1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We've been going through Romans,
as you know, in the Bible study, and then we started through 1
Thessalonians. Well, Wednesday night, last Wednesday
night, I was going to deal with this chapter, but changed my
mind and stayed with Romans 12 then. So this morning we're looking
at this chapter. Now this is a letter from Paul
to the church, every church, this church, but it's God's Word
through a man to his people. And it was written in letter
form, so it all goes together. It's only divided into chapters
and verses by men for the ease of remembrance, ease and able
to find it. So this all goes together. Verse
1, he says, Furthermore, then, we beseech you. Furthermore,
then, because of what we just said, we beseech you. Now, look
at it. He prayed in chapter 3, verse
10, night and day, prayed exceedingly, and might see your face, and
might perfect that which is like him in your faith. Well, I thought
believers were perfect in Christ. But, all right, read on, keep
on. Now, God himself and our Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you. And the Lord
make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another and
toward all men, even as we do toward you, to this end, to this
purpose, that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness
before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. with all his saints. Well, I thought believers are
holy and unblamed. They are. Well, then why is he telling
us this? Well, stay with me, okay? A child of God that is born of
God is a new creature. There's a new creature. There's
a new man. He's called the hidden man. And it's a paradox. It's something
that really can't be explained. But there's an old man and there's
a new man. There's an old man that is sinful.
He can only sin. There's a new man who's holy,
who's just like Jesus Christ. There's an old man that's dead.
There's a new man that's alive unto God. He has heart to receive
the Word of God. He has ears to hear it. He has
eyes to see the wisdom of it. That new man is born of God.
It's God's creation. Scripture said it is God that
worketh in us. Let me make this very clear,
so as no one will misunderstand what I'm saying. That this thing
of salvation, justification, and sanctification is God's work. It's not a cooperative effort.
It's not God justifies us, now you sanctify yourself. No, sir. No, sir. It's God's work. Please understand that when we
talk about holiness, and the Scripture says much about it,
when we talk about godliness, we're talking about the life
of God, the new life in every believer which God creates. It's
the Spirit of God working in us. Paul said, The life I now
live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me.
He said, It's Christ in me. Now, when he says, Peter quoted
our Lord, Be ye holy, for I am holy. That is a father speaking
to his sons. It's a father speaking to his
son, Be like me. Be like my son Christ. Be like
him. And when it speaks of perfecting
holiness, what that means is growing in grace and the knowledge
of Christ. It means maturing in faith and,
yes, works. Let me give you the illustration.
When a child is born, you have a baby boy, when the popes back
there had their first born son. He's a complete son. A man-child
was born, wasn't he? He has all of his faculties.
He has a brain, he has a heart, he has eyes, he has ears, he
has feet, he has legs, he has all of those things. He's a man-child,
isn't he? He doesn't grow more feet or
legs, but he's going to, those faculties are going to grow up,
aren't they? He's going to grow up into a perfect man. So when our Lord's talking about
perfecting holiness and being holy, what he's saying is, act
like a man. Isn't that what you're going
to tell your boys from now on? You're going to say, Andrew,
act like a man. Be a man. Even the Scriptures
tell His people, quit yourselves like men. Christ is the perfect
man. He's perfect humanity. And our
Lord God created a new people to be just like him. Be a man. Be like Christ. The definition of manhood is
not what man says. It's what God said. And Christ
said, I am meek and lowly, loving, kind, tender, good. That's manhood. And what's wrong with that? Do
we have those safe and perfected? Are we perfect in those areas?
I don't feel like I need them because I need this. I need that. As I said before,
Wednesday night, I'm not preaching this or teaching this because
I've got it mastered. I'm preaching it and teaching
it because I need it worse than anybody. Sanctification. Holiness. That's another word
for holiness. It means to be set apart, set apart for God. It means to be made pure for
God, like a virgin saved for her husband. It means to be consecrated,
devoted to God. That's what the word means, set
apart. Now, I'm going to say this. I've got it written down
here, say it once. I've already said it. I'm going
to say it twice. We don't sanctify ourselves. We don't make ourselves
holy. We don't make ourselves godly.
But God does. It is God's work. It is Christ's
work. It is the Holy Spirit's work.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification by the Spirit.
Now, listen to these scriptures. For he that sanctified, and they
that are sanctified are one. Now, who's he that sanctified?
That's Christ. That's what Hebrews said. Christ
said, for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might
be sanctified. Isn't that what it says? By one
offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
He's the sanctifier. It's not a cooperative effort.
Am I making this clear? So that nobody's going to accuse
me of saying that we sanctify ourselves or have a part in our
own sanctification. No, sir. And you will defend
me on this one. Okay? For this cause, Christ
said, I sanctify thyself that they also might be sanctified,
set apart, made holy, pure, consecrated, devoted unto God. He is made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Because no flesh is going to
glory in his name. As it is written, he that gloryeth
may him glory in the Lord. Out of Christ's side came blood
and water. Blood to justify, water to sanctify. Now, what does water stand for? He is our sanctification. He is made unto us sanctification
and, not but, but and he uses means to sanctify us. The Spirit of God takes the Word
of God and sets us apart, sanctifies us, makes us pure, holy. Now
are you clean through the Word I've spoken of? Christ said to
the Father in that same chapter where he said, I sanctify myself
that they might be sanctified. He said, sanctify them through
thy Word. A truth, didn't he? Thy Word
is truth. Didn't he say that? So he uses
means. Right here. Ephesians 5.26 says
the Holy Spirit washes his church by the Word. Now, and he gives us this means.
What we're doing right now cleanses us, washes our minds and hearts
and bodies and makes us like Christ. This is it. Sanctified
Word of God. It's not you doing anything with
it, it's the Spirit of God doing something with it, doing something
in it. Illustration. When you take a shower, are you
washing yourself? Do you make yourself clean? Or
does the water? Does the soap? What if you didn't
have any water or soap? You scrub all you want to. Is
that clear? It's not you, it's the Word. And the Holy Spirit must use
it in us and on us, okay? He must give us right now ears
to hear, heart to receive, the will to do, hands and feet. It's His Word. He gives the glory.
And yet, like children that we are, the Lord commands us Like
the man with a withered hand. Stretch out your hand. He's got
a withered hand. He can't. His hand's withered. He can't do that. He said, I
stretched and said, stretch out your hand. What'd he do? He could
do all things through Christ that strengthened him. He did
it. Peter, come unto me. A man can't walk on the water.
A man can't walk above this world and sin. Walk. Come on, Peter. And he did. Was it him? No, it's not possible for a man
to do that. But he did, looking to Christ. Now this is something we need
to understand. When we talk about God's Word,
it's not just reading the Bible. But it's the Spirit of God taking
the Word, the Bible, God's Word, and showing us Christ. When we
look to Christ on the cross, boy, this breaks the heart. It
purifies the heart. It makes a person not want to
sin. It's the only thing that will. If Christ suffered like
that for me, Why would I sin against such love, mercy, and
grace? Looking to Him for His help,
for His grace. Peter's the one who said, Lord,
bid me come. I want to come to you, but I
can't. He said, come. And he did. And when he took
his eyes off of Christ, he started sinking. And so will we. And the sin will go over our
heads. only by looking to Christ. It's Christ's work on the cross
that saves us, sanctifies us, and it's Christ's walk in this
world. We look to him, we look at him. He is made unto us, not
only our substitute but our example. What is sanctification? Look
at Christ. There you are. That's perfect.
That's sanctification. It's not some man-made rules
of touch not, taste not, handle not, dress this way, dress that
way. No, no, no, no. Look at Brian. Right there. That's
a perfect man. What's wrong with that? Anything
wrong with what I've said so far? Yeah, I'm going to quit
saying that because you people This is what Paul said. You know
these things. You've been taught these things. I was well taught
in these things. So well taught. That's what Jane
told me this morning. Her and her sister Beth grew
up. She said, we've got such a solid foundation on God's Word. Verse 5. This is God's will. Chapter 4, verse 1. Brethren,
furthermore then, we beseech you. Sounds like Romans 12, doesn't
it? We beseech you by the mercies
of God that you present your what? bodies as living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable servant, because
of the mercy of God. And this is exactly what he's
dealing with here. We beseech you, brethren, and
exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ. He told us, Paul said,
he told us to tell you this. What we're writing to you is
not our words, but his words. Everything our Lord said and
did was not written in the gospel, but he instructed his apostles,
and they said more than we receive. We receive by the
Lord Jesus. We exhort you by the Lord Jesus
that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk and
to please God, you would abound more and more. And you know what
commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. This is the will
of God, your sanctification. He says how you ought to walk.
Did your father tell you what to do? He'd be a mighty poor father
if he didn't do it. Son, don't do that. Don't do this. Watch
out now. Beware. Do this, son. Do this,
do that. That's wrong. Reprove? Rebuke? Correct. Oh, didn't he? Why? To make you his son? No, you're already his son, but
because he loved you. To make you a man. Well, the
Father tells us Does he tell us how to be saved? Does the
Lord tell us how to be saved? Is this a how-to book, the Word
of God? Yes! How do you be saved? Look! Well, how can I be like Christ?
Look! Don't look in here. Look! And, you know, beholding Him,
we're changed into the same image. That's what the Scripture says.
Changed. That's the only one. Admiration produces emulation. Big word. I'm not proud of myself for saying
that. But it means if you love Him, you want to be like Him. If you admire Him, that's how
I want to be. That's the only thing that will
make you like Him. The Spirit takes the things of
Christ, not just hanging on the cross but walking through Right? Right? Okay. Walk. That is a sad day when
a preacher tells someone, it doesn't matter how you walk. That's a sad day. Every epistle deals extensively
with the walk of belief. Was it important how Christ walked
in this world? Oh my, it was our salvation and God's glory. He did it for
God's glory and our salvation, didn't he? Well, is it important
how we walk through this work? Oh yes, it's for God's glory
and it is proof of our salvation. If there's no new creature, There's
no salvation. And I have not yet, and I will
not tell you, look to yourself to see if you've made progress.
No sir. I've been telling you from the
outset, look to Christ. If you look within, you won't
find any progress. If you look at your brethren,
you will. If you look at your brethren,
I've seen them grow and graze. They're more like Christ, right? The disciples were known as his
disciples. How? It says they took note that they'd
been with Jesus. There was a marked change in
those men. Simon Peter, those that hung
out in the bar with Simon Peter, said, he's a different fellow. They probably scared him, afraid
of him. Simon Peter just strikes me,
doesn't he, Stephen, as being some rough, gruff, longshoreman
fella, just sit and fight you and look at you. Alright, his
old cronies and buddies that he used to walk in the same excess
to riot with him, they came across him one day and he said, How
you doing? Let me tell you about my Lord. Simon? Is that you? Where you going? I'm following
my Lord Jesus Christ. Doing what? He's a new man. Huh? Does Simon get any credit for
that? No. They took note. They walked with
Christ. They walked like Christ. They
talked like him. They said, your speech betrayed
you. There was a drunk, and brethren,
drunkenness is a sin. And the scripture says drunkards
won't inherit the kingdom of God. That's what it said. Paul said that. He said, I'll
say it again. I've told you time and again. Adulterers and fornicators
and drunkards and homosexuals will not be in the kingdom of
God. Those that live in those things are dead in those things.
Those that continue those things are just dead in those things.
The Lord saves us from those things. The Lord, there was a
man one time walking along, a Spurgeon was walking along down the side
street in London, and a drunk came up to him, staggering. He
said, God, it's Spurgeon. Do you remember me? He said, no, dear fellow, I'm
afraid I don't. He said, I'm one of your converts. He said, well, you must be, because
you're certainly not the Lord's. Well, the Scripture speaks that
if God saves us, he saves the whole man. Look at chapter 5.
He ends up this epistle by saying this. Chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians
5, verse 23. Sanctification regards the whole
man. That's what it said, verse 23.
The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, completely, all of
you. I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every single epistle deals with
the believer's walk. I have every epistle written
down and verses to read to you from it, but I'm already out
of time. Every epistle. But let me just
read you the Galatians, Ephesians. There's no clearer gospel passage
than Ephesians is. Don't you love Ephesians 1 and
2? Don't you? You love Ephesians 3, 4, and
5 and 6, huh? Oh, yes. Ephesians 2 says, "...by
grace he is saved through faith." That's not of yourselves, is
it? It's a gift of God. "...not of work, lest any man
should mope, where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in." Why? It glorifies God. Herein is your father glorified
that you bear much fruit. What's fruit? Love, joy, peace,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, longsuffering,
faith. Grow. How do you grow? You can't
make yourself grow. You can't make yourself grow.
Listen, if anybody could make themselves grow, I would. I would, I told you years ago,
I set off my hard-earned money as a boy. I played sports, you
know, and I was always little. And I set off and they sent me
a packet. And basically what it was, it
was instructions what to do. And they said, Elizabeth, they
said, hang a bar in the door and every morning hang from it.
You'll stretch. Well, I tried that, Mac. Did you have anything to do with
the size you got? Did I? No. You can't add one
cubit to your stature, or one hair to your head. Now believe
me, if I could grow hair, I'd do that too. But the Lord numbers
it. It's his Word, isn't it? But
he says, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow
thereby. How do we grow? The Word. The
Word. Ephesians says this. I want to
read to you from Ephesians. It says, Oh, where do I start? It says,
that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity
of their mind, and the understanding darkened, alienated from the
life of God, past feeling, and giving themselves over to lasciviousness,
the work all unclean. You haven't learned Christ like
that, he said. And he goes on to talk about
that walk, and he's all the way through there. This is how it
is. And Paul says in our text, 1
Thessalonians, how you ought to walk and to please God. We
can't please God. Hold on now. Just hold on a minute. We're calling Lord God a liar.
Now without faith it's impossible to please God. Apart from being
in Christ and Christ in you, you can't please God. No. Even
our righteousness is a filthy rag. But that new man, new creature
in Christ, God's well pleased with his work. And that new man longs to please
God, not to be a son of God. The law says, this do and live.
Grace says, live, now do. Right? Those under the law say,
I want to do this to earn heaven. I want to do this and be rewarded
by God. I want to do this. Grace says,
I want to do this because he saved me. I want to do this because
of his mercy. The law says, work, then rest. Work six days and then rest. Grace says, rest first now. Now go to work. Faith which worketh
not love. Love, love, love. The law says
you're supposed to do this. It's your duty. Grace says it's
my privilege. It's my honor. It's what I want
to do that I love. That's a different one. All right, look at it. It says
you know what commandments the Lord has given us. Verse 3, this
is the will of God, your sanctification. But what subject is he going
to deal with in his thing of sanctification? That you should
abstain from fornication. That every one of you, male or
female, should know how to possess his vessel. What's that? The
body. Now, the Scripture speaks a great deal about spiritual
fornication, doesn't it? The Old Testament especially
talks about the people of God walking after strange flesh.
fornication, adultery. They're supposed to be married
to the Lord, but they go after other gods. But this is talking
about the body, isn't it? This is talking about the body,
then, talking about sanctification and set apart. And he talked
about the Gentiles. Now, why does he deal with this?
Do you know how much the Scripture speaks of this? And why is that? You know why here. This world
is eaten up with this. This is the predominant, prevalent,
rampant. It's not a sin. Anything goes
in this world. No, it doesn't. Not with God.
God's people are different. We've got a different mind, a
different way of thinking, a different heart. reason to live, not to
gratify our members. That's what this is talking about,
about physical gratification. His will is that we abstain from
them, know how to possess our vessels in purity and honor.
It's the only thing that God Described as he says it's the
marriage is honorable and all and the bed is undefiled only
between a husband and a wife Anything else is fornication
I don't And I can't believe I even have to stop and qualify or This
is God's work And you know why he deals with it. You know why.
And you know why we need it dealt with. Do you have any problem
in this area? Do you? You got a body? You got a healthy body? Satan, he knows. And so we're bombarded with everything,
everywhere. The Gentile world is wholly given
up to them. Wholly given. And he warns us. He warns us. I was going to have
you turn to 1 Corinthians 6. Jot it down and read it for yourself.
Be very clear about this whole thing. It says, Glorify God in
your body. Don't give yourself. into context. It says, Not in
the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles, which know not
God. Every one of you should know
how. How? Didn't Simon Peter say, Dearly
beloved, I beseech you, like Paul said, of the mercies of
God. He says, as strangers and pilgrims. That this way of thinking, that
these things are a sin, is strange to this wicked world. Oh, you
don't believe like that anymore, do you? Oh, yes, I do. He said, I beseech you, a stranger
and a pilgrim, that you abstain from fleshly lusts which war
against the soul. That's why he tells us here,
a war against the soul. How do we abstain? instant in prayer. The Lord looked at Christ. He didn't live
for flesh, did he? His moderation, his temperance,
everything about him was known and clear. That's how I want
to be, not given to anything. Our Lord looked on the opposite
sex, and they were beautiful. I just think of Mary Magdalene
as being a beautiful woman. Okay? He looked at her as a lost
soul that needed saving. As his sister. That's how I want
to look. Don't you? How? Lord help me. Turn away
my eyes from the Holy Spirit. Lord help me. Lord help me. Lord
help me. Lord help me. The only way. There is no other
way. Now, verse 5 says, not 6, that no man go beyond and defraud
his brother in any matter of this matter. He hasn't changed
the subject. What he's talking about here
is adultery. He says the Lord is the avenger of all such. We've
forewarned you and testified. God is the avenger. Whoremongers
and adulterers, Scripture says, God will judge. And Paul wrote
to the Corinthians, such were, were, such were some of you. Our dear brother Bruce Crabtree
was preaching recently at a conference and stood up and said, I don't
curse God anymore. I used to curse God, but I don't
curse God anymore. And a man actually stood up and
called him a liar in the midst of his preaching. I don't curse God anymore. Is that me? No, it wasn't me. I bless God. I thank God. He wasn't taking
credit for that. He was giving God the glory for
changing a man from one who cussed God to one who doesn't anymore.
But praise God, he wasn't taking credit for that. And that man
was a judge of evil thoughts. Paul said, I keep my body, didn't
I? Paul, that means you're above
sin. No, by the grace of God, I am what I am, he said. But
by the grace of God, I possess my vessel. Well, Brother Paul,
would you teach me? Because I sure need to know how. Okay, I will. Amen. Now, David, all of God's people
are guilty of every sin, are capable of falling into every
sin. Right? And some of God's people,
best men, have fallen into sin. David was guilty of adultery. He was a child of God. He was
guilty of adultery. And God severely dealt with him,
didn't he? He said, the sword is not going
to depart from your house the rest of your days. What do you think that produced
in David? Number one, a godly repentance that he was deeply,
oh, against thee and thee only have I, I did this in your sight. And David said, you're going
to be clear when you judge me, you're going to be just if you
sent me to hell, but would you have mercy on me? And Psalm 130,
which David wrote, says, there is forgiveness within me. Nathan said to David, as soon
as David said, I sinned against the Lord, what was I to do? And
Nathan said, the Lord has put away your sin. By this you've given the enemies
of the Lord great cause to rejoice and brought great reproach upon
the Lord. Oh, the damage you've done to the cause of Christ. Thinking it is bad enough, but
doing it is worse. Okay, did David say after that,
well, I'm trusting Christ and it doesn't matter what I do now,
and I'm okay. Our Lord said to that woman who
was caught in the act, he said, go and what? Sin no more. You think she went back to that
lifestyle? Oh, no. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. You know, you not only fear.
When you see sin for what it is, you'll see the awful consequences
of it. You'll see the awful reproach
it brings upon your God. of God supremely and to everyone
else, and yourself. It brings you low. It makes you
nothing better than an animal. Animals live for the appetite.
Surely God made us for something more. Yeah. Yeah. Buddy, you take this out there,
this world is accusing us of preaching licentiousness. You
take this out there. Okay? And I'm talking to myself. Goodness of God. Now here it
is. There is repentance with thee.
The goodness of God leads a man or woman to repentance. What
is repentance? Sorrow. Toward God. Turn it. Isn't that repentance really?
You know, it means to turn. If we confess our sin and what?
Forsake it. He that confesses his sin and
forsake it then shall find us. Every believer is guilty of every
sin capable of falling, and only he is able to keep us from falling. Right? So that's why he says,
be interested in prayer. Always. Pray without ceasing.
Without me, you can do nothing. Every sin we're capable of. But
by God's grace and by God's Word By the fear of the Lord, men
depart from evil. Now, read on. In our text, it
says, We forewarned you, verse 6, and testify, 4. Here it is,
verse 7. God hath not called us unto uncleanliness. It didn't save us to live in
ill will, but unto holiness. And he that despiseth. If anybody
doesn't like this, He's not despising man, but God. Because He's given
us His Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do?
You say He takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us.
Yes, sir. That's exactly right. What things of Christ? Everything. Everything He said and everything
He did and shows them unto us. That's the holy. It's called
the holy spirit. It leads us and guides us. The
grace of God taught us to, teaches us to deny and live holy, like
Christ. That's what the holy spirit does. What's wrong with the word holy?
Oh, I love the word holiness. I, because legalists and, you
know, these people that keep make you under the law and have
you look to yourself and think we sanctify ourselves and grow
better and all of that sort of thing. But just because they
say that, we're not going to throw away this work. This is
God's work. We're not going to throw it away. We're going to
teach it right. We're going to teach it right. This is what
our Lord taught us, and the only one way to how to is by His grace,
looking to Him. And if you look to Him, He said,
I'll give you the strength. I will. I will. You look to yourself. If we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing. We can't resist one temptation.
I don't want to do that. That's what Peter said. They'll
deny you, but not me. Okay? You'll be the first. By the grace of God, I don't
want to do that. Okay? I'll give you grace. Amen.