It should be brought to somebody's attention that the

indicate that the average married couple has a sexual

times a week, the average length of which is eight

you with a lot more time to do something else that must

dependent upon the quality or lack of in the relationship.

A new book crossed my desk this week, the title of it is The AIDS
Epidemic, it was written by a couple of medical doctors, Glen Wood and
John Deitrick. And in that book there were several very helpful
paragraphs. One of them goes like this, "A society spends the most time
and energy once the basic necessities of life are satisfied on what it
deems most important. In ancient Hebrew and American Puritan writings
one can hardly read a single paragraph without encountering a reference
to God Almighty. What items have replaced God in our communications
media? Only sex, money and self-love satisfy the time and energy
requirements for what is sacred in our culture. These are the gods of a
new age," end quote.

Obviously we are very much aware that daily we are bombarded with this
encroaching sexual idolatry. Recently I noted as I was going through the
first section of the L.A. Times a half-dressed girl advertising the body
beautiful on every single page of the first section of the L.A. Times
except the first three pages. That is the god of this culture. And all
of that body beautiful is somehow related to that sexual idolatry.
Sexual revolution has obviously been successful. The rebels have totally
overthrown traditional Christian values and morals and they've come up
with the new theology of the God of immorality.

Now to help you understand this theology of the God of immorality, let
me just see if I can't give you some of the basic tenets of this
particular theology. Here's one...since people are basically good
everything they do is basically good. And their sexual activity is just
a way to please others. That's one of the basic tenets of sexual
theology. Obviously it's a lie. The truth is immorality destroys instead
of pleasing and helping others.

The second in their theological statement might go like this...since
immorality or sexual activity is only a biological function like eating,
it is a necessity that must be satisfied without restrictions. In other
words, we're simply biological creatures, we're simply...we're simply
the last step at least for now in the evolutionary chain and we ought to
function in accord with whatever instincts are operating within us.

A third premise in their doctrinal statement might go like this...since
casual sex, whatever in the world that is, is just a form of fun and
pleasure, it should be enjoyed recreationally with anyone any time who
agrees.

A fourth rule, a standard by which they live is...fulfilling sexual
desire is the goal of life, rather than making meaningful relationships.

It should be brought to somebody's attention that the latest statistics
indicate that the average married couple has a sexual relationship three
times a week, the average length of which is eight minutes. That leaves
you with a lot more time to do something else that must rise or fall,
dependent upon the quality or lack of in the relationship.

And the theology of the new idol god, the new god, sex, would also have
another principle, it might go like this...instant pleasure is much more
important than delayed gratification. Grab it now, get it immediately.

Another one of their tenets might say something like this...good sex
relations mean a good relationship, so start every relationship with sex
and if its good it will lead to a good relationship. Live together to
determine sexual compatibility, then you can decide whether you want to
get married.

Statistics clearly show that people who live together have a far higher
rate of divorce than people who don't. That doesn't seem to deter their
perspective.

And then one other principle of this new theology of immorality might go
like this...have safe sex so you don't get a disease or a baby. But if
you get a baby just kill it.

Now this is the theology of the new idolatry. And there might be more
that could be said. We understand all of that. Paul understood all of
that because if anything in Thessalonica it might have been worse than
it is in our culture. You see, there were absolutely no Christian
traditions anywhere in the fabric of Thessalonica because Christianity
hadn't even arrived there yet. At least in America we have something we
can go back to that is still found at points in the fabric of our laws
and how we live.

Our society is fast being devastated. The result of all of these kinds
of things is a destroyed family and the result of destroyed families is
destroyed society. I guess the thing that disturbs me most is that the
church appears to be so deceived by this new idolatry as to have fallen
victim to it.

Again Wood and Deitrick have some good insight. They say this regarding
the church, "Although few Christians accept the basic goodness of man,
we do worse and accept the basic goodness of ourselves. We are
vulnerable to the sins of the flesh as we have seen repeatedly among
Christian leaders and laity alike. We compete with the world's hyper-
sexuality, saying that good sex will make a good marriage when it is
commitment, communication and sacrifice that come first. By implying
that sex is the key to marriage, we teach our unmarried youth to focus
on the physical in their relationships with the opposite gender. We
encourage technique instead of commitment. And we prepare all for
disappointment in marriage because sex is not meant to be the ultimate
satisfaction." And I like this, they say, "Marriage is two lumpish
people joining together with all their faults. How can we expect total
bliss from that? We have embraced eros instead of agape love. And no
Greek word could better describe the sexual revolution than eros, the
advocates of this sexual freedom would unashamedly agree, this is the
heart of the problem because eros is love that desires to have or
possess and so is basically self-centered. A person controlled by eros
enters a relationship, if there is a relationship at all, to seize what
he desires. The Christian version of this is the adoption of self-
actualizing psychology which demands self-fulfillment in marriage in
place of sacrifice," end quote.

The church has literally imbibed this. And when you go back and look at
the roots of it all, you really could start with Charles Darwin. Once
the thinking of Charles Darwin, which I believe was certainly spawned by
Satan, invaded the world and said, "We are not the creatures of God, we
are simply the products of chance," then all morality was questionable.
If we are nothing but the result of a collection of atoms that occurred
some time in the past or something that crawled out of some primeval
ooze somewhere, then there is no real morality. Charles Darwin
influenced people like Karl Marx who took Darwinian evolution to its
logical extreme politically and he influenced people like Sigmund Freud
who took Darwinian evolution to its extreme in terms of psychology and
personal behavior. They influenced people like Friedrich Nietzsche who
decided that really there was no God, God was dead, family life was
unimportant. All that was important was pleasure and fulfillment.

The influence philosophers like Bertrand Russell who mocked all
Christian values and along came people influenced by them. Margaret
Sanger who founded Planned Parenthood, Ernest Hemingway, probably the
most classically famous Hedonist in western culture. Havlok(?) Ellis(?),
Margaret Mead, Alfred Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, Hugh Hefner, and they
all flow out of that same basic line of philosophical thinking. What you
have is a sexual revolution produced by atheistic, hedonistic, pleasure-
mad, anti- family, homosexual, pornographic, perverted people. It
starts, as it were, supposedly in the environs of science and
philosophy, it ends up in behavior. And mix that kind of behavior with
alcohol and drugs and you have the American culture. And what is so
frightening about it is that the church doesn't seem to be aware of
what's happening and it jumps on the self-fulfilling, feeling good
bandwagon, unwittingly capitulating to the philosophy of atheists and
evolutionists.

And I guess we would have to say that in Paul's time the kind of
behavior that existed there would have been as bad, and as I said
earlier maybe worse, there was no shame attached to immoral behavior at
all in Paul's time. No shame attached to any sexual conduct at all.
There was in that society a plethora of prostitutes, concubines,
mistresses, homosexuals, pedophiles, transvestites, temple harlots,
adulterers and adulteresses and they abounded in that culture. In fact,
it was from that very mass of people that the churches were plucked.
Paul says to the Corinthians, "And such were some of you." What?
"Fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, effeminates."

Now keep in mind that as Paul is writing back to the Thessalonians, he's
writing to some people who have only been Christians a few months.
They're in every sense baby Christians. He spent but a few weeks there
in the Jewish synagogue, a few weeks more, no doubt, evangelizing
Gentiles. He's been gone a few months and now writing back deeply
concerned that these people are not falling victim to the pull of their
old habits and the pressure of that ungodly immoral culture. And when he
finally then in chapter 4 gets to what he really wants to say, the first
thing on his list is this matter of immorality. The dominating idolatry
of their day was sexual immorality, as it is of our day.

Now what is Paul's word to a people who are in the muck of that kind of
society? Last week we looked at the first. It told you there were three
simple questions...what, how and why. And we looked at the what last
time...what is the command? Go to verse 3 and I'll just review briefly.
What is the command he gives? "For this is the will of God, your
sanctification." By the way, that statement overarches the entire
remainder of this letter. Everything he's going to say fits into the
will of God, even your sanctification, your holiness, your purity.

The first thing covered is this, that you abstain from sexual
immorality. That's his first command, his first exhortation. That's the
"what"...that's what he wants to say. Now remember last time I told you
that people who habitually live in sexual immorality will not enter
heaven. They'll go to hell forever. First Corinthians 6 says they don't
enter the Kingdom. Galatians 5 says they don't enter the Kingdom.
Revelation 21:8 and 22:15 says they're outside heaven. People who have
this kind of habitual behavior go to hell. They're consigned to an
eternal hell of damnation. Yet Christians can do these things. We're not
exempt from them as long as the new creation exists incarcerated in
unredeemed human flesh, there is the capability for us to commit those
sins. I do not believe we will live in an unbroken pattern of that.
People who live in an unbroken pattern of immorality end up in hell,
that's what the Bible says. But Christians can commit those sins. Very
clearly the Scripture indicates that. It may have been such sins that
were on the mind of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 when he says,
"How in the world can you come to the Lord's table when you've just been
at the table of demons?" Maybe he's saying, "How in the world can you
come and take the bread and cup when you've just had a relationship with
a temple prostitute to worship a false god?"

It is obviously true of Christians that we can commit these sins. So the
basic command comes to us and assumes that capability and says "abstain
from sexual immorality." And what is he asking for? Total abstinence.
And somebody will always say, "Well it says stay away from sex sin, how
far away?" Far enough away to do the will of God, far enough away to be
sanctified, set apart, pure and holy, untainted and unstained. Stay away
from sin, so far away that you are unstained. That was the command, we
went through that in detail last time, total abstinence from sexual sin.

Now for this morning let's ask the second question...how? How can I keep
that command? We are incessantly bombarded with this stuff, we live in a
society that worships immorality. It is rampant in our world. Our flesh
is temptable. We are over exposed to all of this. We might say we are
over exposed to being under exposed. We are in a situation in our
culture where we get over exposed to the immorality but under exposed to
the divine implications of it. So I want to see if I can't bring a
little balance to that. How can I protect myself? How can I live a pure
life in an impure society? How can I not be stained when my flesh is
weak?

Three principles...three principles Paul gives. Very basic, very direct.
Principle number one, don't let your body control you. Don't let your
body control you, look at verse 4, "That each of you know how to possess
his own vessel in sanctification and honor." That each one of you means
all of us as Christians. Every one of you individually.

Now what is he saying there? He's saying that this is something that you
must do. It would be nice to think that I could have some kind of
accountability relationship to somebody who could control my body for
me. It can't be done. That each one of you must know how to possess his
own vessel in sanctification and honor. The verb "know" here, adoni(?),
is often used to mean to know how and that's its meaning here. The
knowledge or the skill necessary to accomplish a desired goal is the
idea. So every individual Christian is to know how...now note this
little verb "to possess"...it means to gain mastery over. Every
individual Christian is to know how to gain mastery over...what?...his
own, something very personal, vessel. The word is skeuos, it means
utensil, implement, vessel.

Now some say the word vessel means wife. In fact I read probably 20
commentaries this week to see what they said about this and the majority
of them said it means wife. I don't know how they can conclude that, to
be honest with you. Why would he say that in the middle of a context
about sexual immorality? Each one of you know how to gain mastery over
your wife. What is he saying that she is a tool for your sexual
gratification and what you've got to do is get mastery over her so she
succumbs? Is she a tool? Is she an instrument or an implement? Those who
hold that view will endeavor to make a parallel between this and 1 Peter
3:7 where it says, "the woman is the weaker vessel," but that is an
inadequate parallel because in 1 Peter 3:7 the woman is called skeuos,
she is the weaker skeuos but the man therefore by comparative is a weak
skeuos. So both of them are vessels there. The Bible does not see the
man as the power and the sovereignty and the woman as a tool in his hand
for his own gratification. No, no comparison with 1 Peter 3:7 works
because there the woman is a weaker vessel, the man by comparative is a
weak vessel. She is not the vessel of the man, they are both the vessels
of God.

Furthermore, the context here is not about marriage and wife, it's about
body. The view, I think, of skeuos here that sees the woman as some kind
of tool for a man is very demeaning to women and furthermore makes
nonsense out of verse 5, "Possess his own vessel in sanctification and
honor and not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know
God." If he's talking about your wife, it's fine to have a passion for
your wife so why would he even say that? It wouldn't make any sense.

The term skeuos is used metaphorically for utensils, for tools,
sometimes for people like in Acts 9:15, 2 Timothy 2:21, 2 Corinthians
4:7. And in some Jewish literature in rabbinical sources it is even used
of the body. And that is its meaning here. It's not about controlling
your wife, your wife isn't your problem, it's about controlling you,
your body is your problem. It's your unredeemed human flesh that is the
beachhead to sin. That's why Paul says in Romans 8, "We wait for the
redemption of...what?...of the body." It's our body that gets us into
trouble. That's why Scripture says you've got to renew
your...what?...your mind. You've got to renew your mind. Repeatedly does
Paul say that in a number of his epistles. Don't let your body control
you.

Now we live in a society where the body is in control. The bottom line
philosophy is "if it feels good...what?...do it." You don't use your
mind, bury your mind, man, and do whatever your body tells you. Like
that great theological statement in "You light up my life" which says,
"This can't be wrong because it feels so right." Truth by feeling. We
are a society that has literally committed some kind of suicide in terms
of thinking and left the body to live and dictate conduct. Our society
is totally controlled by bodily feelings. Whatever you feel you do it,
you're just an animal, you're at the end of the evolutionary chain, it's
an impulse, fulfill it. Don't...says the Scripture...let your body
control you.

Look at 1 Corinthians...well just remember 1 Corinthians 6:12 we won't
turn to it...well we better, 1 Corinthians 6:12, cause I want to make a
couple of points. First Corinthians 6:12, Paul says at the end of the
verse, "I will not be mastered by anything, I will not be mastered by
anything, I will not become a victim of anything." And then he makes is
specific in verse 13 what he's talking about. "Food is for the stomach
and the stomach is for food." Remember I told you that was sort of a
cute little saying that the Corinthians had which was very much like the
saying today, "It's only biological." Hey, food for the stomach and the
stomach for food. It's just biological. Sex for the body and the body
for sex, that was the idea. That was the implication of that little
statement.

But he says in verse 13, "The body is not for immorality but for the
Lord and the Lord is for the body." That's wrong. The body cannot be
allowed to do whatever it wants. The body cannot be allowed to master
you. "Do you...verse 15...take...do you know that your bodies are
members of Christ?" Are you going to take away the members of Christ and
make them members of a harlot? Are you going to let your body call the
shots and take the members of Christ and link them with a harlot? No.
You cannot do whatever the body tells you to do, you have to control the
body.

Look at 1 Corinthians 9:27, this is a very direct statement with regard
to this. First Corinthians 9:27, Paul says this, "But I buffet my
body," that's buffet (bufit) not buffet, same spelling, different
concept. "I buffet my body," the verb means to give a black eye, a
knock-out punch, a wallop. I hit my body hard and seriously and I make
it my slave. What do you mean? The slave to my mind. "Lest possibly
after I have preached to others I myself should be adokimos,
disqualified." In other words, I will be rendered disqualified for
ministry if I don't control my body. By the way, in this day and age
when people want to forgive pastors' adultery and let them back in the
ministry, nobody seems to be wanting to deal with that verse. If you
don't control your body so that it honors God, you're disqualified from
ministry. Paul says I have to...I have to give my body a black eye, I
have to beat it into submission, I have to make it my slave. The body is
the unredeemed beachhead to sin. You cannot...you cannot be controlled
by your body, your feelings.

Now the key to controlling your body, now follow me, this is going to be
a fast little trip here, the key to controlling your body is the Holy
Spirit...walking in the Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit, Galatians
5:16 and 17, you will not fulfill...what? The lust of the flesh. So the
key to controlling your body is walking in the Spirit. The key to
walking in the Spirit is being filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:17
and 18, "Being kept filled with the Spirit, not in dissipation but being
filled with the Spirit."

The key then to controlling your body is walking in the Spirit. The key
to walking in the Spirit is being filled by the Spirit. The key to being
filled by the Spirit, Colossians 3:16, is letting the Word of Christ
dwell in you richly. As the Word saturates your life the Spirit then
controls you and you walk in that control. The key to letting the Word
of Christ dwell in you richly is hiding the Word in your heart that you
might not...what?...sin. Not a superficial reading of your daily
devotion, but a serious apprehension of, comprehension of, application
of, the Word of God in my life allows the Word to dwell in me richly
which yields control to the Spirit of God so that He fills me and I walk
in Him. That's the only way you will not fulfill the lust of your body.

Don't ever let your body control you. Don't ever play with sexual
emotion. You see, once you begin to feel the impulses of sexual emotion,
you are beginning to turn control over to your body, your mind has
yielded it up. God has designed those things to culminate in intercourse
and you are out of control.

You say, "All right, I'm not supposed to let my body control me, what
does that mean?" That means not only you're not supposed to jump in bed
with someone, but long before that you better make sure that you're very
careful about what your body sees, what your body hears, what your body
touches, what your body feels long before the consummation so that you
aren't so far in that control is gone.

Now notice the end of the verse. Here's the degree to which this control
is to be exercised. "Know how to control your own body in sanctification
and honor." "In sanctification" means to be separated, separated unto
God from sin, separated unto holiness, separated unto purity. And honor
means respect. In other words, your body is to be so holy that it is
worthy of respect toward the God who owns it, toward the God who dwells
in it, toward the God whom it represents, toward the church of which it
is a part. You're to live your life not asking how far can I go and not
go over the line, but how far can I stay away and be utterly set apart
from sin and bringing honor to my body which is God's which should be
used for the glory of Christ.

No, the question is never...what can I do and get away with it?...the
question is never how far can I go, the question is how can I live so
pure, so sanctified, so noble in my Christian living that I honor my
body, I honor therefore my Lord and His redeemed church? Don't let your
body control you. And we live in a culture where the whole name of the
game is get the mind away and let the body go and Christianity is the
opposite, absolute opposite.

I have said this so many times when talking to other pastors who have
fallen into sin, isn't there some point in time where you say, "Wait a
minute, this is my marriage, this is my ministry, this is everything?
Stop." And the answer I get is, "You never think about that." Why?
Because long before the mind has been eliminated from the process and
all that is left is the passion of the body. Don't let your body control
you. That means walking in the Spirit which means being filled by the
Spirit which means letting the Word dwell in your richly which means
putting the Word in.

Principle number two, don't act like the godless pagans. Don't act like
the godless pagans. Verse 5, "Control your body in sanctification and
honor not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God."
Don't act like the godless pagans, the rampant uncontrolled desire and
passion for sexual gratification that is typical of unregenerate people
is not to be characteristic of Christians, plain and simple.

By the way, lustful passion is kind of a strong term. Either one of
those words might have worked, both of them together make it very
strong. The word "passion," pathos means excited emotion, means
uncontrollable desire, means compelling feelings, overpowering urges. It
is used here in a bad sense as in Romans 1:26 and Colossians 3:5, though
there could be legitimate passion for the right thing, a passion for
God. And then he adds the word epithumia, that word which means lustful,
lusting, craving. It's kind of an out-of-control craving. And again
there are a few occasions where that can mean a craving for the right
thing but usually a bad thing and here it's bad for sure.

So here's a characterization of the unregenerate, right? They don't know
God. Consequently they are driven by lustful out- of-control cravings,
compelling urges, overpowering desires of the body. That's it.
Christians can't live like that, that's how the godless people live. In
fact, in Galatians 5:24 Paul says, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus
have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." We killed that
when we died in Christ, arise to walk in newness of life. What do you
want to do, pick up that dead thing and haul it around? Colossians
chapter 3, Paul says essentially the same thing, "Consider the members
of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil
desire." That's the past, that's a dead issue. Don't act...look at
this...like the Gentiles, or the pagans, the ethnos, the unregenerate
who do not know God, non- Christians. They are further described, by the
way, in 2 Thessalonians 1:8, they're going to receive retribution, the
ones who do not know God, and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord
Jesus. You're talking about the ungodly, those who rejected Christ by
ignorance, the unregenerate heathens sink into the depths of immorality.
Those who know God should never fall to such a shameful level. We expect
it of them.

Go back, for a moment, to Romans chapter 1, let me show you just a
couple of verses, actually three maybe....three or four. Verse 24, in
the Fall, when men fell and were alienated from God, it says, "God gave
them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity that their bodies
might be dishonored among them." It is characteristic of unregenerate
people that they operate on a bodily feeling level...that is
characteristic of unregenerate life. God gave them over to that.

Verse 26, "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions,
women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, in the
same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and
burned in their desires toward one another, men with men committing
indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of
their error." Homosexuality, lesbian kind of conduct, all of that is
characteristic of unregenerate people who have been literally abandoned
by God to their own bodily lusts.

Verse 28 says it another way, "They didn't see fit to acknowledge God
any longer so God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things
which are not proper." They do things that aren't right, they live in
lustful passion, they are homosexuals and lesbians and fornicators and
adulterers and transvestites and pedophiles and you name it cause they
don't know God. They have no internal restraint. They don't operate out
of a renewed mind. Scripture says you're to have a renewed mind and your
mind renewed in Christ dominated by the Word of God, controlled by the
Spirit is to control your body, beat it into subjection. And the unsaved
can't do that. Don't act the way they act.

So don't get caught in their traps. Don't indulge yourself in the idiocy
of their philosophy. They are slaves to bodily passion. We said a little
earlier how silly it is for the church to buy into this stuff. I was
raised in a time where nobody ever had a sexual seminar. I don't think
there was ever a Christian book written on Christian sexual
relationships in marriage. Everybody seemed to figure it out, children
were being born. People seemed happy, marriages stayed together. Now we
buy into the world's philosophy, even Christian bookstores get stuffed
with junk that is intended to convey the philosophy that some kind of
passion even in marriage is the key to a good relationship.

You can't buy the world's goods. They function only on passion, only on
feeling. And as soon as the society condones divorce, marriage will be
destroyed because as soon as the feeling runs out they've got to get
another feeling with another person. The only thing that restrains it is
some kind of cultural compunction, if that's gone there's no way to
control it, it's history. We know God, we don't operate on that level.
The physical relationship is wonderful. Let marriage be honorable in
all, Hebrews 13:4, and the bed is undefiled. God blesses marriage and
the relationship, the conjugal relationship of marriage. But we are not
reduced to the level of the unregenerate who do not think but only feel.
We know God and in that intimate relationship with Him there is no place
for doing what the godless world does. You don't want to think the way
they think or not think the way they don't think. You don't want to feel
the way they feel. I'll tell you, if you expose yourself to their trash
in print and on the media, you will engender the feelings that they
feel. And you will wind up linking the members of Christ to a harlot as
it says in 1 Corinthians 6.

Pagans have no thought for holy conduct. They have no thought for
thought. They're driven by lustful passion right into hell. We can't be.
We must not act like them. We are God's own bride. Can we shame the name
of Christ and spurn His love and grace and bring disrepute upon Him?

Third principle, don't take advantage of others. Don't take advantage of
others. Verse 6, "That no man transgress and defraud his brother in the
matter." Simple, that no man transgress. What does that mean? Go over
the line, go beyond the bounds, exceed the limits, go pass the law.
Don't go too far. Don't transgress.

What is he talking about? "And defraud his brother." What does that word
defraud mean? Very interesting word, it means to selfishly greedily take
something at someone else's expense. It means to take advantage of
someone for personal gain, personal pleasure. And the matter, see that
little statement the matter, that's sexual sin. So the simple statement
is this, don't go beyond the line that God has drawn and take advantage
of another believer in the matter of sexual sin. Don't do that. Don't
take advantage of someone else. And that's exactly what you're doing.
When you want your sexual pleasure, your physical pleasure and you take
advantage of someone else to get it, you violated this.

I tell young people all the time, if a guy comes to you and maybe you're
dating and he says to you, "You know I really love you, I really care
about you," and he wants to take your purity and he wants to take your
virginity...guess again, he doesn't care about you, he doesn't love you,
he lusts for you. If he loved you, love would seek your highest good,
love would seek the noblest treatment of your purity. Guess again what
you've got, don't marry that guy because if all he had going for you was
lust, somebody else will attract that same thing in him in the future.

And if you're married and somebody comes along and says, "You know, I
really want to have a relationship with you," and you fall into that and
you violate your marriage and you fall prey to that, you have been
defrauded, you have been robbed, you have been plundered, you have been
raped. That's not love, that's lust. When a married person steals
another married person for personal gratification, that's defrauding a
brother or sister.

So Paul says, look...number one...don't let your body control you.
Number two, don't act like the godless heathen. Don't see what they see,
hear what they hear, feel what they feel. Don't get in that trap, that
process. And number three, don't take advantage of another person. And
if you don't do that then that will restrain you. And if the church
won't allow itself to be taken advantage of, that can be thwarted. Such
a simple truth. In the matter of sexual sin don't you dare defraud
someone else, don't you dare implicate them in your sin, don't suck them
in to the fulfillment of your own lustful pleasure. Don't use people.

By the way, that is so serious that in Matthew 18 verse 6 it says, "If
anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me," that's a
Christian, little ones...what little ones? The little ones who believe
in Me, not little babies but Christians, "Causes them to stumble into
sin, better if a millstone were hanged around his neck and he were
drowned in the depths of the sea." And what Jesus is saying there is,
before you cause another Christian to sin you'd be better off dead.
You'd be better off drowned. Don't you defraud someone else. You'd be
better off dead, that's how serious it is to God.

The command then, totally abstain from sexual sin. That's...what? How?
Don't let your body control you, don't act like godless pagans and don't
take advantage of others. Last question...why? That's what the kids
always say, why? Why? Why keep the command? Three reasons, very rapidly,
very important. Reason number one, because of God's vengeance...because
of God's vengeance. The middle of verse 6, "Because the Lord is the
avenger in all these things just as we also told you before and solemnly
warned you." Because of God's vengeance. He is the avenger. What does
that mean? The one who exacts judgment. That's a strong reminder of
Deuteronomy 32:35, "Vengeance is Mine and retribution, I will repay."
Hebrews 13:4, "Let marriage be honorable in all and the bed undefiled
but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."

How will He judge? How will He wreak vengeance if we violate this? Could
be in an unfulfilling sexual life and marriage, could be in a miserable
marriage, could be in a divorce, could be in temporal chastening, could
be through venereal disease, could be any other disease, could be
negative circumstances, the absence of blessing, trials, trouble, even
death, it certainly will be the loss of eternal reward in some measure.
God can do anything He wants to to avenge it but He will. So if you need
to reason not to do it, God is the avenger because of God's vengeance in
all these things. None of them escape Him. In all sexual sins God is the
avenger. And He reminds them that this isn't something new, just as we
also told you before and solemnly warned you. He had told them when he
was there about this which is a good indication that he gave them not
only the full understanding of the gospel, but he taught them to observe
all things whatsoever Jesus had commanded too while he was there. He had
done a full orbed job of evangelizing.

Sexual sin disregards God, it ignores His holiness. It spurns His will,
it defies His commands, it rejects His love, it flaunts His grace and
mercy, it abuses it. It is disobedient, it is selfish, it is ingratitude
and God will avenge it. He will avenge it.

Second reason, because of God's purpose...because of God's purpose. Not
only because of God's vengeance but because of God's purpose. Verse 7,
"For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity but in
sanctification." You see, the effectual call of salvation was a call to
holiness, not unholiness. God has not called us for the purpose of
impurity. It isn't grace so that sin may abound. Paul's point is that
the very nature of God's calling and justification is a calling to
sanctification. He called us to Himself for the purpose of sanctifying
us, making us holy, making us pure, making us sinless. You have a holy,
pure, and sinless God who brings salvation through His holy, pure and
sinless Son, who then applies that salvation through His holy, pure and
sinless Spirit in order to produce a people who are holy, sinless and
pure. And thus the heart of the Apostle is to present the church without
blemish and without spot, holy before God.

There's no place in that for impurity. The purpose of God was to make a
holy people, a people who would walk in a manner worthy of the God who
called them into His Kingdom and glory as he said back in chapter 2
verse 12. That little phrase "in sanctification" indicates the state
resulting from the calling. The whole of the Christian life is in
separation from sin, in holiness, in sanctification. The call to
salvation then can never be separated from holy living. It can never be
separated from the result which is sanctification. Sexual sin is utterly
inconsistent.

Why obey? Because of God's vengeance, because of God's calling or
purpose. Thirdly, because of God's Spirit. Verse 8, "Consequently," that
introduces a conclusion, "he who rejects this, he who nullifies this
makes it void, cancels it, disregards it, despises it, is not rejecting
man." This isn't Paul you're rejecting, this isn't some church group
you're rejecting, this isn't the elders, this isn't John MacArthur, "But
the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you." You're rejecting God. This is
God's standard and God who gave you His Holy Spirit to make you pure and
to enable you to be pure. By the way, that verb there, "the God who
gives His Holy Spirit," marvelous. It's a timeless Greek idea,
characterizes God as the unceasing giver of the timeless gift of the
Holy Spirit. And here in the Greek, the Spirit is "the Spirit of Him,
the Holy One." How can you enter into sexual sin without knowing you're
rejecting the God who gave you the Spirit of Himself who is the Holy
One?

Not only did He call believers to salvation but He called them to
sanctification and continually breathes His Spirit into them for the
purpose of producing holiness. And then to sin is to grieve the Spirit
and quench the Spirit. That's why Paul says, "What?...1 Corinthians 6
talking about sexual immorality in Corinth...don't you know your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit which you have of God, you're not your
own, you're bought with a price, so glorify God in your body."

To live in sexual sin is to literally reject God who gave His Spirit, to
reject Christ who gave us justification to sanctification, and to reject
God who is the avenger. Sexual sin violates the Father, the Son, the
Holy Spirit and the work of each, so may God help us to be faithful to
the command through the means that God has given us with the fear of His
recourse should we fail. Let's bow in prayer.

Father, we thank You again this morning for the Word and the reminder of
this call to sexual purity. Lord, help us to know what should be obvious
to all of us that if we are obedient You will bless us, You will bless
our marriages, You will bless our physical relationships with all the
goodness that You intend. Father, we would pray that if there are young
people here who are sinning in this area, who are going together, dating
or whatever and they're engaging in fornication, Lord, please may they
come to grips this morning with the seriousness of that sin, may the
receive the solemn warning of this scripture, may they know what they're
doing and may they be separated from it. If there are couples that are
engaged anticipating marriage and feeling because the commitment is set
in place and the marriage is to come that they are free to commit
fornication, Lord, may they know that is not true, may they immediately
cease from this sin. If there are married people committing adultery,
Lord God, may they repent immediately. We know You have every right to
bring chastening, to enact Your vengeance and retribution for they have
literally rejected You, they have spurned the grace of salvation which
leads to holiness. They have quenched and grieved the Holy Spirit who is
in them. You have every right to chasten. And, Lord, we would ask that
You be merciful in such and that having led them to holiness through the
chastening you would grant them grace.

For those here who have committed these sins in the past, Lord, may they
enjoy the forgiveness that is theirs in Christ knowing full well that
what has been forgiven has been removed as far as the east is from the
west, buried in the depths of the sea and is remembered no more. And may
they rejoice in such abounding grace. O God, give us pure relationships
that we might know the fullness of blessing and that we might be the
kind of people that You want us to be who in the power of the Word and
the Spirit control our bodies, who do not act like the godless pagans
act, who do not take advantage of other people for selfish pleasure, who
do not put ourselves in a place to receive retribution from a vengeful
God, but, O God, may we be the faithful and the obedient who know the
fullness of Your blessing. To that end we do pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Obviously we are very much aware that daily we are bombarded with this
encroaching sexual idolatry. Recently I noted as I was going through the
first section of the L.A. Times a half-dressed girl advertising the body
beautiful on every single page