The Gospel Denial

Interest:

This morning I want to take about an American man…I think I will call him Jim since we have more Jims in our church than any other names. In fact, according to Google, James is the most popular male name in America. This man is none of the Jims in our church. In fact, he isn’t any Jim I know either or even one that Google could find. But the Jim that I’m thinking about resembles an awful lot of people in America.

Jim is middle-age now, but he grew up at a pretty conservative time in America. While Jim was growing up there were frequent evangelistic crusades in his town. When Jim was 19, he went with some friends to one of these crusades…after all, the group was going out for ice cream afterwards and he wanted to get to know one of the girls in the group better. At the crusade the preacher talked about Jesus and insisted that in order to go to heaven Jim needed to ask Jesus to forgive him for his sins. That sounded like a pretty good deal to Jim so when the invitation came at the end of the evening, Jim joined a large group of people to go forward to where he was led to pray a prayer asking Jesus to forgive him for his sin. The group that Jim came to the crusade with that night was all very excited that he had gone forward, even the girl that Jim wanted to get to know. They all assured him that he was now saved.

Well, Jim is quite a bit older now. He ended up marrying a different girl than that one at that night at the crusade. Jim has consistently held down a job over the years, supported his family, saw his kids grow up and get married and overall had a pretty good life. But Jim has never set foot in a church after the brief interest he had in that first girl. He has probably spent a bit more of his earnings in the bar than he should have. His wife certainly thinks so. Of course, she has learned to not mention it as she discovered long ago that Jim has a pretty violent temper that he is willing to let out at home…occasionally it even comes out with friends. It is probably a good thing that Jim doesn’t go to church as Jim knows most church-goers would not like the kind of language he uses, but that is their problem. Jim knows he is open-minded. He didn’t care when his daughter moved in with her boyfriend, because he knew that guy was good for her. He has no problem with anything, after all he is saved—heaven awaits.

Involvement:

I could go on of course and continue to caricature Jim, but I think you get the idea. Jim is a guy who made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ at a point in his life, but since that point Jesus has not really been a part of things. What are we to make of Jim?

Context:

Last week, as we began looking at the second half of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians we learned that we have a Gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth. We learned that lesson as we saw Paul set out on the task to begin doing that very thing in the lives of the new believers that he and Silas and Timothy had been forced to leave in Thessalonica. Severe opposition had forced the hasty exit of the three men from the city, but Paul still cared greatly for the people making up this brand-new church. Timothy’s recent visit had apparently informed Paul that there were some issues in how some of the new Christians were living. Paul’s plan is to use the second part of this letter to address those issues.

Preview:

In the first two verses of the 4th chapter in this letter that we looked at last week were quite personal—Paul was preparing to address issues so he brought his relationship to the forefront of the discussion so that the church members would know that he was addressing these things because he cared about them. This week, though, as Paul begins to address the first specific issue his personal relationship fades to the background and he lifts God into the center of attention. The ultimate reason that he is going to address the issue before them will have to do with God’s glory, not Paul’s personal impressions.

Transition from introduction to body:

Let’s begin by reading our verses…<read 1 Thess 4:3–8>.

BODY:

Paul is dealing with a serious issue here—sexual immorality. We quite likely would agree that this is a serious issue. More importantly, God also agrees that it is as serious issue. The problem is that the Thessalonians most likely did not see it as a serious issue. The culture of Thessalonica was not very concerned about sexual matters. Thessalonica was fully within the mainstream of the Roman culture of the day. Things like having sex with a temple prostitute or keeping a mistress on the side were considered normal and acceptable. Young men were expected to engage in an active sexual lifestyle and it wasn’t very scandalous for young ladies to participate as well. About the only thing that really was out of social bounds was for married women to engage in adulterous activities, although it certainly was not unheard of.

Application

You know, if we think about it, apart from the distinction between expected behavior between married men and married women, there really isn’t much difference between the Roman culture of Thessalonica and the current culture of America. We may not have temple prostitutes, but the multi-billion dollar porn industry suggest that sex has become the equivalent of a god to worship for many…and there are several forms of what we would call modern-paganism in America which include sexual activities as part of their religious practices. If you want to understand the cultural climate of Thessalonica, you can pretty well simply think of our sexualized culture.

The problem that Paul faces is that this young church was formed entirely by brand-new believers. And these believers were primarily Gentile converts. The Jews of the day did stand against the sexual looseness of the Roman culture, but there was really very little influence from Jewish thinking in this church. Most of the recent converts were men and women who for their entire lives had simply accepted that active sexual behavior was normal; they had no reason to think differently.

I would suggest, that since we live in a society that is so closely aligned to the cultural thinking that Paul is encountering, we should expect to encounter the same issue: if we are seeing people saved, we should expect to come up against new believers that have no idea that their view of sex is broken and twisted. In fact, I suspect that to some extent all of us even have our view of sex broken and twisted because we are not immune from the thinking of our culture; it exerts a constant and unavoidable influence upon us.

Illustration

Let me just give one personal illustration. I have observed that when I am watching a TV show…say a police drama or some such show…I am not shocked to see a scene which suggests that two of the characters just spent the night together even though they are not married. In fact, the scene is so common-place that sometimes it doesn’t even register with me that something immoral was just framed as normal until after the fact. In fact, how many of us have “liked” or congratulated an unmarried couple when they move in together or buy a house together or announce that they are expecting a baby.

My goal is not to heap a bunch of guilt on us all this morning, now…my goal is to get us to realize that we may be suffering from some of the same cultural blindness that they Thessalonians had which means that we need the same solution.

Transition:

Paul does not actually seem to ever state his main point in our verses today, but as we will see that he certainly makes it. He develops a logical chain of ideas that lead to an unavoidable conclusion, a conclusion that confronts the thinking that needed to be changed head on, yet one that is developed in a manner which will lead these new believers…and us for that matter…to see where a change that is required.

Tracing Paul’s logical chain, we begin by understanding that…

I. God’s will is for us to pursue holiness.

This is God’s will for you: your sanctification. We sometimes define sanctification as being set apart…specially set apart from all that is sinful. That is the idea of holiness. In fact, in the original Greek, the words for sanctification and the words for holy are from the same root word. This is why believers can be called saints, which is literally “holy ones” in Greek. Believers are to become sanctified; they are to become holy.

Now, allow me to take just a moment to explain the various ideas that are wrapped up in sanctification, theologians talk about three different aspects of sanctification. One aspect is the idea of positional sanctification. Positional sanctification refers to a legal declaration. Because we are justified fully by the righteousness of Christ, God declares us holy. We stand positionally before God…in other words, God sees us because of our relationship in Christ…He considers us as already sanctified.

There is also a future aspect to sanctification which is our glorification. When we finally stand in actuality before God in our glorified bodies, we will be fully sanctified—we will be completely holy with no taint of sin remaining within us.

Neither of these two aspects reflect Paul’s idea here. In verse 3 Paul is talking about what is called progressive sanctification—that real-life process that progresses us to become more and more like Christ, more holy. This is an aspect of our salvation that is ongoing.

The point that Paul makes with these first words is that we must understand that this aspect is one that we must pursue because it is God’s will. Our Savior Jesus, the whole time when He walked on this earth, lived entirely to do the will of God the Father. He is our model, our example. We too are to live to do the will of God the Father and a key component is to pursue holiness.

Transition:

God’s will is for us to pursue holiness. That is the first step in Paul’s logical chain in this passage. The next step is that…

II. Pursuing holiness requires transforming our lives.

Paul says that sanctification requires the abstaining from sexual immorality. It requires that each person learns how to control his or her own body. It requires that a person not be controlled by lustful passions. In other words, it requires living differently than unbelievers live. Holiness requires a transformation to occur because unbelievers are not holy.

Now we could spend quite a bit of time on verses 3-6, there are actually several translations and interpretive issues buried in these verses, but I don’t want us to spend so much time looking at the bark on a few trees that we fail to see the overall forest. The overall point is not one that is hard to understand. Because of their pagan background, these new believers missed the point that they needed to have a different sexual ethic than their unbelieving neighbors. Apparently, at least some of them thought that they could be Christians—that is believe in Jesus for their salvation—and continue to live the same way they used to live—specifically continue to enjoy the prostitutes at the temple or their mistresses, whatever, just keep on living a free and loose sexual life.

Paul simply says, “NO! No! You can’t do that! Sanctification means living differently. You have to pursue holiness.” In fact, he reminds them that he already taught and warned them at the outset that Jesus was returning and when He returned He would come as Judge. Part of His judgment would involve avenging all things. To continue indulging in sexually promiscuous lives actually involved transgressing and defrauding others…which would be piling up such vengeance when He comes.

Application

This is a sobering thought. If we fail to pursue holiness we are piling up vengeance for ourselves when Christ returns. Now, the Bible is clear…if we have truly believed in Jesus as our Savior, our salvation is secure…notice, Paul does not question their salvation anywhere in these verse. But, the Bible is also clear that Jesus will judge us when He comes and we will stand in shame as we see Him honor those who’ve we defrauded and rebukes us, removing our potential rewards for not pursuing holiness.

Clearly, from what we see in these verses we need to pursue a vastly different sexual ethic than our culture does around us. Our culture is unsaved; they already stand condemned, further sinfulness only demonstrates that condemnation. We, though, if we have Jesus as Savior, are in a different category…and our lives are to reflect such. For us, we must abstain from sexual immorality…all sex outside of marriage and every broken sexual permutation this world has created. There is no room for “living together” for a Christian. There is no option for one-night stands. It really does matter what we allow before our eye, what movies we watch, what websites we visit and so forth. The idea of mutual consent is irrelevant. The Christian life is to be pursing holiness—holiness as defined by God.

In a group this size…in our current culture…I suspect that we have some issues in this area of life…we are probably no different than the Thessalonians in which we have allowed the culture’s view of sex to become our view and have lived accordingly. If that is so in your life, it needs to change.

At the same time, we all need to recognize that while Paul is dealing with a specific problem here—sexual immorality—the principle is broader. We all need to be living transformed lives—lives in pursuit of holiness in all areas: how we view our time, how we view our money, how we view our leisure, how we view our families, how we view our work, as well as how we view sex.

Transition:

Pursuing holiness requires transforming our lives. Follow the logical chain: God’s will is for us to pursue holiness. Pursing holiness requires transforming our lives.

And this leads to the idea that…

III. Transforming our lives is why God’s saves us.

Look at verse 7, “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.” Why are we to abstain from sexual immorality? Why are we to live lives that are transformed? Why are we to pursue holiness? Because God has called us for this very purpose.

Do you see that word “called.” Used as it is here, that is one of the most powerful words possible. That word describes the ever effective action that God took when He initiated our salvation. It describes the moment that God turned on the light bulb in our minds and we saw our true condition for the first time—we saw that we were dreadfully sinful, we saw that we had sinned against and therefore offended a holy God, we saw that we had no hope of avoiding eternal damnation through any effort we could launch…and we also saw that God had sent His Son to die in our place, we saw that God promised to forgive us if we trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus, we saw that we could be saved. All of those glorious truths about our salvation are being summarized in that one word—God called us. We did not save ourselves. God called us. We heard Jesus calling out our name with His offer of hope and we responded immediately grabbed the lifeline of salvation that was offered.

God is the one who saved us, but He did it for a reason—a purpose: that purpose that has been driving this entire paragraph—sanctification. Sure, we benefit from the process of sanctification. But more than that, what Paul is reminding the Thessalonians at this point is that God’s actions is ultimately are for His own glory. He is transforming us as a way to display His glory—we are trophies of God’s grace. As we are transformed, we show all of creation what God is able to accomplish, we show the power of His salvation as He takes the hopeless raw material of our lives and makes something holy out of them.

Application

But did you notice that Paul actually worded this idea in the negative—he pointed to what God did not call us to—God did not call us to impurity. You see, whenever we allow ourselves to continue living in an unchanged, we undermine that display of God’s grace. I think one of the major reasons that our American Christian culture in too many ways resembles the pagan American culture is that American Christianity has failed to proclaim this point. I fear that the reason that we fail to live transformed lives ourselves is that we fail to grasp this point. Our thinking goes along these lines: I will allow myself to view this immoral scene because I can handle it; it won’t affect my thinking too much. We fail to see what we have done is undermine the very reason God saved us—we have hindered the display of His glory. If I engage in sexual things outside of marriage, no one is hurt as long as there is consent. What is damaged is the way in which God’s glory is being displayed. It is about something infinitely more valuable than us!

And again, this principle can be expanded to include any area of life in which we fail to pursue holiness. When I lose my temper inappropriately, God’s purpose in saving me is undercut. When I fudge on my taxes, God’s purpose in saving me is undercut. When I pass along a juicy bit of gossip, God’s purpose is undercut. Anything that we do that is inconsistent with the transformed life that God intends for us all to live undercuts God’s purpose in our salvation—we are failing to display the powerful effect of His transforming grace to the world around us.

Transition:

Transforming our lives is why God saves us. This is the third link in Paul’s logical chain. And this third link leads to one final link in these verses,…

IV. God’s saving us applies the Spirit’s power to our transformation.

Verse 8, “So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man—in other words, this instruction to abstain from sexual immorality is not Paul’s words—is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Spirit to you. Why did Paul bring the Holy Spirit into the end of this paragraph to wrap up this logical chain? Because He is reminding the Thessalonians that by failing to live transformed lives there are actually denying the power of Holy Spirit in their lives.

I expect that we all know that at the moment of our salvation—at the very moment we accept Jesus as our Savior—God the Father gives the Holy Spirit a new ministry within our lives, the ministry of indwelling us. The Holy Spirit’s indwelling maintains the new spiritual life that comes with our salvation—life the Holy Spirit Himself gave us as He regenerated us at that very instant. As the Holy Spirit indwells us, it is His power which transforms us. We do not sanctify ourselves no more than we save ourselves—it is the Holy Spirit with His divine power which does both. But much like the Holy Spirit always accomplishes His work of salvation in conjunction with human means—the Holy Spirit saves people through the Gospel message being communicated by people like you and I; the Holy Spirit also transforms us in conjunction with human means—He sanctifies us as we yield to His influence. He works in us as we work with Him by yielding in obedience to God’s commands.

You see, the point that Paul is making here for the Thessalonians is that their behavior to continue their pre-Christian lifestyle was tantamount to rejecting God because it was living exactly opposite of someone who had the Holy Spirit indwelling. Again, Paul is not indicating that He is questioning their salvation. But He is trying to make sure they see that they are living in a way that is failing to utilize the presence of the Holy Spirit for His given purpose.

Application

This really is a big deal. Think about it, the infinite power of God is within us as believers. In fact, the infinite God is within us, communing with us and enabling us as believers. He is there for the purpose of transforming us through His grace. We do not have to change our lives through our power, we have the Holy Spirit. Why on earth would we act as if we don’t? Why on earth would we possible want to live on earth as if earth is all we have? Why on earth would we forget that we are directly tied to heaven?

Transition from body to conclusion:.

God’s saving us applies the Spirit’s power to our transformation. That is the final step in the logical chain that Paul has built through these verses.

So: Let’s review the chain one more time: God’s will is for us to pursue holiness. Pursuing holiness requires transforming our lives. Transforming our lives is why God saves us. God’s saving us applies to our transformation. That is the flow of Paul’s thoughts as he deals with this specific problem in this church—sexual immorality. But what is the larger point that he is trying to make…a point that goes beyond the specifics of this case? There really is only one conclusion that we can draw from this logical chain; I will word it this way,…

CONCLUSION:

A refusal to transform the way we live equates to a denial of the Gospel we profess.

When we live lives that remain untransformed we are telling through our actions that we do not believe the very thing that we say we believe. We say that we believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord, but we are living as if we are our own lords. We say that we believe that God is saving us from our sin, but we are wallowing in that very sin that we say we are being saved from. There is no way to sugar-coat the reality: A refusal to transform the way we live equates to a denial of the Gospel we profess.

Application

I have mentioned multiple times this morning that many American Christians are living in this exact way—American Christianity has such little impact on our culture because much of American Christianity denies the very Gospel it proclaims by the lifestyles it allows. Professing Christian men and women are engaging in the same sexual lifestyles as they lived before they professed Christ. And it is not in the area of sex; professing men and women are engaging in all sorts of behaviors that are just as pagan as their unbelieving neighbors. Much of American Christianity has denied the Gospel to the point where the Gospel seems meaningless in American culture.

But you and I are not responsible for American Christianity…we are responsible for our own personal Christianity. How are you living? Is your life being transformed by your Savior? Do your friends and coworkers see an ongoing transformation—a change that frankly they probably see as weird because it is countercultural in so many ways? How about your family? The people closest to you; do they see a transformation happening in your life? Be honest with yourself. More importantly, be honest with God. Are you living in a way that equates to a denial of the Gospel you profess? If so, then I urge you to bow before God this morning and confess your failure to Him: admit that you have been continuing to sin against Him and ask Him to shine His grace in your life by transforming you; commit yourself to living out the Gospel that you profess through living a transformed life.

Remember our fictional Jim from the beginning. Jim’s life denied the gospel that he professed. We cannot be like Jim. A refusal to transform the way we live equates to a denial of the Gospel we profess.