STRUGGLING WITH MORAL PURITY

1 THESSALONIANS 4:3-6

STRUGGLING WITH MORAL PURITY

Our society is totally saturated with sex. Think with me. Today even shampoo advertisements can be X-rated! It was the same way in the day of Paul. Thessalonica was known for having every imaginable form of sexual vice in it; a society like ours that forever lowers resistance to sexual immorality by overexposing it and laughing at the idea that it might be wrong in any way.

God isn’t down on sex. For crying out loud, He invented it! We must understand that He invented it for only one setting-between a husband and a wife. If we remove sex from its original, God-given context of marriage, it becomes “sexual immorality.” Every time. This includes sex before marriage, sex with someone other than you mate while you are married or sex with someone of your same sex. This is not my opinion. According to the Bible, it is the will of God!

I. OUR WORLD HAS LOST THE ABILITY TO BLUSH.

The ultimate telltale sign that sexual immorality is out of control is when we don’t blush anymore at it. Parents, don’t be surprised if your child does something that you have let them watch on TV and movies for all their lives. If you allow enough garbage into their lives, eventually it will become common to them and they will see nothing wrong with it. I don’t enjoy watching it or laughing at it, because I have to pick up the pieces of the lives ruined by sexual immorality.

Our world is walking around in a moral fog. They are unable to see anything, but act like they know where they are going. The answer according to them is “anything goes.” They teach you this even though they don’t know the full results that this brings about. Are you going to listen to them or to God?

II. GOD SAYS, “ABSTAIN.”

To “abstain” means to “keep away from.” That’s an easy way to keep from sinning, isn’t it? You can’t sin if you don’t get close!” One of my friends was ordained to preach when he was still a teenager. An older pastor preached the ordination sermon. He said something that sounded ridiculous to a teenager. He said whenever you counsel a woman, don’t sit on the couch with her. Sit in a chair. Immorality can’t happen from long distance. Now that sounds like good advice. Of course this was before the internet was even dreamed about.

Many people agree with the need to abstain and will agree that our society is rotting from within because of this sin, and then go on to make an exception for their sexual immorality. I Corinthians 6:13-20 Sexual immorality is never right!

There are five reasons believers should abstain from sexual immorality:

1) To please God, verse 1b. Sexual purity pleases God.

2) To do the will of God, verse 3. Sexual purity is God’s will, and Christians are to delight in the will of God. (Psalm 40:8; Hebrews 10:7). The lives of believers are most fulfilled when there is a sexual union between one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage. Everything else goes the way of diminishing returns.

3) The incentive of honor. Verse 4. Sexual purity is the honorable thing to do.

4) The incentive of Christian love which seeks the good of others. Verse 6: When we sin sexually we are not seeking the highest good of others, neither the woman nor the man we sin with, nor the person we fantasize about nor the person in the pornography, nor the spouse or parent of any of these. It is simply selfish desire.

5) The incentive of God’s vengeance. Verse 6b: If you turn from the Lord and make a master out of sex, sooner of later you will meet the wrath of God. This definitely will be done on judgment day, but the punishment begins on earth in the form of guilt, anxiety, conflict, disease, insanity, or even death.

III. HOW CAN WE CONTINUALLY ABSTAIN?

If you don’t have Christ, you don’t have the power necessary to overcome this temptation. We are to “possess our own vessel.” We are instructed to learn how to control our bodies. This is a difficult thing, but not impossible.

Here is the daily process to help you rely on the Spirit to help you abstain. (8) Fill you life with the Word of Christ. Read the Word and pray that the Lord will apply the words in the Scriptures to your life. As the Word saturates your life the Spirit begins to control you and then you will learn to walk in His leadership. As the Word tells us, if we hide the Word in our hearts we will not sin against God.

Here are some things to can pray for:

☻Call on the Spirit of God in the morning to keep you away from anything that would cause you to bring dishonor to the name of Jesus. Remember that moral purity is not automatic for any one. You know what appeals to you or what weakens you. Stay away from any sexually explicit information like certain movies, TV shows, magazines, internet sites, or anything else that puts the picture of temptation before you.

☻Pray that the Spirit will bring the face of Jesus to your memory whenever a temptation comes to you. When you see his face, it will help you not do anything that would hurt Him. Resolve to never do anything in your life that you wouldn’t do if you knew it was the last day of your life when you will see Him.

☻Pray that the Holy Spirit would bring committed believers into your life to encourage you to moral purity. Christian leaders, find people who you can spend time with doing things that are pleasing to the Lord.

☻Pray that the Holy Spirit will warn you about someone who may appear to be Christian, but their intentions are not Christlike. Young ladies, I want to talk directly to you about the first part of verse 6. God looks at premarital sex as stealing something wonderful from you. He knows that every time this is done outside of marriage it ruins a part of your life. So when someone comes along and say they love you, see if their actions prove it. If they respect you and your body, then they show you true love and respect, but if they try to bring you down through sexual immorality you can know they only love themselves!

☻Pray that the Holy Spirit convicts you of anything you might be doing to bring others down. Pray about the kind of clothes you wear. Pray about the kind of movies you go or TV shows you watch, especially with others.

God gave you His Spirit to help you through the dark and deep waters of the sinful world you live in. You can count on Him to deliver you.

CONCLUSION

What do you do when the dashboard light in your car comes on with the words “Check engine.” Ignore it and hope everything is OK? Unplug the light. Laugh at the ability of a light to tell you something is wrong? Or do you take it to the mechanic to get it fixed. If you are smart, then you will do the last one.

If you are a believer and are committing sexual immorality, then you are built in such a way that God is saying, “Check your engine.” For some of you He is telling you that from this day you must start to live right. For others He is warning you of people or activities that are about to cause you pain in this area. Praise God for others who have found His promises to be true and are enjoying a wonderful relationship of love in their marriage as God intended it.

Ridgecrest Baptist Church | 7469 Old Canton Rd. | Madison, MS 39110 phone: 601.853.1090 fax: 601.853.1092