I invite you to open your Bibles this evening to Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. If you need help in the Pew Bible, that's on page 1, 2, 5, 7. 1, 2, 5, 7. And drop your bulletin sheet in there and then open your blue Psalter hymnals to the back to page 54. Page 54, in the black and the blue psalter, we're going to consider this evening, Lord's Day 41 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Now, on Lord's Day 41, we confess that the seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery, is for all of us, whether married or single. And what God has to say to us in that commandment applies to every aspect of our sexuality. Whether it be actions, looks, talk, thoughts, or desires. In the language of the Catechism, what I will call in the sermon tonight sexual holiness is the virtue known as chastity that is revealed in behavior that is chaste, C-H-A-S-T-E. Not in our normal vocabulary, but we're going to read it in the Heidelberg tonight. So we're going to read these two questions and answers together. I will ask the question, and together we will read the answers aloud. Question 108. What is God's will for us in the seventh commandment? God condemns all unchastity. We should, therefore, thoroughly detest it and, married or single, live decent and chaste lives. Does God in this commandment forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery? We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and God wants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why he forbids everything which incites unchastity, whether it be actions, looks, talks, thoughts, or desires. Well, the catechism serves us well by not allowing us to neglect or ignore what God has to say to us about sex. We might think it inappropriate for church. We might find ourselves uncomfortable. But God has spoken to us openly about sex. And he is no prude. In his word, he speaks frequently and plainly and sometimes graphically about sex. Why? Because he created us sexual beings in his image, male and female. And he created us to fulfill sexual purposes that he alone has the right to govern. And these purposes are to be fulfilled in the covenant of marriage. Which Jesus affirmed in Matthew chapter 19 was established from the beginning to be a lifelong relationship for which sexual activity is preserved. and within which sexual activity is to be mutual and exclusive. Marriage is a lifelong relationship for which sexual activity is reserved and within which sexual activity is to be mutual and exclusive. It's that simple. But sin, of course, makes the simple complex, and it has corrupted our sexuality and the covenant of marriage for which it is intended. Therefore, God in his word calls us to sexual holiness. The seventh commandment summarizes his will for each of his people to continue in sexual holiness throughout our lives, reserving our God-given sexuality for its God-given purpose within the God-given covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. In our text this evening, Paul applies the seventh commandment to the saints in Thessalonica, most of whom were formerly pagan. Even though they'd been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, they were still immersed in a pagan culture. A culture that encouraged, not only sanctioned, it encouraged all manner of sexual relations outside of marriage. The enticements to sexual immorality were strong there. Male and female sensuality was everywhere on display. The focus of public art was on the idealized human body. They were daily tempted to deny God and his will for their sexuality and to return to the ways of the world. And I say to you tonight what should not be a surprise to you, we live in just such a time. Human sexuality is everywhere. The human body is idealized and broadcast. And we are enticed to sexual immorality. I would say the only difference between then and now is that it's been amped up to the speed of light in our day. Well, some among us here have been rescued from a former life, like the Thessalonians. A former life apart from Christ that was being carried along by a culture of sex and sexuality. Others, here from infancy, have been set apart from the world by baptism, guarded and nurtured in the communion of the saints to resist this culture, to resist this pull. Well, whichever is your past, the siren song of sexual immorality continues to entice. We can't keep it outside of these walls. We can't keep it outside of our head. The invitation comes at us by every conceivable medium, 24-7, 365. There's no place to hide, nor should we. This word of God comes to us tonight just as it came to the Thessalonians. And it directs us to continue sexual holiness. It applies to all, to those who have not engaged in sexual immorality, as well as those who have been rescued by Jesus Christ for a new beginning in sexual holiness. Hear now God's word from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 1 through 8. This is the word of God. Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God just as you are doing that you do so more and more for you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus for this is the will of God your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter because the Lord is an avenger in all these things as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you for God has not called us for impurity but in holiness therefore whoever disregards this disregards not man but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you And here ends the reading of God's Word. Tonight we will consider Paul's words here in 1 Thessalonians under three points that did not make your bulletin. If you'd like to write them down, I will give them to you. The first is, in the house of God. In the house of God. Second is, through genuine conversion. Through genuine conversion. And third, for ultimate reasons. For ultimate reasons. So as we consider this text, we're going to consider first this directive to continue sexual holiness is given and to be received in the household of God. This comes to the church. Second, this directive to continue sexual holiness can only be obeyed through genuine conversion. And third, we will only be motivated to obey this directive to continue sexual holiness for ultimate reasons. So we want to notice first that the call to continue sexual holiness is both received and given in the household of God. This is not an import. This is not something that belongs to the world. This belongs to God's people. In verse 1, Paul addressed all the saints, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, as brothers. Because in Christ, we're all sons of God. We're all part of His family. We're all in His household. And He has this for us all. And He's speaking to everyone who's been incorporated into this household by virtue of their baptism. Set apart from the world, Count it off to the body of Christ. And that applies even if you've not publicly accepted the promise of your baptism. What follows is God's will for you, just as it is for those who profess. And Paul begins by letting the saints know what he knows from what they've been doing. He knows that they've begun to obey. He knows that they've already received and understood and have started to put into practice what he's told them when he established the church. And therefore, he asks and urges them to do so more and more. And Paul's instructions from before and his direction here in our text tonight are given with apostolic authority. They come with authority. They come, therefore, even to us with the authority of Jesus Christ himself. You see, apostolic directives, apostolic instructions are not like the instructions that came with your toaster that you can ignore and just throw away. No, apostolic instructions are to be received and obeyed. No questions asked. They're like military orders. They come with authority. They're to be received. They're to be obeyed. That's why Paul says in verse 8, whoever disregards this, whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God. This is a heavy word from God tonight, from 1 Thessalonians. He comes to us straight. And what is it that Paul wants to review with us as He did with them. According to verse 3, it has to do with the will of God. Your sanctification. It has to do with the will of God, which is to have you be holy as He is holy. Now, in one sense, of course, we're already holy. We're set apart in Jesus Christ from this world. We don't belong to the world anymore. We're set apart as holy. It's a gift of God. It's a work of grace. But it really changes things. We're holy. We're saints. We belong to Him. But we know from our own experience, and in the experience of the church as a whole, that this is not our experience at all times. We don't live as holy as Christ has made us to be. Therefore, we must remember that in another sense, according to God's revealed will, His law, we are more and more to be, or to become, or to practice holiness as He is holy. Now, simply by virtue of being joined to Christ through faith, by the inworking of the Holy Spirit, we have begun, we have made a beginning of this sanctification, of this holiness. We've begun to walk in a way that pleases God. But God comes to us again and again in His Word and on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to ask and to urge us to do so more and more. This is our duty, for which we are motivated by thankfulness for the great salvation that's already ours in Jesus Christ, and for which we are made willing and able in the power of the Holy Spirit, whom God Himself gives to us for this purpose. See, this is how God works to have us make progress in our sanctification, in our holiness. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians in chapter 3, verse 13, that the Lord may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with all His saints. That prayer is for that church. That prayer is a prayer that we can take on our lips, that God would work in us to make us holy and blame us at the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, with all His saints. And the way of progressing more and more in our sanctification is through what we call, it's a technical term, you've heard it before, conversion. According to Hebrews 6, verse 1, this elementary doctrine of Christ involves repentance and faith. Conversion is repentance and faith. Now, conversion has a beginning. And some of us remember our conversion. But whether we remember it or not, once it's begun, it will never end until Christ comes for us in glory. And it's an ongoing process, an ongoing process of turning away, of turning away, of repenting from sin, and turning to Christ, and turning to Christ for the faith and the power and the grace we need. To use the picture Paul drew for us in Colossians, conversion involves putting off sin and putting on righteousness, putting on holiness, both of which are identified for us in the Word of God, in His law. We're being told tonight what is required to put off and to put on. And so in verses 3 through 6, Paul gives particular instruction for how to continue sexual holiness through genuine conversion. He's beating in on a very particular topic. He's applying the seventh commandment to the people of God. And he says, with regard to your sexuality, it's God's will. It's God's will that you abstain from sexual immorality. And that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor. In other words, sexual holiness requires to put off, that is to keep away from sexual immorality. And to put on holy and honorable self-control. well, what exactly is this sexual immorality that we're to abstain from? We'd like to know the list so we could avoid it for sure, like adultery. Well, the word translated sexual immorality is the root word for what we call pornography. It has a very broad meaning. And it refers to anything that involves our God-given sexuality in ways other than God has purposed. That's pretty broad. Anything that involves our God-given sexuality in things other than God's given purposes. Sexual immorality, like every other sin, is a sin against God. David committed adultery with Bathsheba. That was his prayer. Against you, God, and you alone have I sinned. Psalm 51. But unlike every other sin, it's uniquely destructive and rebellious. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18, Every other sin a person commits is outside his body. But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Why? Why is this peculiar that it's a sin against our own body? He continues in verse 19, Do you not know that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You're not your own. You've been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Heidelberg 109 is almost a quote of that text. Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? You're not your own. Your body is not yours to do with what you please. It belongs to your God. Now, sexual immorality certainly includes what we might call the big three. You know them, adultery, fornication you might know, prostitution. Or as they are known and approved by our culture, having an affair, hooking up, dating a sugar daddy to pay off your student loans. Those are easy for us to see, and that's usually the checklist we carry around, thinking that we somehow are staying pure if we don't tick those boxes. But it also includes any activity, any activity, intended to sexually arouse or satisfy yourself or someone other than your spouse. any activity intended to sexually arouse or satisfy yourself or someone other than your spouse. That's sexual immorality. And Jesus said that these activities come out of the heart. For out of the heart proceed adultery and sexual immorality amongst other things that defile the person. That's why he can say that everyone who looks at a woman with a lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. It doesn't need to find action to be condemnable. And Paul says in verse 5 that sexually immoral actions are rooted in the passion of lust, he calls it. The passion of lust. And where does that come from? It comes from our father Adam. It's the desire to have what's not ours. It's the desire that drives us to get it. It applies to lots of things, but it certainly applies to sex and sexuality. And our enemies, our own flesh, the world and the devil are constantly trying to attract that desire. Constantly trying to have us commit to a cause, to commit to an end, to commit to a sin that gives expression to that lust. As James says, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. Our own bodies betray us. Our hormones seem to drive us. Our eyeballs seem to steer us. And our skin seems drawn to a stimulating touch. That's what our flesh wants. The world says, go ahead. It's only natural. You know you want her. You know you can have him. What's marriage got to do with it? And the media that aims at our hearts is continually multiplying. It comes at us from every possible way. The Thessalonians had their statues in the public square and they had their prostitutes on the street corners. And we still have both of those, but we have more. There are books and magazines, movies and television, music and videos, not to mention the Internet, on your computer, your laptop, your tablet, your smartphone. Enticement to sexual immorality is now just a click away. And all in the privacy of your two-inch screen. The lures are strong. And Satan gives us half-truths. He says, sex is a good gift from God. And it is. But he would have us remember that truth while we forget that this good gift belongs to a greater gift, the gift of marriage. The intimate and selfless union of a husband and wife that pictures the intimate and selfless union of Christ and his bride, the church. Don't think about that, Satan says. That's not important. Well, to engage in sexual immorality, Paul says, is to live like the Gentiles who do not know God. Engaging in sexual immorality is an act of unbelief. In order to do it, we must suppress with our unrighteousness the truth that God created us, He created our sexuality, and He has the right to govern it. And it not only defiles the sinner, it defiles the covenant of marriage, it's an act of unbelief that defiles the name of the Savior that we claim. Therefore, in Matthew chapter 18, Jesus says that our abstinence must be ruthless. Woe to the world for the temptations to sin. For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes. And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. Abstaining from sexual immorality may require radical surgery, Jesus said. This may take a real serious effort. And you can be sure that it will. But I would say to you today that that most often means we simply need to turn it off. Simply need to turn it off. Even so, it's not enough to just say no. It's not enough to be well-behaved. It's not enough to tow the line. It's not enough to try to figure out where that line is. To continue sexual wholeness also requires that we put on something, that each of us come to know and grow and how to control our own bodies in a way that's honorable and that's holy. That doesn't come naturally to us. We're not hardwired for that. How do we learn it? Well, there's two ways to learn wisdom. One is in the school of hard knocks, which most of us like to enroll in. Secondly, it's to learn from the Word of God. That which he has laid out for us is right to do and wrong to avoid. And I would say to you young people, in particular, Proverbs 1 through 7 is a great place to start. To get your handle on what it means to control your own body in a way that's honorable and in holiness. And don't be misguided. It applies to all of us. we read God's law every Sunday. And I hope that's not the only time you read your Bibles all week, but we read His law every Sunday. Somewhere from His Word. And so you've learned by now it's somewhere in here. It's all through here. To know where this line is, you need His Word. And the more you read it, the more you drink it in, the more you give yourself to it, the more clear it will become how it is you are to live in a way that practices self-control before the face of God. But not only does He tell us the way, He gives us the power to go there. As Paul reminds us in verse 8, as children of God and Christ, we have been given the Holy Spirit. And it's He, Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, who works in you both to will, to want to, and to work, to be able to work for His good pleasure. That which God demands in His law, He gives us by His Spirit for the sake of Christ, our Savior. The Holy Spirit's at work in you to hear and to understand God's will for you from His Word, even tonight. God's Spirit's at work in you to make you want to obey more and more. And He works in you to practice disobedience. To put on these awkward steps, these new ways of going. It's tough. Obedience is tough. And especially when it comes to our sexuality. And again, to you young people, not to pick on you, I want you to know that every adult here knows it's tough. We like to deceive ourselves and think that we've arrived and we don't need to think about those things anymore and we don't have any wisdom to pass on to you. But that's not true. It's tough. But the Holy Spirit's tougher. Romans chapter 5 promises us that since we have been justified by faith, since we have been joined to Christ by faith and obtained access by faith into the grace in which we now stand. We rejoice not only in the hope of the glory of God, what's yet to come, but we rejoice in our sufferings in this trial, even now, as we heard this morning from Mr. Squeers. Why? Because the work of the Holy Spirit, as he applies the word of God to our hearts through suffering, is to produce endurance. And through endurance to produce character. A character that's honorable. A character that's holy. And that character produces hope. And that hope does not disappoint us. It does not put us to shame. Because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Whom He has given to us. Well, Paul concludes in verses 6 through 8 by reminding us that we will only be motivated. We'll only be motivated to obey this directive to continue sexual holiness for ultimate reasons. And what I mean by that? The power of sexual sin, sexual immorality, the temptations that take us there are so powerful that if we lose our frame of reference for who we are and where we're going if we lose an eternal perspective we are awash in the sea over which we have no control we will be swept into things that will put us to shame and we will regret and so we find our motivations not in ourselves and not in the moment and not in our own wisdom and power and strength we find our motivation outside of ourselves in ultimate reasons at the close of verse 6 Paul adds that it is God's will that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter and now he moves from how this sin affects us before the face of God what we're to put away and what we're to put on to how our self-serving sin damages others and most of all within the family of God. He calls sexual immorality a transgression. It crosses a line that should not be crossed and it intrudes upon what properly belongs to marriage. It crosses a line. And even when two people meet in the middle by mutual consent, that doesn't change the line. God doesn't consent. The line is clear, as I said when we started. The matter is quite simple, in fact. But this line has become blurred by what we call dating. I don't have time to go into all that that means, but at its heart, dating is a temporary relationship. It's a temporary relationship without any real commitment. The terms can be changed at any time. but it's a relationship that encourages greater intimacy than it deserves, greater intimacy than it can sustain. It can't bear the weight because it's a fiction. And this blurring can even spill over into an engagement for marriage that can tempt us to ask, well, why wait? We're going to get married anyway. Blurry. It's not the line. And no matter how you feel about it, especially in the moment, sexual immorality also wrongs your partner. It wrongs them no matter how much you tell them that you love them. It exploits them. It takes advantage of them. It uses them for your own personal gain. That's what Paul says. We ought not wrong our brothers in this matter. As I thought about the wrongness of sexual immorality, I've decided it's the ultimate con job. In it, you entice your partner to give to you the sexuality that God has given to them for another. So in effect, you're stealing from someone you've never met or never seen from a person who doesn't have the right to give it to you. What a con. It is sin, of course, against your own body, against your partner, against our triune God, the Holy One of Israel, the Son who has purchased you by His blood, and the Holy Spirit who has been given to you to sanctify you. And therefore, Paul motivates our obedience by reminding us in verse 6 that the Lord is an avenger in all these things. Paul has a lot to say about the vengeance of God in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. He wants them and he wants us to remember there's a day of reckoning coming. And these are the things that most ire God. Sexual immorality is at the top of the list. Now his vengeance may come in this lifetime through his agents, the law of the land. If your transgressions and wrongs cross lines that they're willing to enforce. Now, sadly, those lines have disappeared over the last generations. But you may bear consequences. I know people who have. I know people who do. I think it's called Amber's List on the Internet. There's a list of people. But even if you get away with it in this life, The day of judgment is coming, and we'll be held fully accountable. Now, while it is true that Jesus has delivered all the saints from the wrath to come, as we were reminded so well this morning, Paul raises this here to Christians who profess the name of Jesus Christ and who want to persist in sexual immorality, that you're living in a way that says you don't believe. And it can't both be true. You can't really believe and keep living this way. So, remembering the wrath of God to come brings to you a question. Which is it? Who are you? And the threat of judgment is intended to work in you. If this is where you are, to work in you the godly sorrow that brings you to true repentance. It says, enough! No more! It's not for me. But even that is not what motivates the obedience of faith. For those who believe in Christ and know they belong to Christ and yet still struggle with the temptations that are so real and so prevalent and so pressing. That motivation comes from the reminder in verses 7 and 8 that God has not called us for impurity. He's called us in holiness. And it's He who gave us this call who gives us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. As we noted in the beginning, this apostolic directive to continue sexual holiness is given to the saints, to those who've been justified by faith in Christ Jesus. And for each and every one who has been set free from the slavery to sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, in Christ we have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires and we're no longer bound to them. That doesn't mean they're not active. It doesn't mean they don't press on us. It doesn't mean they don't trip us up. But we're no longer bound to them. They don't define us. They don't keep us from turning toward holiness. because in Christ you have been set free to give yourself fully to disobedience. Disobedience to God's will to abstain from sexual immorality and to learn self-control for your own body. You're free. You're free to do that. And in the power of the Holy Spirit, you find the motivation and the ability to make real progress. More and more, Paul says, make real progress in your holiness, even sexual holiness. Now, the weightiness of the law here in this text has made it clear that it is our duty. It is our duty to pursue this holiness. But it's our delight that we can do so, trusting that Christ is at work in us by His Spirit to accomplish it. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. And with that confidence, we can press in that direction. And Paul asks and urges us to do so more and more. I want to close this word tonight from Jude, verses 24 and 25. A doxology of praise for this very promise. Now to him who is able, to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, it be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for this word tonight. In which you have pressed upon each and every one here the designs of your will for us as creatures made in your image, male and female, to use our God-given sexuality for the purposes you have determined in the context of the covenant of marriage which you have established. Help us, Father, to ever keep the line so clear in our minds. The temptations are great. They come from within. They come from without. They come nonstop. We thank you, Father, for making it clear what sexual immorality is. Anything other than what you've designed. We thank you, Father, for making it clear that the call on our lives as your people is to pursue holiness in all areas, including in our sexuality. We thank You for making it clear what it is we are called to do, and that's to put it away and to learn self-control according to Your Word. And Lord, we praise You above all that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has been where we are in His flesh, that He has endured every temptation that comes upon us, And he has seen it all the way through, all the way through without sin. So that he knows how tough it is. And he knows how much strength we need. So that we can ever and always turn to him by faith, trusting that he will guide us by your word. And he will strengthen us by his spirit. To continue in sexual holiness all the days of our life. To the glory of your name. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.