"God's will is that we abstain from all sexual immorality" (Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 41)

Let that happen. But you'll happen, Paul.

I am going to deliver a sermon that is written by Doctor Wes

Bredehoft in the Free Reformed Church of Launceston, TAS,

Australia and this message was first preached in Australia in

the year 2024. Beloved congregation of Jesus

Christ, it's hard not to begin a sermon related to the Seven

Commandment without stating what is obvious, and that is that we

live in an age of sexual license and that means that just about

anything goes. Casual.

Hookups arranged through mobile apps like Tinder are now

considered normal. Fewer people wants to get

married and most people prefer to choose to cohabit or to enter

into a live in setup. And when people do get married,

their marriage don't last very long.

Pilipinas we don't have the divorce law yet, but in other

countries like in Australia, the average marriage in Australia

lasts only for 13 years and the couple most of them get

separated already at the nine year marked at the two posts

Amanda broke broken marriage Natos Among a breakdown among a

marriage, almost always the cause is the infidelity of one's

spouse or both of them. And beloved, we would be kidding

if we will say that this sexual license does not happen inside

the church. We know what the Bible teaches,

we know what the Seven Commandments says, but we also

know that only a few people is committed into keeping the 7th

Commandment, and so maybe we just expect the church goers

will leave sexually immoral lives la Luna Luna Tabata.

And what do we do? Do we just look the other way

and pretend that it does not happen?

Or perhaps we'll provide the teenagers or the younger

generations with a means so that they don't get pregnant out of

wedlock, so that they will not embarrass themselves or the

church iguana. We do is what we do is keep the

Seven Commandment. But wink, wink, nudge, nudge, we

know you won't. The church in Thessalonica faced

the same world of sexual license, too.

As new Christians, they've been excited and they've been

conscientious about following God's ways in terms of their

sexuality. In the passage First

Thessalonians that we have read a while ago, Paul encourages

them to keep going on this direction.

And these words convicts us and encourages us to, because if

we've been committed to sexual integrity, then God says go and

do it more, do it more and more. However, if we have not been

committed and if we have given ourselves to sexual immorality

or we have done the wink, wink, nudge, nudge routine, then God

calls us to turn away from our sins and to see how it does not

fit with being a Christian. That's why this afternoon the

sermon that I'm going to deliver can be summarised in the

following title. That God, that God's will is

that we abstain from sexual immorality.

And this afternoon we are going to learn the following points.

Number one, that the command comes in and through our Lord

Jesus Christ #2 that the call is to holiness.

And then lastly, that the consequences of disobedience is

grave. But before that, let us go to

the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank You for

this opportunity to learn under the preaching of Your Word.

Father, we know that we have many shortcomings and failures

when it comes to obeying the Seven Commandment.

So we pray, Father, that you give us humble hearts as we

listen to Your Word. We pray that You help us lower

our pride and to subject our lives to the Seven Commandments.

We pray, Father, that though we are powerless to obey Your Word,

that Your Holy Spirit will empower us and that we will find

Your Son as our supreme motivation in obeying Your Word

by abstaining from sexual immorality.

So please guide us this afternoon as we hear Your word.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Our Catechism gives us a

teaching on the Seven Commandment in the context of

our response to what Christ has done for us in our salvation.

Actually, all of the 10 Commandments can be found under

the heading of our thankfulness in the Heidelberg Catechism, and

particularly young acting obedience to the 10 Commandment

is our thankfulness to the gift of salvation that we have

received from our Lord Jesus Christ.

And if we are going to keep that in our mind, if we will just put

the truth into our frontal globes, then it will be

impossible for us to approach Lord's Day 41 in a legalistic

way, as if somehow and goal, nothing is to measure up to God.

Parathyroid malitas no mahapatra.

Mahapatra, because that would be legalism.

But the passage that we are looking at in First

Thessalonians has a similar safeguard against legalism.

God's exhortation to the Thessalonians about sexual

integrity is framed with reference to our Lord and

Saviour Jesus Christ. So if you want to know how to

live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God, we just have to

fix our eyes in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

And the instruction that Paul gave us about abstaining from

sexual immorality came through the Lord and Saviour Jesus

Christ. So here the focus is

particularly on the teaching that the apostle Paul gave

before to the Christians in Thessaloniki in Thesalonika

about abstaining from sexual immorality.

But let us be clear about what that means. 1st and abstaining

from sexual immorality, our catechism use use the word

unchastity. You've been in Kanina and when

we say and chastity, it means or it speaks about any unchased

acts, gestures, words, thoughts, desires, and whatever that may

entice us into unchastity. But actually we could replace or

substitute the word unchastity with the word sexual immorality

that we have read in First Thessalonians because they both

have the same meaning. Because unchastity and sexual

immorality refers to any way of breaking the 7th commandment.

Now there are two broad categories of sin against the

second commandment. The first one is adultery.

And adultery as defined is the breaking of the bonds of

marriage, usually through a sexual intimacy with someone who

is not your spouse or someone who is a spouse of another

person. So adultery is cheating.

It is marital infidelity, but our Lord and Saviour Jesus also

clarified in the Sermon on the Mount that adultery also extends

to the last of our hearts. That's why Sinabi Puna acting

panino on that. If you look at a woman who is

not your wife with lust, then you are committing adultery with

that woman in your heart. And that equally applies not

only to men but also to women with respect to men.

And it also applies to same sex attraction.

No one is to have sexual desire for anyone that is not our

spouse. Unpo and Evie sabihin nun

commandment about adultery. But sometimes people will say,

well, you can look, but you just can't touch Kaya aluminum

important, you know, Sinasabe najiba.

But actually that is just another wink, wink, nudge nudge

approach. Because what the Lord says is

that if you look at a woman with lust kahit wala kangaroo in,

then you are already an adulterer.

And if we consider ourselves as Christians, then we should take

our Lord seriously when it comes to this command.

And the second broad category of the sin committed against the

Seven Commandment is the sin of fornication.

For indication refers to all sexual activity apart from a

marriage relationship. So if you are engaging in any

sexual activity with a person you are not married to, or

before you become married, then you are committing fornication,

then you have committed a sin against the 7th commandment.

So without going much further into more details, what I would

like to say or what I would like to stress is that fornication is

any sexual activity, so there is no wiggle room for us or for

anyone to rationalise their way out of it.

So in the United parties are being actual intercourse and Amy

nakita Lang naman no, when we say fornication, it's all kinds

of sexual activity, so we cannot justify our actions out of it.

So when Paul writes in verse 3, the Christians are to abstain

from sexual immorality, Paul is basically saying that all

Christians must avoid all forms of adultery and all forms of

fornication because any and every form of sexual

transgression is supposed to be off limits to all Christians, to

all people who claim that they have a relationship with Jesus

Christ. And notice Magkapatid that this

command does not come with an exception.

Hindus in Abbey New Apostle Paul that we should abstain from

sexual immorality unless you are 25 years old and below no what

long Sina bingo exemption or anything like that.

Because everyone in the church, young or old, if they consider

themselves to be Christians, then we are supposed to subject

ourselves under the 7th commandment.

And that is because Mahatid the teaching of Jesus Christ about

the second commandment comes in the Lord Jesus as it says in

verse 1 and comes through the Lord Jesus as it says in verse

2. And that is something that we

should not just gloss over with. That's just something that he

did that in Dapat. Let the one the moral of the

teaching is about abstaining from sexual immorality through

the lens of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

When the apostle Paul brought the teaching to the test

Solonians about abstaining from sexual immorality, he brought it

in the context of who Christ is and what Christ has done for all

of us. So you can imagine for a moment

the Apostle Paul there in Thessalonica, he's preaching to

the new Christians and epilogue, Nathan for a moment, Natalia

Inagi, Evesdrop Donsa teaching the apostle Paul someone new

Christians in Thessalonica and he will say something like this

one. Many of you have lived in the

world as worldly people. You have bagages.

You have committed fornication and adultery before you knew the

Lord Jesus Christ, but now you have heard the gospel and you

have believed it. You know that your past sins are

already forgiven because of what He did on the cross on your

behalf. You know that He took the hell

and the wrath of God that you deserve.

You are now at peace with God because you are now in Christ.

That would be the encouragement of the Apostle Paul.

So you can imagine what kind of relief you will hear if you are

a Christian in that time who have committed sexual immorality

before you became a Christian, or even after you became a

Christian. So much apathy.

The point is, there is grace at the cross for everyone who has

committed the sin, and it was true in the time of the Apostle

Paul, and it is still true until now.

But then the Apostle Paul will go on to say something like

this. But the good news gets even

better because the Lord Jesus also lived a perfect life in

your place when he was still on earth.

He did not commit A and a violation against the Seven

Commandment. He never fornicated, He never

committed adultery against anyone, but On the contrary, he

remained faithful to His bride, the Church.

And that is for our benefit, because when we trust in the

Lord Jesus, all of his obedience will be accounted to our side.

It will be for our own benefit so that when God looks at you,

God's looks through Christ and when He sees you, He sees

someone who has obeyed the seven commandment perfectly.

Kayapo I Partena Congregation Nantes Salonika, at that time,

I'm sure you will be encouraged because if I was there, then I

am sure that I would be encouraged as well.

And then the apostle Paul will go on to say, now you are in

Christ Jesus. You are united to Him by God's

grace through the Holy Spirit. Christ is divine and you are the

branches. He is the Master, and you are

the disciples. And what that means, beloved, is

that your life is supposed to be more and more like His life.

And this is how we are supposed to walk and how we are supposed

to please God. I think I've been Apostle Paul,

you have been doing it already, and all you have to do is to

keep doing it more and more. So you see that is how this

instruction comes in and through our Lord and Saviour Jesus

Christ, because the instruction is not about legalism.

We are not about to abstain from sexual immorality so that we can

obtain the standard of God, because that would be impossible

for us. But we are going to do this in

response to the to the salvation that we have received from Jesus

Christ and it is carried out in our union with Him.

And with that we will now go to our second point.

Our second point is that the call is a call to holiness.

What we have in the passage that we are looking into is God's

will in Christ Jesus for our sanctification.

And to remind you, brothers and sisters, the definition of

sanctification is that is it is the process of growing in

holiness. This whole passage is a call to

holiness, and holiness is mentioned in First Thessalonians

483 times, 1 to 8, three times. So the first one young world,

the sanctification of verse three that can also be

translated to holiness. And then the same word is found

in verse 4 and in four verse 7. So able study now means Bahor

meron programming observation about the repetitive words.

So words we had new word neon eye importante.

So since we have seen the word holy in this passage three

times, then that means the word holiness is very important in

this message. To be holy means to be set

apart. God says in first Peter 116 You

shall be holy, for I am holy. Although we know that no one can

be holy in the same way that God is holy, because God is

different, He is completely set apart from sin and from all

kinds of evil. However, brothers and sisters,

because we are called children of God, then we ought to become

like Him. So if God has nothing to do with

sin, then we also should have nothing to do with sin.

Then we are to strive for that in our lives.

Here in this passage, we are told that we are to be holy with

regard to our sexuality. The world around us has its own

way of behaving. Kayanga was averse pipe.

It speaks about the passion of loss of the gentiles, the

unbelieving world. When they see a beautiful

person, the first thing that comes into their mind is how to

get what they want from that person because they are driven

by their loss. So they go from one sexual

partner to another without giving it a second thought.

Every weekend it's someone new, it's a different person and they

do this because they don't know God and that means they don't

have a healthy and friendly relationship with Him.

They are not at peace with God and so that is the reason why

they live this way. However, brothers and sisters,

we do know God and if we do know God, then we should be different

or set apart from the world. We should be distinct from the

rest of the world. Therefore, this passion of lust

that is very evident in the unbelieving Gentiles must not be

our story. Instead, if we are Christians,

then we should be controlling our bodies in holiness and in

honour because as Paul says in First Corinthians 6, our bodies

are temples of the Holy Spirit and that means it matters what

we do with our bodies also also in terms of our sexuality.

So we just can't do whatever we want.

We just can't obey whatever the first thing that pops up into

our mind. But we have to learn how to

control our lust and our desires.

We have to know how to say no to our passions and in order to

learn this magkapatid, we have to start by praying for the help

of the Holy Spirit, because we know that in ourselves we don't

have the power to to defeat the power of lust, but the Holy

Spirit does. That's why we should begin with

prayer, and then we further learn this by reminding

ourselves of what God's will is for our lives as revealed in His

Word. And then lastly, when our minds

are clear kapak tayo I valanti nakahara temptation, then we

should be committed to do the right thing.

I think is Wagner thing Ilalagay young acting Massarelli

supposition Alam natin tayo I made them cause some problem

Cristiano ohh the Mallard not Bible Malabanan young Las at

young temptation kita yota was. After that, we will put

ourselves on a situation that we will be tempted.

If we are going to do that, then we are just fooling ourselves.

Mangaka Patti. So what we should do is that we

should pray for the power of the Holy Spirit.

We should remind ourselves of the will of God in our lives

when it comes to our sexuality and when our minds our is clear.

We should be committed to not put ourselves in a situation

where we know we will all be tempted.

Well, sometimes you will hear about these people who will call

themselves as sex positive Christians.

If that is the first time you ever heard that at Nashua there

is such a term as sex positive Christians and this so-called

Christians. They think that churches like us

are too negative about our sexuality.

They think that we have just too many strict rules and they say

that you know, God's will for our lives is for us to enjoy and

to celebrate our sexuality. Welcome to thousand.

I would certainly agree with them, provided that our

sexuality will always be within the bounds that God has revealed

in the Bible. Because apart from marriage,

sexuality with God will come with a lot of problems because

the only natural and rightful place of of sex is only within

the context of marriage. While Anna Ibaba don't unsex

another opening bounds non marriage then 100% we can be

positive about it. So the call here is to holiness

and self-control, and when that call is heeded, then things will

be moving in the right direction.

And it's for our own good, and it's for our own flourishing.

And in verse 6, there's one more element to this call to

holiness. Sexual sin often involves

transgression or are wrong against another person.

Naturally, we think of the harmful, harmful effect caused

by cheating and adultery because when you commit cheating or

adultery, you are hurting the other person's spouse by doing

that act, regardless of how healthy or unhealthy their

marriage is. Marathi Just because someone is

in an unhappy relationship, or in an unhealthy or even in an

abusive marriage, it does not give us a green light to commit

adultery with them. Because adultery is adultery,

and it's still wicked and we can never ever justify it.

But there is another angle to this, and it has to do with the

Lord's Supper. Whenever we have the Lord's

Supper, we hear the Lord's Supper form, and we are again

reminded that those who don't keep their bodies pure within or

outside the bonds of marriage, those who persist in sin and do

not abstain themselves from sexual immorality, are not

supposed to partake in the Lord's Supper.

Why? Because they are going to bring

judgment upon themselves. That the Scriptures teaches us

that they are not only bringing judgment upon themselves, but

they are also inviting the wrath of God upon the whole

congregation. And that is what we will read in

First Corinthians 11. So if there is someone in our

congregation who is not abstaining from sexual

immorality and still participating in the Lord's

Supper, in the Lord's Supper, then, brothers and sisters, it

affects us all. It does not only affect that

person, it affects us all because they are not only

transgressing against God, but they are also transgressing

against their brothers and sisters.

And that makes sexual immorality in the church a very selfish

sin. The Beyond no.

When we do that, the whole congregation will suffer the

wrath of God, and this kind of disobedience will receive grave

consequences. And there are natural

consequences to sexual immorality, and one of them is

the possibility of contracting sexually transmitted disease.

And nobody there are sexually transmitted diseases that are

curable, but there are some types that are debilitating and

incurable. That's why not commit nonsexual

immorality. And then when they enter into

marriage, they struggle with sexual intimacy, and the

consequences goes on and on and on.

But our passage this afternoon focuses on the grave spiritual

consequence of sexual immorality and not abstaining from it.

In verse 6 it says that the Lord Jesus is The Avengers in all

these things. And when we say that he is an

avenger in all these things, it means that He is someone who

brings justice. Vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord. Vengeance means avenge.

Avenging it means repaying. It means bringing justice.

And when Christ returns, he will judge the world, and he will

bring his justice, and he will bring his vengeance.

But for Christians, this is nothing for you to fear.

If you are someone who is struggling with the temptation

of sexual immorality, but you hate your sin and you are

fighting your sin, and you are trusting in God that He has

forgiven your sin through Christ, then you are then you

have nothing to fear. Then you have to be at peace.

On the contrary, you have to look forward to the coming of

Jesus Christ. However, if you live in sin and

if you don't want to repent and you are still undergoing or you

are still committing sexual immorality, then I'm afraid this

warning is here for you. So pay attention.

Christ is coming to judge the unrepentant sinners.

And let's let us take note what God says in First Corinthian 6.

In First Corinthian 6, there is a list there of people who will

not inherit the Kingdom of God. That means there is a list of

people who will not be saved, who will not enter heaven, and

the list includes those who are sexually immorals, the

adulterers, and those who practice sexual or those who

practice homosexuality. All of those sins that were

mentioned are sins against the 7th commandment.

So if you live in those sins and you don't hate them and you

don't fight them, then I'm afraid probably you are not a

Christian and you are not going to heaven.

If that is true, my friend, then my heart breaks for you, and I

believe that every true Christian's heart will break for

you. So don't go this way.

It's far better to turn from our sin and to turn to Christ and

find forgiveness and life in Him.

He stands with His open arms, ready to embrace anyone who

comes to Him with brokenness, with a humble heart, with

repentance of their sins. In Marapatti, the weightiness of

what this passage is is underlined in verse 8.

Because the seven commandment and everything that flows in it,

it is from the Bible. It's not from human beings.

The 7th commandment is given to us by God.

It is God who instituted marriage from the very

beginning. It is God who ordained that

marriage would be a lifelong covenant between a man and a

woman. So if you are going to disregard

this teachings, then you are not disregarding man, but you are

disregarding God. And that is a massively

dangerous thing to do, because disregarding God is like

slapping him in the face. And imagine it's slapping an

infinitely holy God in the face. What a dreadful thing to do, and

what a foolish thing to do. And it's even more dreadful and

foolish when we consider that the Holy Spirit dwells in all of

us because God poured us the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not only poured out to the Apostle Paul

or to a certain group of elite special Christians.

No, the Holy Spirit is poured out to the church.

So all of us are being indwelt now by the Holy Spirit.

And since we have been receiving, since we have

received the Holy Spirit, and since we have the presence and

the power of the Holy Spirit, then we must keep in step with

the Holy Spirit. And that means that we should

obey God by taking seriously what He says, by abstaining from

sexual immorality. Beloved, sexual lust is one of

the most powerful forces on earth.

Alam Nuba, that in response to sexual stimuli, our own bodies

produces its own opioides. No wonder the power of lust is

comparable to drugs. And sometimes it can feel like

our own bodies wants to destroy us with the loss that is within.

And that not only that, we also have the world.

Sexuality is an area where the world is putting enormous

pressure on the church, and often successfully so.

And to top it off, we also have Satan who wants to destroy the

church from the inside out by having us thoroughly compromised

when it comes to our sexual integrity.

So, brothers and sisters, it's only in Christ and in His power

that we will be able to stand a chance against these formidable

forces. So look to Him for your

forgiveness. Let's look to Christ for the

forgiveness of our sexual sins. Let's look to Him for the

perfect obedience that we need to stand before God, but also

let us look to Him to live in union with Him as one of His

disciples. Amen.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Almighty and Most Holy God,

thank you for the Lord Jesus and what He did on the cross to

bring us peace with you. We have transgressed the Seven

Commandment in various ways and we need Christ Blood to cover

us. Thank you for Jesus and his

perfect life of obedience to we need that perfect obedience in

order to be in fellowship with you, and you proved it in your

Son. But we also thank you for the

moral teaching of Your Word. We thank you for the Seven

Commandment and the way it leads us to blessing and to

flourishing. Please help us all, whether we

are young or old, to abstain from sexual immorality.

Give us the strength with your Holy Spirit to hate all sexual

sin and fight against it with Your Spirit.

Please give us power to control our bodies in holiness and in

honour. Ohh.

God, please help us to be holy like you are holy, for your

glory and for our good. Amen.