1 Thess. 4:1-12 “Living to Please God”

1:13Around the world, people are neglecting their job responsibilities to gratify their sinful sexual desires. And sadly, professing Christians are not exempt from these statistics. But, friends, there is nothing new under the sun. Sexual sin and slothfulness are as old as the fall. At the end of chapter 3, Paul prayed that God would make the Thessalonians increase and abound in love for one another and for all, and that God would establish their hearts blameless in holiness before him.

2:00So, here in chapter 4, Paul is going to pivot, as he does in almost all of his letters, to instruction on Christian living. He's going to teach the Thessalonians how they are to live so that their holiness is expressed in love for others. Now, he could have focused on any number of topics because there are so many that are relevant to all people, in every culture, in every generation. But two in particular are sexual purity and work, which Paul addresses here in verses 1 through 12. He's answering the question: how can Christians please God in these two critical areas?

2:55What we're going to learn this morning is that Christians live to please God. By walking in holiness and love. Let's pick up here in chapter 4, verse 1. Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. Although the church in Thessalonica was young, Paul is encouraged by what he's heard from Timothy. And so, what he does here is because they're already living to please God, he simply asks and urges them to do that more and more.

3:45Friends, this is the goal of the Christian life: to please God. He is our loving heavenly Father, and the goal of every Christian is to live in such a way that pleases Him, so that we hear on that great day of judgment, well done, good and faithful servant. That is what we all want to hear. Pleasing God is a different goal, it is a higher goal than merely seeking to obey God's law. Now, to be clear, you cannot please God. Without obeying his law.

4:33But what I'm saying is that seeking and living to please God is a higher goal than mere obedience to his law. Think of it this way: who loves his neighbor? The one who says, I'm going to go out of my way to bless my neighbor, or the one who says, It's against the law to kill my neighbor, so I'm going to try not to do that. The answer is obvious. The first person is the one who is truly loving his or her neighbor. Because the great commandment, the golden rule, as we call it, is not whatever you wish others wouldn't do to you, don't do to them. No, what is the golden rule? Look at Matthew 7. Jesus said, So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

5:43Here's my point. The goal of the Christian life is not mere obedience to God's law. You see, that's what the Pharisees were after. They were asking the question: what exactly do we do? Have to do or not do to keep the letter of God's law? But in asking this question, they miss the point, which is not just keeping the letter of the law, but keeping the spirit of God's law. When you want to keep the spirit of God's law, you don't simply ask the question, what exactly do I have to do or not do to keep the letter of the law? You ask the question, How can I live to please God?

6:34That's a different question. Living to please God includes obedience to His commands. But it is possible to externally seem to be keeping the law while internally not living to please God. My friends, what is your goal? Are you seeking to know the letter of the law like the Pharisees, just asking what's the bare minimum? What do I have to do to stay out of trouble, to avoid sin, to avoid hell, to figure out what the least is that you can do so you aren't technically breaking God's law?

7:15Or is your goal to actually please God so that you are going above and beyond to discern how best to love Him and to love others? So Paul reminds them that the goal is to. Live to please God, and to do this, they left them their example and their teaching. First, Paul, Silas, and Timothy left them an example. Flip back in your Bible to 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 9, just a couple chapters earlier. 1 Thessalonians 2:9, look what it says. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous, and blameless was our conduct toward you, believers.

8:14So here, Paul points them back to the example that they set by working hard to provide for themselves so they would not be a burden, which is what he's going to talk about in verses 9 through 12 today. And then he points back to the example that they set by the purity of their lives, which he describes as holy and blameless and righteous. And that's what he's about to talk about in verses 3 through 8. So when various situations arose, the Thessalonians could think to themselves, what example did the missionaries set for us? We should live like they lived. What did they do? How did they live their life? So they left them. An example. But second, they left them instructions. This is what Paul says in verse 2. Chapter 4, verse 2. He says, For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. You see, Paul and his team didn't just model godly living for the Thessalonians, they taught them. They explained why they lived the way that they did. And notice again, these are not just their own opinions, their own preferences. What does he say in verse 2? These instructions were through the Lord Jesus. These were the commands of Jesus Himself. So they left instructions. Church, these are the things that we must do for others. We must set them an example and we must teach them. We model and we instruct. This is how children learn from their parents through both their example and their teaching. You see, when we come to faith in Christ, we are spiritual infants who need models and instruction so that we can grow into full maturity. And the reason that so many professing Christians fail to make progress in the Christian life and grow up into full maturity is they don't have mature Christians who are modeling and teaching that kind of way of life for them.

10:31I'm always amazed when older generations are blasting younger generations. Kids these days, they're so lazy, they don't have any manners. Every time I hear that, I'm like, you raised these people. So, if that's the case, whose fault is that? And, friends, the same thing could be said in the church. If we look at men and women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, even 60s and 70s, and they are not mature and walking in repentance and faith in a way that pleases God, whose fault is that?

11:06To some degree, it is the older generations before them. We failed to model and teach. That is what we are called to do. This means intentionally showing with your life and saying with your words what it means to be a follower of Christ who is living to please God. Who are you discipling in that manner with both your example and your teaching? That is the call for all of us, not just pastors, all Christians. So, Paul has given us a framework for the Christian life. He said that we're to live to please God by walking in holiness and love. We're to model and teach that way of living for other people. And so, in verses 3 through 8, he's going to teach. Them how to please God by walking in holiness, specifically in the area of sexual purity. So let's pick up in verse 3.

12:12For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. That no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

12:56Sexual sin has been an issue among all people, in all cultures, in every generation, because every person is born with a sinful heart. And in the first century Roman Empire, it was a huge problem, especially in a large, influential trade city like Thessalonica. F.F. Bruce noted that in this culture, it was not at all uncommon. For a married man to have a mistress, to keep one or two slaves as concubines, and to frequently visit brothels and pagan temples where he would solicit prostitutes.

13:49William Leckie observed that there has probably never been a period of time in human history when sexual vice was more extravagant and uncontrolled than it was under the Roman Caesars. It makes modern sexual ethics seem absolutely Puritan. So, if you've been living in that culture and you come to faith in Christ, what's it going to take for your heart and your mind and your behavior to change? It's going to take a lot of teaching, a lot of modeling, and the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Church, we have to remember this as we walk alongside newer believers who are coming out of similar lifestyles.

14:48Because if you are discipling someone who's been addicted to pornography or who has adopted the hookup culture of casual sex, if they've been living Living with their boyfriend or girlfriend for months or years, and then they come to faith in Christ, repentance is required in all of those areas. But it shouldn't surprise us if they are tempted and then stumble back into those previous sins and old habits. Maybe that's you. Maybe you have recently started following Jesus or even been following Jesus for some time, but you came out of a lifestyle of porn addiction and the hookup culture and whatever else.

15:35Jesus can radically deliver you from the sins and habits of your past. His grace and his Holy Spirit are that powerful. I'll say that again. That didn't seem to land. Jesus, His grace and His Holy Spirit are that powerful. Amen. But Satan is real and sin is tempting. And old habits die hard. And so if you find yourself as a Christian falling back into old sins and habits, do not despair. Do not despair. You are not saved because you cleaned your life up.

16:27You are saved by the grace of God. Through faith in Christ and his finished work on the cross, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. I don't want you to ever forget that. At the same time, we must remember that as Christians, we have died to sin, and we cannot live in it any longer. We can't. If we belong to God, we must walk in repentance and faith in every area of life, and that includes our sexuality. And so Paul says here in verse 3, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

17:14Christians often wonder, what is God's will for my life? Is it God's will for me to marry my boyfriend or girlfriend? Maybe. I don't know. You should study the word. You should pray. You should seek wise counsel, and then you should make a decision. I don't know if it's God's will for you to marry your boyfriend or girlfriend, but what I do know is that once you are married, it absolutely is God's will for you to stay married. And the other thing that I know, because it's written right here in verse 3, is that God's will for you is your sanctification, your growth in holiness.

18:01And Paul specifically says that that includes abstaining from sexual immorality. To abstain means to completely refrain from doing something, to stay away from it entirely. And this word translated sexual immorality is porneia. It's where we get our word pornography. And what that word means is every kind of unlawful sexual behavior. Any sexual activity that is not between one man and one woman who are married to each other. Any sexual activity that is not between one man and one woman who are married to each other. That's what pornea includes. So, brothers and sisters, God's will for us is to grow in holiness, which includes us abstaining from, completely refraining from, every kind of sinful sexual behavior. For the Christian, sexual sin cannot be excused or justified.

19:18There is no, but we really love each other. There is no, but we're planning to get married. There is no, but no one's getting hurt by what we're doing. No, no, no. And in verses 4 through 8, what Paul helps us to understand is the why. Never does God simply give us a command without revealing in his word why the command exists. And so in verses 4 through 8, he gives us the why. Why do we abstain from sexual immorality? Five reasons.

19:58Because we know God, because God is love, because God is just, because God is holy, and because God is God. Let me explain each one. First, we abstain from sexual immorality because we know God. Take a look again at verse 4. That each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. The Gentiles live in the passion of lust. They are controlled by their sexual urges and desires. And Peter captures this lifestyle well in his first letter. Take a look on the screen. He says, For the time is past, it suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. Living in sensuality, passions, drugs, and darkness. Drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you.

21:17Why do they live this way? Paul told us in verse 5: it's because they do not know God. That's why they live that way. But those who do know God live to please Him by seeking to obey not just the letter, but the spirit of His commands. Take a look at 1 John 2 on the screen, where John talks about what it is to be a Christian. He says, And by this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. But whoever keeps His word, in Him truly, the love of God is perfected. We abstain from sexual immorality because we know God.

22:14Second, we abstain from sexual immorality because God is love. Look at verse 6: that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter. The words truth. Transgress and wrong refer to exploiting, defrauding, or cheating another person. When we commit sexual sin, that is what we are doing. We are defrauding, exploiting, or cheating another person. In other words, we are failing to love them. And in failing to love our neighbor, we are failing to love God who is love.

22:58Look on the screen at 1 John chapter 4. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. Viewing pornography reduces people made in the image of God to objects that are consumed for self-gratification. That is not loving. Sex outside of marriage selfishly takes from someone what only belongs to their husband or wife or to their future husband or wife and leads only to regret and heartache.

23:57That's not loving. Friends, when we sin sexually, we transgress and wrong others, which is a failure to love our neighbor. We abstain from sexual immorality because God is love. Third, we abstain from sexual immorality because God is just. Look again at verse 6. Because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. After David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet confronted him, and here is what he spoke. Take a look at these words. Nathan tells David, Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.

25:20God is perfectly just, and because he is perfectly just, no sin goes unpunished. For those who trust him, In the Lord with repentant faith, like David, there is no eternal condemnation. Christ took the punishment for all of our sins. But we still have to endure his discipline, and we still have to accept the earthly consequences for our sins. But for those who do not trust in the Lord, God is an avenger, and he will judge every person justly. In this life, you may get away with all kinds of sexual sin, but you will not escape judgment in eternity. God says very clearly that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.

26:15We abstain from sexual immorality because God is just. Fourth, we abstain from sexual immorality because God is holy. Look at verse 7. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Look on the screen at 1 Peter 1. This sums up so much of the teaching in Scripture. It's one of the most often quoted verses in the Bible. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

27:00God calls us to holiness because he is holy. So when we live impure lives, we're not pleasing God and we're also not representing his holiness to other people. Christians, Jesus calls us to make war on our sexual sin. He taught that if our eye causes us to sin or if our hand causes us to sin, we should cut it out and throw it away. Because it's better to enter eternal life crippled than it is to be thrown into eternal fire with our whole body.

27:40It's better to lose that $1,000 phone, that laptop, the deposit that you put down on the apartment with your boyfriend or girlfriend. It's better to lose all of that than to lose the gift of eternal life. We abstain from sexual immorality because God is holy. And then, fifth and finally, we abstain from sexual immorality because God is God. Look at verse 8. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

28:25Remember, the Apostle Paul is self-consciously aware that he is not writing his own opinion. He is writing the very word of God. And God's will is our sanctification, that we abstain from sexual immorality. And so if we disregard that command, we aren't only or merely disregarding Paul, we are disregarding God Himself, who spoke that command through Paul. God is our creator, our lawgiver, and our judge, and we must obey him. More than that, as Christians, when we disregard God's command, we are grieving the Holy Spirit that he gave to us, as Paul teaches in Ephesians 4.30. I want you to remember what we saw earlier in 1 John. We cannot say that we love God if we disregard his commands. So we abstain from sexual immorality because God is God and He commands us to live holy lives.

29:28So friends, God's will is our sanctification, and we must live lives that are sexually pure. This is not because we might get someone pregnant, or we might become pregnant, or because we might get a sexually transmitted disease of some kind. Any non-Christian might abstain from sexual immorality for any of those reasons. As Christians, we abstain from sexual immorality. Morality because we know God, because God is love, because God is just, because God is holy, and because God is God.

30:13Every person has sinned sexually, at least in our hearts, if not with our actions. And you may be living in sexual sin right now. You must know that God will receive, forgive, and cleanse every person who comes to Him through faith in Christ. Jesus alone was tempted in every way, and that includes sexually, and yet he never sinned in thought, word, or deed. He alone was perfectly pure from a sexual standpoint. And he offers his righteousness to any and everyone who turned from their sin and put their trust in him.

30:59As we've seen, we are to please God by walking in holiness, especially with respect to sexual purity. And Paul ends the passage by saying that we must walk in love, especially with respect to our work. So let's pick up here in verse 9. Now, concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourself. Have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

31:55Paul tells the Thessalonians that they don't need instruction on loving each other because God Himself has taught them. In His law, God reveals that we already know how to love others. Because what is the great command? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. God shows through the command that we already know how to love others because we already know how to love ourselves. We don't need instruction on that. So, like the scribe who challenged Jesus, we could ask the question, who is my neighbor?

32:44But we can't ask the question, what does it mean to love? We all know what it means to love. And so, Paul urges them to love each other more and more. And one way to do that is by living quietly. By minding your own business and working hard. That is a very practical way to love both Christians and non-Christians. But here's the context of Thessalonica. I want you to look on the screen. It's 2 Thessalonians 3.

33:17For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. Now, such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. So, friends, that's the context. You've got some people in Thessalonica that weren't busy at work doing things that matter. They were busy bodies. They were busy, but unproductive, unhelpful. And maybe that's because they expected Jesus to return at any moment. Paul said that he was coming soon.

33:59And so maybe they thought he was coming back soon. So they just quit their jobs and stopped working. And what that meant is that other Christians in the church had to support them out of their own income. Maybe it's because in some philosophical circles in Greco-Roman culture, manual labor was looked down upon. It was seen as something that was not for the upper or the middle class, but only for the lower classes and for slaves. But whatever the reason, Paul commands and encourages. These idle Christians to work quietly and to earn their own living. Look again at verse 12, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

34:44So essentially, Paul is commanding us to love God by loving others with our work, both non-Christians and Christians. First, we love non-Christians by working quietly and earning our own living. You see, doing excellent work is a way that we love God and others. It is one way that common grace is poured out among all people. Every one of us has benefited from employees at local businesses, at Amazon, at Walmart, wherever it is, who have gone out of their way to help you, whether they were a Christian or not. And friends, in the same way, when we work hard and we work quietly at our jobs, we are a blessing to all people, including non-Christians.

35:39But beyond that, our hard work is a powerful witness to Christ. When your fellow employees or when customers in your business see how you go above and beyond at your job, not merely clocking in and out and doing the bare minimum, not complaining about your assignment. It is an opportunity for you to point to Christ, who set an example with his hard work and commanded us to do all things as though we are working for him.

36:13As employees, as managers, as owners, if non-Christians cannot respect us and the way that we work, it will be very difficult for us to share the gospel with them is the way that you work, loving non-Christians and opening doors for the gospel. But second, Paul says we love Christians by working quietly and earning our own living. As we've seen so far, one way that we disciple other Christians is by setting an example for them. Our example and our teaching are a great way to love them and to show them what it looks like to please God and to follow Jesus.

36:58But more practically, when we work quietly and we earn our own living, we don't become a burden to the church. Because you see, when Christians work hard to support themselves and their families, they don't become dependent on others in the church to meet their needs. And what seems to be happening in Thessalonica is that some believers were taking advantage of others who were working quietly and were working hard, which meant that they had to receive support from them. And these believers then had less money to give to others who were truly in need.

37:38When we work hard to support ourselves, instead of being consumers who are a burden, we become producers who are a blessing. We're commanded to please God by walking in love. And one practical way we do this is by living quietly and working hard. We're to be busy at work and not busy bodies. How would you evaluate your love for other Christians through your work? Friends, this is a very challenging passage of scripture. Not only does Paul speak plainly about how we are to live, but his commands have to do with two areas of life that affect every one of us every single day: sexual purity and work.

38:34If you're under conviction this morning about the way that you have been living or the way that you are currently living your life, then you must understand God's heart for you. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. Because of the fall, no one lives a life that is perfectly. Pure sexually, or always works in a manner that pleases God. That's why we need a Savior and not just an example. History is filled with examples of men and women who, at least externally, were sexually pure. America is filled with examples of people who work hard. We needed more than an example because God's standard is not that we be pretty good or better than most when it comes to sexuality and work. His standard is nothing less than perfection, nothing less than holiness.

39:42That's why Jesus came. He came to live a life of complete purity, and he loved others perfectly through his work, first as a carpenter and then as a rabbi. He offered himself on the cross in the place of people like you and me who failed to love God and others with our sexual lives and with our work ethic, not doing what we should have done and doing what we shouldn't have done. That is why he came. That is why he lived. That is why he died and rose again. And he offers forgiveness and salvation to any and to all who repent and turn to him in faith. And so, friends, if you are under conviction this morning about the way that you've lived based on the word of God, Receive Christ by faith. He is your only hope.

40:36Not renewed efforts, not more resolutions, but Christ, His sinless life, His death, and His resurrection. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through Him. When we do receive Christ, we are set free and empowered to live lives that are pleasing to God by walking in holiness and love. May all of our lives be increasingly sanctified until that day that we see Jesus face to face. Let's pray.

41:35Father, I pray that each person who is under conviction this morning because of their sin would not despair or wallow in guilt, but would receive Christ by faith. I pray that every Christian here whose life by definition is not a perfect picture of purity. Not a perfect picture of work ethic that honors you. I pray that we would look afresh to the Savior, that we would remember that He came to set us free from both our sin and its consequences, from both our guilt and our shame.

42:31In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.