 Hi, this is Pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California. We've been doing a study through the book of 1 Thessalonians, and recently I taught chapter 4 verses 1 through 8, a study I called the Believer's Walk. In the third chapter, as Paul is closing that section, he exhorts the church to live out a life that is abounding in love and prays that the Lord would establish their hearts blameless in holiness as they await the Lord Jesus Christ. The point he was making was that if God's love filled their hearts, their lives would reveal it. He was also making it clear that the love of God and their love for God would provoke them to live lives that were pleasing to the Lord, and that a life that is pleasing to God would include the way that they treat one another. The simple fact is, if their hearts were established in holiness, and if they were loving each other and awaiting the return of Jesus, their relationships with one another would be a testimony to a world that was unholy, uninvolved with Jesus, and unloving towards one another. With his in mind, Paul commanded the church to abstain from sexual immorality. This means that a life that is set apart for God is known for sexual purity because Christian holiness demands complete rejection of all sexual immorality. During that day, as it is also true in our day, fornication in general sexual immorality was extremely common and generally accepted by the population. As a matter of historic fact, for pagan Greeks it was considered unreasonable to encourage people to sexual restraint. At that time, it was assumed that a man would find sexual pleasure outside of marriage. Because of this, sexual activity was lightly regarded and widely accepted as natural. Sexual satisfaction was considered a biological drive similar to physical hunger. So if somebody is hungry, they eat to satisfy their hunger. Because hunger was a natural desire, they reasoned that if somebody desired sexual relationships because such desires are natural, it would also be permissible to satisfy them in any way they might desire. They even had a saying at that time, food for the stomach and stomach for the food, which is another way of saying that natural drives should be satisfied whenever they presented themselves. The entire society did not consider sexual immorality to be sinful and sadly the church had been severely influenced by such a belief. Even in our day and even in the church, there is a tremendous lack of understanding on this subject. Sexual intimacy outside of marriage destroys the foundation of intimacy established in the covenant of marriage. God designed this kind of intimacy to be enjoyed between a man and a woman in the covenant of holy matrimony. With the intent of providing pleasure for the married couple as well as the potential for producing godly offspring that would carry forward the truth concerning God and his plans for mankind. We know that unrepentant continuation in fornication is a sin that keeps a person from entering into heaven. To the Ephesians, Paul said, No fornicator has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience. Our bodies are to be reserved for God and not lived in passion of lust like those who do not know God, which brings me to the thought I wanted to share with you today. Paul said that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter. I wanted to remind you of the simple fact that we don't always marry the one we have been intimate with. In many such cases, those engaged in this sin often stop seeing one another. Often the believer experiences deep sorrow, repents, and is restored to fellowship with the Lord. They go on and meet and then marry someone else and fail to realize one simple fact. When they had intercourse with someone they were not married to, they were defrauding the one who would one day marry them. The fact is promiscuity before marriage represents the robbing of someone else of the virginity that should have been brought into the marriage. This means that the future partner of such a person has been defrauded of that which was rightfully theirs. I realize that almost every couple that has developed a relationship that ends up in marriage is now engaged in conversations concerning previous relationships and that many confess that they have given up their purity before meeting the one that they now desire to marry. For some, this is the new normal, but the question I would ask at this point is, why? Why should this be necessary? Why not keep yourself pure and free from the necessity of that kind of conversation? I would also remind you that even if you are engaged to be married and refer to them as their fiance, the fact is if you're engaged in sexual sin it is not acceptable to God. God has called us to holiness, not to uncleanness. My exhortation to you today is to confess and forsake this sin and to live a life that is self-controlled and pure before God and man. As Paul said, this is the will of God, your sanctification that you should abstain from sexual immorality. This is Pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California.