When I went to Michigan State University, my favorite class was statics. I liked it so much that three weeks into it, I had the whole class done. It was a 15-week class. It was all done by computers. I was done in three weeks. And they asked me to teach it, so I taught it to other people who didn't get it. I just love statics. You know what statics is? It's what you need to do if you're going to build a bridge. Statics is that something has to stand still. When you build bridges, you want them to stand still. When you build roads, you want them to stand still. When you build buildings, you want them to stand still. That was my thing, standing still. I was good at that. My bridges don't move. The mechanical engineers, however, they were guys who liked dynamics. They liked the class and I didn't like dynamics. It was the other side of statics. Dynamics is where things are moving. They like pistons going up and down. They like things that are always moving. They like all kinds of contraptions with torque and power and horsepower. And I didn't like that. That's why I became a civil engineer. I like things to stand still. When you think of your Christian life, you've got to think of it in this way. Do you like statics? Or do you like dynamics? Do you like things to stay the same? Change? We don't change. Change? We don't like that. Do you like things to stay the way they are? You're a civil engineer. If you like things to move, Be dynamic. You're a mechanical engineer. And you have to ask that about your life. And you have to ask that about the ministry of Walnut Ridge Baptist Church. Are we happy where we are? Satisfied where we are? Are we static? Complacent? Satisfied? Not moving? Or is there something within us that says, this is great, but let's go another notch higher. The Apostle Paul had that problem with the church at Thessalonica. They were great people. They were wonderful people. He wasn't going to criticize them at all. They loved one another. They lived in holiness. They were great with the outside people. But he recognized they had become a people that had become static. They had become a people that were contented with where they were and become complacent in who they were and they didn't want to change. And so as we made our way through First Thessalonians, we come to chapter four and you read these words in First Thessalonians, chapter four. Finally, then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more. If you go down to verse nine, but considering brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed, you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more. He's got a people who are great, but they could be greater. He's got a people who are doing the right things, but they could do even better at it. And the issue for them was, are you complacent? Just sitting still? Or do you recognize that wherever you are in your Christian life, you could be better? You could love better. You could serve better. You could obey better. You could do all those kinds of things. We have to ask that for our own church. Are we in danger of complacency? Becoming static? Or if Paul were to write to us, would he say, you know, you guys are doing well, but here's what I urge you to do. Here's what I exhort you to do. I want you to bound more and more. Move on. Press on. Keep going. Well, let's look at what he says to the church at Thessalonica, and maybe it will be helpful for you. I know it was very convicting to me as I studied it. There is a sense in which I'm very complacent and very contented and very happy with who I am. And when I read this, I recognized I have a long ways to go. And I could abound more and more. I could press on the upward way. Here's what he says. First Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 1. Finally, brethren, urge, exhort, in the Lord Jesus you abound more and more. Keep moving. Here's what. Just as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God. For you know what commandment we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, 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, in order that no one should take advantage of or defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified, for God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God. the One who has given us His Holy Spirit. Therefore, concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. Indeed, you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more in order that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your own hands as we commanded you, in order that you may walk properly toward those who are outside and that you may lack In nothing, as you read that section, he is driving them to move forward and it has everything to do with the concept of sanctification and moving forward and pressing on. And as you read it, you recognize he gives some of the elements of that, the steps of sanctification, what it takes for us to be people who are not complacent, but we're moving forward and moving up. It begins in verse one with this, we have to become a people. who recognize and see and accept the fact that it is our obligation to live in a way that pleases God. That's exactly what he says. Just as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God. The word ought there is a word that says this is not an option. We do not have church a la carte. You don't pick and choose. You don't take from the Bible what you want, do from the Bible what you think you ought to do. You can a la carte it. You can't do that. What you have to do is to see you have a moral obligation to walk, that is to say, daily live, be involved in the process of daily living in such a way that it pleases God. And we have to start with that. I have to accept that it is not pleasing to God when I stay where I am. It is not pleasing to God when I accept who I am and just say that's the way I am. It is not pleasing to God to live my life in a way that does not consistently show that the spirit of God is working in me and moving me forward. In fact, you and I understand that we just have to accept the fact that we have a moral obligation to please God. William Hazlitt once wrote these words, The soul of a journey is liberty. Perfect liberty is to think and to feel and to do just as one pleases. May I suggest to you, too many of us live that way and we agree with William Hazlitt, but may I suggest to you the Apostle Paul did not live that way. He did not say perfect liberty is when I get to live as I please. What he would say to you and to me is this, we better be living to please God. Remember what he said, it is God who is working in you both to will and to do of his, that's God's, good pleasure. And remember what the author of Hebrews said about Enoch, that his testimony was this, that he walked in such a way that he pleased God. Therefore, it starts with this in my heart and this in your heart. I accept the fact that I have a moral obligation to please God. It's an attitude, it's a motivation, it's a way of living. I wake up every day, you should wake up every day saying, I have an obligation to please God. Now, how do I know how to please God? Well, the same way you know how to please your boss or your parents or whoever it is, you've got to figure out what they have said. So here's the next statement that's found in verse two, for you know what commandment we gave you through the Lord Jesus. You want to please God? Accept your moral obligation to please God. But now, he says, you know. God has given us His commandments. So I have to acknowledge it. I have to study it. I have to learn it. And I can come to know that. If I'm going to please God, I have to obey God and I have to acknowledge the commandments that He has given to you and to me. It is not really a great mystery what I have to do to please God. It's not like I have to dream it up at night, what He wants me to do, because He has clearly revealed it to me. I have an obligation to please Him And I have an obedience to His commandments, to do what He wants me to do. That's a part of my life. And so that first element, which is this motivation, I live to please Him, now goes to the study of the Scriptures that I know what it is He wants me to do and what it is He wants me not to do. It's a matter of obedience. Now, you and I understand that that strikes at the humanity around us. We don't like that. In fact, it's hardly a day goes by when you don't turn on the news or walk into somebody and they don't particularly like what God says and they don't want to know what God says. Here's how Paul says it, though. For you know what commandment we gave you. It's not new, something already been handed down through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not from the apostles. It's not from men. It's what God has given to us. And you recognize that in a world that says, I can do my own thing, I can live any way I want. I don't have to live by the commandments of God. God says no. You better strive to please God and you better strive to obey God. You better do what he wants you to do. I was on a plane with a very smart man, professor at one of the big universities, concert pianist, the whole nine years. And as he talked with me, I recognized as we were discussing things, he said, well, why do you believe that? Why do you believe that? Why do you do that? Why this? Why that? You know, he just kept talking, wouldn't let me sleep. So we talked the whole time. But his whole point was this. I don't have to do what God tells me to do. At the end of the day, that's what he was trying to communicate to me. And I know you believe that, you guys who are Baptists. But us Jews don't believe that. We don't have to obey God. So I was raised that way with my mom. 613 commandments they have in the Old Testament. You get on an elevator in Jerusalem, you know what you find on the Shabbat, on Sabbath? Their elevators stop at every floor. You don't punch floor nine. They have the Sabbath elevator. You know why? Because they're not supposed to work on the Sabbath. And punching that button would do something. Make them work. He said, I object to that and I threw that all off and I don't have to do what God tells me to do. My friends, it starts by saying my desire is to please God. I have an obligation to that. And now I will look to God's commandments and figure out how I'm going to obey him. What he wants me to do, how he wants me to live. And when I have those two steps in my mind, I am ready for verse three, where he says this, for this is the will of God. Even your sanctification, when you see all those commandments, you realize that that reveals the will of God. And as you understand the will of God, it is this, that we become a sanctified people. And that word sanctification, as you know, is the same as the word holy. We become a holy people, a sanctified people. The word literally means to be set apart. It means to be distinct. It means to be different. God wants you and me to walk out into our world on a daily basis and realize I am going to be different. I'm going to dress different. I'm going to talk different. I'm going to act different. I'm going to react different. Everything about me is going to be different than the natural man and every natural man that I walk into this day. You and I are to be a people. Who realize that our lifestyle, our actions. Are to demonstrate to people the will of God. There to demonstrate to people we are different. We don't listen to those stories. We don't tell those stories. We don't look at those things. We don't go to those places. We don't whatever. And we do this and we do this and we do this because that's the will of God. And it takes that not only to accept my obligation to please God. Do you do that? Do you wake up every morning and say, I want to please you today, God? Not only do I Run to the Word of God, study it and figure out what are the commandments of God. Do you do that? How do you want me to handle this today, God? Then I have to strive, I have to act, I have to live in a way that demonstrates that I am different. I am unique. Now, having said that, he wants us to see a specific case of that. And of all the things he could have said, of all the different commandments that God has given, all the will of God you could think about, he picks one that seems in some ways a little strange. Here's what it is. Verse three, that you should abstain from sexual immorality. Why that one? If you ask that question, why, then you are like the people Paul was writing to. Because you see, they lived in a culture that said religion and morality were two different things. They lived in a culture that had come to see sexual immorality was normal. It's the way life is. You can't control it. You can't deal with it. It's just par for the course. Everybody does it. And so it had become a way of living in that culture. In fact, if you've done any study of the cultures of history, you recognize almost every culture has eventually come to that conclusion. That's just normal. Sexual immorality is the way it's going to be. 13 year old, 14 year old kids are going to do whatever 13 and 14 year old kids do. You can't tell them to say no. In adults, you can't tell them to stop what they're doing. You can't change the way they live. It's just par for the course. And so when you look at this, there's a part of you says this is the will of God, even your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality. You say, why did you pick that one? But then you recognize he picked it for a reason. One of the great tendencies of the natural man, of all the things he could have chosen, this one really strikes home. This is really where the rubber meets the road. This is where the world and our culture and the Greek culture and the Roman culture and seemingly every culture has concluded, this is not one area that I have to change my life in. I can love God. I can please God. I can obey God. and be sexually immoral at the same time. And so he says, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you really want to get down to the nitty gritty, we're going to talk about this one. There are three things you better do. If you're going to do the will of God, number one, you better abstain from sexual immorality. The word abstain, as you know, means just that. Pull back. Stay away from. Draw away from, stay a mile away from that. Make sure that in your life you don't even come close to sexual immorality. By the way, sexual immorality, that word is porneia, pornography. And you know from Scripture, not only in Exodus chapter 20, where it says all the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not commit adultery. You know in Christ in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 27, you've heard that it's been said, You should not commit adultery. But I say unto you that if you look at a woman to lust after you've already committed lust or immorality in your life, you understand all that. You recognize that what he is saying is this. You've got to stay away from, you've got to pull away from all aspects of sexual immorality. That which comes through your eyes, that which comes through your mind. All of the fantasies, all these sites, all the actions, whatever it is, you just got to stay away from it. You better abstain from it. And what he says is this. Sanctification, first and foremost, involves this abstaining. From sexual immorality, stay away from it. You say, how can I do that? Well, here's how you do that. Verse four, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification another. Not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. He says you've got to abstain And you're going to do that if you control. In both verse 4 and 5, one positive, one negative, concludes this. You better get control of your life. Verse 4. Each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. Now, there's great debate if the word vessel means wife, who Peter would say is the weaker vessel. In other words, you better Find a wife. If you have a problem with immorality, go get a wife. That would compare to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, where Paul would say in verse 2 and also in verse 39, that one of the ways that immorality is taken care of in the life of an individual is to have a husband and wife relationship. And so it's found there. And so it may be that what he is saying here is that each of you should make sure you have a partner so that you are not tempted in those areas of morality. But you also know that the word vessel is used in regards to our whole body. And what he is saying is this, each of us positively, if that's the right way to say it, is this. We have to learn to be in full control of our body. We have to be a people who know how to possess it, control it, guard it, guide it, take charge of it. Not negatively, verse five, in the passion of lust. And he stacks up those two words, passion and lust, which to us are the same thing, but they're really not. One starts with P, one starts with L, one's got six letters and one's got four. And there are a difference. And the one word means this, and you can really understand it. It's that feeling that you have, if that's the right word, that feeling, that emotion, that sense, that passion that you have, which grabs you, takes control of you. Your mind gets focused on it. And therefore, it drives you to an action. For example, you ever get real, real thirsty? We were out in the Sinai desert. I'd murmur in two days as well. Trust me. I do not criticize those children of Israel at all. It is hot and it is dry. And you get thirsty. You know what was my passion? I wanted a bottle of water. I couldn't think of anything else. It just grabs you. It drives you. People have a passion for alcohol. People have a passion for drugs. People have passions for food. People have passions for gossip. People have passions for all those things that grab you and won't let go of you. They master you. And he says, you cannot allow that in your life, that passion that leads to lust, which is that drive to have a sexual relationship with someone. Rather, he says in verse 5, not in the passion of lust, because that's what the Gentiles do. That's what the unsaved do. And they don't even know God. He says, if you're going to do the will of God, abstain, pull away from, in this case, sexual immorality. And I'm sure in some ways we could say, pull away from everything that's wrong. Get control of who you are and don't act like an unsaved person. Don't let it take control of you. And the key to it all is By the way, knowing God, and finally, he says in verse six, these words in order that no one should take advantage of or defraud his brother. In this manner, and when he says that, you recognize that he says. You make sure you have abstinence and you make sure you have control and you make sure you have boundaries. Let's just look at that, that no one should take advantage of that word literally is to step over the mark. It's the word that usually is translated transgressions. Remember sins, iniquities, transgressions to overreach, to go over a boundary, to to say, here's the line, but I'm going to live over here. And he says, you got to come to grips with the reality, there has to be boundaries in your life. This is right. This is wrong. I got to stay in the box. Don't step over the line, because when you do, you will defraud. You will take advantage of guess who? The brother. Sexual immorality is stepping over a line you're not supposed to step over and sexual immorality leads to the frauding or taking advantage of other people. And it might even be a brother in the Lord. And so when you put together verse three and verse four and verse five and verse six, he is saying these things, you make sure you have abstinence and you make sure you have control. Abstinence from sexual immorality, that's the key control over your life. and boundaries in your life. And you live within them and you know what to do within them. You and I have studied the Scripture so many times and I'm sure that as we have written down in your prayer sheet, as I've written in my prayer sheet, when I go to the section on confession in my prayer sheet, I have a lot of verses that I've just written over the years. And some of them have to do with this. Remember Job said, or I'm sorry, the psalmist said Psalm 101, verse 3, I was set before my eyes No evil thing. That's what Zalma said. I read that every morning. And Job said this, I've made a covenant with my heart that I would never look at a woman to lust after her. And you can stack them up. God's people throughout the ages have recognized this is a problem that I am not able to handle on my own except that God helps me to abstain from sexual immorality, control who I am in my body and draw the boundaries. You say, well, why do that? It really doesn't matter. In fact, that's the attitude of our day, is it not? Is it not the attitude of our day that people openly do sexual immorality or practice it and tell you about it and they think it's okay? They think there's no consequences. He said, let me tell you why you better not take that attitude. Here's what he says in verse 6. Because the Lord is the avenger of all such. You know you're going to have to answer to the Lord. He's a God of justice. Trust me on that one. The author of Ecclesiastes said if the sinner does sin a hundred times and every time he gets away with it, be sure of one thing. God will deal with him. And maybe you have gotten away with it 100 times. Be sure of one thing. God is the one who avenges. You may have fooled a lot of people. There may be a lot of people who don't know a thing about what you do or I do. But also be sure of this, God knows. In fact, none of us would like to have confession publicly, would we? If we were to be a people who said, now you know what I did last week? I wouldn't want to do that. You wouldn't want to do that. I wouldn't want you to know what I did necessarily. Do you know God knows? He already knows it. And be sure of this, He's an avenger. He deals with it. Be sure your sin will find you out. Besides that, he says in verse 7, God did not call us to uncleanness, but to holiness, to live in holiness. God avenges. God calls us. And when he calls us, it's not that we just continue to live like the world lives, like the Gentiles live, we don't know God. We are different people. And he calls us to cleanness, holiness, not uncleanness. Besides that, it says this in verse 8, this is even more difficult to accept. Here's why we do this. Verse 8, therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God. If I continue on outside of the pleasing of God and the commandments of God and the will of God, and in particular in this area of sexual immorality, you know what I'm really doing? I am spitting in God's face. I am rejecting Him. I am despising Him. And you know what those words mean. If you've ever had anybody despise you, you know what that feels like. They see you are of no value. They see you are of no worth. And for us to live outside of pleasing God and obeying God and doing the will of God, and especially in this area, is to say, God, I don't really think you're worth much. I despise you because I despise what you told me to do. You can relate that to your kids when they were growing up. You had all the commandments and rules of your house. One day they decided not to do it. He came back, a little cocky attitude maybe when they were 16. Dad, I'm big enough to do this. You know how that hurt? Remember how that felt? You had listed all those rules for living, not because you were a mean father, because you thought it was best for your son and daughter. And suddenly they said, Dad, I don't think you're right. I don't think you're worth listening to anymore. Imagine doing that to God. Saying to God, you know God, I don't think you're worth a thing to me. And besides that, he says in verse 8 of these words, God, do you know what He's done for you? He's given you the Holy Spirit. What? Know you not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit? So you have those four reasons we ought to abstain and control and set boundaries in our life. so that we can accomplish the will of God and obey the commandments of God and ultimately fulfill our obligation to please God. These are the four reasons. God does avenge. God has not called us to uncleanness. He has called us to live a holy, righteous life. That's what He wants us to be. God is the one who is supposed to be preeminent in our life. And if I disobey Him and go contrary to that, I'm spitting in His face. And ultimately, I am living as if what He did for me has never happened. He gave me His Holy Spirit who lives within me to enable me to live righteously and godly, to be my comforter, to be the very presence of God in my life. And I'm trying to live like He's not there. And so He says to you and to me in these eight verses, I'd like to urge you and I'd like to exhort you to abound more and more in this kind of a life. Abound more and more in holiness. May this sanctification process just keep moving and moving and moving and you're just notching up, notching up, notching up, notching up. Because you have come to realize you have an obligation to please God. And you have the ability To know what God wants you to do. And you are to live in a way that increasingly sets you apart from the world in which you live as you do the will of God. But we don't have time today for verse 9 through 11. But he summarizes it in verse 9 and 10. Now, you just love the brethren. That would take care of all those problems. And you live correctly to those outside. But the real issue for you and me today is simply this. Are you pressing on the upward way? New heights you're gaining every day. Are you pleasing God? Are you obeying God? Are you doing the will of God? One of the things that's maybe a comfort to all of us is we recognize that in one sense they were. And He says, you're doing it, but I want you to do it more and more. So none of us are perfect. We understand that. But sanctification is a process that keeps us notching up. That also is true. I'm not the man I used to be. I'm not the man I was ten years ago. I'm not the man I was a year ago. And in particular, in this area of sexual immorality, of all the things he could have chosen, he just lays down that one. Because it might be the one we need the most. Do you stay away from it? Do you? Do you control it? You have boundaries for it. One of my friends, and I won't tell you his name, he's a pastor in Iowa, state of Iowa. You know what he did with his computer? You can get programs that track everything you ever look at on that computer. So he got it. He and his deacon, every month he goes and looks at his deacon's computer And he sees everything his deacon has watched and looked at on the Internet. And his deacon comes to him and turns on his computer and looks at everything he's looked at. And I said to him, why do you need to do that? He said, I don't know if I could control it otherwise. Many have fallen because they couldn't control. And maybe we have to set in place whatever it takes to help us through that. God doesn't want you to stay where you are. With Paul, he could probably say to the church of Walnut Ridge Baptist Church, you're pretty good people. But now I'd urge you to abound more and more in pleasing God and obeying God and doing the will of God. Would you do that? Let's pray. Father, today we are thankful for this passage. We're thankful for the conviction it brings to our heart. We're thankful that it offers to us hope. That we are a people who can move forward, we can press on, we can become better at what we're doing as we please you and obey you and do your will. Oh, Father, I pray that if there's a need in any of our hearts today, and I suspect there is, I know there's a need in my heart, that we would put into action whatever it takes so we could come to the end of our days and say we pleased you, we obeyed you, we did your will. We thank you in Christ's name.