Not in Lust

Introduction: Resuming Studies in 1 Thessalonians 4

0:03 Let us turn again this morning to 1 Thessalonians as we resume our studies in chapter 4.

0:16 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We are considering the basic thoughts set before us in the first eight verses, and so I shall read those verses, spend a few minutes seeking to capture the main thrust of what we have so far considered in the verses, and then move on particularly to consider the truth in verse 5. Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, that ye abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God. Even your sanctification.

1:10 That ye abstain from fornication or uncleanness. That each one of you know how to acquire his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God, that no man transgress and wrong his brother in the matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned. And testified. For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.

The General Will of God: Sanctification and Sexual Purity

1:48 Therefore, he that rejecteth, rejecteth not man, but God, who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you. We come in studying chapter 4 to the section of this epistle, which includes chapters 4 and 5, in which the Apostle, has as his specific theme, how to walk and to please God. We are dealing then with the practical matters of the everyday experience of the child of God, and what kind of conduct is well pleasing to the living God in the specific areas which the Apostle touches. The general expression of the will of God is given in verse 3. This is the will of God. Even your sanctification. That is, you are being set apart unto God.

2:44 And this thought of sanctification we must keep continually before us, that it is not to be viewed negatively. Sanctification is not to be viewed in terms of what a man avoids or does not do, but positively it involves his being set apart unto the purpose and will of God. Then he moves from this general statement of the will of God concerning our lives, namely, that we be sanctified, into a specific aspect of sanctification, namely, sexual purity. He states the thing in a negative form to begin with.

3:21 This is the will of God. Even your sanctification, which involves abstinence from fornication, that is, from sexual impurity. Now, I want to remind you that the theme is how to please God. And if he immediately launches into a very frank and honest treatment, of sexual purity, the whole implication is that God is either pleased or displeased with this aspect of your life.

3:49 This area of your life falls under the scrutiny of his eye and subsequently of his smile or frown, as much as any other area. And it's interesting that it's in that context of dealing with this very subject, in a parallel passage in the Old Testament, Proverbs 5, after warning against the harlot, and her wily ways, and then giving the positive treatment to the young man, that to avoid impurity he ought to rejoice in the wife of his youth. The writer to the Proverbs concludes in Proverbs 5, 21, with this statement, that the eyes of the Lord are upon his people, beholding their conduct. This area of life comes under the scrutiny of our God, and as a Christian, we want to please him in every area that comes under his scrutiny. Well, then the question is, how do we abstain from impurity? And we have seen that the answer of hedonism, the philosophy that has inundated Western culture in the past few years, is do away with any thought of impurity. The way you avoid impurity is to do away with impurity and make every kind of sexual activity legitimate.

God's Answer to Impurity: Marriage in Sanctification and Honor

5:04 Live like beasts and then convince yourself there's nothing wrong with it. The answer of asceticism is, just seek to kill your sexual desire. We use the illustration of the boundaries of this basketball court in which we meet. Hedonism says erase the boundary lines.

5:21 Asceticism says kill the player. But God says neither. And so the answer of God, as we saw last week, is this, verse 4, that each one of you know how to acquire to himself his own vessel in sanctification and in honor. In honor.

5:38 In other words, Paul says to avoid sexual impurity, each one of you should know the legitimate expression of your sexual capacity within the God-ordained boundaries of holy marriage. And then we dealt with the problem of those for whom God has a life of singleness. And 1 Corinthians 7 deals with that problem, this parallel passage, saying that if God calls one to singleness and they are able to contain themselves, sexually, then the single state gives added opportunity for service to the Lord and is no way to be looked upon as a state of a second-rate citizen in the kingdom of God, in the church of Christ, or in society at large. So much, then, for review. Now we want to focus our attention upon, particularly verse 5, but before I do, I want to set before you the general trend of thought from verse 5 to the end of the chapter. Having stated the general principle that the way to avoid uncleanness is each one of you acquiring his own vessel, that is, husband or wife, in the context of sanctification and honor, then he moves to two negatives.

The First Negative Exhortation: Not in the Passion of Lust

6:56 Not in the passion of lust. There he forbids a certain kind of motive and desire and attitude within the bonds of marriage. Then the second negative, verse 6, that no man transgress and wrong his brother in the matter. There he forbids reaching out into the marriage of another and defiling it.

7:18 So you have the two negatives. Within the boundary of marriage, with one's own partner, not in the passion of lust. Then he forbids going outside that boundary. Don't transgress, overreach, step over the boundary of that relationship and wrong your brother by including the sacred tie, of his relationship to his wife.

7:41 Then he strengthens this entire exhortation by three basic principles. Number one, the judgment of God. The Lord is an avenger of all these things. The second thing, the calling of God.

7:54 For God called us not for uncleanness. And thirdly, the authority of God. He that rejecteth, rejecteth not man but God. And so as we seek to think our way through this subject, we will eventually touch all of those matters.

8:10 Two negative exhortations following the positive statement and then three factors which should strengthen our conviction that this must be the area in which we please God and in which we are sanctified by the grace of God. Now let's look at the first negative. I doubt we shall get any further than that this morning. Having stated positively that the way to avoid fornication is to acquire one's own vessel, in other words, that marriage is by and large as a general rule the God-ordained way of avoiding sexual impurity, he then qualifies this statement with these words, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God. Now what do these words mean? I think the King James says, not in the lust of concupiscence. And those words say nothing to us in the 20th century.

Defining 'Passion of Lust' and Guarding Marriage from Legalized Lust

9:12 The two words used are the words which are translated in other places or should be passion and lust or desire. This word passion is used in Romans 1.26 where it says God gave men up to vile affections. He gave them up to a certain kind of uncontrolled, uncontrollable passion.

9:37 It's translated in Colossians 3.5 as inordinate affection. We use the word passion of any violent emotion. We say that he hated that fellow with a passion.

9:50 Now what do we mean when we use the word passion? Or he passionately loves that person or that thing. The whole connotation of passion is a violent affection, either of love or hate, that becomes master of the individual who has the passion. If a man is gripped with a passion of anger, that passion takes the place of lordship over his mind, of his affections, his better judgment, and he is, as it were, driven by his passion.

10:26 Now that's the thought of this word, of an overpowering, uncontrollable emotion, and then he couples it with the word lust. Now the word lust used in this instance can be any kind of strong desire, whether good or bad. It's the word that Jesus used in Luke 22.15 when he said, With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you.

10:51 With deep lust have I desired. You see, with deep lust, if we were translating it lust. In other words, any kind of a longing, whether holy or unholy, could be the meaning of this word. But whenever it refers to something that is sinful, it's speaking of a deep longing for something that God has forbidden.

11:17 Jesus said in John 8.44, Ye of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. It's used in 1 Peter 2. Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

11:32 Alright then, put the two things together. Passion, uncontrollable, overpowering, enslaving desire, coupled with lust. It's the picture of evil passion that is ungovernable and uncontrollable, that absolutely masters a man so that all of his actions are dictated by this Lord called passion. In Galatians 5.24, the scripture tells us that those who belong to Christ have crucified with the flesh with the affections, passions, and lusts thereof. In other words, this mark, as we will go on to see, this characteristic is never true of the child of God as the habit and pattern of his life. So much then for the meaning of the words. Now what is the essence of what Paul is saying?

12:30 He is guarding marriage from simply becoming legalized lust. Notice the train of his thought and think carefully with the apostle. This is the will of God, verse 3, even your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication. Now how are we going to do it?

12:51 Why, acquire your own vessel so that there will be legitimate satisfaction of sexual desire within the bonds of marriage. But now he raises up a caution, first positively when he says in sanctification and in honor, then negatively, not in the passion of lust. In other words, Paul says, you're not to regard it this way. Alright, I've got this terrible, uncontrollable passion.

13:20 I've got to gratify my sexual appetite and since I'll go to hell, if I go out and spend my time with harlots or fornicators, therefore I'll get the first woman that comes along and ask her to marry me with no regard for her person, simply looking upon her as the vehicle through which my sexual appetite will be satisfied. Paul says, no, no, no. You're to acquire your vessel in sanctification and honor, not under this motivation of ungovernable, uncontrollable and evil passion. So the essence of his prohibition is that Paul is seeking to protect the marriage relationships from simply becoming legalized lust, so that a marriage license is not a license to unbridled lust and evil passion. Now, if we're to understand this, we must, by God's grace, understand the basic difference between love in the Biblical sense and lust. What is lust? What is it concerned with?

Love vs. Lust: Giving vs. Getting

14:33 Lust is exclusively concerned with what it can get, and it will use or abuse anything to get what it wants. Now, you let that sink in. What is lust concerned with? What it can get, and it will use or abuse anything to be satisfied.

14:55 There's an excellent book that I trust eventually will be able to circulate amongst our high school students and college students by a Lutheran pastor, a collection of letters that he wrote to a young African with whom he established contact in the mission field. And then this young man wrote back to this Mr. Trowbysh something of his problem of moral involvement, and the title of the book is I Loved a Girl. And in the first letter, this fellow writes to the missionary and confesses that he had an illicit sexual experience with this girl.

15:30 And in writing back, Mr. Trowbysh said to this man, you should not say I loved a girl. What you should have written is this, I loved myself and I used a girl. That's what you should have said.

15:45 You see, he captured this thought that lust is concerned with what it can get and will use or abuse anything to get what it wants, whereas love, now follow me closely, love is concerned primarily with the total person and what it can give to that person. See the difference? Love seeketh not her own. God so loved that He what?

16:16 That He gave. Herein is the love of God manifested that He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. So that all this garbage, and that's all it is, that comes from the popular music and the popular plots of movies and novels that uses the word love. Every time you see it, you ought to just substitute the word lust.

16:41 And once some throaty crooner says, I love you baby and can't live without you, what he means is, I lust after you and I want to use you. And when I'm done using you, I'll drop you like you do with anything else. That's a thing to be used. What's behind the increased divorce rate?

16:58 People are entering marriage driven by what? The lust of concupiscence. Evil passion drives them into marriage so that they're concerned with how they can use the person and when they're done using it, you drop it. When you're done using a face towel, paper towel, throw it away.

17:15 No further use. You're done with your old shoes, keep them in the garbage can. It's something to be used. And Paul is saying, when I admonish you to take a wife or a husband in order to avoid sexual impurity, I am not saying that the context of marriage is simply to be lust, concerned with what it can get and you're merely using your partner.

17:41 No, no. I want it to be in the realm of love which is primarily concerned with a total person, his or her good and what I can give to that person. That's why we must never read 1 Thessalonians 4 or 1 Corinthians 7 without joining it to Ephesians 5. Some people have read this passage in 1 Corinthians 7 that says to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, every wife have her own husband.

18:09 And they said, well that's a pretty low view of marriage. Paul seems to view marriage simply as a necessary evil to escape fornication. Ah, but when we balance it with Ephesians 5 where Paul says that the very relationship of a husband and wife is a beautiful picture of the relationship of Christ to the church. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and what?

18:33 Took something from the church? No, and what? Gave himself to the church. He loved and he gave and he says husbands that's to be your experience.

18:45 So that the wife is not looked upon as the object of my lust. No, no. She's looked upon as the object of my love whom I am to seek to please in all things. So the essence of this prohibition comes to us as this matter.

The Depravity of Man and the Upset Order of the Fall

19:05 Prohibiting lust is the motivation even within the circle of marriage. Then the second thing that we must see as we read this phrase is something of the terrible consequences of the fall of man and the terrible depravity that the most beautiful human relationship can be abused even by people who are children of God. What a testimony of human depravity. Paul has to write to Christians and after telling them to avoid sexual impurity by marriage then he must caution them that even within the boundaries of marriage you must not be motivated by ungovernable passion.

19:49 The picture of a man drunk with his lust. How did this ever come about? What has brought the human race into such a condition that even people indwelt by the Holy Spirit redeemed by the grace of God through the blood of Christ and the mighty operation of the Holy Spirit that they need to be warned not to be governed in the marriage relationship by this wild passion? What has brought the human race into such a state?

20:20 I submit to you that unless we read into this passage what Paul assumed in it namely the biblical doctrine of the fall and how it has upset everyone we can understand his exhortation. You see before the fall God stood above man as his creator his benefactor his provider. Man stood beneath God as his subject as his worshipper and as man was rightly related to God God expressed his will to man man received that will with his mind and understanding and then his will and his affections and appetites were subject to the dictates of his mind as they were subject to God. So if we had a blackboard we'd have God the mind the will and the affections the appetites. God the mind the will the affections the appetites. So that man would not allow his will to move out of the boundaries of the mind as the mind as the mind received the revelation of the will of God.

21:34 Now what's happened in sin? God has been pushed aside. Now what has come to the place of lordship and ascendancy and authority in the lives of men? Well even if their minds still governed them things wouldn't be too bad on a common level they'd be terrible in terms of spiritual values but what has happened is man's will and man's affections have taken the place of ascendancy so that now it's man's passions and appetites which are the Lord and the will and the mind subject to them.

22:12 So that we read in Ephesians chapter 2 that by nature we do what? We fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Scripture gives the picture of the human being in the state of sin being captive to his lust for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Now what does God do in His grace?

22:38 He sets that order right again. He brings the man back to the place where God is in the place of authority where the mind is brought subject to the revealed will of God and now where the will and the affections and passions are subject to the judgment as the judgment is subject to God. Now the problem is the process of sanctification isn't complete. So there are times when even in the life of a believer what he knows to be the will of God and what he knows to be pleasing to God is one thing but the remains of corruption within are so strong that he allows his passions and appetites to take a place of lordship over his mind and he follows his passions out into places where the will of God does not allow him to go and then what happens? Terrible tension and conviction and misery and it ought to be that way. It ought to be that way. But the principle that I want us to see is that as God seeks to regulate us back into the proper order which was established at creation He does so by instructing the mind and by His Spirit bringing the affections and the will captive to the judgment of the mind.

23:56 Let me quote several verses that indicate this. Romans 12 and verse 2 Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your what? The renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The renewing of the mind.

24:17 The renewing of the mind. I must begin to think rightly about every area of life and as I think rightly and I'm governed by the judgment of my mind subject to the will of God things are in their right order. I quote now from Ephesians 4 23 and 24 where we find this same thought mentioned by the apostle and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. In the first chapter of Ephesians what does Paul pray for?

24:52 That God would give the spirit of wisdom and revelation that the eyes of the understanding might be enlightened. He prays for the Philippians that God would enable them to abound in knowledge. Why this tremendous emphasis upon knowledge understanding, insight? Why?

25:11 Do you see the principle? God's got to set things in order again. In our fallen state we're governed by our passions and our appetites. Now God wants us to be governed by the judgment of the mind as the mind is subject to the living God.

The Immorality of Gentiles: Ignorance of True Religion

25:27 And to his revelation. Now to enforce this exhortation will you notice what the apostle does? Not in the passion of lust even as the Gentiles or the heathen nations who know not God. The word Gentiles here is the word used most often to just distinguish the Jews as distinct covenant people of God from the rest of the world.

25:57 Sometimes it just means all the nations of the earth and so Paul is apparently using it here in terms of unconverted people. For these people most of them were Gentiles by nature and by national origin they weren't Jews. So in that sense they themselves were Gentiles but he uses it in terms of humanity the Gentile world devoid of the grace of God. Now he says they know not God that is they have no experimental saving knowledge of God.

26:30 There are two kinds of the knowledge of God. There is a natural knowledge of God Romans 1 speaks of it. A man may know certain things about God by looking at the creation about him but there is a saving and supernatural knowledge of God which no man has apart from the grace of God and apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ. No man comes to the Father but by me.

26:54 Jesus said this is life eternal that they may know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. Now why does the Apostle bring that in there? He's telling them don't acquire your vessel in this ungovernable passion of lust even as the Gentiles who know not God. What is he saying?

27:19 He is saying that the reason for the immorality of the Gentiles is their ignorance of true religion. What is the cause of the immorality that exists amongst the unconverted nations of the earth? Is it that they are culturally ignorant? Is it that they are backward and if we can civilize them they will become moral?

27:45 No. Here we are the most highly civilized nation or culture in the history of the world western culture and look at it now. What is it? It's being driven by what?

27:58 Ungovernable passion and lust. This is no answer. No. Paul is saying that the root cause of all immorality is ignorance of true religion and the reverse is always true that the knowledge of God is the parent of all morality and chastity and the two stand or fall together.

28:19 Romans 1 with its terrible description of immorality begins with this phrase as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them up. God gave them up. What is it that brought these Thessalonians out of such immoral practices? The fact that the gospel came to them not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and they turned to God from their idols and when they turned from idolatry and false worship to true worship then morality and ethics and purity became a very part of their experience.

28:53 Why is it so? Why can't you have morality without true religion? For two basic reasons. It's only in true religion that the creator creature distinction is accurately made and that's the basis of all morality.

29:09 God is God the creator. I am man the creature he made me and if he made me he has a right to tell me what to do what is right what is wrong therefore whatever he says is right is right whatever he says is wrong is wrong I am creature he is creature I am God the creator how can you have morality without that? This is what's brought about in part the yippy hippy generation. The previous generation sought to teach morality in a vacuum and they said it's not good to go out and sleep with every girl that you'd like to while you're in college.

29:50 This generation has said why not? Well I didn't do it. Well it just wasn't nice. On what basis?

30:00 And this present generation of parents could give no answer. So the generation of the student generation now has said you've got no basis for your moral conduct and since you gave me no basis for mine I'll live consistent with your philosophy of life. Your mothers and dads your kids come to you and say mom why is such and such right or wrong if you can't say because look God is God and you're his creature he made you. He says this there's no basis.

30:33 It's your opinion against theirs isn't it? That's why Paul says all you people at Thessalonica don't be like those Gentiles because the way they live is a direct result of their ignorance of true religion. It's only in true religion that that creator creature relationship is maintained and that's the basis of all morality. I am made in the image of God.

30:55 I am made a rational creature. I am made to be governed by my mother and by my children. I am made in the image of God. I am made governed by my mind as my mind is subject to the reveal will of God and then it's only in true religion that the Savior sinner relationship and distinction is accurately made.

31:17 Unless the Lord Jesus is set before men as an almighty Savior and men are told that they are the slaves of their lusts Jesus said whosoever committed sin is the what? The bondservant of his sin. Only in true religion are men told that they are the slaves of their lusts and that they can no more break their chains and they can lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. Only in true religion is the Lord Jesus set before them as the one who has satisfied divine justice that though we've broken God's laws and lived indifferently to the creature creator creature relationship there's mercy with that creator.

31:58 He's a redeeming God. Only in true religion are we told not only is there legal forgiveness but personal and experimental power that this God can come to take up his dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit to break the power of canceled sin to set the captive free. Why do the Gentiles live the way they do? Because of their ignorance of true religion with the creator creature distinction with the redeemer savior sinner distinction.

The Crumbling of Morality in Western Society

32:30 So when men cast off the knowledge of God it's only a matter of time before all morality crumbles. If a man knowing God can fall and become a captive of ungovernable passion and scripture and human experience bears this out what hope is there for people in whom there is no Holy Spirit to restrain? What hope is there? What hope is there for American society?

33:04 What hope is there? Two generations ago the roots of the tree of morality were cut. On the one hand with the foul abominable lie of evolution that blurred the creator creature relationship and with the terrible influence of humanism and liberalism that blotted out the redeemer savior relationship. Christ is not a supernatural savior.

33:38 Man is not really dead in trespasses and sin. He's out of joint here or there but he's basically good. Well put those two things together. Do you see what you have?

33:47 You can't understand your generation unless you see these things. For a hundred years people have been reared with the idea that I stand here today not as someone who came from the creative hand of God and that God has a right to direct my conduct. I stand here as the highest expression of the natural chance development of life answerable to no one but myself. Then couple with that influence of humanism and liberalism it said man as he stands here is basically good.

34:23 Oh he's picked up a few things he shouldn't along the line from the pool of slime to where he now stands but he's basically all right. And then liberalism it said Christ is not a divine savior. There's no need to satisfy the law of God. There's no such thing as regeneration the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

34:42 But when you take away from man the creator creature distinction that is the basis of morality the savior sinner distinction that is heart and core of all true religion what's left? What's left? Man's left like an animal so now he might as well act like one. And that's exactly what he's doing.

35:04 That's exactly what he's doing. Exactly what he's doing. Exactly what he's doing. The roots were cut and for a generation or two the tree still stood.

35:20 Now we're seeing the actual crumbling of the tree that was killed by the generation of parents that now is who told their kids now you be a good girl good boy don't do this don't do that and when they said why? They couldn't tell them because God made you he's got a right to tell you because Jesus Christ is the savior who is able to give power to do what God has required. Didn't tell them that. Oh listen this is the curse of the secular education that most of us were brought up on.

35:52 You and I were brought up being told by our teachers be good be nice right? Why be good? Be nice. What determines what's good?

36:01 What determines what's nice? They never told us that did they? Did they? They couldn't.

36:07 They couldn't. It's illegal to do so. Illegal to do so. Even if they knew they couldn't.

36:14 And so the tremendous responsibility upon us as God's people is that we cry to God that there'll be that sufficient renewing of our own minds that this creator creature distinction is firmly in our hearts firmly embedded in our own hearts in the warp and whoop of our being that the savior redeemer sinner distinction and relationship is ours experimentally and then by God's grace that we'll do all within our power all within our power to promote the only thing that will bring a return to the basis of morality in our own children in our own society. This is why some of us are deeply concerned about Christian education. This is what it's all about. Children come to Sunday school once a week and get something of the creator creature relationship the savior redeemer concept and get it a little bit in their Christian homes but then for thirty-five hours a week they're brainwashed in the assumptions of the evolutionary hypothesis in humanism.

37:30 Is it no wonder that in our Christian churches young people are being overcome by the scores and immorality? Shotgun marriage is just as much a problem in evangelical churches. What are we talking about pastor? I know what I'm talking about and if you don't think I have the facts I'd be glad to talk with you privately.

38:04 Why? All of this they know not God they know not God. And so Paul's exhortation to them is don't be like that Gentile world which knows nothing of sanctification and honor. That which drives them into the marriage tie is simply that this relationship is a necessary means to the end of gratifying passion.

Exhortation to Sanctified Attitudes and Saving Knowledge

38:29 Oh no he says when you Christians take your vessel may it ever be in sanctification and in honor lest by your attitude you mark yourself to be like the Gentiles. You see the child of God is not only to be separated from his activities but in its very attitudes. Its very attitudes is not enough that we do not fornicate and leap outside the bonds of the sacred ties of marriage but within those ties that we be sanctified in our attitudes in our motivation. May I close this morning with a word of exhortation to you who may be strangers to God's grace. In God's common grace may we be saved from the influences of your ignorance of God. Some of you young people have had wonderful restraints put upon you by your Christian parents and the reason you have not been guilty of certain forms of uncleanness is because of the hedges put up by parents who want to know where you are and what you're doing and with whom you are. Do you have the kind of knowledge of God that's going to keep you?

39:54 Do you have the kind of relationship to God through His dear Son that will keep you when there's no other restraint but His indwelling Spirit His objective revelation and your holy longing to please Him? Oh I plead with you dear young people don't let these days slip by. Let God stir you up to rest short of nothing less than a vital intimate personal knowledge of God through His dear Son. For if you know not God it's only a matter of time before your ignorance of the true God will take its toll in the realm of the world. Let God stir you up to overreach and step over the boundaries of the sacred ties of one's own marriage and abuse one's brother by cohabiting with his wife. You say is such a thing possible amongst Christians? Who's Paul writing to?

41:21 This is a very real exhortation by God's grace we'll consider it next Lord's Day morning and just some practical ways that we may be enabled to walk in the light. Do you want to be sanctified? I wish I could say you're sanctified. No, to be sanctified means that your thinking and your acting in the realm of your sexual capacity is brought under the discipline and direction of the word of the living God. That's what it means to be sanctified in part. May God grant that to us. Not only set apart from gross manifestations of sin but set apart unto God and to wholesome biblical pure scriptural concepts of the function of our sexuality within the purpose of God.

42:43 To that end let us pray and ask the Lord to help us.