Fourth Introductory Principle

Introduction: The Divine Antidote to Sexual Impurity

0:00 The following sermon was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, by Pastor Albert N. Martin. We come this evening to the third message in a brief series of messages that I have entitled, The Divine Antidote to Sexual Impurity. And as I've reflected upon that title, which has no divine inspiration, I assure you, I thought that we might better entitle the series, A Divine Prescription for Sexual Purity, or what I hope and pray it will be for many of you, particularly you young men and women,

0:45 a divine immunization against sexual impurity. But whether God uses His word as an antidote to the poison of sexual purity that is yet within us, a prescription for sexual purity, or whether God uses His word as an antidote to the curse of sexual impurity, or whether God uses His word as an antidote to sexual impurity, or whether God uses His word as an antidote for sexual impurity, or whether God uses His word as an antidote to sexual impurity, or whether God uses His word as a prescription for sexual impurity, or a divine immunization against it, I trust that God will own His word to help us in an area that must be addressed from the word of God. And as I indicated in the first message, in checking back through what I have preached, it's been 14 and a half years since I addressed this subject in a brief series of messages from this very pulpit.

1:31 we choose. It is my desire that in an age marked by an obsession with sex, an age which has cut itself loose from biblical moorings and is out to sea with no compass and no rudder, it is my goal to let the scriptures be our navigational chart and compass that we might not be dashed upon the rocks of lawlessness, relativism, and subjectivism that so often are present when this matter is discussed in our current society. My approach has been to state some foundational biblical

2:11 issues in the form of propositions. I've stated the propositions, explained the meaning of my words, and then we've turned to the scriptures to show that these propositions are constructed from the overarching teaching of the Word of God. In other words, I have been engaging in systematic theology, whether you knew it or not, with respect to this subject. Thus far, we've addressed three of these propositions. I'll only state them, and then we move tonight to the

Review of Previous Propositions

2:47 fourth. Proposition number one. Our sexuality, including our desire and capacity, for sexual pleasure, originates with God and not with the devil. Genesis chapters 1 and 2 clearly establish this, and 1 Timothy chapter 4 clearly sets forth the fact that anything that denigrates and looks upon this faculty with which God has endowed us as essentially sinful is a demonic perspective and not of God.

3:25 Proposition number two. The God who designed and created us with our sexuality is the only one who has the right to determine and impose upon us its legitimate functions. The fact that mankind was made male and female with sexual identity, with the capacity for sexual pleasure, was God's notion, and being made male and female was God's notion. The fact that mankind was made male and female was God's notion, and being God's notion, he alone has the right to tell us his intentions with

4:01 respect to that which he has designed and made. And there we looked again at Genesis 1 and 2 and several other key passages, not the least of which is that commandment embedded in the moral law, you shall not commit adultery. God sets the boundaries for the fulfillment and expression of our humanity.

4:26 Then last week we took up proposition number three, and it was this. The willful, impenitent indulgence in sexual sin in the mind or in practice will bar a person from heaven and will certainly result in the damnation of hell. To fool around with sex is to toy with damnation. To state it bluntly, our Lord Jesus says,

4:58 to indulge illicit sex in the mind is to make ourselves candidate for the lake of fire. Our Lord says at any cost to ourselves, there must be a turning from illicit sexual thoughts as well as actions, for there hangs over us the threat of the pit of eternal burnings. And we looked at 17 texts which clearly establish this. Now tonight we come to the fourth and final foundational proposition, and God willing in the next two messages I want to look with you at two watershed passages in the New Testament.

Proposition Four: Saving Grace Delivers and Equips for Purity

5:42 I would urge you to try to read them through this coming week, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 12 to the end of the chapter, and into the first few verses of chapter 7, and then 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 1 through 8. Now tonight we take up this fourth foundational proposition, and it is this. Please don't be scared away by the language. I've labored to choose words carefully, deliberately. I will explain the meaning of them, so don't pull down the shade over your mind until we help shed some light upon this collection of words.

6:22 Proposition number four is this. A real participation in the dynamics of saving grace will deliver us from the dominion of sin, including sexual sins, and equip us for progressive growth in sexual purity. A real participation in the dynamics of saving grace will deliver us from the dominion of sin, including sexual sins, and equip us for progressive growth in sexual purity.

Defining 'Real Participation in the Dynamics of Saving Grace'

7:00 Now I want you to look upon this proposition with me as though it were a pillar comprised of three large front of the block propositions, and on the back side there are the biblical torrent, the language that I have chosen. We take block number one. It's these words, a real participation in the dynamics of saving grace. What in the world do I mean by those words?

7:32 Well, let me explain what I mean. The dynamics of a thing are the forces or the powers that are operative in any given field. There are social dynamics. As men and women, boys and girls interact with one another, there are powers and influences and forces operative in that social interaction, and we call those the dynamics of social interaction.

7:58 The dynamics of a thing are the forces or the powers that are operative in any given field. There are social dynamics. As men and women, boys and girls interact with one another, there are powers and influences and forces operative in that social interaction, and we call those the dynamics of social interaction. The dynamics of a thing are the forces or the powers that are operative in any given field. There are social dynamics. As men and women, boys and girls interact with one another, there are powers and influences and forces operative in that social interaction, and we call those the dynamics of social interaction.

7:59 We could speak of the dynamics of economic structures within the field of handling money and commerce. There are forces and influences at work. Those are the dynamics of economic interaction. So I'm speaking tonight of participation in the dynamics of saving grace.

8:23 You see, there is a non-saving common grace of God by which men and women are restrained from being as bad as they could be and are constrained to do good things as men count things. That's God's common grace. Jesus refers to it when He says in Luke 11, 13, If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how do evil men know how to give good to their children, and how are they disposed to give good?

9:03 Because in God's common grace, they do things that men count good. There are marvelous examples in the Old Testament of how God's common grace restrained men from being as evil as they could be. You remember that man Abimelech. He took Sarah, not knowing she was Abraham's wife.

9:23 He said, she's my sister. And God restrained. He restrained him from having any sexual relations with her. That was his common grace.

9:32 But we are concerned tonight about the dynamics, the forces and powers that are operative within the sphere, not of God's common grace, but of God's saving grace. That is, those forces and powers that are true only to those who are God's true people by the grace of God. God in Christ.

10:00 And I've used the terms, a real participation in those forces and powers and influences peculiar to the sphere of God's saving grace. And why have I used those terms? A real participation. Because there is a pseudo-participation.

10:21 The Bible speaks of those who think that of saving grace, who say that they are within the sphere, of the dynamics of God's saving grace. But it is a pseudo-profession. For example, in 1 John 1 and verse 6, John writes to such people and says, if we say that we have fellowship with Him, here are some who say, we are within the orbit of the dynamics of God's saving grace. We have come into living, real fellowship with God.

11:03 John says, we lie, and we do not the truth. That is a pseudo-participation. A false, a spurious, a counter-participation in the dynamics of saving grace. Chapter 2 and verse 4 of the same letter.

11:20 He that says, I know Him, and is not keeping His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. His profession of being with the orbit, and under the influence of the dynamics of saving grace, is a lie. Titus 1 and verse 16. They profess that they know God, but by their works, they deny Him.

11:47 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 to 5, culminating in that statement, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. They go through the motions. They may maintain an orthodox creed, but they have no, no true, real participation in the power, in the dynamics of God's saving grace. And I've used the word participation deliberately.

12:16 I did not say a real experience of the dynamics, because that would focus too much upon a crisis of conversion. And because we have a number of you who have been reared in the context of godly instruction, who by God, God's common grace, have had sensitive consciences. Many of you will not know when precisely you pass from death unto life. And the last thing I want to do is in any preaching, to bind your conscience and become the devil's tool to discourage you, or to rob you of assurance that may be rightly yours.

12:56 So what God is concerned about, and what I'm concerned about, is not an experience of saving grace, but the indications that we are, truly participating here and now in saving grace. Precisely when we began to, is a matter of no consequence. But that we are, is a matter of life and death. So in this first block, I'm addressing this matter of a real participation in the dynamics of saving grace.

13:26 And what are those dynamics? Well, that would take a whole series of messages, but let me just run by a few of them right now. Within the orbit of God's true saving grace, there is such a thing as the new birth. What Jesus speaks about in John chapter 3, when He says to this religious leader, except one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

13:55 And He went on to say, the wind blows where it wills, and you cannot tell where it comes from, where it goes, but you hear the sound. You see, you hear the effect of the wind. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Within the realm of God's saving grace, there is the reality of the new birth.

14:18 There is the dynamic, the operative force of a birth by the Spirit of God. There is the reality of being a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5.17 If any man be, in Christ a new creation.

14:39 Parallel passage is Ephesians 2.10. We are His workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus. And there are the twin realities of these dynamics of God's saving grace, new creation and in Christ.

14:56 In Christ and new creation. To be united to Christ is not a religious concept. It is not a philosophical notion. It is a vital spiritual reality that transforms everyone who is brought into union with Christ.

15:15 If any is a dynamic operative force that has been at work in the heart of that one united to Christ. In the language of the prophet Ezekiel and Jeremiah picked up and repeated and quoted in Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10. There is the dynamic of the new covenant blessing of a new heart. God says I will take out heart of stone and I will give them a heart of flesh.

15:50 That is something real and vital that God does in us when He brings us within the orbit of His saving grace. There is the new standing before God. As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. And when we are given the status of adopted sons and daughters, a legal transaction, God does not stop there.

16:20 We read in Galatians 4, 6 and because you are sons He has sent forth the spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. That is what it means to be within the dynamics of God's saving grace. To have been born again, to be in Christ, to be new creation, having a new heart, a new standing, the spirit of adoption, and we could go on and on. That is what I mean about the dynamics of saving.

Saving Grace Delivers from the Dominion of Sin (Block 2)

16:52 All of those things that are operative in the heart and life of anyone who is drawn by God's power into the orbit of His saving grace. So, as we take up this form, proposition, we are concerned with a real participation in the dynamics of saving grace. Now that brings us to block number two on which are these words, This will deliver us from the dominion of sin including sexual sin. A real participation

17:35 in the dynamics of saving grace will deliver us from the dominion of sin including sexual sin. Now let me seek to demonstrate from the Word of God the truth of these words will deliver us from the dominion of sin including sexual sins. Now the Bible is very clear in asserting that in every true child of God sin no longer reigns, though it does certainly remain and will remain until the moment of our death when our spirits will be instantaneously

18:19 made at home with the spirits of just men made perfect. Or should we be alive at the coming of the Lord Jesus the moment He comes, He intensifies and augments the work that has been going on progressively and we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. In every true child of God, Scripture teaches, sin no longer reigns though it does really and truly remain. Now look with me, I don't want to just quote the text, I want you to get them through the eye gate as well.

18:57 First of all, to John chapter 8. Seeking to demonstrate that this second block in this pillar that is our fourth proposition, is rooted in the word of God. Saving grace will deliver us from the dominion of sin, including sexual sins. In John chapter 8, the Lord in verse 31 is found addressing some Jews of whom it is said they believed on Him.

19:25 There was some expression of faith towards Christ. Jesus therefore said to those Jews that had believed Him, If you abide in my word, then are you truly my disciples. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered unto Him, We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to any man.

19:48 How do you say you should be made free? For they had a short memory. What was Egypt if that wasn't bondage? What was Babylon if that was not bondage?

20:00 What was their present state if that were not bondage? Couldn't even kill Jesus without drawing in the Roman authority. They had no power to execute by capital punishment. But in their spiritual blindness and pride, we've never been in bondage to any man.

20:17 Notice how the Lord responds. Verily, verily, one of these magisterial statements of truth incarnate. Truly, truly, amen, amen. Listen to what I'm about to say.

20:30 Truly, truly, I say unto you, everyone that commits sin, everyone who is practicing sin, everyone in whom sin is the pattern of life, is the doulos, the bond-slave of sin. Everyone to whom sin is master is a slave of that master. He's saying this to religious people with all of their religious knowledge and religious practice and religious profession. He says you need to be liberated.

21:03 They say liberated from what? We've never been in bondage to anyone. Jesus said, yes, you are in bondage. You're in bondage to Jesus.

21:09 You're in bondage to your sin. Whosoever commits sin is the bond-servant of sin. And the bond-servant abides not in the house forever. The Son abides forever.

21:18 Verse 36, If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. The force of the arrangement in the original is this, that Jesus says if the Son shall make you free, really free, you shall be really free. You think you're free, but you're deluded. You're slaves of your sin.

21:48 If I make you free, that freedom is not positional. I can't believe some of the nonsense I've heard in the name of expounding the Bible, that anything that touches upon the radical nature of what the theologians have come to call definitive sanctification, that if we've come within the orbit of the dynamics of saving grace, there is a radical breach with the dominion of sin, and people say, well, that's just positional sanctification. No, Jesus said this freedom is not a word. It's not a concept.

22:22 It's a blessing reality. Freedom indeed. If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Free for what?

22:34 Free then to let all of life be regulated by the Word of Christ. If you abide, remain in My Word, then are you truly My disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. You will live as free men to do the will of your heavenly Father as that will is expressed in My Word. There is the clear teaching that any participation in the dynamics of saving grace will deliver us from the dominion of sin.

23:11 I'll turn to another pivotal text, Romans chapter 6. Here in the last half of the chapter, under the imagery of slave and master, Paul is teaching that all who have come into union with Christ by faith not only have an imputed righteousness, a righteousness external to them, based solely upon the doing and the dying of Jesus, but in virtue of their union with Christ, they have died to sin, verses 1 to 14, and they have been released from their former master of sin

23:53 and have become the willing bond slaves of God and of Christ and of righteousness. So in summary of the teaching of the first half of the chapter, he says in verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you. Literally, sin shall not exercise lordship over you. Now notice, that's not an exhortation.

24:17 It is a statement of reality given what he has previously taught in this chapter. If we are united to Christ, the dominion of sin has been broken. In the virtue of Christ, death, burial and resurrection, we in union with Christ have died to sin and risen to newness of life. Sin shall not.

24:37 It doesn't say sin ought not to. Sin eventually will not. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Why?

24:44 For you are not under law. That is, you are not in the state into which you came by nature. You've come within the orbit of the dynamics of grace. And because you have, there has been a change of masters.

24:58 Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law but under grace. Verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace?

25:09 May it never be. God forbid. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as servants, as slaves unto obedience, his slaves you are, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness? Two masters.

25:30 Sin leading to death. Here, obedience leading to righteousness. Practical, personal, imparted righteousness. This is not imputed righteousness.

25:40 That's dealt with in the previous section of Romans. But thanks be to God that whereas you were bond-slaves of sin, he says all of you, Roman Christians, were at one time bond-slaves of sin. Whereas you once were bond-slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. He likens the gospel as a form of teaching into which they were cast.

26:13 When the gospel came to them and by the power of the Holy Spirit effectually worked into them, they were cast into the mold of the gospel. A gospel which holds out not only free forgiveness and justifying righteousness but liberation from the tyranny of sin. You shall call his name Jesus for he it is who shall save his people. Apo, away from their sin.

26:39 It's consequences. It's deserved damnation, yes, but also it's galling, enslaving power. And what happened? Thanks be to God that whereas you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered and being made free from sin.

27:05 If you're a Christian, you've been made free from sin. Oh, but Pat, look at what the text says. If you've not been made free from sin, you've never become a Christian. Look at what the text says.

27:20 I didn't write it. It's there in your Bibles. It's a good translation. And being made free from sin, you became bond slaves of righteousness.

27:32 Now obviously he's not saying you became free from sin so that sin no longer remains. He will deal with that very adequately in chapter 7. And he'll deal with it biographically. Wretched man that I am.

27:46 The good that I would, I don't do, and the evil that I would not, that I do. I find in me this contrary principle. My renewed being wants to serve and please God, but there's a...

27:59 So he's not teaching sinless perfection. But neither is he teaching positional sanctification. He's saying you actually became free from sin. In what sense?

28:11 In the sense of verse 14. Sin no longer exercises this lordship over you. You have been made free from sin. You became servants of righteousness.

28:22 He said, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you presented your members, that is your faculties, your physical faculties, your mind, your spirit, your hands, your feet, your sexual members, as you presented them servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. For when you were the slaves of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit had you then at that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed?

29:00 For the end of those things is death. But now, having been made free from sin and become bond slaves to God, you are having your fruit unto sanctification. You are having your fruit unto sanctification to the end eternal life. Could words be plainer that anyone who has a real participation in the dynamics of saving grace has been delivered from the dominion of sin, including sexual sins.

29:36 Sins committed with our members that have sexual nerve endings and our eyeballs that can receive sexual stimulation and signals. As surely as your slavery to sin was real in that it engaged your faculties, so now this new master is real and his call to you is real and you present your faculties unto him as one who does indeed joyfully own his new master, righteousness, God, Jesus Christ, and all that is found in him. So you see that second block on the pillar on which are these words,

Scriptural Proof for Deliverance from Sexual Sin's Dominion

30:20 saving grace will deliver us from the dominion of sin, including sexual sin, is not some notion spun out of my own head. Turn to Galatians 5, third text. Galatians chapter 5. Familiar words beginning in verse 19.

30:41 Well, let's back up because this helps to qualify the concluding statement. Verse 16. But I say walk by the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. He's assuming that real Christians still have fleshly lusts which they can fulfill to their grief and shame as well as to the dishonor of God, for the flesh is lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

31:12 And these are contrary the one to the other that you may not do the things that you would, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. You are not in that realm where there are no dynamics of grace operative. All you have is God's standard crushing down upon your conscience and you're either searing your conscience or if you yield to the pressure of conscience, you're in despair. The law has no power to deliver you.

31:39 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. And look at the ones at the top of the list. Pornia.

31:50 Fornication. Sexual impurity of all stripes and all denominations and all kinds. Fornication. Uncleanness.

32:00 Lasciviousness. Wanton abandonment to passions and lusts. Idolatry. Sorcery.

32:07 Enmity. Strife. Jealousies. Wrath.

32:11 Factions. Divisions. Parties. Envying.

32:15 Drunkenness. Revelings. And such like. Of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

32:29 There's an underscoring of the principle from last week. A pattern of indulgence in sexual sin will land you in hell. You'll not inherit the kingdom of God. It's clear.

32:41 If you give in to the burning of sinful passion, the price you'll pay, unless by thorough repentance and faith in Jesus, and faith in Jesus Christ, will be the burning in outer darkness. Shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and as a capstone grace of the Spirit, self-control. Control over myself, including my sexual appetites and my sexual passions.

33:15 And against such there is no law. That is, these things that are described as the fruit of the Spirit. Now look at verse 24. And they that are of Christ Jesus ought to crucify the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof.

33:31 And they that are of Christ Jesus, if they have good teaching and lots of encouragement, and three or four people to disciple them and to make them they held accountable, they eventually... No, that is not what the text says.

33:46 It says they that are of Christ Jesus i.e. those who have come in to the dynamics of saving grace. Alright?

33:55 That is just another way of stating it. It is a human way. Here is the divine way. They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.

34:08 There has been a fundamental reckoning with the dominion of sin as it expresses itself through the passions and lusts of the flesh. And it says they have crucified this is not an exact parallel to Romans 6. It is another dimension of this great truth that with saving grace we will be delivered from the dominion of sin including sexual sin. Now we could multiply text but if these three witnesses don't persuade you I doubt that three more will.

34:43 But you say, Pastor, there is a little bit of reference to sexual sin there in Galatians. A couple of specific ones. And certainly by inference and by logical deduction in Romans 6 if the dominion of sin was manifested by presenting our members including those members by which sexual appetite and desires are expressed. But isn't there something more specific that really clinches this fact that real participation in the dynamics of saving grace will deliver from the dominion of sin including sexual sin?

35:17 Well, the clearest text I know is in 1 Corinthians 6. God willing I'll give a more detailed exposition of this next Lord's Day in conjunction with the communion meditation. But notice how clearly the apostle addresses the issue. Verse 9, 1 Corinthians 6.

35:38 Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with men and I gave a more detailed explanation of what those words mean last Lord's Day. Nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

36:06 Settle it, Paul says. It's non-negotiable. Don't sit down and discuss it. Debate about it.

36:11 A lifestyle dominated by any one or more of these sins is inconsistent with being in a state of grace. Well, what hope is there for these Corinthians then? Verse 11. Such were some of you and then with three heiresses one a middle and two passes but you were washed or as the margin said washed yourselves to give the sense of the middle.

36:38 Some say you made yourself available to be washed. We'll go into that in more detail. But you were washed. You were sanctified.

36:48 You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the spirit of our God. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ means in conjunction with the revelation of God's saving mercy in the person and work of Him who is the Lord even Jesus Messiah. And he says when you came within the orbit of the influence of His name that is the revelation of God's saving mercy in Him and within the orbit of the effectual work of the Holy Spirit you now are in the category of the words.

37:23 Such were some of you. You are no longer adulterers. You are no longer fornicators. You are no longer effeminate.

37:31 You are no longer indulging in sexual license as a way of life. Why? Because any real participation in the dynamics of saving grace will deliver us from the dominion of sin including sexual sin. Now if that hasn't disappointed you and established it from my Bible I don't know how to try to do it.

Call to the Enslaved: Run to Jesus for Freedom

37:58 And if I'm speaking to someone who sits here and says if that's what the Bible teaches then I've never, I've never come within the orbit of God's saving grace. If the dynamics, the forces, the powers that are operative in that realm will deliver from the dominion of sin including the dominion and tyranny of sexual sin then I have no reason to believe I've ever come within that orbit. What can I do? My answer is relatively simple.

38:32 You run to the One upon whom God sent His Spirit. And in Isaiah 61 quoted by the Lord Jesus Himself in His hometown of Nazareth in the synagogue that passage that says the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me for He has anointed me to preach liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. You go to Jesus with your chains cranking all around you and say Lord Jesus here's a helpless slave of sin. You said if the Son makes you free you shall be free indeed.

39:14 Lord Jesus make me living proof of Your Word. Go to Him. Don't try to get a blow torch. Or a hacksaw of your own doing and get rid of all your chains so you can feel yourself fit to go to Jesus.

39:34 Go to Him with your clanking chains and say Lord Jesus snap. Lord Jesus set the captive free. Lord Jesus cleanse the captive. Lord Jesus purge the captive.

39:48 And you have the promise Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. You shall call His name Jesus for He shall save you. Rest you. Deliver His people from their sins.

40:05 From their guilt. Their hell deservingness. Their wrath deservingness yes. But from their calling domineering power.

Saving Grace Equips for Progressive Growth in Sexual Purity (Block 3)

40:14 He is the deliverer from sin. Well we come now to block number three. A real participation in the dynamics of saving grace will deliver us from the dominion of sin including sexual sins and here's block number three. And equip us for progressive growth in sexual purity.

40:41 Coming within the orbit of God's saving grace and the dynamics that are operative within that realm not only delivers us from the dominion of sin but equips us for progressive growth in sexual purity. God equips us for the battle that begins when no longer is there only one master in charge. Sin. Paul says when you were the slaves of sin you were free in regard of righteousness.

41:18 Righteousness speaks and says thou shalt thou shalt not. You say who's righteousness? I've got my lust I've got my passions I've got my nerve endings I've got my appetites. They are the only master I recognize.

41:32 That's what Paul is saying. When you were the slaves of sin when you were the slaves of sin you were free. You were acting like free men when this master called righteousness would speak. You'd say he's not my boss.

41:44 My boss is sin and I'll yield myself to my boss. But now Paul says you have a change of masters and what does that result in? Go back to Romans 6.22 with me if you will.

41:58 For there we have not only a description of the fact that when we are really and truly within the dynamics of saving grace sin's dominion is broken but this text also makes it clear that we are equipped for progressive growth in sexual purity. Verse 22 Romans 6 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God you are having this is present tense the being made free from sin and become servants to God that's past definitive action. But this is progressive. You are having your fruit unto sanctification

42:42 and the end eternal life. Change of masters a change of practice a change of destiny. No one has a change of destiny who doesn't have a change of practice and no one has a change of practice who doesn't have a change of masters. It's all one ball of wax.

43:00 That's God's way of saving sinners. Even the thief on the cross brought forth some fruit unto righteousness. He identified himself with Jesus. He sought to vindicate Jesus before his cussing buddy with whom he joined in chorus of reviling for some time while he was on that cross for we read in the gospels that both malefactors cast the same into his face and in those few remaining minutes he was bringing forth fruits unto sanctification or holiness and Jesus said to this man today eternal life you shall be with me in paradise.

How God Equips for Purity: Union with Christ and the Spirit

43:41 You see when we come into the orbit of the dynamics of saving grace not only is the dominion of sin broken but we are equipped for progressive growth in sexual purity. That is a dimension of bringing forth fruit unto sanctification and as we shall see and let's just look at it for a moment so that you realize again this is not pressing the issue when Paul addresses the Thessalonians and obviously he felt it necessary in his relatively brief stay among them to emphasize this because he reminds them that this is something he had already talked about but now he puts a half a chapter in the same area of concern. So I'm not at all disturbed if anyone has heard these three or four messages without saying I didn't talk about his sex there

44:25 frankly your false witness of us won't stick. That isn't all we talk about and I fear we're not giving as much emphasis to this as the Bible does and that's why I've been constrained to address the subject in these few messages. Listen to what Paul says chapter 4 verse 1 Finally then brethren we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that have you received of us how you ought to walk and please God even as you do walk that you abound more and more for you know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus this is the will of God even your sanctification and is he talking about sanctification genesis? You must generically know that you abstain from sexual impurity.

45:07 He equates his focused instruction on sanctification in this area of sexual purity and then he goes on to open up the matter more fully and says that this is intricately bound up in our effectual calling we are called in our effectual call unto holiness or sanctification and in the context it is the sanctification of sexual purity sexual purity. Now how do we get equipped to grow progressively in this grace of sexual purity? Well, we get equipped when we are brought into the orbit, the dynamics of God's

45:48 saving grace. Viewed from another standpoint, John 15 addresses this. Here, growing out of the biblical doctrine of union with Christ, that we are joined to him not only federally and legally, bless God we are, or we would have no imputed righteousness. It is our federal union with Christ that is at the base of justifying righteousness, but we have more than a federal union. We have a vital life union with Christ. I am the vine. My father is the husbandman

46:24 or the caretaker, the gardener. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes it away. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes it away. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes it away.

46:33 Every branch that bears fruit, he cleanses or prunes it that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide or remain in the vine, so neither can you except you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches.

46:54 He that abides in me and I in him, the life that flows through me flows into him. The same bears much fruit. For apart from me, shepherd from me, you can do nothing. Oh yeah, we can do a lot of things, but over all of them is the word sin. But we can do nothing that is reflective of

47:15 the likeness and the will of Christ apart from being united to Christ and abiding in Christ. Well, how do we get into Christ? We are brought into Christ vitally when we come within the orbit of God's saving grace in our own life experience. Whether that is like the dawning of a day and we don't know when we were actually joined to him, or whether like Paul it is like a thunderclap and a lightning bolt out of a clear blue sky. When we are united to Christ, i.e. brought within the dynamics of saving

47:52 grace, we are so united to Christ that we are now equipped for progressive growth in sexual purity. The scripture says, he that says he abides in me, abides in me, abides in him, ought to walk as he walked. He walked amongst men as a man. He had close relationships with men that never bordered on the impure. He had deep and close and even intimate relationships

48:18 with women, but never once stained with a lustful thought or a lustful touch. And as we abide in him, the grace that was operative in our blessed Lord, our head, the true vine, that grace is operative in us. I certainly hope it's the same thing you are doing. Let's operative in us. We are equipped in virtue of our union with Christ. Then go to Philippians

God's Work in Us: Willing and Working for His Pleasure

48:40 chapter 2. We'll just look at two more texts. Again, trying to bring three or four clear witnesses to these principles. Here in Philippians chapter 2, the Apostle writes in verse 12, So then, my beloved, my dearly loved ones, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. He said, I'm going to exhort you

49:10 that as when I was among you, you manifested the grace of principled obedience to your Lord, now that I'm absent, lest any should say your attachment to Christ was somehow dependent upon my presence. Much more in my absence now. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Go on in the growth and development of the grace imparted to you by the Lord. I'm going to exhort you that as when I was among you, you manifested the grace of

49:35 when God effectually called you by the word and the gospel. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, with the engagement of all of your faculties, remembering the seriousness of this task, for it is God who is continually working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. He can say of all of these Philippians, the dynamics of saving grace are constantly working in you. He can say of all these Philippians, the dynamics of saving grace are constantly working in you both, inclining your will to do what you should, and then giving you the power to do what you should. Isn't that what he says? Oh, well, if that's so, then I sit back

50:16 and catch the wave. He says, no, work it out with all of your faculties and with all the intensity of all of your powers into confidence that every time you make a righteous choice and you are given grace to perform a righteous deed, it was God who worked in you both to will and to work. You say, I can't figure it out. Well, that's too bad. I'm sorry.

50:37 That's the way it is. That's what God has said. And how could Paul be so confident? Because he knew that these people had come within the orbit of saving grace, and the dynamics of that grace were constantly at work, equipping them for progressive growth in sanctification generically. That's the emphasis here. But a subhead under generic

51:04 sanctification, a major subhead, according to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 4 is the matter of growing progressively in the grace of sexual purity. One other text. It's a good one on which to close because it comes as a kind of benediction.

51:22 Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21. After giving some serious warnings against apostasy and saying, but I'm persuaded better things of you, brethren, things that accompany salvation. Notice how the Bible says, I'm persuaded better things of you, brethren, things that accompany salvation. Notice how the Bible says, I'm persuaded better things of you, brethren, things that accompany salvation.

51:40 Notice how the author brings his letter to, almost to a conclusion in verse 20. Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, with the blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, make you perfect in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Now think back through this epistle and some of the very stringent exhortations and directives given to these people. And it's as though some might say, but whoever the author was,

52:25 but blank, whoever you are, I'm not sure, I don't know, I don't even have a theory, but I know it's God's word. How in the world are we to fulfill all of those injunctions, holding fast our hope firm unto the Lord? In the end, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves, exhorting one another while it's called today, fearing lest we not enter into God's rest. How in the world are we going to do all of this? He said, I'll give you the answer. The God of peace, who raised your

52:57 Savior from the dead, this God, make you perfect in every good thing to do His will, working in us, working in us, we're within the orbit of saving grace. And there, the dynamics of God's working in us, that which is well-pleasing in His sight as it comes to Him, made fragrant through the mediation of His beloved Son, it is actually well-pleasing in us. And no wonder He closes by saying, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

53:35 You see, dear Christian, God's not like Pharaoh. Make bricks, but no straw. God says, make bricks, and here's the straw. And more than straw, I'll infuse the strength to your arm. I'll infuse the wisdom into your

53:51 mind. And all that you need to do what is well-pleasing to me through Jesus Christ, I'm prepared to work in you to do my will. I believe it was Augustine who said, give what you command, and then command what you will. God's salvation is all of grace, but it's a grace that works in us.

Application: Cry to God for Deliverance and Appropriation of Grace

54:18 It's well-pleasing in His sight.

54:21 Would you be sexually pure, you who perhaps this night are conscious that you do have chains? And the answer is, you must either get within the orbit of the dynamics of God's saving grace and take the shortest route by repentance and faith. For if you're a child of God and you've been crippled in this area, begin to cry to God that you will see, what do I have in Christ that I'm not aware of? What do I have in Christ that I'm not aware of? What do I have in Christ that I'm not aware of? What do I have in Christ that I'm not

54:50 appropriating? What must I do in obedience to the word of Christ that I'm not doing? Lord, my assurance is even up for grabs as long as this monkey is on my back. And that may be the case of some of you. And you need to cry to God that as we move into these other

55:08 passages where the apostle assumes that these people who have even been overcome by some gross manifestations of sexual impurity yet have the root of the matter in them, and he appears to be the one who is the one who is the one who is the one who is the one who reveals to these dynamics of saving grace. What? Don't you know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? And he goes after them with not the law. It's an amazing thing. He

55:33 never once quotes the seventh commandment there in 1 Corinthians 6. He could have. But he loads up gospel motives and gospel dynamics and brings them to bear like laser beams upon the hearts and minds of these Corinthians, confident. That by God's grace, this can put them back into the way of progressive growth in sexual purity. Sexual sins are not unpardonable sins. I said it last week. I want to say it again.

56:06 One of the most wonderful gospel promises is found in the verse that the devil has used to terrify many. In dealing with the sin, the unpardonable sin, Jesus said, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven the sons of men. All manner of sin and yours run by you like a high-speed film upon the screen of the walls of your mind. All sin shall be forgiven. The blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses from all

56:41 sin. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as walls. Such were some of you. But you've been washed.

56:56 Sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Whatever other means God may use, and there are many, in the actual working out of the dynamics of progressive sanctification, at the end of the day, we've got to keep going back to where we began, looking away unto Jesus, author and perfecter of faith. May God help us by

Closing Prayer

57:25 His grace. Let's pray. Our Father, how thankful we are for the Gospel. How thankful we are for Your Holy Word. We

57:43 thank You for these many passages which so clearly set forth that mighty work that You do in the hearts of sinners enslaved to sin under condemnation for their sin. And how we pray that this night, Lord Jesus, You would come as the mighty Word of God. And we pray that You would come as the mighty liberator and snap chains and cleanse and purge the pigsty of foul minds and hearts. O Lord Jesus, manifest Your gracious, delivering, cleansing, saving power. And help us as Your people that we will more and more learn how to lay hold

58:27 of those things with which we have been equipped in our union with Christ. That we, by Your grace, may be saved. May we be saved. May we be saved. May we be saved. May we be saved.

58:33 May we be saved. May we be saved. May we be saved. May we be saved. May we be saved. May we be

58:34 saved. And may Your grace be with us in the name of Jesus. We thank You for this time together. We thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your presence.

58:41 May Your blessing rest upon us as we leave this place. We know that the powers of darkness will assault many of us throughout the week. Help us to take the shield of faith therewith to quench every fiery dart of the wicked one. Hear us and accept our thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

59:04 our thanks, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.