The Model Life: Abstinence, Part 3

I am so glad that you're with us today as we study God's Word together. So take your Bible, turn to 1 Thessalonians 4, and we're going to look again at those first eight verses of this chapter.

You know, I've come to realize that after 40 years of pastoral ministry that I should never be in too much of a hurry to get through a verse or a paragraph or a chapter or even a book for that matter, because there's so much to unpack, so much to see within the confines of the Scriptures, so much about our Lord who wants to be revealed to us and the instruction that He gives to us. In fact, even the Apostle Paul in writing chapter 4 says to them very clearly, I've already talked to you about these things, but I need to reemphasize them.

I need to reiterate them again. I need you to understand exactly what it is you need to know to live a pure and holy life. And so he reiterates to them once again the priorities of godly living. It's so important to realize that we're going to spend our whole lives looking to understand how to get the reins on sexual sin. You're going to spend the rest of your life learning how to handle temptation. Paul made that very clear. In Romans chapter 7, he said, the things that I should not be doing, I am doing, and the things that I should be doing, I'm not doing, oh wretched man that I am.

Who is going to deliver me from this body of death? Paul knew. Paul knew the struggle that each of us has in the inner man with temptation that comes our way. He was able to grasp that. In fact, he would say in the sixth chapter of Romans, these words, do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.

And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Way back in the book of Exodus, it was the Lord who said to Moses and Aaron, to Pharaoh, let my people go. Why? Why let my people go? So they can wander around in the wilderness aimlessly doing whatever they want to do? No. Let my people go that they may serve and worship me. We become, as Christians, slaves now of righteousness, of a new master. Like Israel was under the cruel Egyptian bondage and were set free that they might serve a new master, the God of the universe, so too you and I are set free from the bondage of sin that we might serve the true and living God.

It was John Newton who said these words many years ago, I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I'm not even what I hope to be, but by the cross of Christ, I am not what I was. Paul said it this way, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. Christianity is not necessarily about receiving something new. It's about becoming someone new. Big difference. It's not about receiving something new. It's about becoming someone new.

You're born again. You're a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become brand new. So Paul knows that, and he knows that in that newness of life, there's always a struggle with sin. And so he, in the first eight verses of chapter four, exhorts those in Thessalonica with this injunction, verse number three, that this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

That's the injunction. Last week, we began looking at the instruction surrounding that injunction in verses one to eight to give you some handles by which you can begin to win over temptation. I think that's important. And so we need to understand what Paul says. And so the very first principle we gave you last week is that you need to aspire to please God only and always.

Aspire to please God only and always because that's what Paul says. He says very clearly, finally, then, brethren, verse number one, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more.

We've instructed you on how to please God, but we want you to excel even all the more. So if you don't aspire to please God only and always, then you're going to have a difficult time handling temptation because that means you're aspiring to please someone else or your own self. And whenever that happens, you're more than likely going to fall into all kinds of sin. It's interesting that Paul would say this to young Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter two. He said in verse number three, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. He uses a military metaphor to help you understand that as a soldier in God's army, you want to please your commanding officer, Solomon. Way back in Ecclesiastes chapter seven, we are not in this chapter yet, we will be in a couple of weeks, says this, I directed my mind to know, to investigate and to seek wisdom and an explanation and to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness.

And I discovered, more bitter than death, the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains, one who is pleasing to God will escape from her. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her. Solomon knew that. He understood it. And Paul is just reemphasizing the same thing. You need to aspire to please God only and always because I want you to excel even more in your walk with him. That was last week. Second point last week was this, begin bodily discipline as necessary for personal holiness.

Begin bodily discipline as necessary for personal holiness. Again, Paul says these words, he says that each one of you know how to possess his own vessel or body in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger of all these things. He says, I want you to know how to possess your own vessel, how to control your own body. This is all on you. Each one of you needs to know how to do this.

And so to handle temptation and to follow the injunction that God gives us to know his will, we must begin bodily discipline as absolutely necessary in order to achieve personal holiness. And Paul says the word possessed means to master. You have to master your own vessel. You have to be able to control your own body. Remember in 1 Corinthians 6, verse number 12, Paul says, I will not be mastered by anything or anyone. I'm not going to let anything control me, control my body. And so he says in 1 Corinthians 9, I discipline my body, I buffet my body, lest I be disqualified from ministry.

Paul knew it was a discipline, a discipline of the mind over the body. I'm not going to let the body, my passions, my lusts, my aspirations override my commitment to follow Christ. That's why the Bible says, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed, how?

By the renewing of your mind, by the renewing of your mind. That's why Solomon would say in Proverbs 4, guard your heart, for I have afloat all the issues of life. He would later say in Proverbs 23, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Because the Jews knew that the heart was the center of thinking. The heart was the center of everything. That's why the Lord said in Matthew 15, out of the heart proceeds what? Adulteries, fornications, murders, idolatry, theft, everything. So guard your heart, protect the inner man, renew your mind.

So very, very important. But we find it hard to do that, don't we? You want to know why? Because we're soft people, we're kind of squishy. We don't raise soldiers anymore, we raise squishy people. We're not nearly as strong as we used to be. And that's because everything is handed to us. Everything is. I remember when Harold and I were at a church in Orange County over 30 years ago. We had to go out on visitation to visit people who visited our church. And we had to get a Thomas guide, open it up, look for the address, connect all the dots.

We had to work at finding where people lived. But today you just Google it, and it comes on your map on your car, and it says in 600 feet turn right, in 300 feet turn left, and you're just driving down the road with not a care in the world because your map is going to tell you where to go. We don't think about anything. We don't have to. We don't even have to know where the books of the Bible are. Because when the pastor says, open your Bible to the book of Malachi, you just Google Malachi, and it comes up Malachi.

You don't even know where it is in the Bible. You don't know if it's Old Testament, you don't know if it's New Testament. Why? Because you don't know the books of the Bible. You don't have to. Because everything's done for you. We're so squishy. We're so soft. It's hard to discipline the mind. It's hard to discipline the life. We want things done. We have a pin that we can stick in our leg to lose weight. We don't have to go to the gym anymore, workout, sweat. When you can just stick something in your leg, and all of a sudden you begin to lose weight, the pounds just begin to fall right off.

I'm not sure how that works, but that's what they tell you. We don't have to do anything anymore. Everything is done for us, and we raise a whole generation of young people who are entitled. They expect things to be handed to them. Your children want to live the way you do, and you worked hard to get to where you are. You had to work really, really hard, and they want you to give them what you have right now.

And unfortunately, some parents do, and their children learn nothing, and they remain soft. It's hard to discipline the mind, a soft mind. The Bible says, in the book of Proverbs, these words, a lazy man does not roast his prey, but the precious possession of a man is diligence.

Why doesn't the lazy man roast his prey? Because he didn't have any, didn't do anything to get it. So man's most precious possession is his diligence, his determination, his discipline, his devotion. That's his most precious possession. Need to make sure your children understand that as you raise them to pick up their clothes in their room, and to clean their bathroom, and to vacuum the rug, and to do the dishes. Diligence is man's most precious possession. It says over in chapter 13, verse number four, the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is made fat.

The sluggard craves it, but it gets nothing, because it doesn't want to do the work, it's too hard. He's too squishy. But the soul of the diligent is made fat. Proverbs 10, verse number four, poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of a diligent makes rich, makes rich. See, discipline is diligence, it's devotion, it's commitment, and it's hard work, and we just don't want to do the work to do it. So what happens? We become lazy, and there is a classic illustration of this in the Bible, an illustration you know very, very well, and how laziness leads to the relentless pursuit of unrighteousness.

You can turn back with me in your Bible if you want to, probably you should. Second Samuel chapter 11, unless of course you're on your iPad or your phone, you can just Google it.

Second Samuel chapter 11, listen carefully to what it says, then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David stayed at Jerusalem.

That phrase, but David stayed at Jerusalem is a monumental phrase, because all of a sudden David is now irresponsible. Instead of fulfilling his responsibility as the king of Israel, when kings go out to war, David says, you know what, I'm not going to do that, didn't fulfill his responsibility, but David stayed at Jerusalem. Laziness will always lead to idleness, and idleness will always lead to mindlessness. Listen to what it says. Now when evening came, David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house.

Why didn't he go to bed? Why didn't he stay in bed? In the evening time, instead of going to bed, he rose from his bed. What was he doing during the day? Was he sleeping? Was he taking a nap? Was he lazy? Yeah, he was, because laziness leads to idleness, and idleness leads to mindlessness. He's an unthinking mind, a daydreaming kind of mind. His responsibility was to go to war. His responsibility was to be the king. His responsibility was to be faithful in his ministry as the king, but he became lazy, squishy, and laziness leads to idleness, and idleness leads to mindlessness.

So, on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing. Mindlessness always leads to carelessness. It's just the natural downward spiral of man's life. Laziness leads to idleness. What did your mother used to always say? Idle hands are the devil's workshop. My mom said that every day I lived, because laziness leads to idleness, idleness leads to mindlessness, and mindlessness leads to carelessness. He saw a woman bathing. Carelessness leads to lustfulness, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

Lustfulness doesn't happen in the life of King David if he's diligent, responsible, doing the things he's called to do as king, but he became lazy, and laziness leads to idleness. Idleness leads to mindlessness, and mindlessness leads to carelessness, and carelessness leads to lustfulness, but it doesn't stop. So, David sent and inquired about the woman. Lustfulness leads to foolishness. Why would you do that? And foolishness leads to covetousness. And one said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah?

You're coveting another man's wife. You'd think he would stop, knowing that that would be sin. But David sent messengers and took her. That's stubbornness. Stubbornness follows covetousness. I want something so bad that I'm going to get it. That stubbornness was there because of that covetousness. That covetousness was there because of foolishness. David sent messengers and took her. And when she came to him, stubbornness will always lead to fearlessness. I don't care what happens. I want her to come to me.

I don't fear God. I don't fear the commands of God. I just want my passions fulfilled. She came to him. He lay with her. Stubbornness leads to fearlessness, and fearlessness leads to lawlessness. There is no law that can contain me. I'm the king. I can do whatever I want. So he did. When she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. Lawlessness leads to shamelessness, and that shamelessness led to the relentless pursuit of unrighteousness. He would lie. He would deceive.

He would murder. He would break every commandment except one. Remember the Sabbath, they didn't keep it holy. All the rest he broke. Simply because he chose not to fulfill his responsibility as king, the ministry that God had called him to, ordained him to. He started one day just to be lazy, to rest, to take it easy. And that laziness led to idleness, which led to mindlessness, and the downward spiral began to run out of control. Never was there a watchfulness about his life. Never was there a prayerfulness about his life.

None of that creeped in. Why? Because once you begin this downward spiral and the body begins to overtake the mind and the heart, all of a sudden, you are controlled by your lustful passions, and they drive you and they move you into action. That's what happened to David. So David on his deathbed, in 1 Kings chapter 2, said these words, as David's time to die drew near, he charged Solomon, his son, saying, I'm going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. Solomon, listen, don't be squishy.

Don't be soft. Be strong. Show yourself a man. Act like a man. How you can do that? Keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies according to what is written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn. Solomon, listen, learn from me. Learn from me, Solomon. Be strong. Show yourself a man. Listen to all the ordinances, all the commands, all the statutes, all the testimonies.

Obey them and keep them, for then you will find success in all that you do. But you must abide by the truth of God's holy word. It's almost as if he's saying, you know what, Solomon, by God's grace, you are here from your mother Bathsheba. And that's the grace of the Lord, but I made some foolish mistakes. I don't want you to follow in those footsteps. I want you to show yourself a man. I want you to be strong. I want you to keep the commands of God, which leads us to our third point in our outline.

Once you aspire to please God only and always and begin bodily discipline as necessary for personal holiness, you need to submit yourself freely and fully to the demands and delights of Scripture. How can a young man keep his way pure? By taking heed to the word of God. Remember that? By taking heed to the word of God. What is it one man used to always say that dusty Bibles lead to dirty lives? This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book, Dwight L. Moody. So true. He's already spoken about the power of God's word in 1 Thessalonians 2.13.

It affects where he works in those who believe. In chapter 1, verse number 4, he talked about the power of God's word in their salvation. Paul would say in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, those very familiar words, all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. God's word teaches you how to know right, how to be right, how to get right, and how to stay right. That simple.

But only God's word does that. And if you choose not to submit yourself freely and fully to the demands and delights of Scripture, it will be impossible for you to conquer the enemy of your soul. Christ did. Matthew chapter 4. Satan came and tempted him. What did he do? He quoted from the book of Deuteronomy. He quoted the Bible, right? The Pentateuch. Now he could have said anything he wanted to say to Satan. And it would have been God's word because he's God, right? But he left an example for you and me to follow by quoting Scripture, showing you how to submit yourself freely to the demands and delights of Scripture.

There's so much more I want to say about this, so we're going to pick it up next week. We have to end. But I want you to come back next week because I want to show you how the word of God does this in your life. It is so important. As I close in prayer, I don't want you to leave when we're done. I want you to stay for the remainder of our service because we need to make an announcement. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today and the truth of your word. There's so much to cover when it comes to understanding how to deal with the sin in our lives.

It's so prevalent. And yet, Lord, at the depth of our heart, we want to remain pure and holy before you. So we're asking that, Lord, you would use your word in our lives to strengthen us and to stabilize us that we might live for the glory and honor of your name. For every man, every woman in this room, that, Lord, your spirit would do a mighty work. You gave us your spirit to comfort us, but also to correct us, to critique us, to convict us when we are wrong. When that happens, Lord, we turn from our sin and follow you.

Lord, you are a forgiving God. We hold on to that because without your forgiveness, Lord, we have no hope. But with your forgiveness, we have all hope. So go before us this day that we might honor and glorify your precious, glorious name. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.