, the same reality, the same gospel, the same God. Truth Depending on how we relate to God, we'll either feel warm and comforting and affirming, like verse 1 in Thessalonians: Yes, I am honoring God. We just keep doing what we're doing.
Praise God, we're going in the right direction. Or Truth will feel Not warm and comforting, but perhaps like a scalding burn. Oh I'm not honoring God. I've dropped the ball. I've come up short here.
And this exposes me. Truth exposes me and it burns. And we like the Galatians have a choice. Do we praise God for this truth? That convicts us, that prunes us, that pushes us to change and grow now in the right direction.
Do we embrace this? Or do we reject it? In trying to answer this question, another question comes up.
Well, what's the cost? What's the cost of changing? What's the cost of rejecting?
Well, the cost of change to me seems to follow the same pattern. of salvation and accepting the gospel. I ultimately am denying this old self, letting that person die and embrace this truth. And let it give birth to the new self alive in Christ and now closer to Christ. That's the cost of accepting change.
We have to let the old pass away and embrace what's going to be new and closer to Jesus. What's the cost of rejecting?
a not changing in light of a difficult truth.
Well, again, I'm not sure if there's much difference between this and the pattern of salvation. If we reject God, if we reject truth, which all truth belongs to God. What's the cost? It's I see it as like a damn nation to be trapped in the old self. A damnation to remain In this old self, and not moving closer to God, but staying far away, perhaps moving further.
From God. I've thought about this subject deeply this week. The cost of ignoring a painful truth is always going to outweigh the cost of change. Is the end result of change, hopefully. is that we now look more like Christ.
All truth belongs to God, and if I reject truth Am I not rejecting God or some aspect of God or some aspect of God convicting me to now become more like Jesus? If I reject that, Am I not staying in the prison of the old self?
So, verse 1, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact, you're living. Another translation might say, we instructed you how to walk. in order to please God. as in fact you are walking. I like this better.
The Greek uses this verbiage for walking, and I think walking, it's a terrific illustration. You know, we are moving forward with God towards.
Something. And that's something that there's an aim. We're not walking aimlessly. The aim is to be like Jesus. And life is a constant walk with God.
Now if I'm gonna walk You know, doing my thing, I'm going on a walk and Whoo, I'm gonna sit down, though. My dogs are tired. It's just uphill in both directions. I need a rest. What am I doing?
Am I walking? I'm certain no. I'm not walking.
So you see walking, you're either walking or you're not walking. And it's the same thing with God. We are either walking with God or we are not walking with God. If we take a moment to rest in sin, if we take a moment to sit down and stop walking with God, well, we're not. We're not walking.
Walking is a constant thing, and God cares about every single step that we take. Every single one of them. We can't skip any steps in our growth with God. He cares about every single one. And he wants to be there with you intimately in every single one.
Am I pleasing God? and how I walk. Am I pleasing God? and how I live. And God will ultimately be the judge of how we live.
Verse 2, it says, Instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. Walk with God. This is an instruction with the authority of Jesus. This means it's not optional. It's a firm truth of the faith that we must grow in our relationship with Jesus.
Every day, and we will either experience this truth as a warmth, a comfort of yes, I'm doing the right thing, I'm affirmed by this truth, praise God, or we will experience it as a convicting exhortation. Oh, I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I gotta change. And we can say, praise God, I know what I need to know, I need to change. Or we can reject it. And the cost of rejecting is too high.
Verse three to five.
So that's the what. What are we doing? We are walking with God.
Now, the next part: how? How do I walk with God? Verse 3, it is God's will. that you should be sanctified. That you should avoid sexual immorality.
Sanctified from sexual immorality, this is God's will for us. And if it's God's will, there is no will that is higher. Sanctified is to be set apart to God's will, and it is His will for us to have. Moral Purity. Set apart to live pure lives for God.
So, we're to abstain from sexual immorality. What is that? What is what is this? Uh the Greek word is Poor Negas. And the root word pornae is the same root word that we get where pornography from.
Interestingly enough, we're to abstain from Sexual immorality. I think it's actually easier for me to define right sexual ethic than it is to list all the wrong because that list is. really, really long.
So well what's the right sexual ethic here?
Well we have two options. We can dedicate our bodies solely to God and fully abstain, or we can marry and enter into the husband-wife family dynamic, one of love, truth, and loyalty. And those are our two options. We can abstain, or we can enter into a loving marriage. The abstinence option It's rare, but I feel like I have seen people do it well.
When Natasha and I were in Uganda this past summer, we met a woman. There, who was running an orphanage in the tribal areas of Uganda. It was her and a couple of her family members, but she had no husband. She had felt called. I am supposed to abstain and I am married to God.
And that was her calling. And she did it so well. She reminded me of the spirit of Mother Teresa. And I'm like, this person is doing it well. This person is called to this.
It was beautiful. Her family, they cared for dozens. of kids. But for everyone else who is not called to this, Uh marriage is the other option. Temptation is very real.
A desire for intimacy that we don't have now is very real. But if we can tame the wild stallion and saddle him and put a bit in his mouth, it will be a desire that drives us. Drives us to find a person to do life with, or drives us towards our partner that we already have. It can motivate us and push us in the right direction. The problem is when we let that stallion just run free and do whatever.
And that's when problems arise and he gets in all kinds of trouble, you know. Verse 4. That each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable.
So, something interesting here: the NIV says, learn to control your own body. The Greek reads something like, No. Each of you. how to control the vessel of himself. We must know.
how to control our impulses. You know, bit in its mouth, throw a saddle on him. We must know how to control our impulses. What does that word know mean knowledge?
Well if you ask me, hey Wyatt, What's the speed limit on this road out here? And I say, you know. I think it's 45 maybe. I don't really know. I could be wrong.
I think it's 45 though. Do I know it? It's unrestable. It's unlisted. I don't know it, see?
But if I say I think it's this, but I could be wrong, do I know it? Nope. Not if I could be wrong. You should check it yourself. Apparently it's unlisted.
Apparently it can hit eighty out there, right? Realize that, man. The 600 grades of the market.
Okay. Oh well. You learned something over there. Uh So, to know something is to know it beyond a shadow of a doubt, without any question. This is true, there is no doubt.
The believer is to know how how to control themselves. The believers to know that. That means there is no excuse for us, there's no excuse for ignorance or disobedience to God in this matter of sexual purity. To engage in porneas, the sexual immorality of any kind that's not in these two categories, ought to be utterly unthinkable to the believer. The believing husband and wife are to know that they must keep themselves pure and sanctified.
That's the seriousness of this. Uh verse five. Not in passionate lust like the pagans who do not know God. The Greek word for passionate lust is actually two words. Uh it's interesting.
It's uh Pathhe and Epithemius. Apathe is the experience and suffering Of a depraved lust. And Epithemaeus is like the strong longing desire. Both can just be translated to lust.
So Paul is saying. The lust of the lust of pagans.
So it's a double, he's hitting the word twice. It's got this double emphasis because lust can easily enslave us. And the passion of lust and it's the way of the world. It's not the way of God. Because God's path is a path Africa.
And it's this is this this path of of enslavement is Is the lifestyle of those who do not know God, they do not know. Another way.
Now, this doesn't mean that they are not aware that there's something. Wrong. or that there is something morally corrupt. See, God has written the moral law on our hearts. Romans 1.21, that though they knew God, that they denied him.
Um So it means that they've rejected this hard truth, rejected God and His commandments to live. And they rejected him to live in the passion, to live in the prison of their lust. And it goes right back to what we're talking about here at the beginning. We can accept or we can reject a hard truth, but there is always a cost to whatever we do. To accept God and to accept truth is to be changed by it and is to die to the old self and become new.
alive in Christ and closer to Christ. To reject God, to reject a hard truth, is to remain stuck. banned in the current prison. that you're in.
Now a person can call it fun. call it good, we can call it healthy, but a prison Prison's hell. It's not fun. You don't want to be there. You don't want to be in prison.
And I believe as we pass on to the next life, it becomes more clear: no, this is not fun, this is not where I need to be. I am in hell. By my own choice. Walking with God, the destination is to be like Jesus. and with Jesus.
Sanctification, this is a moral purity. This is how we accomplish the walk. We are to be holy like Jesus and solely like Jesus. Wholly like Jesus and solely like Jesus. Sanctification is what we become.
And is what we let go of.
So we have the what? We walk with God. Then we have the how. How do I walk? with God, with sanctification, being separate from the sin of the world and being morally pure with Jesus.
Then the last is the why. Why would I walk with God? Why live a pure life? And there's four reasons we see here in the text that stand as a strong warning to us. The first is that immorality Cheats are brothers and sisters.
Verse 6 it says, And in this matter, no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. Sexual immorality steals from someone. It can either take a wife from her husband or a husband from his wife. It steals the heart, the affection, the thoughts, the body, the innocence. It steals the trust.
And it's very sad because These things can't be fully recovered.
Now, I want to be clear. It can be fully forgiven. God can forgive all things. But there's real and lasting consequences to our sin and our actions.
Now the same applies to the unmarried. The person who seduces an unmarried person steals steals their heart, steals their affection, their thoughts. Their trust, they steal them from that person's future spouse. And I call it stealing because though a person can willingly give these things, They don't belong to us. Because before God, they don't belong to us.
Before God, we do not have the right to take them. They don't belong to us.
So that's the first reason. The second reason is that God will avenge. Immorality. He is the ultimate judge, and he will avenge immorality. The Lord will punish all of those who commit such sins.
as we told you and warned you before. And we we live in a country, a culture that seems like everything is Hypersexualized these days from movies to dress to advertisements. Is everything like is sexualized and and God is ultimately the judge, not society, of what is acceptable and unacceptable. Our society certainly doesn't make the rules of what is right, And what is wrong? God does.
And it says here, God will avenge immorality. There will be judgment for this.
So that's a warning to us. Third reason We're just called to be more. We're called out of this. We're called to be like Jesus. Verse 7: For God did not call us to be impure, He called us to live a holy life.
And when God called us to salvation, forgiveness, uh of our sins. We have forgiveness for it, but that's not a license for us to continue in sin no we are called out of sin we're called to be on a walk With God. It's destructive. Sin is destructive. It destroys love.
Trust It destroys discipline and a call uh it destroys our freedom. List goes on, but God's call to us is to be holy and separate from sin. That's the third reason.
Now the fourth reason why do we do this is that immorality is a direct offense against God. Verse 8, it says, Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being. But rejects God. The very God who gave you His Holy Spirit.
Now, maybe the unbelieving world rejects this notion of purity. It's just like, nah, that's old-fashioned. That's out of date. We gotta get with the times.
Now we're in this intellectual, enlightened society. There's no space for purity. But scripture says Anyone who rejects this instruction Rejects God. Brothers and sisters. When we are confronted with a Hard truth.
Do not shy away from it. It's better to embrace it knowing that all truth belongs to God. Embrace all truth and let it change you and shape you into everything God intends you to be. And I, as your pastor, will do my best. Command message.
In conclusion, the Thessalonians are a model church. A model church is strong, but we've been looking at today what does the model walk look like? What does it look like to walk with God? In these verses today, we have what do I do? Why do I do it?
Or no. How do I do it? And why do I do it? I walk with God. How do I do it?
By being sanctified, growing towards God and away from sin. And lastly, why? Why do I do it? Because it wounds my brothers and sisters. God will punish sin.
We are called to be more and ultimately Embracing sin is a rejection. Oh god. Uh But it's primarily. Hey there. I hope this sermon has enriched your day.
If you like this message, I want to personally invite you to join us for Sunday worship. We have two locations in Virginia. Trinity Methodist Church in Concord, and Mount Comfort Methodist Church in Appomattox. Come join us Sunday morning at 9.45 and we will help you get connected. As always, I'm Pastor Wyatt Hudd.
Thank you for tuning in.
