Want to read part of chapter
3 where we were last time And sort of put all of this in
the context of this whole study we've been in first Thessalonians
for a while now But when Paul speaks of His desire to see Tells them in the first part
of this Letter how that he came to them to preach the gospel
to them and now he's expressing in chapter 3 how he came To desire to come to see them
again For what purpose to preach the gospel to that's that teaches
us something We've Verse-by-verse through the first three chapters
and up until this point in the epistle the apostle has has written
of Preaching wanting to come back and preach and he's spoken
of he thanked God for the faith and love evidences of God's grace
Upon them in Christ listen to chapter 3 verse 6, but now I
when Timotheus came from you unto us and brought us good tidings
of your faith and love, and that you have good remembrance of
us always, desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you. Therefore, brethren, we were
comforted in you, over you, and all our afflictions and distress
by your faith, for now we live if you stand fast in the Lord.
Timothy brought Good tidings of the evidences of God's grace
faith and love when God saves his people He gives them faith
in his son when he when he Saves his people he causes them to
love him and his sheep and this clarifies the word furthermore
at the beginning of verse of chapter 4 verse 1 Our text this
morning, so let's read verses 1 through 8 in chapter 4 Furthermore then we beseech you
brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received
of us how you ought to walk and Again, they showed good evidence
that they had received it not only in word, but in their hearts
by faith That so you would abound more and more he's saying furthermore. Here's how you ought to walk
and please God in your behavior. For you know what commandments
we gave you by the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God,
even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication,
that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel.
That word vessel is often used for the body in the scriptures.
sanctification and honor Not in the lust of concupiscence
even as the Gentiles which know not God That no man go beyond
and defraud his brother in any matter Because that the Lord
is the avenger of all such as we also have forewarned you and
testified For God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto
holiness and he's talking again about how you ought to walk there's
holiness and In which we stand before God that's the holiness
of Christ himself What we are holy living you don't want to
stand before God with that But we do want to do that in order
to honor him as much as we can in this body and he enables us
to do that He therefore verse 8 and this is a key verse. We'll
look at this in a little bit more closely, but he therefore
that despises In other words, if you rebel against that teaching
of how you ought to walk and behave yourself, if you rebel
against that, you're not rebelling against man, but God, who hath
also given us his Holy Spirit, which reminds us of how that
Paul spoke to the Corinthians about, don't you know that your
body is the temple of the Spirit of God? Don't make it the temple
of a harlot. And so you see the clear teaching
here that furthermore, as you've shown evidences of faith and
love in Christ, honor him. Furthermore, honor him with your
body. Present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service, by the way. That just makes sense. If God
saved you, if he redeemed you, if he had mercy on you, we desire
to please him. We desire to honor him. We desire
not to bring reproach upon him. So you see the word furthermore
at the beginning of chapter four has to do with all that we've
studied. Before it Paul was delighted about the fact that they not
only claimed to believe But they showed that they did and that
was the news that Timothy brought to him. They showed that they
did and this is also what our text this morning concerns, but
he furthermore speaks of details of what faith looks like and
What love for Christ looks like I was glad to hear of your love
Okay. Now if you love him act like
you love him Act like you care about his honor, about his glory. And so you see that word, and
that's always important to see what furthermore or therefore
is therefore. So our text is, you see the consistency
of the context. This is what's spoken of by James
in James 1.22. Listen to what he said again.
Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your
own selves. If you say, I hear the word,
I believe the word, but you don't act accordingly, you're deceiving
yourself. You got a problem. So first,
the gospel concerns God's work for us. and God's work in us. Both, you
notice, begin with this, God's work. Whether you're talking
about for us on Calvary, for us in electing love and eternity,
for us by his precious shed blood, for us by his offering unto God
for our sins, which we have nothing to do with. Our part in that
is the sin that he paid for. And that's it. That's his work
for us. His work in us is still his work.
He's created and he's caused a new creature to be born, born
of the spirit and born in the likeness of our Savior, it's
called, that new man is called Christ in us. And so what Christ accomplished
on Calvary, this is the distinction, now God's work in us is also
for us, right? That's for us too, but the distinction
lies in this, what Christ did on Calvary, what he accomplished
on the cross, was perfect, complete salvation of our souls. Without
us, without our cooperation, without our input, without our
works, and without the involvement of our will, he did that for
us. What God does in us in salvation
has nothing to do with our righteousness before God. Christ is our righteousness
before God, all of it. He himself Faith in Christ our
love for him our service for him none of that is the flesh
That's the spirit of God in us, but it's not meritorious Nor
does it contribute to our righteousness before God at all in any way? We need to be clear on that up
front These things are simply the glorious effect and that's
a simple way to understand it cause and effect and What God
did for us and in us is the cause of this effect. We worship him
this morning. The flesh can't do that. That's
the new man that's created by God in righteousness and true
holiness. We can't love him by nature. The natural mind is enmity against
God. So it's not your natural heart
that's loving the Savior this morning. It's Christ in you,
it's the fruit of His Spirit in you. So these things are all
simply the glorious effect, not the cause. The wonderful effect, though,
of God's savings. We will get, and by God's grace
want, no glory in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do nothing for our own glory. That's the
definition of a good work. It's wrought on Him, not for
your glory. And it's done by faith in Him. So we don't want any glory in
anything we do, and that's as much God's doing as redemption
was. Absolutely. Secondly, we should
never look to ourselves the level or quality of our faith, our
love, our works, or anything else as evidence of salvation.
We're not to look to the quality of our faith as evidence of salvation. Now understand me about this.
The only evidence that you're a believer is that you believe. Does that make sense? Your faith,
am I looking to Christ? Examine yourselves to see whether
you be in the faith. If I say, if I quote that scripture
this way, examine yourselves to see whether you be looking
to Christ. I haven't changed it at all. That's exactly what
faith is. It's looking to Christ. So examine
yourselves in that regard, not to see if, oh boy, I've got more
faith than so-and-so, or I've got more faith than I used to. You're not gonna be encouraged
as a believer if you look at yourself. But do I believe on
the Son of God? We can say from our hearts, Lord,
I believe, help. But the strength of my faith,
don't get me to thinking about that, because I'm gonna be discouraged
if I start thinking about that. The question is not, am I one
of God's elect, either. The question is this, do you
believe on the Son of God? That's the question. Do you believe
on the Son of God? But if you examine again how
much faith you have or how much do I love the Savior or what
have I done or am I doing for Him? If you have any discernment
from God at all and you look to that for assurance, you will
be discouraged. Faith does not look to faith.
Faith looks to Christ. Thirdly, regarding this, a person
who is saved by God, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ,
and is a witness of Christ in this world will seek to honor
Him, will seek to serve Him, will seek to worship Him in this
life. You will do so. You are ordained
unto it by God. Does that mean you're always
gonna be zealous for His glory? No. No, the spirit truly is willing,
but the flesh. The flesh is weak. But Ephesians
2.10, we're ordained by God unto good works. Again, no glory for
us. We have clear guidance in the
scripture of what good works are. Let's consider this for
a second. The woman with the alabaster box of ointment the
Lord showed us that good works are works done for Christ's sake
She hath wrought a good work. You remember the next three next
couple of words She hath wrought a good work on me only That's
a good work She hath performed a good work on me on Christ that
is that's a He showed us that by that woman with that alabaster
box of ointment by Tabitha in Acts chapter 9 The Lord shows
us that good works are done for Christ's sheep Because Christ
considers that which is done for the least of his brethren
as being done unto him Dorcas or Tabitha did good deeds on
the Lord's sheep and the Lord counted that as personal to himself
We also see in acts 9 that good works are not some grand conspicuous
things done to impress the flesh or to gain the attention of the
world or to Simple acts of love and faith
done for Christ's sake in his name For his glory and for the
good of his sheep. She made coats for people She
baked a cake or a pie for somebody she Encouraged somebody in the
Lord. She did something out of the
love of her heart for God's people Lord through Tabitha teaches
us that about good works Now clearly from our text how we
ought to walk and please God includes not only the type of
good works We've talked about but the abstinence from sin That
is the evidence of our love for the Lord and think about that
statement for a minute the evidence of our love for the Lord if I It's hard for me to even say
it, not because I'm holier than thou, but because it does make
us sick to even think about it. If I was unfaithful to my wife, what does that tell you about
how I feel about her? But I'll tell you what it says
a lot louder than that, how I feel about God. That's our text. That's why the scripture says
what it does about this. Turn with me please to 1 Corinthians
5 and verse 9. 1 Corinthians 5, 9. Verse 9. We could read that whole chapter.
There's there's more about this, but that this is 9 through 13
will tell us What what our what our text is referring to first
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators
yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world and or with the
covetous or extortioners or with idolaters, for then must ye needs
go out of the world." First of all, notice that he's not just
talking about fornicators, he's talking about idolaters, covetous
people, extortioners. Fornication in our text and in
this chapter is indicative and representative of all of this
type of sin. Open rebellion against God's
clear will It doesn't exclude obviously
fornication because that's the word used to represent all of
it But look notice what he says
here not altogether I'm not saying that don't ever keep any company
or have anything to do with any fornicator in the world He says
if that was true, you'd have to go out of this world because
we're all We're all wretched. This whole world is a bunch of,
you remember when our Lord defined adultery and fornication? If
you've thought about it, you've done it in your heart. Okay,
so he's not say he's not talking about this world He's not saying
don't work for a boss now that it's committing adultery if you
find out you got to quit your job So no for then you must need
to go out of the world That's not what I'm talking about, but
now I have written unto you Not to keep company if any man that
is called a brother If someone who claims the name of Christ
is Someone who comes into the worship of God as part of the
church Be a fornicator or covetousness or an idolater or a railer or
a drunkard or an extortioner With such in one know not to
eat For what have I to do to judge
them also that are without God hasn't made me a judge of that
and I'm not gonna go around telling everybody quit drinking and quit
doing this and be faithful to your wife and stuff like that.
I have no business with them. Do whatever you want. That's
between you and God. But, them that are without, God judgeth. But look at the end of verse
12. Do not ye judge them that are within though? Isn't it important
and necessary if somebody's in the church that they don't just
openly dishonor God with their life? Again, if I was unfaithful to
my wife, would you accept me as your pastor? Would you have
anything to do with me? I hope you wouldn't. And guess
what? You're not off the hook on that
either, on that type of thing. You're not either. This is the
place of worship. This is where God is honored.
This is where we come together to worship. And look, if you
said, sorry, Chris, you're not gonna preach the gospel to us
while you're denying it with your very life, would that mean
that I'm more sinful than you? No, it's not about that. It's
not about that. Let me be honest with you about
me. Nothing shocks me. Nothing shocks
me. You can't shock me. You can't
surprise me. I just don't believe it. I don't
think it can happen. And nobody here is worse than
me. Nobody. It's not about that. It's not
about me, it's about God. Did you notice the last verse
of our text? He therefore that despiseth this instruction? You
got no use for what God says? You're not despising me. You got a problem with God. You
got a problem with God. And listen, we can't allow that
in the worship because we care. You're not gonna defile me by
what you do. I don't have any skin in that
game except this, that I care about you. Can you think of another
reason why it would matter to me? And this, I care about the
honor of the Lord. I care about the honor of the
Lord. And that's what Paul is talking about here. Do you see
why it's fine? And then verse 13, with them
that are without God, without God judge it. That's between
them and the Lord. That's what I said while ago.
That's between them and God. I have no business going around
telling the world how to live. But do you not judge them that
are within? Therefore put away from among
yourselves that person. Not because you hate them, not
because you want them to go. You're not consigning them to
hell. You're not banning them from
the worship of God even. Banning is a real strange word
to use for wrapping your arms around somebody because you care
about them and stopping them from killing themselves. That's
a weird word for that. But do you see why it's fine
to associate with fornicators in this world but not in the
church? It can't be tolerated because it's horrible on about
10 different levels that I can think of off the top of my head.
We can't tell our children that that's okay to be, you know. If I'm openly a drunkard, he
uses the word drunkard here. And I come into the worship drunk. Go home. Okay? Right? Does that mean I'm better than
him? Am I being holier than thou? Oh, we don't allow drunk people
here. That's not it. Don't you dare come before God
like that. For your sake. For those that
love you's sake. For the sake of your testimony
before God, before his people. For the sake of the example that
you are as purportedly a believer in Christ You see that and we
went over this I Don't know a few months ago. I think when I was
telling you if somebody if a transvestite coming here in drag They're going
home They're just going home I'm sorry. I mean they need Christ
as much as we do, but you're not going to openly dishonor
him Come before his presence like that That's for their good. They need to understand that
God's not worshiped like that. But you see why it's fine to
associate with this world. OK, we live in this world. We
associate with people in this world. I'd rather not know what
they do or what they are. How about you? There's a lot
to be said for don't ask, don't tell, in my opinion. But when it comes to public worship of the Lord Jesus
Christ, it doesn't say throw them away like trash. It doesn't
say to hate them or consign them to hell. All of that's God's
business as far as their relationship with God. But listen to me carefully
about a couple of things that I think would be, you know, Paul
anticipated objections. to his teaching, and he addressed
them, and that's what I kinda wanna do here. We can't afford
to be dumb about this. The Lord exhorts us to be wise
as serpents, and I don't think we can afford to be dumb about
this, and I guarantee you somebody's gonna say, somebody's gonna hear
this and say, well, we aren't supposed to judge other people.
What about judge not that ye be not judged? Well, Paul just
said, don't you judge them that are within? Don't be dumb about this may
God overrule our natural idiocy and don't let us be that juvenile
in our discernment When Paul's saying judge here what our Lord
is dealing with in Luke 6 37 Where he said judge not and you
shall not be judged. He's dealing with self-righteousness
He's saying don't you ever look down on anybody for their sin
because you Have a beam in your own eyes You've got no business ever looking
down on anybody for their sin. That's what's being dealt with
in Luke 637. In our estimation of ourselves,
we're not to judge others and consider ourselves ever more
righteous than anybody because we're not. In 1 Corinthians 5,
where we just read, where Paul clearly shows that we are to
have judgment with regard to this in the worship, he's dealing
with the glory of God. different subject Look at verses 4 and 8 again
of our text in first Thessalonians 4 That every one of you should
know how to possess his vessel his body in sanctification and
honor That's what he's teaching here. How you ought to behave
and please the Lord and To just openly refuse to
do that is to you're excluding yourself from the worship Do
you know God has killed people over things like that? Coming into his presence in a
way that he forbids? And then verse eight, as we saw,
you have a problem with God, not men. Nobody can condemn you
except God. Somebody can love you enough
to say don't you don't do don't Don't shake your fist in God's
face To possess our bodies It's a
question of honoring God not for comparing myself or or for
indulging in self-righteousness Am I to judge behavior, but for
the honor of my Savior? Don't confuse the plain teaching
of Scripture with by our ignorance of the scripture. And I'm talking
to myself and you. Don't confuse the clear teaching
of our Lord by saying, judge not. Don't say, well, I'm just
not sure what to think about this. Yes, you are. You're lying
to yourself. And don't say, well, everybody's
a sinner. Yeah, that's obvious. But isn't
it an excuse to openly dishonor God and defy him in his house
of prayer? It never has been. Concupiscence in verse five means
a desire for what is forbidden. Now we know what this is talking
about. We know why it's addressed here
and in so many places in scripture. First Corinthians 6, 13, Paul
says, now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord.
You see that? It doesn't say the body is not
for fornication because you won't go to heaven when you die. It
doesn't say the body is not for fornication because, you know,
you're going to offend people and they're going to see how
bad a person you are. It says the body is not for fornication
because the body's for Christ. That's what your body's for. Anything but marriage. Between
one man and one woman in scripture is forbidden Anything else And there's a lot of different
forms of perversion of that But anything else besides marriage
between one man and one woman is forbidden in the Word of God
clearly And we know why don't we? Marriage scriptural marriage
is a picture in type The Lord Jesus Christ in his church it
honors him and what he did for his church his love for his church
his exclusive distinguishing committed love For his church
Ephesians 5 22 through 32 if you want to read that later Christ
loved his bride exclusively That's what marriage is Anything
other than that is concupiscence. It's the desire for that which
is forbidden Christ loved his bride in a distinguishing
way He married himself to them an
eternal commitment, and he gave himself for them That's the point
of all of this. Love for Christ and being his
bride is commitment on his part and on ours. Paul said, I've
committed myself to him. God made a marriage for his son. The kingdom of heaven is like
unto a certain king that made a marriage for his son. And why
did he do it? You read that passage. the honor
of the son When God caused the ark to be
built Under Old Testament law the ark of the covenant not Noah's
ark the ark of the covenant That ark represented God's son The law was protected within
that ark and The glory of God rested upon
that ark. God said, I will commune with
you there. That's Christ. The only place
God is gonna meet with you and not throw you in hell is in Christ. And when somebody touched that
ark against God's plain will, God killed him for it. Does that seem extreme? How much
does the honor of God's son mean to him? I think they found out that day.
That same God who made that ark representing his son and said,
don't touch it, don't you defile that, and killed a man for doing
it, that same God has said marriage between a man and a woman represents
my son and what he accomplished for his bride on Calvary. Clearly God doesn't kill everybody
the minute they commit sin, but how hard would it have been for
you not to touch the ark? And honestly, how hard is it
for you not to pervert marriage? How hard is it for you not to
fly in the very face of God over that simple, beautiful Christ
honoring institution You got any excuse for it? Yeah, I mean
either And a believer may do that don't misunderstand that
believer may do that, but don't pretend it's okay Don't pretend to worship God
with that tattooed on your forehead God is to be had in reverence
of all them that are about him Paul's teaching is clear on this
the Lord's teaching is clear on this if you are within It's forbidden it's forbidden
without but that's none of our business And you can judge for yourself
this morning whether I say these things out of love or out of
self-righteousness But this is the Word of God on
the matter May we honor him. By his grace, may we honor him. Let's pray.