Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to 1 Thessalonians and chapter
4 and we'll read verse 1 for our text. It is the latter part
of the verse specifically upon my spirit but the whole verse
reads furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by
the lord jesus that as you have received of us how ye ought to
walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. And it is the specific part as
to how ye ought to walk and to please God. 1 Thessalonians chapter
4 and verse 1. how important the walk of a Christian
is. Many that have no idea of the
doctrines of grace, or have maybe never even gone into a house
of prayer, they don't know anything of the word, but they know what
they see. And they see of those that even
may not have made a profession in word before the church, but
in coming in and out of the house of God and in going amongst the
people of God, the world looks upon those and they judge them
and they judge the doctrine that they hold or the truth that they
hold by how it affects them in their lives, what they do and
what they say. The Lord in his day warned his
people of the scribes and the Pharisees, solemn thing, that
the Lord should warn against the religious leaders of his
day. He said, do what they say you
to do. that do not after their works,
for they say and they do not. I solemn think that there could
be a case where the teaching is right but the walk is wrong.
And so the apostle in writing to the Thessalonians here, he
uses very strong language as it were, he beseeches them, he
pleads with them, and he exhorts them, he writes to them as brethren,
writes to them as the Lord's people. You mustn't think that
just because grace is received, just because a person is saved
that automatically they will walk and they will do the right
thing in the sight of God. The blessing of grace is to give
a hearing ear and a willingness to be taught. And really it is
a blessed thing if we are aware that in the Word of God there
are the directions how we should walk and how we are to please
God. Now may we be very clear in this
that we are not saved by our works. This is not setting before
us a way that we can please God so God will look upon us and
forgive us our sins and that that will be our hope for heaven
based upon our obedience and our walk. The title to heaven
is not by our righteousness, which is filthy rags, but through
Christ's work alone. It stands upon The Lord Jesus
Christ dying for our sins on Calvary's tree, putting them
away by the sacrifice of himself. That is our basis, our hope. When I see the blood, the promise
is I'll pass over you. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. It is that Christ has died for
us that is the title to The forgiveness of sins is through what Christ
has done. Our fitness for heaven is when,
through the grace of God, He brings us to believe by being
called by His grace. And then that faith that He gives
is the means of conveying the blessings that have been purchased
by Christ. of those blessings is the imputed
righteousness of Christ, imputed or put upon our account. And that again is what we appear
in the presence of God with, not our own righteousness, but
Christ's righteousness. So what we have here, really
it belongs to time. It belongs while we're in the
day of grace, It belongs while we are in this world, while we
are sinners, while we cannot expect that our work will be
perfect because it is stained with sin. It is not pointing
beyond the grave, it is not pointing to a people that are perfect
but sinners and directing them. how they are to walk and please
God. And you think, how could it be
that a poor sinner shall please God? Well, it is when, firstly,
the things that they are doing and walking, they're not looking
to obtain salvation by that. They're looking solely to Christ.
That pleases God. And it pleases the Lord where
He sees those fruits that accompany that saving grace and that willingness
of a people to walk in obedience to Him. Really the secret to abounding
more and more is in our walk and our conduct. that we do not
grieve the Lord, we do not grieve His Spirit, but we as obedient
children, not fashioning ourselves according to our lusts in our
ignorance, but as He which hath called us is holy, so we also
are to be holy in all things. To the Apostle he is writing,
to the Thessalonians here, and is speaking to them so that they
would know how that they ought to walk and please God. It really would be useless to
be beseeching a people and exhorting them if there was no clear points
of exhortation and clear direction, what was actually wanted. and what was to be walked in. And so we would expect that following
this, that the apostle says, although it would take in all
his letters to the Thessalonians, all parts of them, but I want
to this evening just confine our thoughts to this chapter
alone, in which we have five things that are set before us
to watch as to our walk and our conduct before God. How ye ought to walk and to please
God. The first thing that the apostle
says before them is a path of holiness. He says in verse 3, For this
is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should
abstain from fornication. And he begins with this right
at the very start. And if we look at this world,
you don't have to look far, newspapers or any news or anything that
you see. and you see uncleanness and you
see the spirit of the world in that which is unholy. The very
first distinctive thing that God sets before his people is
that quality, if you like, that is so unique and belongs to our
Lord as being holy. Peter especially deals with it
in his epistles, Be ye holy for I am holy. And in all of our
thoughts and our affections and in our walk, we are to be holy,
the opposite to being unclean and worldly, and not just in
how we walk, but how we speak and how we think. And it is even
guarded in the Word of God. It is said that it is even a
shame for the people of God to speak of those things that the
world does in secret. We are to avoid all innuendo,
all speaking that stirs up the mind and the wrong affections. James, he speaks of the power
of the tongue. The children of Israel, when
they went into the promised land, one of the things that they had
to destroy of the nations that they went amongst was the pictures. And the power of something that
is a picture to look upon is a very powerful influence. And those nations, they didn't
fear God. They were unholy, and their pictures
was of their gods and of many unclean and wrong things. And
so the first thing for those that fear God Those that desire
to walk in His ways are to pay specific regard to a holy and
clean and upright walk. And remembering that this is
one of the great hallmarks of the Fall is unholiness. And the great hallmarks and the
one thing that needs to be guarded right at the very beginning with
a child of God is that holiness. It's something that the world
will certainly notice and it is something in a child of God
that he'll have the most battle with and the most conflict with. The corruptions of his own heart,
the unholiness of his own heart, And so that is the first thing
that we have said before us. The exhortations through the
word are to mortify the deeds of the body and to walk holy
as the Lord is holy himself. The second thing that is said
before us in this portion is a path of brotherly love. In verse 9, 9 and 10. We have but as touching brotherly
love, ye need not that I should write unto you, for yourselves
are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it
toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia, But we
beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more." Very
much he exhorts in this not to rest, content, and think, well,
I'm walking all right in this respect, but to exhort more and
more in this way. In John's epistles, we read,
by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples indeed, in
that ye love one another. the very mark of being a child
of God. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. And the solemn
reminder that whoso hateth his brother is a murderer and eternal
life does not abide in him. And we are pointed to perceiving
the love of God in that The Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life
for us. God commended his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And our Lord said that greater
love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his
friends. And John, he takes it up and
says that we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. And really there's no sadder
witness to the world when the world looks upon the Church of
God and it finds them fighting amongst themselves. finds that
there is not love in what they say and what they do and how
they act one towards another. And so the Apostle sets this
forth in the second place and we especially notice that he
puts it second after holiness. So that brotherly love is a pure
love. We wouldn't think of the case
of Jonathan and David, that they loved each other, and the love
that surpassed the love of women, but it was a pure love. They
loved for the Lord's sake, and that purity, holiness comes first,
and then the love to the brethren second, emphasizing that love
is a right, clean, and pure love to the brethren. Those that are
called, those that are walking together here below will be together
in heaven. They will be with the Lord, be
together, walking together and may that be so that we have that
evidence here below and strive for it. He exhorts here, He beseeches
here and we know that Satan He is a divider of the brethren. He is a whisperer that separateth
chief brethren. Backbiting, gossiping, speaking
against one another is always damaging, always grieving, grieving
to the Spirit. What the Apostle was saying before,
the Thessalonians here, is how you ought to walk and to please
God and when the Lord sees his people dwelling together in peace
and love and union that pleases the Lord and may we be blessed
with that help to walk in that way. All of these points really
is the apostle sets them before the Thessalonians and before
us May we seek that grace and help turning each point into
a prayer, that the Lord would help us to walk in that way. Then we have in the third place,
working for our living. In verse 11 we have, that ye
study to be quiet, and to do your own business and to work
with your own hands as we commanded you. The Thessalonians, they
at first had thought that the Lord's coming was so eminent
that they were selling their lands, they were really putting
their whole lives on hold and shutting everything down waiting
for the Lord's coming. But then they ended up being
busybodies just with nothing to do going from house to house,
making a nuisance of themselves. And they weren't providing for
their own. They were leaving their own families
without the provision. And the apostle then had to counter
that, that they had to work. They had to study to do their
own business. And he says before them in another
place, if a man does not work, neither should he eat. And it
comes then to our workplace, and we spend a lot of time in
secular employment, and we should take our faith there. Men should
see and know our faith in that workplace. Many blessings that
I have had in the workplace, in the presence of unbelievers,
many trials as well, but many blessings and many helps. And
God certainly honours those that honour him and work diligently
and usefully with their hands. Idleness is never condoned by
the Lord. And we're not to think that,
well, godliness is just to spending lots of time in reading and prayer
or studying but it is that right balance and certainly we are
to have those employments. I always remember the time that
I had to preach years ago at the Black Boys, it was an evening
service and I was working then, I was servicing 10 machines for
a pharmaceutical company that I'd made and designed, designer
made. It was the other side, it was in Basildon. And I had
to get back to that evening service. But I had to get those machines
done. I was working as fast as I could.
I'd got another employee with me. And I was also in the company
car. And I had to race back to Cogseath
area. and drop off the car, drop off
the other employee, and get down to Black Boys. And I knew I wasn't
going to make it in time. I phoned through to the deacon. I gave him the readings. I said,
look, start the service. Hopefully, I'll be there by the
time the sermon comes. And I hardly had time to go home. I ended up, I think it was a
blue shirt, colored tie, and all sorts I ended up turning
up there with. I got in to that chapel after
all those miles journey, and as I opened the door at the vestry,
I heard just three words and realised they were the last part
of the reading I'd given, so the prayer was next. So I put
down my book, so I opened the door to the chapel, which was
right at the front of the chapel, And Sid Hickman, who was the
deacon then, he looked at me and said, you're right to take
the prayer. Went straight up into the pulpit,
took the service from there. And in all the going along, I'd
almost forgotten why I hadn't been thinking of what my text
was. And the text was that if a man
do not work, then neither should he eat. And I remember speaking
on that occasion that there may be those there that had work
that made it very hard to get off on time for an evening service,
as I had found it very hard. But rather than say, well, I'm
not going to get the start of the service, I'm going to miss
the whole service, just get what you can. Just come in at the
tail end, if you like, or just hear the sermon. Because the
Lord has given that it is right to work with our hands. It would
be wrong to turn down employment, as it were, saying, well, that
is going to impact upon an evening service or part of that evening
service. Of course, regarding the Lord's
Day, there are those employments that must be had, acts of mercy
in the hospitals or fire service or police. And it is good when
we are able to reduce the time away from the Lord's house, able
to get to the Lord's house. But we need to be so tender on
that. The Lord has given that man must
labour for his food. And there are many professions
that, like the nursing profession, that do impact sometimes on meeting
in the house of God. And it is a great blessing if
we're able to glorify the Lord in what we do and those around
about us can see see where our heart is, and though we are working,
maybe laboring, and I'm sure they knew, well they did know
that, where I was working, and I was so wanting to get to the
house of God, of course in that sense that I was the preacher.
But I hope it's so with us all, that when we're aiming to leave
our workplace, especially on those times for the house of
God, that those round about us, they know this is why we want
to go. This is where we're hoping to
go. So the way in pleasing God is
not just all what we might think of in godly spiritual exercises,
but in how we labour with our hands, how we actually act and
apply ourselves in our business. Study to be quiet and to do your
own business, to work with your own hands as we commanded you."
And of course, in today's thing, many of the work is with our
brains as well, but the principle is the same. So that is the third
aspect of the walk and conduct of a child of God, not just a
Sunday religion, not just an evening religion, but that which
is carried right through in the workplace and before unbelievers,
which is then the fourth thing that he sets before us in verse
12. that ye may walk honestly toward
them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. In the midst of unbelievers,
that was meant by those that are without, those that are outside
of the church, those that are unbelievers, that we're walking
honestly before them. Many years ago, when I first
started the work, engineering firm over in Australia. I was
only 24 at the time. And when I first started, the
accountant came to me and offered me, it was $450 or so a year,
for the use of my car for the business. And I said to him,
but I don't use the car for my business, so I'm not having the
money, thank you very much. He said, yeah, but he said, we
all do it. He said, it's just a tax thing. He said, you can
just claim it. I said, no. I said, I'm not claiming
it. You keep your money because I'm
not using my car. And they put a lot of pressure
on. And I refused to have it. And it set me apart, right, at
very first when I started without employment. But then, years later,
12 years later or more, When we came over here, I resigned
from my employment there to come over here. And three days later,
that same employer, he said to me, you're only going to a small
pasture. You need a job there. He said,
we'll set you up with an office there. We'll give you a contract.
And they gave me 8,000 pounds. That's a lot of money, 25 or
26 years ago, to set up an office here in Cranbrook. and to work
for them, their contract. And I thought, that's a lot of
trust, to trust me with all that money. And then my mind went
back to that time, and I thought, yeah, you know, from what I did
then, that by the grace of God, I wouldn't misuse that. I would
only use it in the right way. And he puts a lot of obligation,
as it were, one little bit of dead fly in the ointment, one
mistake, one slip, how easy it can completely be marred. But the world notices and they
remember. And what you do before them,
they do mark it. I've made mistakes many times. And many times I've had to go
to those that I've walked in a wrong way before and had to
tell them I did wrong. The way I spoke to you was wrong.
I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have said that. And
the quicker we can apologize or set things right or humble
ourselves before those of whom we have said anything that is
wrong or not according to the scriptures, the better. And they
actually, again, will admire and look favourably upon a faith
that would actually confess the faults. The Word of God is clear
to confess your faults one to another. So the Apostle, when he's set
before them and us how to walk and to please God, he's covering
a very real practical place for the people of God. in this world. Then he comes to the last part,
a very well-known passage from verse 13 to the end, often read
in funerals, and a beautiful word. It begins with, but I would
not have you to be ignorant, brethren. And it gives you the
very clear direction as to what shall happen at the last day. Again, these Thessalonians, they
thought that those that had died, they'd perished. Their loved
ones had perished. But no, the apostle says, they're
not. He says, I would have you not
to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. And then he tells
what the truth is, that if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus God will bring
with him. They're souls, they are alive,
they're with God, they're with the Lord. Absent from the body,
said the apostle, present with the Lord. And then he pictures
what shall happen at that last day. And he speaks of it as them. But of course, the apostle has
died. And we know not who shall be
the Lord's people alive when the Lord comes. But he says,
for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which
are alive and remain, yes, there will be those of the Lord's people
alive and remaining until the coming of the Lord, when the
world shall end, the Lord shall come with power and great glory
in the clouds of heaven. Those that are alive shall not
prevent or go before them which are asleep. Those that have died
and have been buried, when the Lord comes and the Lord descends
from heaven, then the dead in Christ shall rise first. Those that remain on the earth
shall see those graves open and the dead in Christ shall rise. They shall be given a new body,
a celestial body, and then he says we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
lord in the air so shall we ever be with the lord it's a beautiful
passage a passage which ends with wherefore comfort one another
with these words and the very words that we are to comfort
one another with are given us in the Word of God. It is a beautiful
passage to be taken so literally, the very words there that we
are to use to those that are in bereavement and have sorrow. But the special principle that
I bring before you as how we ought to walk and to please God
is that we walk in knowledge and not ignorance. The beginning
in verse 13, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning. And we could say that concerning
many, many things. What is pleasing to God is with
his people. Rather than being ignorant, they
are instructed by the word of God. When the Lord rose from
the dead, he appeared to his disciples and he opened their
understanding that they might understand the scriptures. The
Bereans were very concerned when they heard Paul preach that what
he was preaching was according to the Old Testament scriptures.
They searched the scriptures daily whether these things were
so. And the people of God are not
to be an ignorant people. We mentioned as the first point
concerning holiness and we are told that we are not to fashion
ourselves according to our ignorance, when we were in ignorance. It
is when knowledge is come, when understanding is given, then
we are to walk according to that knowledge. Ignorance is really
no excuse. And it is not even in our land.
If we were to go down the road and get caught speeding, the
officer said, did you know what speed you were doing? And you
said, no, I didn't know. That ignorance is not an excuse. Or if you would say, do you know
what the speed limit is in this area? So I don't know what it
is. But that wouldn't be a defense either. And we are to, even in
natural things, be mindful of what is involved. If we were
to think of planning permission, we might say with this chapel,
oh, we're do this or that, we're going to change these things
on the fabric of the building, and we'd go and do it, and then
someone says, well, hang on a minute, do you know that that is a listed
building and the regulations you should know about? And the
fact that we are ignorant of it is no defence. So there are those things that
sometimes we don't even know that we need to know about them. But many things in our lives
we have to really search and examine is there something that
in our job or what we're about to do I need to know and especially
it is so in the things of God. Remember years ago when we had
the wall put up at the top of the car park here and the people
digging the foundations They went straight through an electricity
cable and broke it. And loud bang, of course, all
the power went off and they had to get electricity people out. But they didn't know where that
cable was. But just being ignorant of that,
it was something that needed to have been looked into and
examined before excavating or doing things like that. And so
with the things of God, The Lord is pleasing to him when his people
have that desire to know. I remember reading years ago
of, in Holland, the Reverend Kirsten. He was the founder of
the Netherland Reform Congregations there. And his mother called
him up at two o'clock in the morning. She said, what are you
doing? And he said, well, I'm searching
the scriptures. to find out how God saves his
people. And he wanted to know this, and
he wanted to know it from the Word of God, how it was. And it is a blessed thing to
walk, not just, not in ignorance, not just blundering our way along,
but walking according to knowledge, understanding. I wonder sometimes
how Many of us in our churches actually know why we do things. Why do we wear a head covering? Why does the women wear a head
covering? Why don't the men? Do we know
that? Why is it that we worship on
the first day of the week? Why don't we still worship as
the Jews did on the Saturday? Many things. We might say, why?
Why do we do this? Or how is it that God does save
his people? The ordinances of the Lord's
house. What are the qualifications to
walk in them? What are the obligations? Who
are those that not only may but should walk in those ordinances? And instead of just turning aside
and not finding out and not knowing those things, it is pleasing
in the sight of the Lord when we walk in knowledge. I would
not have you to be ignorant brethren. And this is concerning them that
are asleep, but in many different ways. The apostle writes in one
time, is to how that thou oughtest to behave thyself in the church
of God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. And he sets
before them how they are to walk, how they are to behave. And so
in these things, the apostle gives just in this chapter, he
could of course add many other parts of the word of God, but
how we ought to walk and to please God. To may we be aware the Scriptures
do point us into which way to walk. It is something that the
brethren are besought and exhorted to do, and it is something that
is set before us as sinners, and we need to ask the Lord We
need to pray that he'd give us grace and wisdom and help. And
we are to never expect perfection. And as we desire to walk in the
Lord's ways, there'll be many times that we come pleading that
word in 1 John 1. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. It is a better thing when we
walk as before the Lord, or as the Apostle says to the Hebrews,
that we are running the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus. The Apostle says, be ye followers
of me, as I also am of Christ. He followed the Lord, the Lord
as his example, as his pattern. and is a blessed thing if we
also are followers of him and followers of them who through
faith and patience have already inherited the promises. They
walked alone. They also had the same trials
and battles with their flesh. They also had their employments. They also had those of unbelievers
round about them. And they remember that all of
God's children at some stage were unbelievers, were without. And when we think of the beautiful
account of Ruth, the Moabites, one that was an idolater, and
yet through the example in widowhood, bereavement and sorrow of her
mother-in-law, she claimed to her in love. brought to the land
of Israel, brought to be united to Boaz, blessed amongst the
people of God, though she said, though I be not like one of thine
handmaidens. In her words, she really learned
to walk, walking with one of the afflicted and tried saints
of God. And that is a blessing, whereas
iron sharpeneth iron, so the countenance of a man his friend.
But what blessed, more blessed way, when the one that we walk
with is actually the Lord. Take, our Lord says, my yoke
upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest unto your souls. And in walking with
the Lord, you learn his spirit and his way, and do that which
is pleasing in his sight. It's a practical word. this evening. The importance is that we're
not looking at these works for salvation. We're doing it because
we love the Lord and desire to walk in that way that pleases
Him. And that pleases Him when our
trust is solely in His blood, His righteousness. And we walk
then as the fruits of what He has wrought in our heart, seeking
to know and do his will. May the Lord bless this word
to us so that we know how we ought to walk and to please God. Amen.