Sermon(1 Thess 4:1-8): How to please God

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025252244

 

 

Scripture reading: 1 Thess 4:1-8

 

>> 1 ... You learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity; 4 that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God; 6 that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you. 7 For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. <<

 

If the Spirit of God does not come upon human beings, sometimes they do things like beasts having high intelligence when others do not see. This is absolutely irrelevant to age or scholarship. How can you rationally explain that the so-called intellectual people enjoy wife-swapping? They do such thing because they are intelligent beasts. God has given us really valuable commandments. If you live according to the word of God, you'll be good to yourself and to your neighbors, and you'll please God. The purpose for which God called us is 'holy life'. When we are holy, God sees us and rejoices in us.

 

When is the holiness, God's gift, undermined fastest? It is the time of adultery. Apostle Paul mentioned 'abstain from unchastity (obscenity)' just after 'the will of God, sanctification'. So holiness and obscenity are mutually exclusive. Brethren, keep away from obscenity! The obscenity of mind is bad, however, in particular if you use your body obscenely, you'll leave on your body a dirty stain that cannot be washed away. If a man who has a wicked heart repents his sins and has a holy heart, he is actually holy. But those who have committed fornication are existentially unholy. So they must live with that dirt forever.

 

Fornication affects not only yourself but also others. It is a grave sin for a woman with no virginity to marry another man. Isn't it sad that the other guy should work his guts out to feed her, and love the defiled flesh of the woman? Suppose that she marries and gives birth to a child. How shameful and resentful it is if the child has to suck his mother's breast defiled by another obscene man! Can her dirt (her history) be washed if she marries and disciplines her mind and attends church and believes in Jesus and prays devoutly? (Of course, if she believes in Jesus as the Savior and is forgiven the sin of obscenity, the sin will be cleanly washed away. But who can deny that, nevertheless, the child happens to suck the mother's defiled breast? When you take out a rod from the flame, it may be that half of the rod has become charred wood. Though the rod was rescued from the fire, the part turned into charcoal becomes an abiding blemish. “He himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are. (1 Cor 3:15-17)) The same is true of men in this regard.

 

It is foolish to consider the sexual problems of teenagers without taking these complex human relationships into account. Sex education ignoring 'premarital virginity of man and woman' is truly a useless education. Is it all of sex education to teach the structure of genital organs and the method of contraception? If you want to offer a useful sex education, you must include these: 'emphasis of premarital chastity' and 'prohibition of homosex'. You must not do as a human being this: marrying a person, with a body with which you have done infinitely filthy homosex. Thus, holiness and >adultery and homosex< are mutually exclusive.

 

The Bible says that you should know how to take your wife in holiness and honor (v. 4). Do not think of your wife as a sex apparatus or a dirty woman. Do not have sex with your wife in a thought that she is a bad woman. He who does not appreciate his wife and does not love her does not deserve her. You can make love with your wife when you think that she is holy and that she is the most precious woman in the world, when you love her indeed, and when you wish to make her happy. A wife also should respect her husband. Is it fair for your husband to hug you who despise him and are filling head with hatred for him? Do you want to be kissed on the lips by your husband when you speak ill of him with your lips? How unsightly is it for a husband and a wife to have sex without loving and respecting each other? God who knows all human hearts hates such sight. God is pleased with seeing the couple love and respect each other and give joy to each other through sex.

 

Therefore, holy life means not only avoiding sexual immorality but also thinking others to be precious and holy. Yes, brethren! The holy person is not hypocritical. Aren't you happy when others praise your children as good kids? We are all children of God. Therefore, if we look down upon others and unilaterally think of them as unclean, God feels bad. Because he whom you think to be bad is a child of God. When we think of others as good people, holy people, and godly people who love God, God is pleased with us.

 

In addition, we must not undermine others' holiness. It's a sin to have a lewd imagination about others. You must not trample on the chastity of others. Do not talk lewd stories or abusive terms to others so that their tranquil mind turns into a raging sea. Especially, do not make children or teens have dirty memories of you deeply in their mind. The bad memory develops into a mental illness, which destroys the personality of the victims and does harm to them and others during their lifetime. When we meet others, we must always be clean and honest toward them so that we help them form a beautiful and holy character. God is pleased with those who keep their holiness and promote the holiness of others like that. “Not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God. (v. 5)” We Christians are no better than heathens if we live a life pursuing lust for sex. We are not pursuers of lust, but those of public holiness.

 

My brethren, please be beneficial to others. Please do not hurt our brothers. “That no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you. (v. 6)” You should not live a life that damages others. For example, your are ignorant of the public order if you make a noise in a quiet place. If someone tells you politely that you are disturbing him, you must check your deeds not from your point of view but from him, and immediately change your behaviour. Usually, people insist on their own stance, then yell and come to exchange blows. Should the civilized act like that? You should not do what others do not want. Above of all, do not destroy others' home! Home is the Garden of Eden. The Devil broke into the Garden of Eden and destroyed happiness. He made the members of Eden the enemy of each other. Those who destroy others' families by sex crimes are Devil's servants. God is a avenger. In other words, he is one who retaliates evil deeds and revenges the victims on the wicked. To forsake an innocent wife is a sin no less grave than murder. Sometimes, a woman with beautiful face approaches the married boss of her company to entice him and instigate him to desert his wife, and then becomes his wife. Such a wicked woman will be punished with the hot flames of the hell forever. Sometimes, a woman whose husband has become impotent gratifies sexual desire with other men. She also cannot avoid the punishment of fire. Our judicial system really falls short of its duty. If a man rapes a woman in the United States, he will be sentenced to 20 years in prison without exception. Our judges are so generous to sex offenders that a man who had abducted a woman walking along the street and raped her was given the suspension of execution because it was the first offence and an accidental crime. Judges, what are you doing?

 

It's really pathetic that the gangsters exploit the poor merchants. When will they disappear from our sight? It is indeed wrong to suspend the execution of death row for ten years. Such felonies are not worthy to be kept alive despite the victims' grievances. Look at the text of the Bible. God is an avenger. He is God who avenges evil. The clergy must relieve chagrin of the good believers in the church on behalf of God, and the government should relieve chagrin of the good people on behalf of God. It is a more valuable life to be put to death in a majestic responsibility for one's sins than to live in prison for life. By being put to death, the felon warns others not to commit rashly the sins making light of human life. (So, in the whole context, executions of willful murderers are more just and ethical than life sentences.) The more equitable punishment is to allow the families of the victims to participate in the execution as executors. on hearing this, someone may say, "What a quack sermon! (Why do you preach like that?)" But, frankly speaking, I who am saying like that is a man who is careful not to step on insects on the roads. Of course, if insects appear in the house, I punish them right away. I mean, I really hate those who deliberately hurt others because I hope that all people of the world will help one another and be happy. I really hate the selfish excuses, justifications, or rationalizations of those who satisfy their dirty greed, inflicting harm upon others. (To believe in Jesus and be saved is one thing and to take the responsibility for one's crimes in the society is another, I think.)

 

We believers really have a precious treasure in heart. It is Jesus. If Jesus were not in us, we would be of an empty character. For example, if someone pokes fun at you, you will shower abuses; if only the secret can be kept, you will commit adultery with a married woman; if you have money, you will buy even the sex of the teens; having gained a lot of money by fraud, you'll disappear; when you get mad, you'll punch your opponent. But we can not live that way. Because we are all the brides of Jesus called to God. “God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. (v. 7)” We must not live a wild life. We must not stain ourselves with wild life. Because Jesus is in us, making us God's temple. We must not make our clothes with others' resentment and tears for they are not holy clothes, but dirty ones. It is not a clean dress of the bride attending the wedding. “Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. (Rev 3:4-5)” “Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. (Rev 3:18)” “Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, >Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?< I said to him, >Sir, you know.< And he said to me, >These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.< (Rev 7:13-14)” “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. (Rev 22:14)”

 

'Holy white clothes' is the subject of this sermon. God is holy, so we must be holy; Jesus wants a chaste bride, so we must wear white robes. If our clothes are stained with sins, we can wash them with the blood of Jesus at once. Now we must reward God, if possible, for his infinite grace of eternal life with our good and clean deeds in which God delights. Holiness is power. The wicked Devil can not touch the holy ones. Holiness is the passage of grace. The blessing of heaven comes upon the holy ones. Holiness is the scent of our souls. The most precious fragrance in the world is the holy fragrance of brides of Jesus. Is there any fragrance more valuable than these - holy words and deeds? In the days of the Old Testament, God delighted in the smell of burnt offerings such as those of oxen or sheep. There is an odor that makes God more glad than that. Our holy gratitude, holy praise, holy service, holy devotion, holy love, holy righteous deeds make God really happy. This is the fragrant smell of living sacrifices. “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom 12:1-2)” “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10)”

 

May you be holy ones, and be ones who please God, and be blessed abundantly!

 

Chong Tack Kim

 

                                - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -