Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the passage we read, 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5, and reading for our text, verse 23. Verse 23. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and
verse 23. And it is the sanctification
of God's people that is the subject upon my spirit this evening. Our text is the aim an end that
is in view of the instruction that goes before it, from verse
12 through to verse 22, those instructions are given to the
end that the text will be realized. The sanctifying completely of
God's called children, their whole spirit and soul and body,
and their preservation under the coming of the Lord Jesus.
Also, it stands in the center of the aim of God's work. Verse 24, faithful is he that
calleth you who also will do it. Lest we think that all we
have to do is to follow a set of instructions and then we shall
be sanctified and holy. We are told this, that yes, we
have the means, we have the word of God, and if the Lord has called
us, one thing that he has given us is a hearing ear and a willingness
to obey the word of God. At least I trust that that is
what we have here this evening. And where that is given, the
instructions are given, We have the blessed realization that
it is not by our might or by our efforts, but it is by the
Lord's blessing upon this means. It is the Lord who has called
his people who will sanctify them and who will make them wholly
separated unto himself. And so I want to look firstly
at four important truths that are actually in the text itself,
in the verse itself, and then we look at three points as relative
to the sanctifying of God's children. The four important truths here,
the first one is this, is the nature of God. Now text begins,
the very God of peace. The people of God are to be reminded
that our Lord said, in me ye shall have peace. In the world
ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world. And we're reminded of that here,
that God is a God of peace. When our Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, The angels testified, on earth peace, goodwill toward
men. Not peace on earth, that will
not be so, but on earth peace will be known. God's dear children
in the Lord Jesus Christ will know what the peace of God that
passeth all understanding is, that shall keep their heart and
minds through Christ Jesus. And so We are reminded here of
this important truth that God is a God of peace. Our Lord said, I came not to
destroy men's lives, but to save them. The gospel of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, is very different than the law. It is a gospel of peace. The hymn writer says, peace through
his blood. He's through His blood, and that
is so vital that we realise that the offering and sacrifice of
our Lord Jesus Christ was to make of Himself one new man,
and that there should be both Jews and Gentiles, that the people
of God should be a people reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. The whole work of our Lord is
to remove that enmity, that hatred, and to bring into sweet fellowship
and friendship in his beloved son. And that is the end of the
gospel. And so where the devil comes
in and maligns and blackens our Lord, and paints him as a monster,
and paints him as one that desires only to crush and defeat the
people of God, He is a complete liar. He maligns our Lord. The Lord gives these directions,
these letters to the churches through Paul, not with an aim
of crushing them, destroying them, but bringing about peace. It is a path that makes for peace
between God and his people. the very God of peace. But secondly,
there is the nature of man. We have man set forth as a whole
being of spirit and soul and body. We know that Solomon in
Ecclesiastes, he draws the distinction of the beasts whose when they
die their spirit descends down to the earth but man he returns
to God that gave him. The soul of man is in residence
in his body and as an expression of that soul is the mind and
the spirit. How many times through the word
of God is the Spirit mentioned. The Lord Jesus Christ, He reproved
the apostles when they were called down fire to destroy those that
did not receive Him, and He said, ye know not what spirit ye are
of. Paul, when he writes to the Romans,
he exhorts to walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the deeds
of the flesh. It is not the Holy Spirit that
is spoken of here, but the Spirit in man, and a spirit that is
sanctified to be a gracious spirit, a godly spirit, a new spirit,
not the spirit of the unregenerate, but the spirit of God's people. It would be a complete contradiction
if we were to say here is a child of God, And here is one that
is hoping for heaven and bears testimony of God's work in him. And yet what is said of him is
what Abigail said of her husband, Nabal, that he is such a one
that one cannot speak unto him. He was of a terrible spirit,
and God's dear children should not have such a spirit. And so it is the person, really
the outgoing of what is in, the appearance, the soul, evidences
to men. And then there's the soul itself,
the real person, that which shall exist beyond the body and beyond
the mind and beyond the the spirit that is evidenced when that body
lies still and motion and lifeless, then that soul is with the Lord,
absent from the body, present with the Lord. And so we have
set before us here that God's children have these three parts. They have their spirit, they
have their soul, and they have their body. And it is with each
one of these is to be sanctified. And so we have the third main
point, an important point that's set before us, and that is the
sanctification of God's called people. We can see that from
verse 24, that faithful is he that calleth you. The Thessalonians
were called, and that is evident from the introduction to the
epistle. that they were a people called
out of nature's darkness and into God's marvellous light.
Sanctification is setting upon for a holy use. Come ye out from
among them, touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you
and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. This people have I formed for
myself, they shall show forth my praise. is a people that is
wrought upon by the Spirit and taught so that they take on the
nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, ye shall find rest
unto your souls. For you yoke together, walk together,
disciples walking with the Lord, they learned His Spirit, they
learned His teaching, They were brought to be like him. And so
the apostle says, be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ. And that we are to run the race
that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. It's a very vital,
important doctrine, the sanctification of God's people, setting apart
the work in their hearts and in their lives to make them a
people not as they were by nature, but as they are by God's grace,
showing forth His praise in all they say, in all they do, in
all that they act. And so we have that truth that
is set forth here. The very God of peace sanctify
you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which brings the last important
point, and that is the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
future coming. He has come, and he has promised
that he will come again, and with power and great glory. At
the end of chapter four, we have the apostle comforting, The Thessalonians,
those who thought their loved ones had died and perished, they
hadn't perished, they were with the Lord. And when the Lord came
at the last day, they would come with him, and the dead in Christ
should rise first, and those that were alive would be caught
up with him in the clouds. So shall we be forever with the
Lord, and he says, comfort one another with these words. The Thessalonians had been called,
and one of the effects of that calling was to, in verse 10 of
chapter one, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he
raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath
to come. The Lord will come. again. He is on the throne and no nations
and no ruler of nations will ever rob him of his glory and
of his people or cause that his plan and his purpose in salvation
will not come to pass. The Lord is a faithful God and
he has set forth what shall happen and what he will do with his
people And when he calls his people, he doesn't just leave
them to themselves, but he works in their hearts and in their
lives. And it is that when he comes,
they shall lift up their head with joy. They shall look forward
to it. They shall long for that day. They shall see the Lord and to
be with him forever and ever. So these four things, very important. Doctrines, teachings are found
in our text, but it is the third point concerning the sanctification
of God's children that I want to speak on this evening. So firstly, in three points,
firstly the end in view, the aim in view of the instructions
and of God's work, the sanctification of God's children. Then secondly,
the instructions that are given, to notice the specific instructions. There are two concerning men,
or how we react and deal with men, and there are seven that
are specific to our walk before the Lord. And then thirdly, God
who will effect that sanctification and preservation. Faithful is
he that calleth you who also will do it. Firstly, the aim that is in view. Our God is a God that has his
own counsel and purpose and aim and sometimes those things are
not revealed to us but other times it is revealed to us what
God's purpose is, what his aim is. Really in the promises that
were Given to our first parents, his aim, his purpose was to bring
the seed of the woman to bruise the serpent's head. And that
overarching aim over those 4,000 years was what all the types
and the shadows all pointed to and culminated in the perfect
sacrifice at Calvary of our Lord Jesus Christ. We think of those
shorter Ames, where the Lord promised to Abraham a son, and
that son in Isaac was given, and then promised that his seed
should inherit the land where he was, and 430 years after that
promise was made, they were brought to Mount Sinai, and then into
that promised land. And so we have the promises and
instruction concerning the Church of God that runs right through
the Scriptures. Our Lord, to those on the way
to Emmaus, He said to them, Ought not Christ suffer these things
and to enter into His glory? And the Lord had this aim and
this purpose, and the aim here is for his people, those people
for whom he died. I lay down my life for the sheep. He says of the scribes and the
Pharisees, you are not of my sheep, therefore you hear not
my word. But my sheep, they hear my voice,
they follow me. And here in the word of God,
we have the voice of the Lord. The Thessalonians, they received
the word from the apostle Paul, Not as the Word of man, but as
it is in truth, the Word of God. And it is the purpose of God
that through the Word, through the washing of water by the Word,
as we have it set before us in Ephesians and chapter 5, that
He might, in verse 26, that He might sanctify and cleanse it. That is the Church of God that
He loved and gave Himself for. that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. That is God's aim, and that is
why the Apostle here brings the Word of God to the Thessalonians
with the aim that they be sanctified through that word. May we always
remember this. Those of us who have been called
and may be grown under a body of death, feel much the pull
of the world and the working of our old nature, our sinful,
evil heart that God's children always have. We are called to
a constant battle with the corruptions of our own heart daily. When
we think of sanctification, we do not believe in progressive
sanctification in the sense that we shall get better and better
and better, and by the time we die, be almost like the saints
in heaven, perfect. God's children will always have
an old nature, but they will grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord, and they will grow in sanctification as well, as
they learn the Lord's will, not just by word, but as He chastens
them, corrects them, as He guides them, makes known His will to
them, gives them of His Spirit, and He separates them from the
world and the ways of the world, and that they walk in obedience
to Him. And we would be mindful this
is the end that God has in view. And when we read Hebrews 12,
we know that he chastens every son whom he receiveth. And he's
a great blessing if we discern the Lord is chastening us, correcting
us. He won't let us get away with
sin, away with worldly things, but will be all the time dealing
with us as a father, with this end in view. And we're not to
faint, we're not to be discouraged. When the things we go through,
they bring the scum to the surface, they make known to us our sin,
our evil heart. We're not to be discouraged.
We might think, well, how can I make myself better? How can
I cleanse myself? How can I escape the rod? How
can I stop all these things happening? The Lord has ordained it is through
much tribulation that we are to enter the kingdom. And it
is through these things that we actually are made to be more
like the Lord. It is the Lord's chosen appointed
way that those tribulations working right, says the hymn writer,
produce a patient mind. The Lord does have an end in
view. He doesn't just let His people
just drift through this world and just go on and there be no
teaching, no correction, no instruction, no end in view. And when we are
mindful of how worldly we are, carnal we are, things that are
not right, if the Lord has a favour towards us, He will deal with
us. And if we don't listen to His
Word and don't obey His Word, then He will bring the rod And
then you bring us to hear the rod and who has appointed it,
and open our ear. We are to have a hearing ear
to what the Spirit saith unto the churches, and the word of
the Lord is to have that sanctifying, separating, gracious effect upon
us. And this is the aim of the Lord. And we need to ask ourselves
each time we read the word, each time we gather together, what
effect has the word upon us? The Lord speaks of the parable
of the one that built his house upon the sand and one that built
his house upon the rock. And what he was illustrating
was the one that was a doer of the word and not hearer only. The word of the Lord is to affect
what we do and how we act, how we talk, and it is in that way
that the Lord sanctifies and makes his people to be what he
would have them to be. How they are to walk, how they
are to think, how they are to speak, how they are to act, how
they are to show forth his praise in this present generation. And so may we keep in mind that
aim, and that aim be ours as well. That we desire that we
might be more like Christ, more weaned from the world, more separated
from it, more cleansed from our besetting sins, delivered from
the power and dominion of it. And sometimes we might really
feel to despair and wonder how can we ever go on? How can this ever be effected? And sometimes we might lean to
our own understanding and think, well, this is all up to me. I
must do it. I must sanctify myself. And then
we can veer the other way and say, no, it must be all God's
work, not my work at all. And then we end up sinning, that
grace might abound and walking in a careless way and almost
blaming God for how we are. But when we have our text here,
the aim set right in the middle of two things. It's right in
the middle of first, instruction through the Word to us how to
walk, but lest we should think that these are things that be
by our own power. If we obey them, then we are
going to be sanctified. It's put the other side, that
is the Lord that will do it. The Lord uses means and he uses
his word and he makes his people willing in the day of his power.
And we do, and I speak to myself, we need to bear in mind this
balance of the word, obedience and hearkening to the word and
the power of God that is put forth with the word. It is not
us that do it. The apostle says regarding his
ministry, his work, I laboured more abundantly than them all. But then he says, yet not I,
but the grace of God that was with me. And he puts the two
together. He did labour. He did wrestle. He did. Count not his life dear
unto him that he might minister the word, but he ascribe all
to the grace of God. And that is how we need to walk
as well. Let this aim in view. May we never be content with,
as it were, just being saved, just scraping through this world,
just with a baptism or a name to live, but our lives so much
really like the world and not like the Lord at all. May we
truly be separated, sanctified, a holy people, as Peter says,
be ye holy, for I am holy, as the Lord testifies that. We are to be a people that reflects
the holiness of God, and without holiness, No man shall see the
Lord. So we need to be not only called,
but we need to be sanctified. And that is a work that goes
on right the way through our lives every day. And every day
we need the Word and need what is set before us here. So I want
to look then secondly at the instructions that are given in
the context of our text. First of all, we have two instructions
that are towards men. If we look at verse 12 and 13,
we could summarize that here is the attitude of a soul to
their minister, to the one that is laboring amongst them, one
that is admonishing them, and that they are to esteem them,
they are to know them, and they are to love them for their work's
sake, and that they are to be at peace among themselves, so
that that word has free course and be glorified. If God is to
use the ministry and to use his word to the blessing of your
soul and mine, then we cannot be despising, hating, undermining
the minister the pastor that is bringing the word. There must
be an esteeming of the servants of the Lord. The Lord said that
he that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me
receiveth him that sent me. There is a direct link. You cannot
have those that are saying, we are being taught directly by
God, we are having words from the Lord, and we're not having
it from man, and we're not being told by man what to do. And speaking
to a pastor and a minister who is admonishing and correcting
them in that way is never a sign of grace and never a way to being
sanctified. And that is then put first. And may we truly have a right
attitude. We could extend that to the word
itself and esteeming the words of God as the inspired, infallible
word of God. Not just saying, well, that's
the word of Paul. And well, we don't esteem all
of these words as inspired word of God. No, in the very beginning,
should be how we esteem the word that is brought to us and of
the Lord's servants. But then there's a general instruction
in verses 13 and 14. It is not only esteeming them
highly for their work's sake, but it is the exhortation to
in our relation to others, and that verse 14 is of course to
those that minister through the word, but really to all of the
brethren, to support the weak, be patient toward all men, see
that we render not evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow
that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. And so there's specific directions
in how we act and react to others. Not saying, well, he spoke an
evil against me, I'm going to speak evil against him. And he
has been horrible to me, I'll be horrible to him. And reacting
in that way, we are told here that we, to not render evil for evil,
unto any man. And so these are the first two
instructions and it centres on people, the minister, the one
that's bringing the word, and then the brethren and any man,
how we act towards them. If we're seeking to be sanctified,
to be blessed in our souls and like Christ, we won't be known
as an angry, unreasonable man, one that has always got a sharp
tongue, and is hard to get along with, and hard to be told anything,
and obnoxious. We should look to how we are
known and how we appear before other men. Remember, our text
and the character of God, the very God of peace. And may we also be men and women
of peace. But then secondly, there are
three, there are seven, sorry, seven directions as to how we
walk primarily in secret before God. The first one is that we
are to rejoice. In verse 16, rejoice evermore. You might say, why is this put
first? The whole desire, if we are sanctified,
is that desire that we be with Christ, is a realization that
we have been extended the greatest blessing that ever a poor sinner
can have. that the Lord has chosen him
and called him and suffered and bled for him and appointed a
place in heaven for him. And for such a one that realizes
that, to go forth in this world murmuring, complaining, miserable,
horrible, one thinks, do you not realize what you've been
called to? Do you not realise what a privilege,
what a blessing that that is? Do you not have a hope beyond
the grave? The beginning of this chapter,
it speaks of sudden destruction cometh. But it says, but ye brethren
are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a
thief. You know, death came into the
world because of sin. But because of sin and because
of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, Through death, the people
of God shall be free of this body of sin and death, free of
Satan's temptations, free of this world. And all that desire
to be sanctified here below shall be fully realized in heaven above. Perfection awaits there. That
bliss awaits above. And it is to always be mindful
of that, to rejoice evermore. rejoicing at God's finished work,
rejoicing in the interest that the Lord has shown that we have
in what He has done. May we not be those that by our
demeanour act as if the Lord has never given us or shown us
anything at all, when the greatest blessing is to be chosen, redeemed,
separated, unto the Lord. So that comes first. And really,
that will put a covering or a saver over everything else that we
do. We serve a good master, a loving
Lord, one who has commended his love toward us that while we
were yet sinners, he died for us. And we are not at home, we
are bought with a price. And the apostle says, As a consequence
of that, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are His. And so it is necessary that we
do bear in mind what a privilege and blessing it is to be a child
of God, one that is called. The second thing is a direction
to unceasing prayer. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a man
of prayer that spent whole nights in prayer. He is the one that
directed us to pray all way and not to faint. He spoke of the
parable of the unjust judge and the widow, and shall not God
avenge his own elect that cry day and night unto him? How often we can leave this out. Remember in our text, The Apostle
Paul is praying for this very blessing. He says, I pray God,
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless. Well, if he is praying that,
how much more should we, or in the context here, should the
Thessalonians be praying for themselves that they be sanctified
and preserved? And so maybe be encouraged. how
often we are so short in prayer, we don't dwell on points, we're
not specific, and we so get those feeble knees and weak hands,
and we need to be exhorted to more prayer. If you and I are
to be sanctified and to be delivered from our sins and our habits
and the evils of our heart, we will be praying, men and women,
Pray without ceasing. The third thing is giving thanks
and giving thanks for all things. In everything give thanks for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. You might have come this evening
asking, Lord, what is thy will? What is thy will concerning me? Well, here is one of the answers.
This is the will of God In Christ Jesus concerning you, you give
thanks. So you don't know what I'm walking
through and what I've got in front of me and what's been going
on in my life and in the Church of God, how can I give thanks?
Can you find anything to give thanks? We're to make known our
requests unto God with thanksgivings. But are we to make our requests
first, then wait for the answer, and then give thanks? Or are
we, as the hymn writer says, be thankful for present and then
ask for more? To dwell first upon what the
Lord has already done, giving thanks for His calling, thanks
for our homes, our health and our strength, for the Word of
God, for the preaching of the Word, for the instruction of
it, the thanks for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, thanks
for the brethren, our many things. there are that we should give
thanks for. In everything give thanks. Those
trials that the Lord uses for good, those contravised blessings,
those things that we looked as if it was evil but the Lord brought
good out of it, those things that we might struggle to find
something to give thanks for, There was the story, the account
of a man that had bought some meat, and a dog, and he gave
him thanks for that meat. The dog came and he stole the
meat. He said to those round about,
I thank God I still got my appetite, and to find something to give
thanks to God for, even in adversity. And may we remember this, this
third direction and instruction to us in sanctification. The fourth thing is this in verse
19, quench not the spirit. Quench not the spirit. Really
the illustration here is the spirit is as it were as a fire
that is burning And you're going to put something on it to quench
that fire and to take it away. And we are exhorted that we grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
Jesus Christ, but especially it is our own spirit as well
as the Holy Spirit. And there's nothing like the
worthiness, things that we hear and look at. Things that then
take away our appetite for the Word of God, that brings in the
old nature and stirs it up and strengthens it. Those things,
they quench the spirit. We could put under this as well,
that concerning the conscience. It's a great blessing to have
a tender conscience. A conscience that very soon and
easy is wounded and is not trodden on, unheeded, ignored, and gone
on in spite of it. That still small voice, an unctuous
light to all that is right, a bar to all that is wrong. We are
to pay heed to this instruction, to quench not the spirit. The fifth thing, despise not
prophesying or despise not prophecy. I take it really to mean specifically
the Old Testament and the prophecies therein of our Lord Jesus Christ
and all that is in them most solemnly. In these days sometimes
you hear such disparaging remarks regarding the Old Testament.
I remember once even at the Pilgrim Home I was reproved by one of
the residents because I had preached from the Old Testament and one
wonders at the state, the condition of a pilgrim that could say such
things. When we think of our Lord on
the way to Emmaus and Philip preaching to the eunuch, the
Old Testament is so rich and full of all of the Word of God
and of our Lord Jesus Christ. promises given, promises fulfilled,
the people of God and the ancient Israel through whom our Lord
came. And may we never despise any
part of the Word of God. Despise not prophesies. Then we have the sixth, to prove
and to hold, prove all things Hold fast that which is good. Some things we might not really
see at first, whether it is good or not, whether we can do it,
whether we can go to this place or take this company or go with
this person. But as we walk it out, we prove
it. And if we attend to them, we'll
notice what effect does this have upon our spirit. When we
look at this program on the internet, Follow this man's ministry. How does it affect us? What fruit
comes from it? And it covers all things. Prove all things. Just because
we start to go in a way, doesn't mean to say that we have to continue
in it. As soon as we discern and see
that it is not working for good, it is not the way of the Lord
or not in a sanctifying way, then we are to let go of that
and to depart from that. But where it is a good thing,
hold fast that which is good. Some might get so involved with
genealogies or with history and prove that it is not good. and
it's a thing not to hold fast to. Others we might start to
consecutively read the scriptures through and we prove it to be
a very profitable and good and right way and we stick to that
and we adhere to that because we proved the blessing that is
through it. So prove all things, hold fast
that which is good. And then we have the seventh
one, abstain from all appearance of evil. Not just evil, but just
the appearance of it. Not just how we view it, but
how others may view it as well. And sometimes it's those things
that we may be able to do with a clear conscience, but yet others
in viewing it, it may have the appearance of evil. We may need
to have to explain what we're doing or how we're acting in
that way, and in that way we're to abstain from it. And these things, these seven
things, are set before us as instructions and direction before
our text. And the text then begins with
an and, which joins, joins all of those instructions together.
We obey, we follow, we regard and esteem that word that we
have read. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly. And I pray your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. What an end that is put to all
of those directions. who then can look on those things
that we've set before you and say, well, they're not important. They're not valuable. There's
not benefit in following them. There is. And then it brings
our attention to them in, you might say, a small compass, a
little volume of these verses in this chapter that is the direction
Here's the handbook, if you like, of those that would be sanctified. But we want to look at the last
point, which is God, who will affect salvation and preservation. Because we have in verse 24,
faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. We think of the Apostles' words
to the Romans, that if when we were yet sinners Christ died
for us, how much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life. The teaching is, if the Lord
has shown mercy in calling us, then he'll also show mercy and
greater mercy to us when we are called. And in this context here,
it is in sanctifying us, not partly, but wholly. And I take
this not only to be in our several parts in how we act in our body
and our soul and our spirit, but really in every part of our
lives. Not just to be sanctified when
we're in the house of God and act like little angels in the
house of God, but as soon as we're in our workplace or in
our homes, we're like different people, you know, with God's
children. It is wherever they are, whenever
they are, it is holy, it is completely, it's the one complete being,
one person that is not two different persons in different situations. It is one person. And we are
reminded here, work of sanctification is God's work. His power is put
forth for his people. Those who seek to walk in this
word and yet they feel to come so short, they seem so poor and
their efforts so, so feeble. And yet as they cry unto the
Lord and the Lord faithfully, he does it. He is the one that
is able to change the heart renew the will, turn our feet to Zion's
hill. Here's the one that in Ezekiel
36, again and again, he says he will do it for his great name's
sake. Give them a new heart, cleanse
them, turn them, all of the blessings. You can read them in Ezekiel
36. And he says, I will for this
being acquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. May we never lose sight. that
it is God's power, and may we have the balance right, not just
fatalistically look to the Lord and then live carelessly, not
live as if, well, it all depended upon us, but that we might live,
yes, walk as if it did on us, but always have our eyes unto
the Lord, that we might be able to say with the apostles that
we did labour, more abundantly than all in these points. And
yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. The secret
of the Lord, which is with them that fear him, really the secret
of sanctification is set forth in our text and what goes before
it and what goes after it. And may the Lord give us that
desire, that this be our work, our path that we walk in and
that we are those that are sanctified and made meat for the Master's
use and live to his honour and to his glory. May the Lord add
his blessing. Amen.