Open your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians,
and we're gonna focus on chapter four, but I'm gonna read a little
bit from the preceding chapter to set the tone for the subject
this morning. So 1 Thessalonians, and we will
start with chapter three, and verse 11. And we'll read down
to chapter four, verse 11. Now may our God and Father himself
and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May
the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and
for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen
your hearts so that you would be blameless and holy in the
presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with
all his holy ones. Finally, brothers, we instructed
you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in
the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions
we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God's
will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual
immorality, that each of you should learn to control his own
body in a way that is holy and honorable. not in passionate
lusts like the heathen who do not know God, and that in this
matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of
him. The Lord will punish men for
all such sins as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be
impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this
instruction does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy
Spirit. Now about brotherly love, we
do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been
taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all
the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to
do so more and more. Make it your ambition to lead
a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your
hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win
the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent
on anybody. Well, I don't know about you,
but I sympathize with what Joe had
to say on a message that I listened to recently, and that was, when
somebody says to me, I wanna talk to you about living a holy
life, we're like, I don't know. What sort of legalism, what sort
of bondage is he looking to do? And yet, in scripture, we have
passages like this. I mean, Paul and Peter, for that
matter, talk about this subject of, what can be called practical
holiness or sanctification, and it's something that we have to
get right in the Christian life. If nothing else, it helps us
to make sense of things that often don't make sense taken
in isolation. And while I can't do a complete
treatment of the subject, which you probably will be thankful
for because it would take a while, I think it's important for us
to kind of set the stage here before we look a little bit into
the passage. So I think, first of all, there's
this word sanctification. And I like to call these words
religious words, right? So I have to correct myself. I'm still a recovering Catholic
and fundamentalist, so we're in the sanctuary. We can't call
it that, right? So same root word. We talk about sacred things.
And this idea of sanctification, sometimes just the word itself
puts us off. And what you have to understand
is it's just a bringing in of a Latin term for the word holy. So we could rightly read both
directions here in our text. Wherever it says holy, we could
put the word sanctify or sanctification in. And likewise where it says
sanctification, we can put the word holy in. And I think that
helps you because if you think about the Holy Spirit as the
spirit who sanctifies you, you have a better basis for understanding
what is being talked about here. So this idea of sanctification,
first of all, you gotta dispense a little bit of the religious
word and understand it's just a word borrowed, I believe, through
French, but don't quote me on that. I didn't look closely at
it again recently, but it's definitely from the Latin term. And even the idea of the word
holy, we tend to talk about somebody as being, they're a holy man.
Well, holy, at least in the Old and New Testaments, the Hebrew
and the Greek, originally meant nothing more than something set
aside for a purpose. So it is not unusual in either
testament to talk about a prostitute in a religious service being
holy as somebody who is set aside for this religious service. So when we understand that it's
talking about not a religious term that's only characteristic
of certain people who I would say squeak when they walk, but
that might sound a little bit crude, but the idea is they're
so squeaky clean, they never make any mistakes, they're so
different. We're set aside. And that's the
idea of holiness and sanctification were set aside. And there's this setting aside
that has happened in time. And part of the struggle that
happens when people talk about sanctification or holiness is
they don't understand that it goes all the way back to eternity
past. So it's not wrong to say, and
in fact, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and see if I can
find it. in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we can talk about the idea
that, yeah, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2, to the church of God in Corinth,
to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy. We could talk about this in eternity
past with the sovereign election and calling of God, that we can
speak of that as sanctification. God took us and set us aside. He didn't take an indeterminate
mass of people He had a specific set of people in mind in eternity
past, and while we generally talk about that as predestination
and election, it's also proper to talk about it as sanctification
or being made holy. God set us aside. And we can
say on the other end that God will bring us to complete holiness,
and if we look in our passage, or our book here a little bit
further on, verse 23, may God himself, chapter five, verse 23, may God
himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May
your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the
coming of our Lord Jesus. The one who calls you is faithful
and he will do it. So we have on the other end,
we have this idea, this concept, this truth of scripture that
God will accomplish it. So God set us aside for himself
and there is going to be a complete Sanctification holiness that
is made and positionally in Christ right now. We are holy So there's
that time element. So there's a language The the
religious words there's the time element and I'm not covering
everything just because of the amount of time that would be
needed here and But there's also some problems with how sanctification
has been taught. And if I had to say something
about this is I'm not trying to say this is true in the purest
form of everyone that I'm talking about, but there are three Ps,
as it were, when it comes to this idea of sanctification that
are false teaching. One would be perfectionism. Perfectionism. Now, this is commonly
misunderstood that there is a group of people, typically the Wesleyan
or Methodist group, it's typically misunderstood as they claim that
they can be completely without sin. Well, sometimes the way
that they say it, it sounds like that, but what they say is, well,
I don't know, I'm able to get to a place where I don't knowingly
violate God, God's law or God, I don't sin with a high hand. I'm not sinning that way. I'm able to get to a place in
my Christian walk where I'm able to perfect my walk to the place
where I don't sin against God in that way. I don't sin knowingly. Well, Other than being naive
and contrary to personal experience, I think we could look at Romans
7 and Paul's struggle with sin, but I think a more specific verse
that I would talk about in relationship in refuting this is 1 John 1.8.
that says if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us. And I think in the most extreme
cases, those who believe that they can keep achieving a higher
and higher Christian life and a more sanctified way of living,
there's a place where it becomes self-deception. And it's true
in a different flavor in what I would call modern evangelicalism. But let's talk about the second
type, the second P here, and that's progressivism. And what
I mean by that is the idea that I can, by working at it, become
more and more holy. And the idea, although sometimes
refuted, often refuted that they believe it, there's this idea
that they're somehow better than or better off than other people
because of the disciplines that they work in their life. And
yet, Titus 3 says, when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,
he saved us, not because of things we had done, but because of his
mercy. So this idea of progressivism
fails if it is used to prove that because of the things we're
done, we're a little more saved, because sanctification is part
of salvation. We're a little more saved by
virtue of what we do and how wholly we act. And the reality
is, if we actually measure what we
do against God's holy standards and measure it against an infinite
God, even our best days, or as scripture says, our best righteousness
is like a filthy rag. So, no perfectionism. No progressivism,
no mixture of the two. But then again, we don't want
to go to permissivism. And what I mean by that is the
idea is it just doesn't matter. And taken to its extreme, there
are people who in, I would call it a cult of belief, would say,
you know, whatever I do in my physical body doesn't matter.
I'm just going to live it up. and God will save me and it won't
have any impact whatsoever because these things are just a complete
dichotomy. And the reality is while the
flesh and spirit are separate and the two are at odds, we live
in one body. We aren't able to divide ourselves
in that way. And Paul rebukes this idea when
he says in Romans 6.15, Shall we sin because we are not under
law but under grace? And he says, depending on your
translation, may it never be or God forbid. No, all three
of those ideas are faulty. So what then? Well, I found a helpful quote
from Don Fortner, and then we'll start to look at the text, but
I think it's helpful for us to take what we've spoken of to
this point and summarize it. Sanctification cannot be properly
spoken of as a progressive work. A person is either holy or he
is unholy. There is nothing in between.
You cannot be more or less holy, yet, sanctification is a continual
work. And Lord willing, we'll talk
a little bit about what that looks like in this passage in
1 Thessalonians. So I would say, first of all,
the first question that I ask, As I looked at this passage,
I'm trying to remember how long ago it was, what, four weeks
ago where we canceled something like that? I had my notes for
that. These are not the same notes
that I had four weeks ago, so I can say God prevented me from
giving a different message at that time. And one of the things
that I ask myself is, why is this important? Why does it matter? Well, I think the critical reason
given in our text is it's God's will. Right there in chapter
four, verse three. It's God's will that you should
be sanctified. And it is God's calling for us. I think it's verse... Six, nope,
it's down further on, but we'll find it here as we go on. It's
also God's calling. We're called, God wills for us
to be holy, and He will accomplish it, and God calls us to be holy. It's His will. And I don't know
about you or your experience when you first became a believer
or even now, oftentimes the question will be, God, what would you
have me to do? What is your will for me in this
situation? And oftentimes there's frustration
about that. It's like, I don't know what
you expect me to do, God. I thought that I was doing the
right thing. Just can we move on with things, God? Can you
show me what your will is? So when we have a passage like
this, and this isn't the only passage that talks about God's
will. If you remember, I think it was around Thanksgiving time,
we looked at a passage that talked about being thankful is also
God's will. but it's God's will for us to
be holy. So it's important for us with
that in mind to understand that it is not a optional discussion. It's not a theological oddity
for us to banter around and to try to understand just for the
sport of it. So what is sanctification as
it's spoken of in First Thessalonians. And I believe that it's spoken
of both negatively as well as positively, so I'm going to move
things around a little bit as far as the order of the passages
that we look at because I think Joe said this and I definitely
feel this as well, I like to end on a positive note, not so
much a negative note, and I like to end on a clear note, not a
questionable note when it comes to these things. We also have
to understand that the Thessalonian church had its own unique set
of circumstances and sins and situation. And while maybe some
of the things that are spoken of here aren't the sins that
so easily beset you, the principles that are spoken
of here are still principles that are important for us to
apply in other ways as we think about walking in sanctification. So first of all, Paul uses a
word in verse 3 of 1 Thessalonians 4
that the NIV translates as avoid. Avoid is a good translation.
We understand the idea. I avoid fish and seafood pretty
readily. I'm not a fan. I have had and
Got to tell at least one story, or maybe I don't, but I have
one story to tell. Previous job, I had the opportunity
to go to Japan, and if you know anything about the Japanese culture,
especially in Japan, you're going to have a hard time avoiding
fish. If you don't like fish, that's not a good place to be.
And not only is it a main course, but it's also something that
they add into the sauces as well. So you might think you're getting
away from it entirely, and you're not. So my coworkers, you know,
wanted to trick me, right? So they're like, well, Bernie
says he doesn't like fish. He hasn't had true, you know,
Japanese prepared sushi. You know, he's really gonna like
it. And it's a prejudice that he has that we're gonna cure
him of. So, you know, be like, close
your eyes. You know, open your mouth, and
they would take raw tuna and put it in, and dip, and say,
here, eat this. What's that? And I, eyes closed,
tuna. I know what it is, right? You're
not fooling me. It wasn't bad, I mean, it wasn't
bad, but I'd go to McDonald's before I'd go there. And even,
even the pizza there. It's like, you think you're gonna
get pizza, you get pepperoni, maybe if you're a little daring,
you'll get the, The, what do they call it, the supreme that
has everything on it. Maybe you'll even have anchovies.
They put squid on their pizza. They put tuna on top of the pizza. They do all sorts of weird things
there. But I have no problem. avoiding or abstaining or keeping
distant from fish, right? And it's not a difficult concept,
right? It doesn't necessarily take anything
spiritual to do that. And yet Paul says, kind of the
first step here in this matter of sanctification, in dealing
with holiness versus unholiness is to abstain, avoid, keep away
from certain behaviors or thoughts. And what he's talking about here
is a specific sin, a sin that was part of, as I alluded to
earlier, the religious worship of the day, where they had temple
prostitutes and sex was actually part of the religious ceremony. And Paul is saying, hey, holiness
is avoiding that. That is in all holinesses, but
in part it's avoiding that. Don't be like, and I find it
interesting here that the NIV uses an old English word, heathen. I would be interested if you
went into a elementary school these days and asked for a definition
of heathen or a explanation of the background of the word heathen,
but in our Day, people older, we understand that as the non-religious. But literally, the term here
is the Gentiles, or the nations, the ethne. So, but he's talking
to Gentiles. So this is an okay translation,
but he's saying, don't be like them. Don't follow after what
they do. Then in verse six, he says, in
this matter, no one should wrong his brother or sister, is fine,
he's using brother in the generic sense, and take advantage of
him. Now, literally here, he's talking
about, I need to go back up here to
verse four, you need to learn to control your own body, He's
talking about the body as a vessel and there's some dispute here
about whether or not he's talking about marriage and how a husband
interacts with his wife in these matters. or if he's talking about
how the man deals with his own body. In some ways, that's a
distinction without a difference. When it comes to this subject
of sexual relationship, there is a ordained pattern that's
to follow and everything else is to be avoided. Or for me,
everything else is like fish, right? Avoid it, stay away from
it. You don't want anything to do
with it. And he says, rejecting this instruction, verse 8, is
not rejecting man, but God. And if you think about it, if
you're following after a practice, a religious practice, that is
a practice of unbelievers, people who aren't Christians, you're
rejecting God, who is the Holy Spirit. So holiness negatively is avoiding
and abstaining. That is part of it. It's this
doesn't fit with the character of God. If it doesn't fit with
the character of God, then you need to abstain from it. You
need to be distant from it. You need to avoid it. And not
just sexual things. apparently the primary concern
that Paul had in their situation, but other things would fall into
this as well. So then what is it that we're
called to do? Well, positively, verse one,
he says, we instructed you how to live in order to please God. And literally, that word that's
translated live there is how to walk. And I like the translation
walk because it is very much a picture that we have. Live can be generic, whereas
if you're walking with somebody, if you're walking with somebody
to their car and your car is somewhere else in the parking
lot, you part ways. But if you're walking with them
and you're riding in the same car with them, you're walking
together. And what Paul says here is sanctification
or holiness, practical holiness in the Christian life is walking
in a way that is pleasing to God. It is being holy like God
is holy. If you look back at chapter three,
verse three, his prayer is that you would be blameless, verse
13, and holy in the presence of our
God. So you should be blameless and
holy. God, chapter four, verse seven,
did not call us, and there I found it, I said six, it's verse seven. God did not call us to be impure,
but to live a holy life. God's calling, God's will for
us is to walk in a way that is pleasing to him. And that's not
just here or in Paul. In 1 Peter 1 15, one of the first
verses that I've memorized as a new Christian, it probably
was easier for me to memorize because they sang it as a chorus. But just as he who called you
is holy, so be holy, 1 Peter 1 15, in all you do. For it is
written, be holy, for I am holy. So we want to walk or live in
a manner that's pleasing to God. And then chapter four, verse
two, he says, you know what instructions we gave you by the authority
of the Lord Jesus. It's important for us to understand
these are not instructions that we come up with. And one of the
things I say when I say I'm a recovering Catholic and fundamentalist is
there's a tendency in those communities to elevate things that aren't
biblical, that aren't called for by God, as steps to holiness. So you have Advent, and you have
Lent, and you have giving up meat on Friday. You know, I was
born not to be Catholic just because I don't like fish on
Friday. But seriously though, that in the fundamentalism is
like, well, if dancing can sometimes be lewd, all dancing is wrong. If television can sometimes be
bad, you need to fast from watching television. If Facebook or YouTube
or whatever is bad, you gotta fast from the internet. Well,
no such thing is called for here. He says, I'm gonna talk to you
and what you need to follow after, the thing that I'm urging you
in Christ, is that you follow the instructions
given by the authority or from the hand of Christ, not man-made
instructions. And these include learning control,
back from verse 4, and then in verse 11 it talks about leading
a quiet life, and for some of us that's an easy thing to do. When I say that, I mean easy
in the sense that I don't necessarily like being in loud places or
whatever, but that isn't entirely what he means. What he's saying
is it's an unassuming life. Lead a quiet life. Mind your
own business. If you ever have the opportunity
to say that to anyone, you know that's a scriptural command.
Mind your own business, and if you think about it, it makes
sense. A lot of times, trouble can be avoided keeping yourself
out of situations that aren't your situation. If you have to
preface a comment with, I know you didn't ask me, but you probably
are not minding your own business. And then an interesting one here
and one that might not be immediately apparent is not being dependent
on anyone. And the belief is acquired from
different passages put together, was there was a problem in the
early church where because of the generosity of other believers,
some of the poor believers would just say, well, hey, this is
actually a pretty good deal. That guy is rich. He doesn't
really need the money. I really don't feel like working.
I'll wait for another handout. Well, Paul is saying here, that
isn't how you should live. And again, he's speaking to their
circumstances. These particulars might not be
the situation that you have. But as you summarize these things,
one is, abstain from or avoid the things that scripture clearly
says are wrong. As somebody has said to me in
the past, you don't have to pray about things that the Bible says
not to do. You don't have to pray, is it
God's will for me to fill in the blank something that is specifically
enjoined against in scripture? And likewise, there are general
principles that are given in scripture that are given. You
don't need to know whether or not it's good. You can apply
them. and these principles here of
living a quiet life, working with your own hands, minding
your own business, living a decent, non-dependent life, those things
are all or should be without controversy. But it's not enough to stop here,
I would say, If I stopped here, I think almost any unbeliever
who believed in living a disciplined life, a moralistic life, any
unbeliever could say amen or I agree. Those are all good principles
to live your life by. So we need to dig a little bit
further here. Paul says in chapter four, verse
one. And the NIV kind of obscures
this a little bit. We instructed you how to live.
Live in order to please God as you, in fact, are living. We
ask and urge you to do this more and more. Where he says more
and more, he's using the same term where in verse 12 of chapter
3, Paul prayed for them and said, may your love increase and overflow. So what Paul prayed for for them
is not something different three or four verses later. He's praying
that at the heart of all this is a God-given love that's abounding. So what Paul prays for, he urges
them to do. And he says, Verse nine, about brotherly love,
we don't need to write to you for you yourselves have been
taught by God. Now Paul did write to them, he's
saying I don't need to write this to you at length. It's clear
from our interactions and from how God works that God has given
you a love for one another. And he's saying I'm urging you
to walk in love, to abound in love. But again, that might be generic
enough for some people to say, well, anybody could do that. Any unbeliever could say, well,
I'm walking in love. In fact, they might take this
idea of love and twist it and talk about love is love and have
no problem agreeing to what we're saying here. But I think what
we have to emphasize, and really the important thing for us to
see here, the only way we can please God is by faith in Christ. Hebrews 11.6, without faith it's
impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe
that he is and that he's the rewarder of those who diligently
seek them. And Colossians 2, as you have
received Christ, Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. There's not a
different, you know, I start my Christian life by believing,
but I continue my Christian life by pulling myself up by my bootstraps. No, it's faith all the way through. It's dependence on Christ all
the way through. We should walk in a continual
dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ. We need grace. for this holiness, and it's from
him that we need to receive it. As Galatians 2.20 says, the life
which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The only way
we're going to have practical holiness is the same way, only
way, that we're justified and glorified, and that's by an utter
and complete dependence upon God. It's by the spirit and not
by the flesh. In Romans 8, if you wanna turn over there,
I'm gonna actually go back a few verses here. Romans 7, he says, sin, chapter
7, verse 8, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment produced
in me every kind of covetous desire. And Paul says here, the
law is in sin, and yet, because I am a sinful being, Something
that was intended for good, verse 10, actually brings death. And then down in verse 19, he
says, for what I do is not the good I want to do. And the evil
I don't want to do, this I keep doing. Now this causes a lot
of people to doubt whether or not this is Paul talking about
himself as a mature believer, but I submit to you, it is. Paul
understood the struggle in this life, and sanctification, practical
holiness, is God, just like in justification, just like in glorification,
it's God working through us. I don't know how long he has
for me, or you, or anybody else, but the struggle that we're in
is a God-ordained struggle, and it's to bring about changes that
God desires in our life. So Paul goes on and he says,
verse 24, "'O wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this
body of death?' A lot of people think it's me and my self-discipline. But Paul says, no, thanks be
to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And then in chapter
eight, verse one, he says, there is no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. And in verse four, he says, the
righteous requirements of the law are fully met in us who do
not live according to the flesh. I know the NIV has sinful nature
here. not bad, but not the best, according to the flesh, but according
to the spirit. So walking in love, walking in
practical holiness, is walking in Christ, walking in the spirit,
walking in dependence upon God. Don Fortner said, wherever sanctification
is found, consecration of the heart, conformity to Christ in
heart and life, commitment to Christ and his cause, love, devotion,
confidence in and submission to Christ, and confidence in
Christ all increase. This growth in grace is the continual
operation of God the Holy Spirit in sanctification. It's accomplished
by the Spirit of God through the use of the means of grace
God has given. The believer grows in a state
of holiness, grows in grace, in knowledge, in love, in faith,
in consecration, and in all other aspects of spiritual life. But here is a very important
word. If you don't hear anything else,
hear this. But does not increase in holiness and righteousness.
from the moment that God determined to save you, and we say moment
because we are creatures of time, to the time you were before him,
you're never gonna be more holy because the holiness that we
stand before God is a holiness that's given to us. And yet,
we're called in this life to live in dependence upon God and
to walk with God, independence upon him. Continuing the quote here, being
sanctified by God, born again by the Holy Spirit, every believer
grows in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, just
as every living thing grows. We see more, we feel more, we
do more, we know more, we repent more, we believe more, we love
more, as we grow in grace. In sanctification, there's an
ever-increasing faith, hope, and love in the hearts of God's
elect. When you think about that, you think, well, I wish I could
see that more and more, and I'm there with you. But as you reflect
on it, I pray that those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ,
that you see this in your life. You see, yes, Romans 7, this
struggle against sin, and yet you see this more and more desire
that God gives you. Things that I would hear and
acknowledge as a younger believer, and it didn't really seem to
hit me, really kind of hit me hard as I get older. Not that I'm holier in the sense
of I do more good things than I used to, but I see my sin even
more and more. Like the song, the stanza of
the song, O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained
to be. I feel that more and more. I remember singing that as a
young believer, and yep, I can agree with that, and now it just
strikes me so much harder. Objectively, outwardly, somebody
might think, well, you're not really that different than you
were when you were 40 or 30 or whatever, but inwardly, by entirely
the grace of God, I have this sense of dependence
on God that grows every day. And what Paul is calling the
Thessalonians to, and what I think scripture is calling us all to
do, is what God is working in us, that we work that out in
our day-to-day lives. And we will stumble, we'll fall,
will fail, but we need to do it, we need
to reach, we need to understand it's not us that is going to
bring, it's not 1% or .001% us, it's entirely God, and it's God's
work in us, it's the reason we're here. You ever wonder why, you
know, I don't understand why God still has me here. He's not
done with you yet. I can say that if you're a believer,
he's not done with you yet. That's why you're still here.
If he was done with you in this life, you wouldn't be in this
life anymore. And I know he's not done with
us because we're here listening to God's word. Now as we make this transition
to the Lord's table, and those who are going to help out here,
if you want to come up, the rest of us, if we want to turn over
to Hebrews 13, verses 20 and 21. What's often used as a benediction
I think is a good thing for us to meditate on both because of
the passage that we have in front of us and also as we think about
remembering the Lord's death. In Hebrews 13 verses 20 and 21,
may the God of peace who through the blood of the
eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good
for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to
him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever,
amen. So we're gonna think about that
as we participate