Tonight we continue into our study, How to Please God. And tonight we introduce verses 4 to 8. And that's about all we're going to get into. But in these verses, Paul is concerned about the believer's purity in their sexuality. He's really, and ours. Boy, that is raining cats and dogs, ain't it? That is. Now when it comes to the First Thessalonians 4, now you remember in the first century among the pagans this was a huge, huge problem. Sexual immorality was massive. You think we have They had Temple prostitutes, you name it, it was over the top as we would say. And with it being rampant, but not only was it prostitution in a promiscuous way, they had a thing called pig sticking. Pig sticking was really, really big in Corinth, and it was where ladies would be bare-breasted and they would wrestle with pigs in the mud. It's vile. You know, we look at it today and think, boy, it was vile, vile, and Paul is going in, establishing churches in those kind of settings. Homosexuality was so common, many adults, the area, all of them, was flooded with street kids, street people, they just were homeless. It was out there. And they would go and get the kids and they could select them and raise them for their own lovers and their own pleasures. So you're talking about a people who were As I say, more vile than we are today, and we are a mess. It was perversion, it was everywhere. And it's in that setting that Paul goes in, in these churches, a planet. in that mess. And we have seen that with the Church of Thessalonica, he was only with them for three Sabbaths, perhaps as many scholars believe that it was three Sabbaths, then he went to the Gentiles and he left and with the count of Sabbaths and you figure out about four and a half to five, six months, but either way it was a short period of time. And now he's gone, and he's wondering about that little church in that cesspool that they came out of. And he's worried, you know, how are they doing? And as we've seen, he sent Timothy back. Timothy go back and find out that the church is really, really doing great. And most scholars think that it's about a year, maybe, from when he left. Some think it's a little less. Some think it's around a year. But a year is giving it a good time that when he writes back to them. Now think about that. You find this little church. It's founded. You're there. And you have to leave. And you don't know. And they've come out of that batch life. And knowing that the flesh, it gravitates, it loves that stuff. It loves darkness, as Jesus said. And so he's writing back to them. He knows who they are. He knows they are genuine. He knows that. He writes back in verse chapter 2, I mean, he defends his ministry where he's under the attack. And now he's beginning to exhort them. And most times when we find in scripture, there is a problem. And that's how we got the New Testament. He's addressing issues, or he's safeguarding, and you are open risks for that, and they work. And he's saying you need to really keep your life pure. Are you staying pure? And we saw that we said to do that, then you certainly first of all have to acknowledge that one, it is God's word and that we ought to obey it. They did that, we saw that, they obeyed the word of God. And when you come to chapter 4 verse 3, 3 to 8 is the block. And he says this, but this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. That no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such. As we also forewarn you and testify that God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. He who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us his Holy Spirit. And Father, we just ask if you would bless your word for your glory, impart the truth to our heart to know that it's not just to the church at Thessalonica, but Lord, to each of our hearts. Because lurking in the depths of the darkness of our deceitful heart, we too, but by your grace, can go. And so we pray, Lord, that we would not just hear for the Thessalonians, but to our own hearts. And that by your grace, we would respond in a way that bring honor to your name. And that we would be constantly and continually seeking to be pleasing to you. This we ask in Christ's name, amen. Paul is adamant to them about sexual purity, adamant to us about sexual purity. And he says, he adds on it, this is the will of God. It's God's will that every child of God lead a life of purity. And in our humanity, in our flesh, craving desires to go amok but by the grace of God through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit we now have the Holy Spirit and we are able to obey the Word of God and in so doing remain pure before the Lord by grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. Now It was a sin that these individuals, as I said, had come out of and naturally can gravitate back. And it was a popular, popular sin in that day, as well as today. The sexual revolution in the 60s have just permeated our society. And it has come to full bloom today. Even the wings in the church that look Adultery is bad, terrible, whatever, but there are others who they kind of look at, well that's just what happens, you know, that's just a normal thing, people do that, unmarried people. excuses of all sorts by not calling it what the scripture calls it. Matter of fact, what that term is, it was consensual. As long as it was consensual, there's something right about that. Not in the mind of God. Not in the purposes of God. God says, and not only do we think in terms of, I mean, of just Male-female, male-male, the word for sex sin is any sexual sin. Masturbation, And it falls in that word of fornication, pornia. It falls in there. And so all sin, pornography, falls in there. And all of those things are sexual sins. And Paul is saying, no, you ought to know how, each one of you, to know how to control or maintain your vessel. And it's even worse as we think about this It's amazing how many Christians, except indirectly if not directly, there is an alternative lifestyle. Listen, there is no alternative lifestyle. It's not one. It's a simple lifestyle, there's an alternative in that, but it's simple and we need to recognize that. to see that it is say that it not saying overtly or covertly it doesn't matter how that is a lie from Satan and we must stand against it we must oppose it and and we are to tell folks what we believe and what the Bible says about sexual immorality and it says a lot about it well let alone to say that they do not inherit the kingdom of God which means that that they do not go to heaven in that light. They do not get in. Anyone who practices such sins, and we must name it sin, it is a sin. Now they've got what, sexual addiction. It's sin, it is sin and we must call it what it is. And it can sound harsh by saying it that way, but that is what God says and we must say what God say about sin, period. And it's amazing, we create sicknesses and we promote it. It's a sickness, but it's okay. And no, it's not, it's sexual immorality. It is whatever that sin is and the Bible says they do not Inherit the kingdom of God they do not Paul said to the Corinthians for an example in 1st 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9 11 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God and So don't be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortionists will inherit the kingdom of God. And he put no other greater or lesser Sin before God he says none of them anyone practicing this do not in it And then he goes on and says which is a great word and such were some of you Some of you used to be some of all of this, but you're no longer that why but you were washed in Jesus said in John 13 if you Peter know if you've been washed you don't need to take another bath All you need is to wash your feet. They've been washed. They've been born again They've been say you were washed before you were sanctified But you are well justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God He said and some of you you all make up a whole of all of those things, but they are X of those things. They are not those things any longer. They are not practicing that any longer. You were practicing that. You came out of that. You used to live like that, but not any longer. Why? You were washed. You were saved. And that is a clear word that salvation changes that. So does that mean that no person would ever trap, stumble? No, but they will stumble. They don't headlong go into it. If they headlong go into it, they haven't been washed. haven't been washed. Galatians 5, 19 to 21. which are adultery, fornication, and again, that includes pornography, masturbation, everything. Any manner of sex sin, throw it in. It includes that uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, suffrage, ambition, dissension, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. Anything else that I missed that brought it to. or which I tell you beforehand just as I also told you in the past. I told you now and I had already told you this before, and don't miss those last 13 words, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. That is a strong language that there have been scholars who come up and try and parse and say, what do you mean by the inheritance? It doesn't mean that they're not saved. It just means that they're not going to get all that they're supposed to get. You can't get that out of that. I heard one man take the parable where he says, take that, cast him out with a gnashing of teeth. But he says, he's a child of God because he serves that servant. I mean, it's amazing what we strain and stress to make people be a believer. to hold them in there. No, it's very clear, they do not enter into the kingdom of revelation. It says that they don't enter in. I believe it's Revelation 21. They don't enter in. So it's clear that based upon scripture, based upon Paul, Paul says none of these inherit the kingdom of God. None. They don't get it. And that do not give any We'll put any of these and anyone that's continually habitually Practicing these things that this is a way of lifestyle for them. They are not regenerated because they do not get into the kingdom of God and Those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ I believe it's Colossians 113 where he says he's transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love We know Christ. He's done that these don't get it. They don't get in and That's serious. Serious because the Word of God says such a person is not saved. That should make any individual or any people that's claiming to know Jesus Christ, if we fall into a trap like this, it's to scrutinize, did I fall and need to repent and abandon this thing or do I need to get saved? It's one or the other. And serious scripture says that those who claim to know Christ and practice such immorality are not. And at best, they need to be disciplined. They need to be disciplined. First Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9 to 11. Paul says, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly do not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world or with the covetous or extortionists or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. In other words, he's saying you can't get away from that kind of behavior and lifestyle from non-believers because that's what they do. In order to get away from them, you would have to get out of the world. Any contrast? Now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, anyone who professes to know Christ, if he is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. And you notice all of those are locked together. You can't pull one out of there and make it be written in others or not. It's locked together. They're simple. And he says, don't even eat with such a one. Don't even eat. Now notice the difference. If they are unsaying, we need to be proclaiming the gospel to them. We need to not try to get away from them, but get to them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if they profess to know Jesus Christ, we'll have no fellowship with them. Why? Because the scripture says you cannot Continue in that sin and be a believer, and you're claiming to be a believer. You're dishonest and you're disgraced to the kingdom of God. We should not further that with them. We draw the line and do not even eat with them. They claim to be a brother. And that can really, really be very, very difficult. I've shared from time that there are some people that intersect my life, one being a cousin of mine. Prior to her professing to know Jesus Christ, when we had family things, I would be there. But when she professed to know Christ and continued, I can't have no dealings with that. I can't. Why? Because the scripture says, don't even eat with them. Now that caused a lot of strife with some of my family. If she confessed that I am not a believer, I have no problem, because I can get there and share the gospel. But she claimed to be a believer. And the scripture says, no, don't even eat with them. And that's in this letter that we have, not the one that was not inspired, that he wrote to them. Why didn't I take this thing lightly? And because of that, knowing what they come out of, knowing that the temptations that was in that city, his pastoral concern for those Thessalonians then, it drove him to, he couldn't help but wonder, what if they slipped back into that? I need to put up a guard rail now that Timothy has come back. They are continuing their way. I need a guard rail here and let them know this is a risk and your goal is to be holy, to be pure. Keep this pure. It says, how do you do that? By pleasing the Lord. We saw that already, verse 1 and 2. Finally then brethren, We urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more just as you receive from us how you ought to walk, that's an important word, walk and to please God. How you to live to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ. So what you got to do, abound more and more. Look at this. Acknowledge it as I said last time. That's the word of God. That God's command, this is his command, and turn to obey that. Got to turn. Obey it. Be it in obedience. That word abound, it reminds us that he had already mentioned it in chapter 3, verse 12 of chapter 3. 11 says, now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all just as we do too. You may abound in it, striving. striving to be pleasing to the Lord. And he used that word walk, that's a favorite word of Paul, and he's talking about living, you know, when we walk it's step by step, moment by moment, you know. I often say, no matter how much you take a little 6, 7 month old kid, well some of them might start that, but you won't take a 4 month old kid, you can lecture him 32 hours and tell him how to walk, I guarantee he doesn't walk. Because walk is a process. It is learning and then it is step by step and you fall, you don't fall. One of my grandsons, that kid could walk and he was so afraid but you could take a piece of thread and let him hold to the thread and he would walk all over the place. But walking is a learning process. You're learning. Paul is saying, you know, live a life. You put yourself underneath the word of God, accepting that this is God's word. It's my role to obey the word of God. And you recognize that he says none of this. Get into the kingdom of God and you submit and you walk. A favorite word of his. In Ephesians 4.1, Ephesians 4.17, Ephesians 5. 2, 8, and 15. I'm going to read them all. Ephesians 4, 1. Now remember this comes on the heel of chapter 1, 2, and 3 where he's described who we are in Jesus Christ. And that our salvation is above anything that we could think or ask. It's beyond that, but God has brought it about. Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us, you ought to walk and to please God. 17, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should walk, you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. For he says, therefore since you got all of this then walk worthy to what you've been called to, walk worthy of that. Live out who you really are, that's really what he's saying. This is who you are, therefore since this is who you are, live it out, live it out now, and that those who are around you know it, and that the Lord is pleased in it. Ephesians 5, to walk in love, live in love. It's two dominant words about walking. One in humility, and two in love. Those are dominant characteristics of it. We walk in humility because we're a proud bunch of people, and God's word humbles us when we have to submit to it and obey it. And we walk in love, that very love that God has shed upon in our hearts. And that's why Paul would tell them in verse 9, he's going to tell them, I don't need to even write to you about telling you how to love one another. God himself teaches you that. God does that. You're to walk. And one of my favorite, favorite verses about walking is Ephesians 5, 8. 5, 8 through 11, but I just got verse 8 here, but that's a favorite passage of mine. For you were once darkness. Now you notice he didn't say you were once in darkness. That is a principle that we find in Scripture, but not here. Here he says you were darkness. You and I were totally dark in our hearts. Totally. to God born us again. You were dark, but dark, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Since you are light, then live that way. Next week I'm sort of taking a side road observation to look at that word, that word is light and darkness and just look at them and just, it's a couple of things that really, really go with it. Light, it really connotes intellect, intelligence, understanding and it also connotes morality, moral, uprightness and it connotes that. But he's saying, you walk in light. You are now light. You are no longer darkness. Let me just read that other portion, verses 9, 10, and 11 of Ephesians 5. Abe says, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For all the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. and have no fellowship. Participation is really better. Have no participation with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. You notice it's twofold. You don't have any participation with them, and you expose them. That is really, really clear. And from Ephesians 4.1, right on through, he's now talking about how to live. And he carried that same idea all the way up to chapter 6, verse 10. Right up through that. So he's saying, this is how we ought to live. We ought to live reproving or exposing this stuff that's darkness. We don't participate with it, but rather we expose it. And we do that walking, living. It's a part of our life. It's just the way we live. We expose it. Colossians chapter 1. Verse 10, for the frame, I'm going to read 9 to 12 for the context there. And it's about pleasing the Lord as we're in continuity there. He says, for this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, there it is, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, strengthened by his strength, really, according to his glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints, where? In the light, in the light. We have no business with darkness. And when and if we lapse and slip into darkness, we need to be getting away from it as rapidly and fast as we can by confessing that it's sin and abandoning it, because it does not please God. And so Paul's prayer here in Colossians, his prayer then, for them was to be well-pleasing. Well-pleasing to the Lord, and that's what we're saying, He's out there in your and my life as well. How do we do that? By being fruitful in every good work and by increasing in the knowledge of God. That's Paul's goal for the Teflonian. That's his goal by proxy to you and I from the Word of God. And how do we do that? Walk. Live. It's not let go and let God. That may sound good, percussive, but that's not what it is. It is you and I making responsible choices and responsible decisions based upon the Word of God in the way we live. And I thought the Spirit of God does it. He do. Well, why do you say I do it? We both do. Verse 12, Chapter 2, Philippians. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, Not as in my presence only, but now, much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. It says God is doing it, but it told you and it told me. Work out your own salvation. You can't run the hat on a theologian as God that's doing the work. Yes, it is God doing the work, but he exhorts us, work it out. We work it out. We have a responsibility. And if we're going to be pleasing to God, we must do that. by walking, that's a great Old Testament illustration, for time's sake I'm going to guess at it, I think it's 524, you look it up, you make sure you look it up, but it's about Enoch, where it says that Enoch walked with God and you know what, it pleased him. He piggyback off that in Hebrews 11 says without faith it is impossible to please God. So how do we walk? By faith. What does it mean to walk by faith? I walk believing, I live believing God's word and I live by appealing to God for grace to be able to appropriate his word, but I don't sit there till he come and say get out. No, that's not the way to do it. We go to the scriptures and like the Thessalonians did and we obey it because it's God's word. It says Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God, that he walked with God, he lived for God. Well that's a really interesting statement when you really I mean there have been lots of banters I'm sure if you've been in a reading you've read where some say well that was where Enoch got his second work of grace. It didn't say nothing like that. It says he walked with him. Was he saved already? I don't know. He may have been. But whatever took place he walked with God. My opinion, yeah I got a bunch of them. My opinion when you read the book of Jude. The Jew says that the very first prophecy from the lips to a man, let me read that and not misquote it in our clothes, but the Jew, let me see, 5, 15, 14. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men, also saying, Behold, the Lord come with myriads of his saints to execute judgment convict all who are ungodly among them all, their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and all harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Well that's a message to the ungodly, ungodly, ungodly, and you find it repeated that many times, he's saying something. But what he says, he says, he enough, it was prophesied, he prophesied the Sabbath, and he's clear that with enough he's He's talking about the one that we were talking about, the seventh from Adam, not the one in Cain's lineage. He prophesied saying the Lord coming to execute judgment. He saw the holy wrath of God. Now that we know. So you piece that back to when it says he walked with God, then he saw this coming and it motivated him to live for God, holy, live holy, and he walked. So was he a believer? I believe he was, I don't know, nobody knows whether that's where he got saved or that's where I think he saw the wrath of God in either way and that caused him to walk with God. It's interesting Paul says to the Corinthians, it says in chapter 5 verse 11 and 2, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men. It caused him to walk. He could see the holy wrath of God. It says that the nation when they see Christ they are They are broken we see see God, and he saw God and it caused him to walk, so how do we please God? We're going to look at seven different things next time seven ways that we Live for God and walk before God and we please God out of that one is walking in the light And we'll see a real detour on that bearing in mind non-believers cannot Cannot please God no need in us trying to get them to do it because they can't and we must approach it from that way only Believers can please God we're the only one have the capacity and then there are some things that we can Be sure that in our heart by God's grace. We are seeking to do that and as we do that We will stand before the Lord pleasing. And it all began with acknowledging that God's word, his commandment, if ought to be obeyed, we must obey them. No let up off of it simply if we are not doing it. It still is the responsibility. Lord, we thank you that you have given us grace that we can be pleasing to you. Lord is so diametrically opposed to our own thinking that we oftentimes find ourselves guilty of rationalizing with reason to come up with ways that we can excuse our own laziness, Lord, our own unwillingness to submit in obedience. So we ask that you would guard our hearts, Lord, that we not acquiesce to our flesh and give in to the enemy or our flesh by choosing to cling and hold to our idol, ourselves, and our own thinking, but to be willing, Lord, to bankrupt ourselves, empty ourselves of ourselves, that by your grace we can willingly submit to your truth, and in so doing that you will be pleased. We pray God, when you do that, that you would give us the humility to give you all the praise for it. In Christ's name, amen.