1 Thessalonians 4:3 NASB, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality..."
1. "For this is the will of God..." The plan of God is to pursue sanctification. It means to be "set apart" by the Spirit of God and the Word of God. The will of God for God's people is a changed heart that is born from above through the Spirit. The Spirit can help us conquer sexual sins. He is all-powerful and He provides the all-enabling grace to overcome sin. Sometimes we fall into sin because God removes His hand from us. We are able to be humbled by this and grow in holiness through repentance unto mortification of the sinful nature.
2. "...your sanctification..." There is positional sanctification where we have been sanctified in a past tense. There is progressive sanctification where we pursue holiness through dying unto self and living after God and His divine righteousness in all godly good deeds. The holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation and equip us for all good things. Do you know that you must be holy to see the Lord? Those who are not set apart will not see the Lord. It is by divine grace of God's Spirit and the outworking of the power of God's Word.
3. "...abstain from fornication..." Are you engaging in sexual immorality? The Bible forbids fornication in terms of anything that violates the marriage bed between one man and one woman. If you are not married, considered yourself married to Christ and the work of His gospel. The Bible forbids adultery, fornication, general sexual sin, lust, any kind pornography and masturbation. These sins are sexual iniquity. They are outwardly filthy and plainly wrongdoing. Many do these kinds of sins to advance their "careers." Why? Why? Why? You ought to advance your career through the patience of Christian prayer. It may take some time but God is actively listening. Do not follow advancement through wrongdoing like the false prophet Balaam! I am told by the unregenerate that Christian prayer does not work. It surely does not work for those who do not live uprightly before God. We see the wicked prosper. Why? Is it because God favors them? No, no! The prosperity of the wicked is probably the very thing that has blinded them from God. Christian prayer does work! You ought to be persistent and godly. Live according to the moral law of God to demonstrate your faith. You will not live perfectly before God. Ratehr Jesus did that in your place when He lived a sinless life of active obedience before God and man! Christians may find themselves in times of sin. Those are times and occasions for repentance.
4. Let us examine these sexual sins: adultery, fornication, general sexual sin, homosexuality, lust, any kind pornography and masturbation.
a. Adultery. For Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, "Even adultery
is not the unforgiveable sin. It is a terrible sin, but God forbid that there
should be anyone who feels that he or she has sinned
himself or herself outside the love of God or outside His kingdom because of
adultery. No; if you truly repent and realize the enormity of your sin and cast
yourself upon the boundless love and mercy and grace of God, you can be
forgiven and I assure you of pardon. But hear the words of our blessed Lord:
“Go and sin no more.”
b. Fornication. Sam Storms on Sexual Morality wrote, "Don’t believe the propaganda the world is peddling. This
is not God's way of robbing you of fun and pleasure. It is His
passionate desire to intensify it. This prohibition exists in order to protect
and preserve the beauty and joy of marital sex. Our laws against theft and
murder exist because of the high value we place on personal property and human
life. So, too, with this prohibition against illicit sex.
The purpose is to guard, preserve, and enhance
something far more exciting and fun and full of pleasure, namely, marital love."
c. General Sexual Sin. John MacArthur wrote, "No sin that a person commits has more built-in pitfalls,
problems and destructiveness than sexual sin. It has broken more marriages,
shattered more homes, caused more heartache and disease, and destroyed more lives
than alcohol and drugs combined. It causes lying, stealing, cheating and
killing, as well as bitterness, hatred, slander, gossip and unforgivingness."
d. Homosexuality. Jay Adams wrote, "In mercy,
even though homosexuality is a sinful way of life, and not a genetic problem,
Paul makes it clear that it is possible for a homosexual to be “washed” form
his defilement through the saving grace of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:9-12)."
e. Lust, Pornography and Masturbation. Lust is contrary to a mind stayed upon Jehovah. Pornography is wrong because men and women are seen as mere sexual objects of promiscuity that violates the doctrine of man being made in the image and likeness of God. John Piper wrote on masturbation, " Is
masturbation wrong? Let me address the issue mainly for men. I cannot imagine
sexual orgasm in the loins without sexual image in the mind. I know there are
nocturnal emissions, which I regard as innocent and helpful, but I doubt that
they are ever orgasmic apart from a sexual dream that supplies the necessary
image in the mind. Evidently God has constituted the connection between sexual
orgasm and sexual thought in such a way that the force and pleasure of orgasm
is dependent on the thought or images in our minds. Therefore in order to
masturbate, it is necessary to get vivid and exciting thoughts or images into
the mind. This can be done by pure imagination or by pictures or movies or
stories or real persons. These images always involve women as sexual objects. I
use the word “object” because in order for a women to
be a true sexual “subject” in our imagination she must in reality be one with
whom we are experiencing what we are imagining. This is not the case with
masturbation. So I vote no on masturbation. There may be other reasons why it
is wrong. For now I rest my vote on the inevitable sexual images which
accompany masturbation and which turn women into sexual objects. The sexual
thoughts that enable masturbation do not help any man to treat women with
greater respect. Therefore masturbation produces real and legitimate guilt and
stands in the way of obedience."
