How to Be Kept From Sexual Impurity

The Context of Sanctification in 1 Thessalonians 4

0:04 We resume our studies this morning in the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

0:20 As we have noted in our two previous studies in this chapter, chapter 4 forms a transition point in the letter. Whenever the Apostle says, finally then brethren, or furthermore brethren, he is generally moving into a series of exhortations and admonitions which will conclude his letter. And the theme of these final exhortations found in chapter 4 and chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians is the little phrase, how to walk and to please God. Paul is declared,

1:01 He is declared to them that they had previously received some directives for a holy walk, a walk that would please God. And now he is writing these further exhortations and instructions that they might abound more and more in a walk that is pleasing to God. So that if you would please God, and there is no higher motivation in the Christian life than that of seeking to please God, and there is nothing which one can use as a lever more forcible. If you do this, you will please God.

1:36 If you don't do this, you will not please Him. Therefore the Apostle uses this motivation in setting these directives before the saints at Thessalonica and of course before us. As God intended these things should be left for our direction. Now what is the life or the walk that pleases God?

1:58 Well he tells them in verse 3 that this is the will of God. Even your sanctification. In our previous study then, we considered the general principle for a life pleasing to God. Namely that it is a sanctified life.

2:14 A life set apart unto God. Sanctification is not primarily negative. Sanctification is not to be understood in terms of what we do not do. But in terms of a relationship which results in certain things that we do.

2:32 And refuse to do. A man is not sanctified because he doesn't do certain things. But because he is sanctified, he may not do certain things. His relationship to the Lord may mean that he has to forego certain things.

2:49 But the mere foregoing of certain things without a positive identification with and relationship to the Lord Jesus is not sanctification. It is empty morality. It is devoid of true biblical sanctification. Then Paul moves from the general principle into a specific area of sanctification.

Sexual Purity within the Framework of Creation, Fall, and Redemption

3:13 This is the will of God. Even your sanctification that ye abstain from fornication or sexual impurity. Therefore the Apostle is indicating that sanctification involves not just a general statement. Of this.

3:32 being set apart unto the Lord, but it reaches down into every facet of life, even into one's sexual life. And the Apostle Paul does not think it beneath the dignity or the purity of the ministry to write these things which were read in a public assembly, and therefore I do not feel it beneath the dignity and purity of the Christian ministry to expound his words. In our previous study, I tried, I don't know how successfully, to get across the principle that we will not understand Paul's instructions concerning sexual purity unless we put them

4:12 in the same framework within which Paul put them. And Paul put them within the framework of the biblical doctrine of creation, the fall, and of redemption. And so we made a quick survey through the doctrine of creation and what it contains. It says about the whole matter of sexuality and sexual purity. In the doctrine of creation

4:35 we saw that sex was the gift of God, that it was to be subject to God, and when this gift was subject to God and exercised within the boundaries of the will of God, it was pleasing to God. God saw all that he made and it pleased him, the scripture tells us. And until we think in terms of that...

4:58 concept of creation, we will never think rightly about the whole subject of sexual purity. Then we looked at that subject in the light of the fall, that when man became estranged from God, all of his appetites and capacities were wrenched loose from being subject to God. Then the very gifts of God had become curses, in that man now makes a god of the gifts. And as we read in Romans 1, he worships and serves the creature more than the creator.

5:29 Therefore, this highest gift will descend to the lowest depths of abuse. And this is why this whole matter, historically and in our own contemporary society, is such an area of sin and debauchery, because the highest gift of God is the one that can descend to the lowest depths, when it is wrenched loose from a proper relationship. But then, and this is where we closed our study, in redemption, God takes back that which is his rightful possession, and the scripture teaches that our very bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit, and Romans 6.13 says we are to present all the members,

6:13 the faculties of our bodies, unto him as instruments of righteousness. Therefore, for the Christian, he can have this pure, perspective that this is the gift of God. Now, by his grace, it is brought back subject to him, and its deviations can be disciplined by him, and I can glorify God in the full acceptance of, and discharge of, my sexuality as a redeemed creature. Now, so much for the framework, and that's review. Now, how does Paul specifically direct these Christians

Contrasting Hedonism and Asceticism

6:52 to be kept? From the sin of uncleanness. Notice, this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from uncleanness. The subject with which he's going to deal is how Christian men and women are to be kept from sexual impurity. That's the subject. Now, how does he answer

7:15 it? Well, before we see how Paul answers, let's just go back over briefly, and relate the answer that hedonism, libertinism, would give, on the one hand, and the answer that asceticism would give, on the other. Some would say, well, Paul, you know how you keep people from uncleanness? What you do is, you re-educate the conscience to the fact that there are no distinctions between clean and unclean. You see, Paul, your problem is, as long as you think that

7:44 there are some guidelines, we are meeting in a basketball court today, and there are the sidelines and the end line. And when the teams come on here to play, the moment the The ball is bounced over there or rolls over there. It's out of bounds and must be brought back into play. Now, the hedonist, the libertine, would say, Now, Paul, that's the trouble with you.

8:04 In trying to tell these people what are the boundary lines, you're creating problems. What we want to do is take paint remover and we want to remove the boundary lines so that there are no sidelines or end lines. Then, wherever anybody rolls in the realm of sexual expression, there's no possibility of uncleanness, for nothing's unclean. And whether you're aware of it or not, you and I are being bombarded by an aggressive, evangelistic, hedonistic philosophy that is trying to take paint remover upon the consciences of men and absolutely obliterate any thought of right or wrong in the realm of sex.

8:45 You and I are being bombarded from every direction with a philosophy that is out to answer this question, How are we to be kept? How are we to be kept? From sexual impurity? Let's educate people to the fact that there is no such thing as impurity that anything goes.

9:04 May I quote from a paragraph that introduced an article in a recent popular magazine, Suddenly, it's the thing. There are all kinds of movies about homosexuality, both male and female. This year, more than a dozen major films dealing with this aberration are either in release in the United States or in production, under American auspices with the American audience in mind. End of quote.

9:35 At least 12 major films coming out with explicit homosexual plot. Why? Seeking, you see, to re-educate the American mind to the fact that nothing's wrong. There was a time when the American mind would have been shocked at that, you see.

9:54 But through this eroding process, we're seeking to bring about a society in which, we say, well, if they like that and that meets their needs, fine, wonderful. In answer to the question, how are we kept from impurity, the answer of hedonism is we destroy any thought of impurity and we make everything legitimate.

10:16 Now, to do this, what have you got to do? You've got to destroy the biblical doctrine of creation, the biblical doctrine of the fall, and the biblical doctrine of redemption. And our generation was softened up, just like when there's a battle, and if you're going to invade an area that the enemy has, you first of all bring your bombers in to soften it up, to loosen it up. You have your ship stationed offshore to bombard it, and then you land your troops.

10:45 For a hundred years, we've been bombarded with humanism, evolution. We've had the bombs of man-centered thinking dropping upon the fabric of our society until the average American has no thought of the creator-creature relationship God made me. Since He made me, and I find I'm a creature with sexual distinctions and capacities, that God must have the right to tell me how to use them. Therefore, I cannot just say, there are no boundaries.

11:17 God made me. God made me this way. He must have some expression of His will why He made me this way. You see, you've got to destroy the creator-creature relationship.

11:28 Evolution, humanism, has done this. Twelve major films dealing with homosexuality. Twelve major films dealing with homosexuality. could never have had a hearing even ten years ago, twenty years ago.

11:41 But there's been the bombarding, the shelling, the softening up, you see, until we have a society ready to receive it. You've got to do away with the doctrine of the fall. Modern psychology has done this, among others. No such thing as inherent sinfulness.

11:58 We're just not rightly adjusted to our environment. And why do people do bad things? If you may call them bad now, they may not be bad tomorrow. It's because of unfavorable circumstances.

12:10 You see? And so the humanism and the evolution that have permeated our whole thinking in our society have prepared us for the evangelism of hedonism. And there's an evangelistic campaign going on day and night on the television, in every magazine, on every billboard, in your shop, in your school, in the playground, wherever you go. There's the evangelism of hedonism.

12:33 Are you overstating the case, beloved? On the other hand, the answer of asceticism, how does one keep himself from sexual impurity? Asceticism says to avoid uncleanness, suppress your sexuality, refuse to accept it, look upon it as something that's really just sort of a necessary evil, put it under your heel, crush it in the dirt, and whenever it wiggles out from under the dirt, hit it with the other heel. Now again, before you can do that, you've got to destroy the biblical doctrine of what?

13:08 Creation. This is casting aspersions upon the creation. You see, the person who has tendencies to asceticism, who looks upon his sexuality as something to just be shoved into the corner, to be tolerated, is saying terrible things about the Creator. Saying that when in the beginning God made them male and female, and God said be fruitful and multiply, and God said it's not good for the man to be alone, and God brought the woman to the man, and God said the two should be one flesh, this person is saying, but God, you really didn't know what you were doing.

13:45 It's accusing God of having a dirty mind. And that terrible curse of asceticism, that leaven of asceticism is still much in the Church. I believe I have seen some traces of it in our own assembly, and certainly we see it in the terrible teaching of the Church of Rome. That's what's behind her teaching on the perpetual virginity of Mary.

14:08 You see, Mary would be something less than the Holy Mother of God if she ever had normal sexual fulfillment with Joseph. Joseph! You see, that's the philosophy of asceticism. But as Professor Murray says so beautifully in his book, Principles of Christian Conduct, if Mary had not had normal marital relations with Joseph after the birth of Jesus, she wouldn't be someone to be admired, she'd be a wretch to have denied Joseph his rightful due as a husband.

14:40 And so asceticism, you see, destroys the doctrine of creation. It looks in some ways, it has an unbiblical concept of the doctrine, but to the doctrine of the fallen it certainly has a defective doctrine of redemption. It makes redemption something God does in the immaterial. He redeems my soul, but my body and its appetites and its members and its functions, that's no man's land.

15:02 Oh no, the glorious doctrine of redemption is that the Lord redeems the whole man. He purchased me, all of me, mind, intellect, will, my sexual faculties as well, that they might be His servants unto righteousness. To His praise and to the good of humanity. So, in answer to the question, hedonism says, blot out the lions.

15:27 Asceticism says, kill the player. Leave the lions, but kill the ball player. See? Now what's God saying?

God's Answer: Legitimate Sexual Expression in Marriage (1 Thessalonians 4:4-5)

15:37 What's God's answer? Well, let's look at it. See if we can catch the core of what Paul is saying. This is the will of God, even your sanctification that you abstain from fornication.

15:47 Now how do you do it? Here it is. That each one of you know how to possess himself, of his own vessel, in sanctification and in honor. At this point the translation of the Revised Standard Version is more accurate.

16:00 This is how it's rendered. That each one of you know how to take a wife for himself, in holiness and in honor. Now the translation as well as the exegesis, the meaning of this verse, is disputed by the commentators. If you don't believe me, come over and spend a half an hour in my study this afternoon and look up this passage as I did and all my commentators.

16:27 One says this, one says that. And the confusion centers around this word. The word possess. I think the King James translates it possess, doesn't it?

16:37 That word should not be translated possess. It is nowhere translated this way in the rest of the New Testament. It's the verb that means to acquire. Sometimes to acquire by purchase.

16:50 It's the word used in Acts chapter 1 and verse 18. Acts chapter 1 and verse 18. This is the same word used. Now this man obtained a field.

17:13 He acquired a field with the reward of his iniquity. A field was purchased. Something was made the possession of another. It's used in Acts 8 and verse 20.

17:28 Acts 8 and verse 20. But Peter said to him, Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money. Remember he said, Give me this power that on whomsoever I lay my hands the Holy Spirit will come. He tried to purchase, acquire to himself this power.

17:46 So the natural translation of this verb should be acquire. Now see what it means. Here's how you obtain, here's how you avoid impurity, fornication. That each one of you know how to acquire to his own vessel in sanctification and in honor.

18:10 And certainly the wife is called a vessel in 1 Peter 3, giving honor unto the weaker vessel, as Peter instructs husbands to do. Now if that's the meaning, and I'm convinced it is, do you see Paul's answer? How does one avoid sexual impurity so as to be sanctified unto the Lord? Is it simply by rubbing out the lines, as hedonism says?

18:37 Or by suppressing one's sexuality, as asceticism says? No, Paul's answer is this. God's way of avoiding illegitimate sexual experience is by the legitimation of sexual desire within the God-given framework of Christian marriage. That's it.

18:58 Avoid fornication, how? By acquiring, and within the boundaries of acquiring the wife or the husband, to have the full expression of sexuality in the realm of sanctification and the realm of honor. These words imply several things. First of all, they imply matrimony.

19:25 Let him acquire a vessel. Don't just go visit a vessel. In a house of prostitution, Paul says, and that was common. They even had their temple prostitutes.

19:35 Don't just go use a vessel. Acquire a vessel. In other words, Paul is saying that there is to be no involvement of sexual experience without the walled relationship of marriage. Sexual fulfillment is a treasure to be opened only within the protective walls of marriage and to open it anywhere else.

20:03 It is to expose it to elements that will blast it and wither it and cause it to decay. God knows it. Why? Because He made it.

20:15 And He said the man shall leave father and mother and cleave. He made this treasure that it needs, the protective wall of the mutual commitment of marriage. It desperately needs it. And to use it or open that treasure outside of that wall is to ruin it.

20:34 And God, for our good and His glory, wants it protected. That's the first implication. Acquire a vessel. Don't go and use one and drop it.

20:43 Acquire it. Purchase it to yourself. Second thing that's implied is not only matrimony but monogamy. One vessel.

20:53 He doesn't say acquire a cupboard of vessels. Let him acquire to himself a vessel. One vessel. That's perfectly the doctrine of creation.

21:06 God didn't make a harem for Adam. He couldn't. He made one woman. And He brought her and said, A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.

21:16 Not his wives. And the first instance of digamy or digamy or then polygamy is that wicked man Lamech. We find polygamy first introduced in him and there are other indications that he was a rebel against God. And so whenever there is more than one wife, then there has been a turning aside from the boundaries of God.

21:41 So you have matrimony. Acquire to himself monogamy. One vessel. And then you have purity.

21:49 Notice. Acquire to himself a vessel in sanctification and in honor. In other words, he does not acquire this vessel simply looking upon it as a possible object upon which sexual passion can be spent. No, no.

22:07 From which mere sexual gratification can be received. He says no. You receive. Take to yourself that vessel in purity.

22:17 That is sanctification. You regard her as one who has been set apart as the Lord's child and bondservant. She is His redemptive property. Or that man is God's redemptive property.

22:34 Therefore in acquiring that vessel I do so in sanctification. I recognize that this one is set apart unto the Lord and in taking her or taking Him I am taking the Lord's property. Therefore our relationship as the two being one must be set apart unto Him. Isn't that sanctification?

22:55 Set apart unto Him must always be under His eye with regard to His glory and to His purpose. And then he uses the word honor. To honor something is to give it its due regard of respect or reverence. And so he says when you take that vessel you respect that person as a person.

23:19 This is an involvement of the whole person with another person. And you give honor to her as Peter says as the weaker vessel. You look upon her with the eyes of love and concern and tenderness. Very well then for the meaning of these words what is the answer of God to the question how do you avoid fornication?

Paul's Commentary: Reciprocal Sexual Satisfaction in Marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1-5)

23:44 How do you avoid uncleanness? Here's the answer by the legitimate expression of sexual desire within the God given framework of Christian marriage. Now a very helpful commentary on this passage is 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 1 and since Scripture throws light upon Scripture I want us to look at 1 Corinthians 7, 1 through 5. This is one of the reasons why I have adopted the translation that this acquiring a vessel means acquiring a wife because it fits perfectly Paul's instruction to another Gentile heathen city, Corinth where this matter of sexual purity

24:27 amongst young believers was a tremendous problem. He had to take a whole chapter to deal with one man who didn't even stand the storm who went down beneath the pressures of immorality. Chapter 7 verse 1. Now concerning the things whereof he wrote it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

24:46 If a man is single, if a woman is single if it's the will of God that they not have a mate there's nothing degrading about this. This is morally good. He doesn't say it's better than the married state. He doesn't say that it makes a person holier.

25:04 All he is doing is removing reproach from the single state. May God help us to do it. I think terrible pressures have been put upon single fellows and single girls to carry a reproach in their bachelorhood or their maidenhood if they get beyond the age of 22. That's sinful.

25:23 Especially within the framework of the church of Christ. May God help us not to do it. Even an innocent jest. Let's never make a maiden or a bachelor who seeks to know and do the will of God feel that their state is sort of second class citizens.

25:41 No, it is good if they never touch the woman. But, because of fornication See, the doctrine of the fall comes in. We're living in a disordered society. Passion and appetite at times is not able to be disciplined.

25:55 Let each man have his own wife. Let each woman have her own husband. What's Paul's answer to avoid fornication? Here it is. Marriage.

26:07 Now, what about that marriage? Within that framework of marriage he says let the husband render unto the wife her due. Does that mean give her three dollars for spending money once a week? Give her her dues?

26:19 Well, that wouldn't be a bad idea. Although my wife is liable to say Physician, heal thyself. You better start it. I better take that back.

26:30 No, what he's saying is let the husband render to the wife her due. That is, let him give her her sexual satisfaction within the bonds of marriage and likewise also the wife unto the husband. Why? Well, he tells us verse 4 For the wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband.

26:54 You see, it's within this relationship of marriage where each one gives himself to the other that there's the recognition that two are one. My body is not my own. I've given the totality of my being to this woman. This woman says he has given the totality of his being to me.

27:12 Therefore, the husband must be sensitive of the wife's legitimate sexual needs and meet them. The wife must be sensitive to the legitimate sexual needs of the husband and meet them. And then there's an explicit command notice verse 5 Defraud ye not one another. This is a prohibition for a husband or wife refusing to give the due to the other partner.

27:37 And I submit to you that it's just as much rebellion against Almighty God for whatever reason whether it's a hyper-spiritual attitude whether it's using one's sexual power as a lever to get things out of the husband or wife any consistent withholding of sexual responsibility one to the other is just as much sin as cursing, drinking, carousing or blaspheming because it violates the law of God. God's command is defraud not except it be by consent for a season that ye may give yourselves unto prayer. There may be unusual pressures unusual things and a husband and wife will agree

28:20 that their normal relationships will be suspended for a period for holy purposes. And then he says that ye may be together again and Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency. He said but only let it be for a period of time and let it be by mutual consent lest, he says you lay one another open for unnecessary temptation. Now what is this?

28:48 Is this some kind of a concession some kind of a necessary evil? No! This is Paul's teaching on how to be sanctified. And I submit that until you and I have that biblical perspective that we are not set apart unto God in the whole area of accepting our sexuality of committing it to God's redemptive power and working it out in his redemptive purpose.

Old Testament Unity: Rejoice in the Wife of Your Youth (Proverbs 5)

29:15 Now that's not only the teaching of Paul in 1 Corinthians and in 1 Thessalonians but it's the teaching of the Old Testament. Let me take just one passage to show the unity of scriptural truth. Will you turn to the book of Proverbs for a moment? The book of Proverbs Would to God that we fathers would be like this father was for much of this instruction is that of a father to his son when he gets old enough to know that he is a man what's involved in his sexuality as a man he gives him some clear instructions positive and negative.

29:56 In fact, one of the purposes he says at the beginning of the book for the Proverbs is to keep him from the ways of the wicked woman. Well, how do you do that? Well, chapter 5 notice My son, attend unto my wisdom incline thine ear to my understanding that thou mayest preserve discretion that thy lips may keep knowledge or the lips of a strange woman shall not stop honey and her mouth is smoother than oil but in the end she's bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps take hold on hell Verse 7 Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me

30:37 he warns him about the terrible consequences of seeking to gratify sexual desire outside of the protective walls of matrimony but having given this negative warning he then tells him in verse 15 to the end of the chapter drink cisterns out of thine own drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well should thy springs be dispersed abroad and streams of water in the streets let them be for thyself alone and not for strangers with thee he says look if you've got some rain spouts coming off the roof of your house into your own cistern and there's always enough water

31:22 what do you go roaming into your neighbor's house for and snitch in his water if you've got plenty of water drink the water of your own cistern and now he's going to use this as an illustration Verse 18 let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of thy youth as a loving hind in a pleasant doe let her breast satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished with her love the Hebrew go astray with her love here is a command to know the full and complete God ordained satisfaction of the sexual relationship within the bonds of marriage for why shouldest thou my son be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a foreigner

32:07 what is God's answer to this young man who faces the problem every one of you young men face and some of us not so young men living in the age we live what's God's answer it's not hedonism it's not hedonism don't listen to the lies of hedonism it's out to destroy you it'll lead you to hell as this passage says it's not the answer of asceticism to somehow try to push this out of sight and act as though it isn't there it's to recognize early in your life now and begin to make it a matter of prayerful concern Lord you've made me this way and here are these appetites and desires but you've ordained that they should find expression

32:50 and the treasures of them be opened within the protective walls of marriage Lord be pleased to prepare that one for me make me sensitive and not run ahead of thee and then look forward to marriage in this biblical sense at the time when in the purpose and plan of God you will know the pure and holy sanctified delight and purpose for which God has made you and made that young woman the answer is not simply running from harvest that's the point I'm stressing the answer is running into the bosom of a loving wife that's the answer that's the answer if you're just running from harvest you're not sanctified that's negative

33:35 sanctification involves the positive employment of my sexuality to the glory of the living God I'll deal with a problem that I know this is raising in the minds of some but if you'll hold off on that problem what about if God doesn't give you a wife or husband I'm aware of the problem I'll touch it in closing but now in the light of these passages what are some practical conclusions and implications we've looked at Paul's statement in 1 Thessalonians 4 I believe I have expounded it according to the mind of the spirit therein we've looked at two parallel passages now we come back to the question with which we started how do we avoid fornication

Practical Conclusions: All Sexual Gratification Outside Marriage is Sin

34:19 sexual impurity in the light of these passages we are warranted in saying number one all sexual gratification outside the bonds of marriage is sin now it's obvious Paul who admonishes these people to acquire a wife and to dwell with a wife and give the wife the due is saying in ways that cannot be mistaken it's only within that relationship within that relationship yes but never outside of it marriage is honorable in all in the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge and oh listen to me young people

35:04 I don't care what kind of pressures are put on you by your school teachers by your friends by the literature and even by preachers in our day fornication is still fornication in God's eyes adultery is still adultery and the Bible says adulterers and fornicators shall burn in the lake of fire whether that fornication be the actual fleshly union with another or whether it be simply giving your mind to mental sexual experience Matthew 5 says whoso looketh to lust hath committed adultery already in his heart I plead with you young people and adults as well to recognize that God has this treasure sealed up within the walls of marriage and it's only with that one whom God has given you

35:49 or with whom you are contemplating marriage that even the thought of sexual union is legitimate in the sight of God and if we just trample underfoot those standards of God God will judge us as we read later on in this first Thessalonians 4 passage we'll consider it next week God willing how Paul enforces this exhortation with a terrible warning that all who disregard it the Lord is the avenger of all such therefore avoid anything that will inflame sexual desire out of your heart and outside the sacred bonds of marriage oh young men guard your eyes

36:29 fathers, mothers, adults guard your eyes you parents guard that TV there's enough pornography in some of the one minute ads to wreck the mind of your children for life advertisement that is nothing but raw pornography evangelistic hedonism God help you to guard that TV guard the magazines that come into the home guard them carefully guard the way you dress lest you cause no unnecessary provocation lust

Practical Conclusions: Reciprocal Sexual Satisfaction as Duty and Privilege

37:13 that's the implication all sexual gratification outside the bonds of marriage is sin anything that leads to it is tempting God secondly reciprocal sexual satisfaction within the bonds of marriage is a duty and a privilege as the God appointed means of avoiding fornication reciprocal sexual satisfaction within the bonds of marriage duty and privilege as the God appointed means of avoiding fornication now that says something to us as husbands and wives we have a duty to each other and all that that involves you have a duty to your children

37:56 you're very very much aware of that when they cry mommy, mommy, daddy, daddy you have a duty to one another as husbands and wives don't forget it to fail in that duty fail in that duty is to be disobedient to God and to leave your mate open to unnecessary temptation I've known situations where there's been immorality where husband or wife has fallen in the area of adultery or fornication and they were as it were driven to it by the unwillingness of the mate to fulfill his or her role and the scripture says in Luke 17 it is necessary that offenses come in a wicked world sin is going to come but now listen to what Jesus said woe unto him by whom the offense cometh may God help any of you husbands or wives

38:40 either through indifference or a background of asceticism have refused to embrace your God given role and fill it according to scripture to take the exhortation this also says something to you fathers and mothers seek to inculcate these concepts in your children don't only make clear to them that adultery and fornication are sin and that sex outside of marriage is to be avoided that's negative as they come to years of the age of puberty and begin to recognize their sexuality seek to imbibe in them by your example and by your precepts

39:25 a wholesome positive Biblical attitude if you don't you know what happens they make their way to my counseling chair with problems 10-15 years later and they say to me I can't make a successful adjustment to marriage because parents fail to incorporate Biblical concepts in their minds in the formative years now I'm going to say another word don't be afraid of early marriages you hear me parents living in the age we do one of the means of grace may be earlier marriages you may have to forego some of your ambitions for your kids I'd far rather have my son

40:08 fail to get a college degree and be morally pure to say no son just forget marriage until you've got your college behind you and have him end up a fornicator and go to hell you follow me parents we may have to sink our pride well we've got ambitions for our children it's going to be this this and this well if you're ready to sacrifice their purity and practically their salvation at the altar of that ambition go ahead but otherwise parents let's be sensitive and under the tremendous pressures of our day tremendous pressures and even sociologists and doctors are acknowledging that children are even coming to puberty several years younger now than they did fifty years ago

40:51 and where they live in an open society as far as sexual pressures and knowledge is concerned we as Christians just can't act like it isn't there we're not in the world not of it but we're in it and I ask you as parents to soberly wave this if your junior male or female comes to you and says mom, dad I believe I love so and so and she seems to be a good Christian and I believe that we've got a mature enough view of marriage and if you talk about the responsibilities as well as the privilege now if all they've done is been brainwashing you thinking marriage is one honeymoon then boy bring them up short good

41:34 bring them up short real good and fast and just say now remember remember mommy coming down big bags under her eyes yeah remember dad bags under his eyes yeah well remember that may happen to you crying baby unpaid bills you know give them a realistic view if they've just been captured by some love bug don't just encourage them to go on off and get married I'm not talking about that but I'm talking about after you've sat down and this girl or this fellow seems to be a solid Christian seems to be willing to make the sacrifices to work and get the husband some more schooling and all the rest don't make your initial reaction a negative one because your ambitions will be frustrated that's what I'm driving for you follow me

Practical Conclusions: The Importance of Scriptural Thinking

42:19 and that's what this passage says to me to avoid fornication let each one acquire a vessel when? when they get to be 25 it doesn't say that when they get to be 30 it doesn't say that other factors will determine the propriety of the age but let's not assume that early marriages are of themselves wrong then I say to you young people are you hearing me? I want all you young people to listen to me I've got a responsibility as your pastor you better spend a little bit of time reading through the book of Proverbs reading passages like this asking God to just soak your mind and your soul with his word

43:00 so that you'll be able to be immunized against the terrible viruses of hedonism and asceticism that will try to get in your system and ruin it you ought to read off in the fifth chapter of Proverbs every one of you fellows every one of you girls ought to read off in Proverbs 31 you ought to read Ephesians 5 read 1 Corinthians 7 so that as you develop intellectually and you learn your algebra and your French and funky German and the rest you're beginning to have a mind that has on it the stamp of the concepts of scripture you see scripture is like a stamp in some ways and as you expose your mind like the blank sheet

43:43 that stamp is put upon it the world is continually coming at us with its stamp stamp its thought patterns upon us and oh how we need to stamp it continually read and re-read these passages until we think scripturally about this whole matter of our sexuality and the third implication is this where there's been failure the grace of God is sufficient to forgive and to empower us you read 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and Paul says be not deceived verse 9 neither fornicators nor effeminate nor adulterers he names all these sexual things

Practical Conclusions: Grace for Failure and the Single State

44:26 they shall not inherit the kingdom of God but then he says in verse 11 such were some of you but ye are washed sanctified justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God the objective work of Christ upon the cross is sufficient to forgive the subjective power of the Holy Ghost is sufficient to liberate us so that though we have miserably failed God can reclaim this area for His glory and God can forgive us if you've been a husband or wife with aesthetic views of your sexual responsibility God is able to forgive reconstruct your thinking

45:11 until you think biblically about these things if you're a teenager who's allowed the terrible philosophy of hedonism to suck you down into its terrible whirlpool God is able to reach in pull you out cleanse you set your feet upon a rock of biblical principles so not only does scripture make clear that all sexual experience outside the marriage bond is sin reciprocal satisfaction within is duty and privilege but it teaches where there's failure the grace of God is sufficient to forgive and to empower and now I close with that question but what about if you're single doesn't it say that each one of you possess a vessel

45:54 does this warrant me to go out if I'm a single woman find the first Christian single man and say God says I'm to acquire a husband and I want to obey him will you does this warrant any of you single men to do that well some of you are too bashful to do it anyway so that's a safeguard but no this is the general principle this is the general principle but now there is the exception and Paul deals with it in 1 Corinthians 7 and he says it is sometimes the will of God for a woman to remain single for a man to remain single what do you do then must you become a hedonist

46:35 and gratify sexual desire outside the marriage bond must you become an ascetic and try to act as though you have no legitimate sexual desire no if God gives you the gift of continency then your sexual desires are sublimated that is they are redirected into other channels and you become as it says in 1 Corinthians 7 the one who has the privilege of giving undistracted service to the Lord and to the work of his kingdom and so singleness then is sanctified by the purpose of God so that any of you who have not acquired a husband have not acquired a wife you do not need to look upon yourselves as the one hand

47:19 as a second rate citizen in the kingdom on the other hand as more holy no if God gives you the gift of continence you are able to contain you find that in the single life you do not need to jump over the boundaries and commit fornication or try to blot them out as a hedonist then you accept your singleness as a peculiar opportunity to serve the Lord without distraction Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 Jesus said in Matthew 19 some are eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven sake and I want to say openly in the presence of all others that this is why I will not make jests about single women some of you

48:03 I know I've occasionally kidded Paul but he knows the sense in which we do that but I will never make light or mockery of the single state because if it's the will of God it's an unusually privileged state to serve the Lord without distraction but if you find that your sexual desire is so distracting and the longing for legitimate fulfillment so overpowering Paul said it's better to marry than to burn far better to have all the problems of a grumpy husband a grumpy wife and crying children he says better to have all those distractions than to step over the boundaries see far better and so the answer to you who are single is a clear answer

48:47 from the word of God as well well this has brought us around full circle to where we began in answer to the question how do we abstain from uncleanness the answer of the apostle is clear the general plan of God is that each of us acquire a vessel the exception of course he deals with in another passage but the general rule acquire that vessel in sanctification and in honor and within that relationship recognizing the doctrine of creation the fall and redemption full disciplined by grace sexual expression fulfillment to the glory of God to the good of our partner

49:32 and to the blessing of society failure the grace of God is sufficient power to stand in the midst of the terrible pressures of our day the grace of God is sufficient but the starting point is to think straight think biblically now you can think biblically and still fall the man who wrote proverbs 5 sure didn't take his own advice Solomon ended up with a thousand words so just knowing these things is of itself no insurance that you'll keep them but knowing them is the first step to walking well pleasing to God are you sanctified in this area of your life

50:15 is it set apart unto God do you think scripturally do you conduct yourself scripturally God grant that by his grace we should be able to say that we do and if we don't we should say see next week two or three very forceful reasons as to why we ought to make by the grace of God every adjustment necessary in thinking and in action in this area of our lives let us pray