Devotional Materials. Week Commencing Sunday 29th January 2023
Call to Worship
“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self- controlled lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope- the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:11-14).
Let’s begin our worship together by picturing again just how Christ gave himself to ‘redeem us from all wickedness’
Hymn
“Come and See” MP 67 (Keyboards)
Graham Kendrick
We worship the Lord for making us a forgiven people. But he also calls us to be a holy people. We see Christ’s love for us at the cross but we also see sin in the disciples, the crowd, the soldiers, the state and religious leaders- various sins all brought to bear on Christ. The same sins that drag us down. Titus reminds us Christ went through all he did to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own. He intends to purify us from such destructive influences all our lives long.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we do indeed worship you this morning. Yours is the name above every name and you are king above all kings. You are our God and Saviour. We see your great wisdom and knowledge in your recognition of and adherence to the Divine Plan, which brings us Salvation. When all appeared futile and subject to Sin and Evil, you went to the cross, there you gave yourself for us to redeem us. There we see your great love and commitment shown toward us.
Now, out of gratitude for this grace you show towards us, we confess our sins. Where we have sought worldly goals rather than living for you. Where we have pursued selfish desires and everything we see. When full of foolish pride. When we have pursued the love of money and found its light is darkness.
We confess too our fear and ignorance. How easily we are drawn away from your will for us. How easily we are shaken and panic when we face difficulty and trial. How easily we scatter, alienated in our minds from you and one another.
Please forgive us and grant us your wisdom to perceive your will and obey it. Strengthen us by your Spirit to live self- controlled and godly lives.
Help us to love one another as you have loved us.
Draw us out of our darkness and into your radiant light. For your glory we ask it. Amen.
(Reading and comment on Psalm 51)
If we do not want to be lured and deceived by the promise of immorality, our hearts and minds must be captivated by a deeper love- for God himself, and a higher vision of all the good he purposes for our lives:
Hymns
“Wonderful, so wonderful is your unfailing love” MP 1130 (Keyboards)
Tim Hughes
“No-one but You, Lord can satisfy the longing in my heart” MP 899 (Guitar)
Andy Park
“Jesus, You are changing me” MP 389 (Keyboards)
Marilyn Baker
Pryers
Father we thank you for sending Your Spirit to guide and strengthen us, to make us holy so that You conform us to the likeness of your Son, thank you for sending Your Spirit to help us understand the Bible and to love and serve the Lord Jesus.
God of grace and truth, please grant wisdom and courage to Christians who engage in debates and have relationships with people who disagree with biblical views on human sexuality. Help them to be considerate, courteous and compassionate
Father, we pray that young people who struggle with sexual or gender identity will receive wise counsel. Please guard their hearts and minds from confusion and any cultural pressures that can end in physical and emotional harm. In your mercy.
Lord, please grant clear insight to those who are working on government legislation to ban ‘conversion therapy’- trying to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Although coercive treatments must stop, we pray for pastoral care, prayer and Bible teaching for those with unwanted sexual attractions to remain legal.
Lord God we thank you for ordaining marriage between a man and a woman, to live alongside those who are single. We pray that contemporary culture will not outlaw biblical beliefs about human relations, and we pray for an end to Christians and others who are losing their jobs simply for voicing this conviction in this country. That our culture will recognise the great value of your ordinance of marriage to family life and our wider society.
Lord of the Church, please help Christians across the different traditions to confirm and demonstrate your unconditional love for every individual. May they add to that an integrity and faithfulness to the teachings of Your Word, realising your ways are born of love and for our highest good.
Thank You Lord that the 1948 Universal declaration of Human rights, inspired by biblical truths and values has continued to bring justice, equality and liberty to billions of people. We intercede for those who still suffer oppression. And we pray for those who are unjust that they would repent of their sins and find strength, peace and forgiveness for all their sins and acceptance through the grace of Your Son. Amen
(CARE Prayer Diary, October 2021-January 2022, based on p9)
Reading. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. Mrs Coral Meredith
Hymn
“Purify my heart” MP 921 (Keyboards)
Brian Doerksen
Sermon. “Learning to live a pure life”
One first year student described her experiences in a university flat: “There are five of us, all girls. One regularly has casual sex with guys she picks up at clubs, one is a practising lesbian and one has a boyfriend who stays here virtually all the time. In the first term one of us had an abortion, two took the morning after pill. I just don’t know how to cope with all this”.
Sexual immorality is widespread now. It was also widespread in the Roman Empire. Paul was writing from Corinth to Thessalonica. Both cities were famed for their immorality. Their idols had an emphasis on sex, some temples even employed prostitutes for the pleasure of worshipers. One writer of the day stated: “We keep mistresses for pleasure, concubines for our day to day bodily needs but we have wives to produce legitimate children and serve as trustworthy guardians of our homes”. Homosexuality was common. Incest was overlooked. Slaves were kept and used for sex. In those pagan times people regarded any kind of sexual activity as acceptable, and we are fast moving towards that position today.
So what was Paul’s approach to this problem of sexual immorality? Was it as one theological book I read recently put it- to ignore the issue as something relatively unimportant compared to other contemporary ethical issues. That instead we should concentrate on ethics concerning the poor and the environment. These, the writer said, would have greater long term implications for the good of human kind. A statement I found staggering given the link between sexual immorality and marriage and family breakdown in our society. Ironically in this same book the majority of cases the writer was struggling to deal with on a pastoral level were themselves the tangled consequences of some sexually immoral action. So should we ignore sexual immorality as unimportant? Was that Paul’s approach? Was it to take a theologically liberal approach to the problem of sexual immorality? That we imbibe the standards and thought forms of our culture rather than confront these. That we work within the norms of the culture and not put anybody off the faith with demands about how they conduct their sex lives? That we should especially not alienate young believers in this respect. Whether they are young in faith or years. Was that Paul’s approach? Softly, softly and chameleon like? “We mustn’t offend anyone”
No, Paul’s approach was direct and categoric. His instruction to the young believers was very clear; they were not to have sex with anyone they were not married to. He places this prohibition within the context of the sanctifying work of God in their lives and the purpose of marriage; that sex is reserved for marriage between a man and a woman. And these instructions he says in verse 2, are given by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are God’s instructions and timeless in their application.
Paul lays the foundation for his teaching and gets to the heart of the issue when he tells the believers they are to live “in order to please God” (verse 1). All our Christian living, including the way we are to live morally, should spring from the desire to please God and live for Him. Philippians 2 tells us the Holy Spirit works in us to “will and to act according to his good purpose”. Pleasing God ought to be the major motive of the Christian life- it springs from the Holy Spirit who lives within us. If you have no desire to please God in the way you live, you have no inclination to live for Him then you are not a Christian. You do not have the Holy Spirit living in you. You may be here because you like socialising with people. You may be here for the music. You may be here out of duty or because you think it’s the respectable thing to do. But none of these indicate you are a Christian. These are all superficial but the true Christian is re-orientated from the depths of their being. They no longer see the end of life as living to please themselves or even others but to please God.
This attitude of living to please God is a continuous one. The Thessalonians had begun to live in such a way that pleased God, but now Paul urges them to do so “more and more” (verse 2). So in your living to please God you are on a journey. A voyage of discovery. No one has arrived. Paul admitted even he had not been made perfect yet! But your approach in whatever you think about or encounter along the way is not to be “What will bring me status?”, “How can I rationalise my desire for this or that?”, or “What will others think of me if I have a conviction about this?” No, your overriding concern should always be “Am I living to please God?”
So what is it that pleases God? What is God’s will for our lives? Well we are told in verse 3 “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified”. When God called you to Him, He intended that you be holy. He gave you His Holy Spirit in order to bring about the fruit of holiness in your life. Verse 8 states “God gives you His Holy Spirit”. It is the Spirit who gives us an appetite for God’s word. The Spirit brings the word to mind when we face temptation. He produces his fruit of self-control in our lives as we learn to be led by Him. This process of sanctification continues throughout every believer’s lifetime on earth. God takes the old patterns and behaviours and transforms them to His standards and will. This is what he will be doing in your life throughout your journey here.
So the command to abstain from sexual immorality and to keep sex for marriage does not stand on its own. No one has the power or inclination to abstain if it was just a matter of law keeping. Before Christianity took root in the ancient world sex before marriage was not even considered a sin. No, the Christian is working from a wider frame of reference. Your motivation to live like that comes from the inner motivation to please God. Your motivation is also based on this wider work of sanctification He is working out all your life long. And you have His Spirit empowering you to live a self-controlled life. We trust Him as he turns us into creatures like himself. He has given us a higher vision of what He intends to make of us in this life and the life to come. The life he truly intended for us. So we no longer see Him as the great forbidder as we did before we were Christians, when we thought holding on to sin was somehow liberating. Rather, we do what pleases Him because we know He loves us and has our best interests at heart.
We please God by cooperating with His work of sanctification in our lives. Clearly one aspect of that sanctification as Paul goes on to explain in verse 3 is to avoid sexual immorality: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality”. Sexual immorality is a wide term which means you must not have sex with someone you are not married to. Sexual immorality as the Bible describes it includes fornication (sex before marriage), adultery and homosexual sin. And it is God’s command- the word used for instruction in verse 2 is a military term, it refers to orders handed down from a superior officer- it is God’s command that we avoid such forms of sexual immorality.
Because of the push in the media and recent developments to promote homosexuality I need to briefly address this. You are aware that the Church of England will now allow blessings of same sex couples. The Baptist Union have on the basis of the principle of the autonomy of the local church, allowed churches to marry homosexual couples if they so choose (2013), (though after further reflection, in 2016, the BU released a statement urging churches who were considering conducting same sex marriages to ‘refrain from doing so out of mutual respect’.)
These developments however are contrary to the teaching of the Bible. The authority of Scripture – revelation from God – is our rule and practice. We do not stand above the Word, but sit under its authority. We do not impose what the culture is saying upon the Word, rather we critique what the culture says by God’s Word.
The teaching of marriage as being only between a man and a woman is rooted in the doctrine of Creation. Clearly from the Genesis account we see God designed men and women to complement one another physically and sexually. The Lord Jesus affirms this in His teaching when he says “Haven’t you read that at the beginning God made them male and female? (Matthew 19: 4; Mark 10:6, quoting Genesis 1:27). From these verses Jesus goes on to teach marriage is between one man and one woman for life.
Further biblical passages uphold this foundational doctrine and speak against homosexuality as a distortion of that created design and an expression of rebellion against God. Leviticus 18:22 and 20:23 from the Old Testament clearly forbid the practice. The Old Testament prohibition is not revoked but strengthened in the New Testament (1 Cor.6:9, 1 Tim.1:10). Romans 1:18-32 is a key passage. Jude in his letter also warns of ‘godless men who have secretly slipped in among you who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality’ and in verse 7 refers to ‘Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns’ who ‘gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”
There have been attempts made to reinterpret the clear meanings of such references, but they are ‘post- modern, reader-response’ attempts and are inaccurate. I am familiar with such attempts having an English Degree and having worked for seven years as an English teacher before entering the Christian Ministry. The ESV Study Bible has an excellent article that helpfully goes through all the references pertaining to homosexuality and compares the orthodox understanding with the attempts to reinterpret and clearly shows the latter are fallacious and inconsistent with the biblical world view.
I attended a day meeting of Baptist Ministers during my holiday last week. Around 250 of us met together. The group has formed and grown quite quickly in response to these developments. We are called ‘Evangelical Baptists’ or ‘Baptists for Orthodox Marriage’. Actually 700 Baptist Ministers have signed in support of this reform group within the Baptist Union. So that is an encouraging development.
If you wish to explore this subject in more detail I would recommend you have a look at the ‘Evangelical Baptists’ website. It contains a number of helpful articles and the like. An excellent chapter on this subject is also to be found in Rebecca McLaughlin’s book ‘The Secular Creed.’ McLaughlin deals with some of the wider pastoral issues that arise and honestly shares about her own battles with same sex attraction at one point in her life.
Christians are called to love all people. In this as with many other moral issues we are called to ‘hate the sin but love the sinner.’ We do that with ourselves. We search our own hearts knowing we are all sinners saved by grace. Amy Orr- Ewing writes “It is important to draw a distinction between ‘homophobia’- an irrational hatred or hostility towards homosexual people- and a disapproval of homosexual practice for confessing Christians on biblical grounds.
Further, we are non- conformists. That is we are subject first to God and the teaching of the Bible, we do not conform to the State, or even the State Church when it tries to put itself in God’s place over our lives.
It is God’s command to us that we avoid all forms of sexual immorality.
This is where we need to have the vision of something far better He has in store for us. God created sex. When God created Adam and Eve, he created them with a sex drive, yet he still pronounced his creation “very good”. From the beginning he established marriage as a sacred union between one man and one woman. God created sex both for the continuance of the race and for the pleasure of husband and wife. God intended that the man and wife enjoy a spiritual unity together before him, an emotional unity together and a physical unity. The ordinance that the man and wife become “one flesh” speaks of a union on all these levels. God intended that marriage be the most intimate and profound union a couple could know in this life. A source of great joy and happiness in an exclusive union. But sexual immorality undermines this vision. So God’s commandment to abstain from sexual immorality is not for the purpose of robbing people of joy, but rather of protecting them that they might not lose or miss out on the joy he intends for them. His good gift of sex to us within the security and commitment of marriage.
Verses 4 and 5 describe how sexual desire was given to draw people into marriage, and these verses also indicate how sex should be conducted within the marriage relationship. If you look carefully at verse 4 you will see that the original word in the Greek meaning “vessel” has been translated in the NIV as “body”- so verse 4 reads “each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable”. But it is also possible, and I think more likely, having looked at the evidence for both readings, to favour the meaning of vessel in the original as a reference to a man’s wife. So if you look at the note on verse 4- indicated by that little “a” above “body- if you look at the bottom of the page you will see this different reading for “body”; the note says “Or learn to live with his own wife; or ”learn to acquire a wife”. On this understanding- and this is how I think it should be understood- verse 4 now reads: “Each of you should learn to live with his own wife or learn to acquire a wife in a way that is holy and honourable”.
Understood this way Paul is stating that the proper context for sex is marriage and also gives us practical advice about how sex should be conducted in the marriage relationship.
Paul’s instruction here first applies to those who are looking to marry- who are “learning to acquire a wife in a way that is holy and honourable”. Paul says be holy and honourable in your quest. Today this is surely relevant for young men and women. In the world men and women date different people and sex is usually part of the deal. But if you are a Christian then you are not being holy or honourable when you move from one person to another like that. The heathen may act like that, those who do not know God -they might use other people to serve their own passionate lust as Paul puts it in verse 5, They go into the clubs and bars to see who they can pick up and have a one night stand with. But you are not to act like that. Of course “going out” is a relatively recent phenomenon in Western civilisation. And it does have its problems. While “going out” promises freedom and excitement the increased opportunity for a young man and woman to be alone together coupled with the pressures coming from our sex crazed society now makes it almost inevitable that they will end up indulging in some form of sexual activity.
It takes a strongly committed Christian couple to resist that kind of temptation. But this is what the Christian couple who are going out must do- they must treat each other in a way that is holy and honourable Paul says. In fact they are better off getting married; “to acquire a wife” or as Paul puts it elsewhere “better to marry than burn”. Paul is a realist. Clearly the intense sexual desires God has given us is to help draw a couple together into marriage. Any relationship worth having is where the couple concerned are learning to show a committed love to one another and that coupled with God given powerful sexual attraction is the driving force to start a home and family.
Clearly many young people today- including Christian young people- are missing out on God’s plan for their lives. They are getting involved sexually prematurely, but breaking up easily-because they lack the commitment of marriage under God. They are then left emotionally bereft and fearful of forming any commitment for fear of being hurt again. But their sexual passion has been ignited and they must now look for ways to see this expressed. The evidence for this is all around; the easy movement from one person to another- so many people enslaved to desire, but fearful of commitment. The Christian young man who wants to treat his girlfriend with holiness and honour must not travel this road. If he and his girlfriend have already done so it is important they repent and set limits. If they do not their relationship is likely to break up and both will be damaged in the long term by their sexual involvement.
Scripture is clear that while other sins can have a disastrous effect on the body- such as gluttony or drunkenness- no other sin has the same effect on the memory, personality or soul of a person than sexual sin. In 1 Corinthians 6: 17 Paul explains that 2 people become united on a spiritual level in sexual intercourse. When this is conducted outside of marriage and the relationship breaks up, then there will be long term damage. This is why I would counsel a young Christian couple to get married now; to as Paul says “acquire a wife” and avoid going out with different people. Much better that they learn to mature and show sacrificial agape love within their relationship from an early stage. The Lord himself who has started His work in them will continue it as they learn to love each other putting Him first. Otherwise the damage done by premature sexual experimentation is making for a generation enslaved by passionate lust and incapable of sustained marriage.
Of course the single Christian man who is looking to acquire a wife must not go after a married woman- verse 6 “in this matter no-one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him”.
But these verses can also apply to the married couple: so if we read verses 4-6 this way: “That each of you should learn to live with his own wife in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no-one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him” (4-6)
Paul is clearly warning against 2 things here. First that the husband and wife are not each other’s sexual property. Second that they must remain faithful to one another- that a man must not defraud another man by sleeping with that man’s wife.
Now it’s clear that the second carries the idea of “trespass” of crossing a boundary by sleeping with another man’s wife. But in putting the 2 ideas together Paul deliberately uses the word for trespass- “taking advantage”- as something to be avoided between the man and wife too. So when he writes that a husband must not live in passionate lust with his wife, he is not criticising the man’s sex drive or natural desire. What is being warned against is the man “taking advantage” of his wife, of the man “crossing boundaries” with his wife – the sense of what Paul is saying is that if a man is to learn to live with his wife in a way that is holy and honourable then that man must respect his wife’s person and not make unreasonable demands of her, he must not treat her as a means to an end. He should not view his wife as sexual property. And he should certainly not rape her (pause) John Stott makes this clear distinction: “ The fact is there is a world of difference between lust and love, between dishonourable sexual practices which use the partner and true love making which honours the partner, between the selfish desire to possess and the unselfish desire to love, cherish and respect.” Part of honouring your spouse sexually is to understand what will bring the other pleasure and not exploit him/her for your own ends.
The second point Paul is making to married people is that the man and wife must remain faithful to one another. This is a direct warning against adultery. Husband and wife must not look around sexually. In the wedding ceremony they were asked “Will you love her (him), comfort her, honour and protect her, forsaking all others, being faithful to her as long as you both shall live.” Through the years of a marriage, there will be times when other people will flirt with you. You may meet someone who for a time seems more attractive, more exciting than the person you are married to. This can be a temptation when your children are young and you’re learning how to really love unselfishly. You might be tempted to take what appears to be an easy escape and abandon your wife and children. But in my experience as a Pastor I have found that people who do that pay a heavy price of guilt, regret and a deep sense of loss. It is important the man repents and is reconciled to his wife if this is still possible. It may not be possible if he or his wife has since remarried or his wife refuses to have him back and plans to divorce him on the grounds of adultery- which she is entitled to do. But he must repent and make things right as best he can and so know he is forgiven. If he does not then one day he will also have to give account to God for the hurt he has inflicted on those closest to him, his betrayal of his spouse and children. As verse 6 states “The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you”. Paul is very clear- God is holy and just and He expects us to live holy lives.
And just in case we are tempted to dismiss Paul’s teaching on sex as just his take on it, Paul states in verse 8 “he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God…”. Here again we are reminded of Paul’s apostolic authority. We saw in Chapter 2 (verse 13) that Paul thanked God for the Thessalonians because they had “received the word of God, not as the word of men but as it actually is, the word of God” Here this equally applies in his teaching on sexual immorality as it does on any other issue we have given to us in Scripture. This is not merely Paul’s view, this is God’s written word to us. So we must set aside our prejudices and have ears to hear because it is only those who receive the word of God- who do not merely hear it- who will be transformed by that word and so be blessed. Equally, such is the seriousness of this instruction anyone tempted to dismiss it is in effect saying “God I don’t want you or your Holy Spirit in my life, I’m going to live it my own way after all” Which raises the issue of what is the true status of the person who professes faith and refuses to repent or obey- for example the person who has been forgiven but refuses to forgive, or here- the person who has been cleansed but wants to go on living a sexually impure life? Are they not after all like the unbeliever who has also rejected God and still liable to judgment?
Paul’s instruction is direct and categoric. Do not have sex with anyone you are not married to. Sex is reserved for marriage between a man and a woman. Some may ask why he spends so much time on this issue and is so insistent. The Thessalonians were after all a persecuted group and from what we have seen already genuinely growing in the faith, love and hope, so much so that Paul gives thanks for them. Even here at the beginning of Chapter 4 he acknowledges they are already living to please God. So why this in -depth reminder about sexual immorality? Well it’s so serious that they and we need reminding. We have let our culture dictate to us on this issue and the Church has remained strangely silent. But Scripture is clearly not silent. We must speak up. The fact is this problem is gaining entrance into the Church and draining it from within. It is leading to the falling away of young people from the Church. It is directly leading to the breakup of marriages and families. It is strangling true discipleship to Christ.
I’ve seen it time and time again- young people who seem like they’re going on okay in the Christian life, they go out with a non -Christian, or perhaps a professing Christian who has in reality no inclination to please God in this area of their life, they fall sexually, backslide and now they are nowhere spiritually.
Where the desire to please God is lost, where there is no sanctification of life by the Spirit where there is no healthy fear of God’s judgment then sexual immorality will find its way into the life of a fellowship with devastating consequences. What seemed beyond belief becomes common place unless these truths are clearly taught and warnings given. Already the main issues pastors have to deal with today are related to sexual immorality. The good gift of sex God intended for our pleasure according to His instructions proves to be a hard master when it is abused or idolised. Paul knew that if Satan could not destroy the Thessalonians from without through persecution, he would try and destroy the Church from within. And that is his strategy today. That’s why we must be reminded frequently. We must heed these instructions, heed the warnings- given to us by God- have a vision of something higher and better- and so learn to live a pure life by his grace.
Hymn
“O for a heart to praise my God” MP 495 (Keyboards)
Charles Wesley
Ascription
Glory be to you, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You have power, wisdom and majesty: receive from us honour, glory, worship and blessing. Amen.
David Barnes 25/1/23