Well, open up your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 4. It seems like every time I preach, either you're getting farther away from me or I'm getting farther away from you. I don't know which it is. Let's look at chapter 4 verse 3, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality." Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, thank You for Your Word; for its great encouragements and its great warnings. And I pray, dear God, that You would settle upon us, that You would make us solemn, serious, before this text. That You would put within us a fear of sin, a love for You, a desire for true piety, to be like Christ. And Lord, take the texts that are going to be read tonight and illumine the hearts of Your people, their minds, that they may see, Lord, the beauty of purity, and the grotesque nature of sin. Lord, that we might walk, as Paul says here, in a way that is pleasing unto You. Lord, help us with Your Spirit. Empower and guide, illuminate our minds to understand. Do a work among us, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.

In the last few sermons, we have been talking about 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-8, and we haven't advanced very much. We've talked about several things in verse 1, about Paul exhorting and beseeching us to live in a manner that is pleasing to God. And that is our great task, and that is the goal of sanctification. In the end, it's that you and I please God in everything that we think and everything that we say, everything we do. That everything be brought in submission to His will.

We also learned that we are to excel, that we're never to see our place in Christianity as if we have arrived, but that we are to continue to excel and excel; to want to do more, to want to be better, to strive to be more like Christ. And we explained that that should never create in your heart the idea that you do not measure up. Why? Because you're not striving to enter God's love, you are striving in the midst of God's love, in the context of a love that you already possess because of the perfect person and work of Jesus Christ.

Now verse 3, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification." We explained also here that your sanctification is not the totality of the will of God. There are many other things, many other aspects of the will of God, but sanctification is extremely important; and I would say, in one sense, a lack of sanctification shuts the door in your life to the rest of God's will. Whereas, taking sanctification seriously opens the door to so many other opportunities and blessings that are ours in Christ. And now we see in verse 3, "That is, that you abstain from sexual immorality."

Now some people would look at this and say, "Sexual impurity, love, why these two things?" Well, not just because these two things are great expressions, but there's a very real sense in which these two things go together. Love, true love for God, true love for others, will lead to sexual purity. And sexual impurity is one of the greatest demonstrations of lovelessness, of selflove, of self-idolatry; and of lovelessness to God, and lovelessness to those around us.

Now I know those are hard words, but they're true. And I can't back up from them. Now, in this sermon what I'm going to do, instead of just breaking down this text, I'm going to take several texts throughout the Bible, because my desire, what I have prayed for, is that a holy fear would settle upon your life. And that you would see how horrifying this sin is. But before I do that let me say this: I don't want to give you one second of comfort. And so in order to take away all comfort from you, I'm going to say this: Sometimes I hear men, especially, use this excuse, "Well, all men struggle with sexual immorality." I want to take that away from you, that's not true. All men should FEAR sexual immorality. All men should constantly be aware of the dangers. But I want you to know, not every man struggles with this. You need to understand that, and not use it as a comfort for your own sin. Now again, that's very hard, but it's very true.

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Copyright. Paul Washer of HeartCry Missionary Society.

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