Lord, we ask that as you delight to do as you've
done for us countless times in our lives for
our good. Would you please now, by the power
of your spirit, open our hearts up to receive
you, to receive what you have to say to us here
and illumine this word for us, we pray. We need
that work from you. In Christ's name. Amen. I
don't know what a parent might find themselves
saying to a grown up child when the grown up
child is about to head off and get married. I
have not been in that position. If it happens,
I think I could imagine wanting to say something
like this. And I'll imagine it said to a son
rather than a daughter, because rather simply,
I have a son and not a daughter. I can imagine
wanting to say something like, son, we have taught
you to be a good man. We've taught you to be
loving and gentle. You've been taught that. And
son, you know, I see you living like that. You're
not perfect, but you are loving and you are gentle.
So son, as you head off into your new life, more
and more, just be like that more and more. You've
been taught. You are doing so more and more.
There might be all sorts of times in life, mightn't
there, when we want to say that kind of thing
to each other. You've been taught you are doing
more and more. Isn't that pretty encouraging?
I mean, it seems to me the tone of that is not
the tone of a telling off, oh, come on, you've
disappointed me again, pull your socks up. The
tone is, it's a thumbs up. It's a keep going.
It's an I see you. I see you. I like what I see
more and more. And that is exactly the tone and
actually not just the tone. That is the substance
of what God says through the Apostle Paul to
the Christians in Thessalonica in in chapter
four in this first letter to the Thessalonians.
In fact, what Paul is doing in chapter four is
he picks up what he drops in at the end of chapter
three, and then he just dives into it a bit more
deeply. At the end of chapter three, he's been
talking about the lives of these Christians,
about the quality of their lives. Just listen
to the last two verses of chapter three, verses
12 and 13. There he says, may the Lord make your
love increase. and overflow for each other and
for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
May your love increase. Verse 13, may he strengthen
your hearts so that you will be blameless and
holy in the presence of our God and Father when
our Lord Jesus comes with his holy ones. He says
that he wants two things in their lives, two
things in our lives to increase and abound and
be established and they are love for each other.
And holiness. And in our passage today, as he
gets into chapter four, Paul keeps running with
those two topics of love for each other and holiness.
Towards the end of our passage, he's going to
talk about their love for each other. Before
that, earlier in the passage, he talks about
holiness. And what he particularly homes in on
is sexual holiness. So in our verses, that's
what we've got. We've got these two sections.
One to wait on sexual morality, sexual holiness.
And then verses nine to 12 on love for each other
in the church. That's how this passage is set
up. Now, before I get into some of the details
of that, I want to come back to where I started,
because Paul. He leads into these two sections,
these two sections on sexual holiness and love
for each other in the church. He leads into them
in the exact same way in each section. You have
been taught, you are doing so more and more.
See that in verse one of chapter four. As for
other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed
you how to live in order to please God. As in
fact you are doing. Now we ask you and urge you
in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. Paul
had spent time with them, hadn't he? He taught
them the word of God. He taught them the will
of God. He says here, we instructed you how to
live in order to please God. You know what instructions
we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
You've been taught. And still in verse one, he
says, as in fact, you are living. You are doing
it. I know you are. And then third, the end of
verse one. Now we ask and urge you in the Lord
Jesus more and more. You see the pattern being
taught are doing more and more. That's how we
lead into the first section on sexual morality.
And then. The second section on love for each
other, we get the exact same pattern. Different
words, same pattern. So verse 9. Now, about your
love for one another, we do not need to write
to you, for you yourselves have been taught by
God to love each other. And in fact, you do love
all of God's family throughout Macedonia. Yet
we urge you, brothers and sisters. To do so more
and more. You see the pattern. You yourselves
have been taught by God, he says, to love each
other. What does he mean? How would they be taught
by God? Well, two ways. Through their ears. Paul
had been there. Paul had taught them. Through
their ears and in their hearts. God had also
taught them through the Holy Spirit, whom he'd
sent into them, prompting them, steering them.
making it, as it were, internally in their souls,
making it as plain as the nose on their face,
that they should love each other. They've been
taught. Then verse 10, he says, and in fact,
you do love all of God's family. They are doing
it. And third, verse 11, we urge you, brothers
and sisters, to do so. There's the phrase again,
more and more. Do you see it's the exact same
pattern at the beginning of each section. Being
taught, are doing. So more and more. Surely this
resonates with our experience of what it is to
live as Christians. At some point in the past
by someone, you were taught how you should live
as a Christian. It's simple teaching. You're
not likely to forget it. And in the areas Paul
is talking about here, of course, the teaching
is at root. Sex is for marriage between a man
and a woman. And other Christians are your brothers
and sisters, and you've got to love them. Once
that foundation of simple teaching had been laid
in you, it kind of stuck, didn't it? You have
not done the hard work that some people tragically
do of trying to rip up that foundation and chucking
it out because they want to live an entirely
different kind of life now. No, you've been building
on it. You've been building brick by brick, layer
by layer. God has been building that in you.
It's not been perfect. Just to take that kind
of building analogy a stage further. Sometimes
you can look at bits of your building and you
can see they're starting to crumble. Maybe, frankly,
you've been actively taking a sledgehammer to
bits of the building yourself. But you put the
sledgehammer down, you sort it out in God's strength,
you build again, you build some more. To the
Christian who resonates with that, God is saying
to us in these verses, You are a follower of
Christ. You are not having sex with someone you
are not married to. You are not planning to have
sex with someone you are not married to. When
the temptation to enjoy thinking about sex with
someone you're not married to jumps into your
head, what do you do? Well, in the end, with
the Spirit's help, you work to put the danger
into death. Love for others. You really do love
the Christian brothers and sisters sitting around
you here. You really do love the Christian brothers
and sisters you sit with on a Sunday. OK, sometimes
they drive you mad and you drive them mad. But
you are not ashamed out there in the world to
be associated with them. You share your life
with them, your time with them, your possessions
with them. If this is us, because we are Christians,
what is God's message here? Is it not simply
this? God says to us, you have been taught. I
have laid good foundations in you. You know the
teaching. You're not likely to forget it. You've
got reliable teachers who go on teaching you.
You've got the spirit in you to go on reminding
you. Second, God says, I see you. I see. that
you are walking now in the right way. In a world
that thinks your sexual ethics are ridiculous,
thinks they're harmful, I see how you live, says
God. In a world that too often fosters friendships
only when they benefit me, I see you giving out
to Christians and brothers and sisters when you
have nothing to gain and it's only going to cost
you. Third, says God, So more and more. This
is the right path. I have shown you. You have
found it. You are walking in it. Keep walking
in it. You know, as I was putting this sermon
together, I just had the sense that this first
section of the sermon, which is the longest section,
that this first section, it just kind of felt
deeply ordinary. I looked at this and went, is
this going to set the world on fire? It just
felt deeply ordinary and also deeply encouraging.
I love the thought of someone taking this thought
with them into the rest of their week. And this
being halfway through week 12, that's kind of
quite a week for a lot of us. I love the idea
of someone taking this thought with them. God
has laid down his teaching in me. He just has.
I'm not in the business of ripping it up and
chucking it out. He sees how I'm walking and
he says it's good. It is not perfect. It is not
the finished article, but he says I see and it
is good. So now, please, Lord, for another few
days, more and more of the same. More and more
does not seem so crushing. But if you may have
had some. experiences in life some encounters
some relationships where basically what there's
been is a tone of more and more come on more
and more more and more and that's how often is
that just crushing and debilitating but now here
when it's the lord god who says more and more
but he has said to you first you know i've laid
the teaching down in you I see you living in
it and it is good. When that Lord who was first
said those things, when he then says more and
more. Is that not encouraging? And not crushing?
So I've shown you here what God says to a church
that is basically going well in these things,
in sexual morality, in love for each other. But
now for the rest of my time, I'm just going to
get into what Paul does as he spells out that
first section on sexual morality. There isn't
time for me to get into the details of what he
says on love for each other. And in that first
section on sexual morality, I'm going to focus
on God's message here to a Christian. Who, through
this sermon so far, has been thinking to themselves,
well, in that first section of the passage, if
I'm honest, I'm not sure I am going so well in
these things. I'm not sure the Lord would look
at me and say, you are doing. In this first section
on sexual morality. There can be many scenarios
here, can't there? Maybe this might be one in
the life of a Christian. And I'm not picking
this scenario at random. This is exactly the
situation that a Christian I know has been in
recently. Out of the blue, an old flame from
the past got in touch. And it was fairly evident
to the Christian that if they responded to this,
one thing may well lead to another. Because that's
what the other wanted. And we know, don't we,
that phrase, one thing leads to another, what
that can mean sexually. A Christian receives
that message and frankly, they quite like the
thought. They get quite a lot of pleasure from
the thought of what a response to this message
might lead to. And so right now, a Christian
in that situation may well think God is not looking
at me in this area with the thumbs up. Well,
what the Lord gives us here in these opening
verses of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, what he
gives us is five motivations, five spurs, five
reasons from the Lord not to reply to that out
-of -the -blue message open to the possibility
that one thing might lead to another. Anyone
who needs particular strength from the Lord in
this area right now? Well, you could pick out
one of these five. I'm going to set them out
for you. You could pick out one of these five
that just kind of hits you. That's what you need
to cling on to. Or maybe kind of you just let
the weight of the five wash over you as a kind
of a summary of the Lord's strength for you in
this. First, if one thing did lead to another,
Well, that is simply how people live when they
do not know God. Verse 5. Not in passionate lust
like the pagans who do not know God. When we
know God, we know that he is utterly faithful
to us, know he is utterly holy, know how he utterly
desires and works for us to share his holiness.
How can we live like people who just don't know
him? Second, it harms others. Verse six. And
that in this matter, no one should wrong or take
advantage of a brother or sister. You may well
have experienced, as I have done, people in an
adulterous relationship who are telling themselves
this harms no one. And everyone around them,
especially those caught in the crossfire, know
that that is a lie. Third, God simply condemns
it. Verse six, the Lord will punish all those
who commit such sins. Fourth, it's just not our
calling from God. It's not what he's called us
into. Verse seven, for God did not call us to
be impure, but to live a holy life. If this isn't
too flippant a way of putting it, being holy
is not a nice to have in our calling from the
Lord. Holiness in these sexual things is not
an add -on extra to our faith for the super keen,
like heated seats in a new car if you fancy them
and can afford them. It is just the very essence
of who we are and how we are called, what we
are called to. And fifth, sex outside its proper
place disregards God. It ignores, it ignores,
it works against the reality that God has already
put something into us. He has put into us his
own holy presence and his own holy power. Verse
eight. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction.
does not reject a human being, but rejects God,
the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. I
know we know this. In us as Christians is who?
The Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Ignoring that message
that pops up on your phone, where one thing might
lead to another, choosing to ignore that and
walking away. What are you doing when you do
that? From the perspective of verse 8, what you
are doing is you are just living in line with
the presence and the power of God who is in you.
You're going with the grain of what God has built
into your life. You're walking within the power
that God has already poured into your life. So
five strengthening things here from the Lord
to help us. Maybe one of them jumps out as just
what we need. Maybe kind of the five work together
as it were to overwhelm us again. Holding us
in holiness. Calling us back into holiness. And
particularly calling us back when the temptation
is strongest. There's the temptation. But now
that is how people live when they don't know
God. But I do know him. If I do this, I will
harm someone. The God who I trust with everything
else in my life, he condemns this. How wonderful
to be called by the God of the universe to be
something. And this is not his calling. If I
do this, I will disregard the one I love most
of all. Whose own spirit of holiness is in me.
My goodness, there is an awful lot here, isn't
there, with which to feed our own souls and to
feed each other's souls. Let me leave a moment
for your own private prayer. Then I'll close
with a prayer for all of us. Our loving Lord,
we know and believe that your words to us are
truth and life and power. We want to walk in
them. We praise you for every area of our lives
where by the teaching you've laid down, by your
constant strengthening of us in the power of
the Spirit, we are walking in them. Keep us in
this. Call us back to this. Day by day, evermore
we pray. In Christ's name. Amen.