Well, may it please Almighty
God once again to bless us as we turn to the first epistle
of Paul to the Thessalonians in chapter 5, and tonight we'll
read verses 22 and 23. The first epistle of Paul to
the Thessalonians, chapter 5, and reading verses 22 and 23.
Abstain from all appearance of evil 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. We have to of course understand
and appreciate that the Apostle Paul wrote this under the influence
of the Holy Spirit and it wasn't that many years since the time
that the Lord Jesus was on the earth and was born and lived
and died and rose again. And there was the fulfilment
of all that had been prophesied through the Old Testament. But
there were, of course, those who still hung to the Old Testament
dispensations. And also those who turned away
from the simplicity of the truth as it was in Jesus. And, of course,
we have the same situation today. Many people interpret the Scriptures
in their view, in their way. And that's why the apostle under
the influence of the Spirit wrote, abstain from all appearance of
evil. Everything which doesn't agree
with the Word of God, everything that doesn't agree with the New
Testament, we are told to abstain from all appearance of evil. We read this chapter of Jude,
it's a lovely chapter. And it encompasses quite a lot
of important detail. But in this chapter he does really
touch on this position. And in the third verse he says,
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort
you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. Well, that was true, of course,
when Jude wrote it as certainly true when the apostle wrote it
to abstain from all appearance of evil. And surely it's very
true today in the world in which we live, how needful it is that
we take heed to those things which have been written for our
profit and for our benefit. And as he says, it was needful
for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And therefore, those things which
are written in the word of God We should not think they're irrelevant.
We should not think, as many people do, we've now come to
a further age and we can draw on conclusions and set our own
rules. No, the word of God expounds
to us exactly what it means and what it says. And so we should
be very thankful that we have such grand and glorious truths
contained in the Word of God. So, we are to abstain from all
appearance of evil. And of course, that in the spiritual
sense, which I believe is the main thrust of this verse, but
also, of course, in our temporal things, our natural things in
this life, those things which clearly are wrong, we are to
abstain from. And it says, abstain from all
appearance, that which just appears to be evil on the surface. we are to abstain from it. Well God in his infinite wisdom
has recorded such a statement for our instruction and for our
encouragement. And then the Apostle goes on
to say, 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. And therefore having
enlisted a number of exhortations which we've spoken of over recent
weeks and this one in verse 22 tonight, we come now to the apostle
and he's praying, he prays to God and the very God of peace,
he desires the very God of peace. What a blessing it is that we
have a very God of peace that you and I can come to today.
That God is the same today as he was when the apostle was on
the earth. The same indeed when the earth
was created. The same indeed when all things
on this earth will cease. This is the very God of peace
and therefore the apostle prays and the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly. Well, sanctification is a very
gracious blessing of the Spirit of God, and really I think it
has two references. It has a sanctification which
refers to our old nature, and a sanctification which refers
to our new nature. Well, I think with regard to
our new nature, the Apostle touches on that when he wrote to the
Corinthians, the first epistle to the Corinthians in chapter
6 and verse 11, and having given a whole list of sins which the
Corinthians were committing, he then comes and says, and such
were some of you. Yes, but then he goes on to say,
but there was a difference. And there is a difference. But
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So what a
great blessing this is for the Church of God to have this wonderful
favour to know that through the grace of God we are washed. All
our sins are forever washed away in the precious blood of the
Saviour. And we are sanctified by the
grace of God. And we are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. But of course,
there is then our old nature. And there is then, we might term
it, the growth in grace. and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. And as we journey on through
life, as we are the children of God, the Blessed Spirit teaches
us and instructs us so that we do become more sanctified under
the effectual work of the Holy Spirit. That's not the glory
in it ourselves, it's not something that we can produce in our flesh,
It's that which the gracious God grants to us. And so here
we have this statement, and the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly. And he says, and I pray God,
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that will of course
be the end of our life. when for each one of us time
will be no more. There will also be the end of
time, when for everyone there'll be no more time, when that trumpet
shall sound, when the Lord will return in all His glory. What a day that will be, what
a time that will be, and may we look forward to it with gracious
anticipation and have some recognising of the beauty and the wonder
of Emmanuel's land. And so says the apostle, and
I pray God, your whole spirit and solemn body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again,
we read in that little book of Jude and right down to the second
to last verse, verse 24, It tells us this in this epistle. He says,
now unto him that is able, referring, of course, to the great God,
now unto him that is able to keep you from falling. The apostle
Peter says this, doesn't he? Kept by the power of God through
grace unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
And it's a wonderful blessing for us as we can look back in
our lives and see times when God has graciously delivered
us. God has graciously kept us. And as we've had temptations,
we've been blessed with that answer to that prayer. Lead us
not into temptation and deliver us from evil. Now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. We should
be faultless only because we're washed in the blood of a lamb. We won't be faultless in and
of ourselves because we're sinners, sinners saved by God. And so here to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with excelling joy. That's amazing,
isn't it? What a day that will be. Excelling
joy for every true believer as they find themselves at home
in glory with their Master, with their Saviour. that one who died
for them on the cross at Calvary. What a great and wonderful favour
that will be and surely it will be with exceeding joy, exceeding
joy. And so to be able to recognise
this truth, I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a
day which we know will come, must come. But what a gracious
and wonderful thing it is if we're amongst those who are prepared. And we have that prayer constantly
perhaps with us. Prepare me, gracious God, to
stand before thy face. Thy spirit must the work perform,
for it is all of grace. Amen.