Look in the Word of God today
in 1 Thessalonians 4. We're going to look at verse
7 again, just in review, and 8, and go down through verse
12. And I'll just go ahead and tell you, we're going to take
verse 12, 11 and 12, quickly as an end, and focus on the meat
of what Paul is trying to emphasize here in verses 9 and 10. It says, For God has not called
us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards
this disregards not man, but God, who gives you or who gives
His Holy Spirit to you. Now concerning brotherly love,
you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves
have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed
is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to
aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to
work with your hands as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly
before outsiders and be dependent on no one. As we touch this text today,
I want us to remember a little of the things that we talked
about last week and some of the weeks prior, specifically that
Paul is writing to this church moreover than anything else,
an exaltation to God, that He is working in them, producing
in their lives the reality of the Gospel, the fruit of the
Spirit, and that they are living in such a way that gives glory
to God and shows that they are indeed the church of Jesus Christ.
That they are enduring much suffering, much persecution, that their
lives are in danger, They are not just having a grand old time,
kicking back and enjoying Bible studies. They're fighting the
fight of faith, even in the flesh, because they are suffering to
such a degree that it's costing them everything, yet they endure
in the faith. But even though Paul gives great
accolades to this church, It shows us, and I know in the very
beginning days we talked about, this is the model for us, right?
We all want to aspire to be the church of Thessalonica. We want
everywhere that someone goes to hear, wow, we've already heard
of the gospel. We know that the Lord is at work
in that church down there in Evans County because we see what
God is doing. It is something that we would
aspire to see. But yet even the church of Thessalonica had its
problems. And its problems, specifically
as we saw last week, maybe there was some sexual immorality. People
before they became believers, After they professed to be believers,
some of them still held on to sinful sexuality, to sinful views,
to impurity, to lucidiousness and debauchery. And Paul then
is not rebuking this church, but reminding this church, and
he says later that I want to make sure that you read this
letter to all the brothers. That they all hear the Word of
the Lord. And not to be deceived and not to be forgetful that
God has called us to a life that is glorifying and honoring to
Him. He's called us to live before others so that He might be praised.
Jesus Himself says that let your light so shine before men that
they see your good deeds and give honor to your Father who
is in Heaven. And it counters a lot of things. Remember this,
church. It counters a lot of teaching that is so prevalent
in our day. This attitude of hyper-grace,
that God isn't concerned with sin in our lives because He's
so gracious. Friends, that's not anywhere
found in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, Paul even
said last week, whoever disregards the teaching of purity and the
teaching of walking in holiness disregards God Himself. And the
better word there would be to reject God. Whoever rejects this
teaching, rejects God who sent it. Not only who sent it, but
who sends His Holy Spirit. We saw some trouble in translation.
I didn't do a very good job of explaining all that to you last
week. I saw some of your faces sort of like, what? But there
are some translated errors in some of the English because that's
what we do as human beings. I get up here and I'm really
proficient in butchering the Greek. I'm an expert in it. I
could make a mistake. Translators could make a mistake.
But the context of the Word of God as we see it, we put it in
there, we discern it, we pray over it, we look for it, we understand
it, we apply it, we worship God through the Scripture. But we
notice that some translation of Scripture use the word wife
instead of vessel or body. I think that's a really poor
choice. What do we understand about that?
What's the context? The context is living in a way
that honors Christ purely in holiness. So that our sin, whether
it be adultery, whether it be sexual immorality of any kind,
does not hurt our brother, does not encroach upon our brother.
Remember this last week? And I spent 36 minutes talking
about the authority of the Word of God last week. I'm like, y'all
should have shot me and told me to move on to the text. But
it's not bad to remember the authority of God's Word. For
it holds over us all things. everything we are, all of our
salvation, our thoughts, our minds, our knowledge of Him,
everything that we are to be for His namesake is found in
God's Word, the answer to our problems, the power in order
to receive the grace of God, to live in harmony, in unity,
in love and affection, to be good husbands, to be good wives,
to be good children, to be good parents, to be good stewards,
to be a good employee. It's all here in the Word. And we get to this place where
it's very difficult sometimes to discern exactly what it is
that Paul is talking about. And this text right here, especially
in verse 11 and 12, which is why I said I'm just going to
land lightly, touch down and then fly away, and then we'll
deal with it as time allows us in the near future, maybe next
week, more in depth. It's troublesome. Because as
I read it, it doesn't necessarily say what it's actually saying
in my mind. So I have to say, what is it
saying in the Word? What is Paul talking about so
that we can understand what he's trying to teach us? And what
he's trying to teach us is what he taught the Thessalonians. You see, this letter was written
to them, and it is preserved for us. So therefore God speaks
to us this day, but the intention of the writer, the intention
of the Holy Spirit of God during this time is that the Thessalonians
would hear and understand. So there's some contextual issues
that we have to deal with in a cultural way. And I'm not talking
about relative to the culture. The application stands just as
good today as it did then. But understand the fullness of
the text. And if you want to know, I want
to dig into this on Tuesday night. I am talking Tuesday night at
630 about what the church should be doing in regard to its engagement
in political things. And I will go into this text
a little bit and talk about it as you'll see. Let's move on. God has not called us for impurity.
But in holiness, therefore whoever disregards this disregards not
man, but disregards God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. This
holiness, this purity, is a guaranteed fruit of all believers. Now,
last week we looked at that, and I made the point very clear
that perfection is not possible. I know there are some brothers
that we love in history who believed in sinless perfection, but rather,
by their own confession, never obtained it. I'm not saying that
it can't be done. God can do that which He chooses
to do, and I think that the grace and the power of God and the
Word of God is sufficient. But I do believe that as we grow
more and more sanctified in Christ by the evidence of the apostles,
we see that we see deeper and harder to find and more delicate
and intricate sins that if some of us sat around in tears over,
most people would laugh. You're really burdened by that? You're really burdened by that,
but that's the power of grace. When we start seeing the small
little, what we would call in our culture, that's not really
sin, but we see the sinfulness of our own hearts. The closer
we get to the image of Christ, The more we love Him, the more
the Word of God works in us, the more the Spirit of God teaches
us all about His righteousness and His holiness. Don't ever
forget that God's holiness is an outward display of His intrinsic
worth. That the reason God is God is
because He is holy among many things. but it's the foundation
of His essence. And so in turn, as God created
man and as God created woman and He put them in the garden,
they were righteous, not just innocent of sin, not just ignorant
of darkness, but righteous. They stood in the exact imprint
of the nature of God, not in divinity, but in holiness. And
then they fell from grace. They fell from a state of righteousness.
They fell from a state of glory. Christ in His humanity is the
perfect embodiment of the righteousness of God as a man. You see, and
yet He's fully God and He's fully man at the same time. And we did a class on that months
ago on Tuesday nights and it was boggling. Why? Because we're just supposed to
go, okay, I get these points and then drool. Because it's
not something that we can land perfectly our theological plane
on and say, ah, got it, moving on. We're forever to be standing
in awe of God's glory. Standing in awe of the image
of Christ as the perfection of His glory. But friends, we as
the church will reflect the nature of our Savior. We'll reflect
the nature of our God. We will fight sin. not rest in it. We will not snuggle
with the realities of our flesh and say, it's okay, I embrace
my wickedness because God is a forgiving God. Paul's teaching
here, as we looked at last week, negates that. We don't embrace
a life of sin. We put it to death by the power
of grace, by the power of Christ, by the power of the gospel. Holiness is a fruit that is guaranteed
of the believer. Sexual purity then, as we looked
at last week, is a rejection in all ways and in all senses
of sexual immorality. Every small detail of anything
that is impure in the context of that topic is to be rejected
by the church. Did you hear that? every small
detail. Paul tells the Ephesians church
that these things should not even be named among you. He even
says to go so far to say that we ought not to discuss these
things or talk about these things or even give thought to those
who do them. It is so serious That sexual
sin and condoning of that type of immorality is to be disregarded,
not just in theory, but in practice, but also in those who practice
such things and agree with such things. One of the most grievous things
that ever happens in the church is sexual sin. And we looked
at that last week. But beloved, don't sit here condemned
if you find yourself in that. For indeed, if you are in Christ,
the Lord in His Spirit this very moment compels you to understand
that the only hope you have is not to walk right before God
and thus be cared for and loved and justified, but that you have
been saved by His absolute mercy, through His absolute grace. And
if you indeed are a child of God, the forgiveness of God is
immeasurable. And not only are you clean in
Christ Jesus, but you are compelled then to walk in Him. And we've
been looking over these last 12, 13, this is the 13th week
we've been in Thessalonians, these last 13 weeks about the
intimacy of the church and how that God in His Word equips us,
teaches us, saves us, sustains us, and then also in fellowship
together around His Word, we are then empowered and encouraged
and rebuked and instructed and taught. We are to be together
as the body and when one of us is absent, when one of us is
neglecting the others, we miss fully being able to be the body
that we need to be. You miss. We miss. We all miss
out. I'll talk about this at the end
of the sermon today, but I'll just give it to you now so you
can be thinking about it. And it's not the first time,
it's probably the seventh or eighth time I've said it in the
last few weeks. Friends, those of you who are the weakest today
are the most important. Now, of course, and I said, well
that's, listen, those of you who are the strongest today are
the most important. But you are weak, you feel you
have nothing to give, nothing to offer, nothing to do, no way
to serve. Friends, this is an opportunity
for us to serve you. Quite honestly, we're all weak. And when you are in need of ministry,
it is never a burden to the church to help you. It is never a burden
to the church to pray for you. As a matter of fact, many of
you, I saw it on your face when I said something about being
able to serve Sister Angela. You're like, finally! Praise
God. She is a human being. She does need our help. We do
want to give to her. That's the beauty of it. If there's
none in need, then there is no service. If there's none in need
of prayer, then there's no prayer. If there's none that's sick,
there's none to be healed. There's none weak in their faith.
There's no resolve in the strong and the spiritual to help disciple
each other. If everybody's the PhD of all
eternity and have every answer that they need, guess what? There's
no need for us to be together. There's no questions. There's
no reason for a teacher. There's no doubt. There's no
reason for strength. Friends, we're the church, and we've been
established, as we've seen several times over, even in our Q&A sessions
months ago, we did like 14 nights of question and answer. And we see that God puts together
the church as He pleases, and you are a part of the church
because God in His pleasure and His wisdom has put you here.
Do not feel insignificant because you are vital to the whole of
everyone sitting here. If we reject purity, beloved,
we are rejecting God. And that is one of the greatest
things that we need to realize as the church, is that we are
here together, that we might press into each other as we press
into Christ, that we might grow intimately involved so that we
would teach each other all the great things that Christ has
taught us and is teaching us every day. As iron sharpens iron,
so does one man sharpen another. And the ultimate outcome of teaching
and assembling together, the ultimate purpose is to give glory
to God and His glorious grace, to praise Him for that. But that
some secondary and tertiary purposes and the realities of this gathering
is that we are able to grow together, even in suffering, with joy. We measure the joy of our heart,
and it does not wane. Because we have a foundation,
which is Jesus Christ and the gospel, laid by the apostles. Just as we see in the first part
of Acts, they daily devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and
to the fellowship, and to prayer, and to the breaking of bread.
Friends, we do the same thing as the New Testament church today.
Although we're not waiting for the new letter to come, we've
got them. We've got the Word of God. We
have the Apostles' teaching. And we do it together. And we
look out for each other's joy. And friends, if our intimate
life with Christ is pocked with impurity, rebelliousness, our
intimacy with Him is scarred in our... I don't even know how
to say this. We're not less of a believer,
less of a child, less of a recipient of grace. But when we sin, our
relationship with Christ, it's doused. Instead of it being a
raging fire, it's like steam. Our relationship with each other.
You don't believe me? Remember the last time you were
engaged in doubt, pity, rebellion, fear? And you thought the last
place you need to be is church. I don't need to take all this
funky mess down there and stink up the place. I don't need to
come down here and hurt everybody and get everybody all worried
about me and I can't put on my smiley. Don't put your smiling
face in. Come in what's not running down your face. You'll get some
attention. Promise. Even the children will give you
a Kleenex. They know when there's a need. We come. And you might say, I'm
sinning before God, I'm sinning before man, I'm sinning against
the church, I can't believe, I can't hope, I don't know what
else to do. You're doing exactly what God has made you to do.
You come to the assembly of the brethren. And we're two or more
gathered together. Christ is with us. And the power
of the gospel is powerfully among us. And you're encouraged. And God
does great work with His Spirit, through His Spirit, with His
people. Because ultimately, no matter
what the sin may be, when we are living in rebelliousness,
we are not joyful. We're not joyful. And we hide
behind that. Because see, look what it says
in verse 8. If you disregard this, you disregard God, who
gives you His Holy Spirit, who gives His Holy Spirit to you. This is showing us, this is review,
God is the one who sanctified you. God is the one who redeemed
you. God is the one who gave you life.
If you say you are in the light, but you walk in darkness, you
lie. That's what John teaches us. We are the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus because God the Father has put His Spirit
in us. Remember the prophet Ezekiel?
Remember what God said to the nation of Israel, or to the people
of Israel? Not for your sake am I about
to act, O Israel, but for my great name, which you have defamed
among the nations, I'm about to act. Israel had abandoned
their faith, abandoned their God, abandoned the covenants,
and it wasn't the first time. It's like reruns. Same old show, different channel. And God looked at them and they
were not worthy. They were not acting. They were not pressing.
They were not seeking. They were not living for His glory. They
were not living in purity. They were not living in holiness.
And God is justified in saying, I'm done with you. But He didn't. He disciplined them and He saved
them in spite of them. And He says, I am going to put
in you a new heart. You prayed it this morning. It's
directly from there. I'm going to put in you a new
heart. God has put in you His Spirit, beloved, so we don't
disregard the truth that we are to walk and strive for holiness
and purity. Because it is the work of God
to say that it cannot happen in our lives and that it does
not have to be there, is to say that God has not birthed us anew
with His Spirit. God has sanctified us, if we
are indeed in the faith. And to reject God's righteousness
is to reject Jesus Christ. And so in this little church,
in this young church, in this orphaned church, they had problems. That's where I came in for all
this. We see them as the poster child of perfection, but yet
even then they were not perfect, were they? Because there was
still some sin there. There was still some problems
to address. And not just in life, not just
this issue that some of you are still hanging on to impurities,
but there are some problems theologically, as we'll see. The Thessalonians had believed
that Christ had already returned. And so in the weeks to come,
we're going to talk a little bit about end times as it relates
to this text. And by the Lord's grace, I'm
going to teach you to read Scripture rather than hear my opinion on
it. It's this text in the weeks to
come that actually severed an incredibly good friendship with
a brother because he asked me a question about something And
I answered that question with a question about 1 Thessalonians. And instead of talking about
it, he shook my hand and thanked me. And then a week or two later,
I realized I was no longer welcome around him. So I want to be careful
as I go there. Problems are few in this church. They're few. It's not like the
Corinthians. There's all sorts of problems in Corinth. The Thessalonians
had their problems, though, and although there might not have
been many issues to deal with, they were still big problems.
Impurity and a disregard of holiness, a disregard of the teaching of
Scripture is a big problem in the church. But Paul doesn't
labor over it that long, does he? Why? Because he says, we've
already taught you these things. We've already taught you these
things and you're walking in them. You're living in love.
You're living in obedience. But these things you need to
remember. We've already told you not to
do these things and to walk this way and to be pure before the
Lord. So keep that in your mind. And Paul was satisfied that that's
all he needed to say. Why? Because the Spirit of God
in them would give them the understanding and give them the power to receive
it and believe it. He'd already said way back in
the beginning, you receive the Word with power, and with joy, and
with much affliction. You didn't receive it just from
men, but you received it as it is, the Word of God. So therefore,
in the same way, this is the Word of God. There may be some
among you, beloved, that don't agree with this. And they'll
say, well, you need to understand the grace of God. Paul says,
stop right there, they're disregarding God. The grace of God is that
He gave you His Spirit. Therefore, you will walk in light. You will produce the fruits of
the Spirit. These things are written that
you may not sin, but if you sin, where's the grace of God? You
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. There
it is. The Spirit of God is power. And
it's proof of redemption that God not only has saved them,
but listen to this, that God has accepted them. And so to
disregard that which God teaches is to reject God and say He accepts
us. That makes no sense. Well, how do you get all that
out of that little old piece of phrase? It just, it works. with the rest of everything else
you see in Scripture. Let me just give you a few. 1 John 3,
24. Whoever keeps His commandments, what does it say? Abides in God
and God in Him. And by this we know that He abides
in us by the Spirit whom He has given us. It's just the work
of God. Jesus says it in John 3. Paul
says it in Ephesians 2. Those who come to the light do
so that it may be clearly seen that their works have been carried
out in God. In Ephesians 2, Paul says it clearly. For you are
His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which
He gave beforehand for you to walk in. 1 Thessalonians 5, we're not there
yet. But it says there in verse 23, now may the God of peace
Himself. Who? The God of peace Himself. Do
what? Sanctify you completely. And
may your whole spirit and your whole soul and your whole body
be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus. There's a
context there about the coming of the Lord and we'll get to
it there. But the idea is still the same. The Spirit of the Lord
holds you. Peter said it. Peter said that everything we
need for life and godliness is given to us by whom? God. How? Through His divine power.
How does God's divine power show its effectiveness in the
church? Through the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5. Oh, there's a problem.
There's a problem, church, there. or they birthed of God, but then
when the Judaizers came in, they just sort of like made a shipwreck
of their faith. Paul is really harsh with them. I say he's more
harsh or he's harsher with the Galatians than he is with the
Corinthians. That's the way I look at it.
I would rather get the letter that the Corinthians got than
the Galatians letter because in writing to the Galatians,
he says they're cut off if they believe that stuff. They're separated
from Christ. They're accursed. Right off the bat. He said they've
been bewitched. He says to them in 516, but I
say, walk by the Spirit and you will not
gratify the desires of the flesh. Do not do like the Gentiles. Living in the passions of their
flesh. running after the fleshly desires. Romans 8, in order that
the righteous requirement of the law, verse 4, might be fulfilled
in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to
the what? The Spirit. Not the church covenant,
not the law, not our neighbor's wishes, not our mama's wishes,
not our granddad's wishes, but the Spirit. We walk in the Spirit. And so, as we see this text moving
into verse 9, which is where we're getting started today,
we need to understand that the Spirit of God is the effectual
power and agent in our ability to strive for righteousness.
And that we are able to put to death the passions of the flesh,
the sins of our lives, and the power of the Gospel. Because
we're filled with the Spirit. So what does that look like?
Well friends, if we're in a place where we can never overcome any
sin, we need to recognize that Scripture is warning us that
we may not be in Christ. Warning us. And so Paul gives us some of
these things to think about. God's will. Part of God's will
for you is your sanctification, specifically for you Thessalonians.
Sexual purity. Striving in this way. Do not
offend your brother in this way. Do not do like the Gentiles.
Walk in the Spirit of God. Do not disregard God, for He
gives you His Spirit. You will not disregard that which
is alive in you. You will receive it. I even said that Sunday,
that as we read the Word of God, the Spirit of God will testify
with us We need to study the Bible, y'all. We need to read
Scripture. You may say, well, I don't get
anything out of it. Just keep reading. Read it over and over and over again. How many times a week do I read
this letter? I can't measure it. I don't know. Usually by the time I'm through
with teaching a letter, I've just about memorized 70% of it. Not on purpose. It just happens.
You know, you go over and over and over. You ever watched a
movie five times and you can quote all the lines? It's easier
when you read something that can fit on the back of a postcard.
I mean, first Thessalonians will fit on two postcards front and
back. It's tiny, unless you got the big print, then it's like
a poster board. But you can walk around with those if you want. And so he said, your sanctification
is the will of God for you. Here's some things you need to
be careful of. Watch out among you. Now we're back to that theme
of brotherly love. Look at verse 9. Now concerning
brotherly love. Now see, typically when Paul's
in this mode of giving instruction and making people to be careful
to do what's required, it's usually because there's a problem. But
here for the Thessalonians, Paul's not saying, now for brotherly
love, man, you really need to get to work on that. You're terrible. He doesn't say that. He reiterates
what he's already taught them. He says, you have no need for
anyone to write to you. Why is he emphasizing this again? Haven't we already gone through
this? Haven't we already learned we ought to love one another?
Haven't we already seen that the proof, one of the primary
proofs of our salvation is our love for each other? Yes, we've
seen that. We've seen that. But why then would Paul do this
over and over again. Because that's the way Paul argues.
That's the way God has chosen in His wisdom to reiterate and
to argue the reality of His work. You're doing well. I see it.
You are. We were concerned for you. We
were scared that you'd left the faith that we preached in vain,
but we sent We sent in and Saul and Timothy showed us that you
actually had persevered and you're not only persevering, you're
loving each other in a great way. And I pray, what has he
already prayed? That you would do so more and
more and more. So that which God is doing, Paul
prays that he would continue to do inside the life of the
church. Why? Because you can never outdo in love. You can never love too much.
You can never give too much. You can never sacrifice too much.
You can never provide too much affection. So He reminds them. Although
I'm getting on to you a little bit about these things, watch
for them. I don't have to tell you to love each other. You're
doing that. And church, I believe that if Paul were writing to
us, he would say the same thing. I really do. Because there are
several things that, as a pastor, I know some of the elder brothers
in the room could probably agree with, but there are several things
that will just get under your crawl really badly. Some things
are pet peeves. Some things are just nuances
that you've just got to learn to get over. Some things you
just grow. You know, when we're in ministry
60 years, Lord willing, we just won't even bother sinning. We're
so like marriage. People say, I can't believe you
put up with what he does. I don't even notice it. But there are some things that
cannot be overlooked. There are some things that keep
people like me up at night. There are some things that keep
us in turmoil. And one of those things is when
we don't have unity inside this body. When we don't have unity
with each other. When we don't have love. I almost wish I could feel, and
sometimes I can, I'm not saying this mystically, but I can tell
when I'm talking to somebody and they say something that's
a little off about somebody else, it's almost like I feel a knife
coming through my stomach. Gosh, that's a failure. And then
I think it's my failure, you know. If I'd have just preached
a little differently, if I'd have just prayed a little harder,
come on James, you're not God. Neither are you, thank God. One of the things it ought to
really unnerve, and friends, when I say unnerve, I'll shut
the world down before I'll let someone walk out of the fellowship
of this church because they're upset with somebody else. I'll
throw myself in a fire in front of a chicken truck trying to
resolve that by the power of the Word of God. It doesn't matter
how much we serve, how good we sing, how right our doctrine
may be in our own eyes, how solid our foundations are, how meager
our accommodations may be, how crowded, hot, cold. It doesn't
matter how martyred we are. If we don't love one another,
we're nothing. We're nothing. We're nothing. And I'll tell you, if I tell
you I love you, I mean it. I'll sacrifice my life and my
family's life. They love you. We love you. We've got to love that way. Well,
aren't you Mr. Special? No, because I know my
heart. And some of you know, and I've had some intimate conversations
with, you want to know what's really in my flesh? I'm a murderer. Not a gossiper, a murderer. Things
bother me in this life, tear them up. Destroy them, break
them, punch them, kick them, fight them, stab them, shoot
them, burn them. I mean, you know what I'm saying?
Wow, you're horrible. I'm not angry. I don't live that
out because Christ lives within me. But if I were not called
by God to salvation, I'd be in prison a long time ago with a
smile on my face because I'd feel like the Avenger. Superhero, I don't want to be
Spiderman or Superman. I don't want to be like the Punisher.
You see? That's murder. And y'all laughing
because y'all too want to be the Punisher. That's what it is. So I'm not
standing here going, you know, you've got to learn to love like
me. I'm a great lover. No, I'm not. I'm a murderer who
God has put love into. We are Loving because God first loved
us. And if we aren't loving, we are
not the church. Listen. If we're not loving, we are not
a church. Well, there's just some people
you might say that I just don't know how to love. There you go.
There's your sanctification. Love them anyway. And the minute we start thinking
about how hard it is to love some folks, just look in the
mirror and imagine that person looking back at you, because
you are that person for someone else. And I don't want to know about
it if it's me. Love me anyway, but don't tell
me that you don't have a hard time loving me, because then
I will throw myself on a fire. I mean, you see what I mean?
It's just a big cycle of sin. That's our heart. as the believer
is to love one another. No one has to tell you or write
you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each
other. That's a bold statement. Not only has God taught you to
love each other, you are doing it to all the brothers throughout
Macedonia. See, Christ had taught them to
love. Christ's Word came. The love
of God came to the people of Thessalonians. God's love came
through the Gospel of Jesus. God's love came and they received
with power the Gospel. And they believed the Gospel.
And they loved because the Gospel had seized them. had given them
new hearts and new minds. It wasn't that it was easy. They
didn't wake up, and love is not like being a hippie who loves
a tree and everything in between and just is pleasant. A lover
is someone who fights to surrender their own lives for the sake
of another, even when it's difficult. Jesus Christ teaches us the love
that is true. Though He was God, He did not
take equality with God, something to be grasped, but what? Made
Himself nothing. Nothing. A slave, obedient unto
death. Death on a cross. Therefore,
God highly exalted Him. And friends, if our head is highly
exalted, and we're part of His body, we will be with Him. We
must be with Christ in love. We must be with Christ in righteousness.
We must be with Christ in unity. We must be with Christ in striving. We must be with Christ in worship.
We must be with Christ in prayer. And so on, and so on, and so
on. And we cannot do it in our flesh.
We cannot do it in our best efforts. But God, who is at work within
us, will complete the work in us. Nobody had to teach them how
to love because Christ had taught them. Where did Christ teach
these people? John 13, a new commandment I
give you, that you should what? Get along with each other? Feed
everybody that's hungry? No, love one another. Just as
I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this,
all people will know that you are my disciples. If you think I'm a disciple of
Christ because I preach, wrong. I know a lot of preaching heads
that have no love. They are not disciples of Christ. If you think somebody is a disciple
of Christ because of their own mission, wrong. If they're not loving by their
own mission. Do you think people are disciples of Christ because
they plant churches, or join churches, or do spiritual things,
or lead spiritual songs, or write spiritual books? Friends, I can
point to you people in this very proximity who have written books
and preached to thousands and thousands of people on a national
stage, but do not have love for the brethren of Jesus Christ. They're not disciples of Christ. In an attempt to entrap Jesus,
the Jews ask Him, what is the greatest of all the commandments,
don't they? Jesus, the living Word before
them says, the greatest of all commandments is to love your
God. Heart, mind, soul, strength,
toe, eye, nose, all of it. Love the Lord your God with all
your strength, with all your soul, with all your heart, with
all your might. The second of equal standing to love your neighbor
as yourself. John 15, 12, this is my commandment,
that you love one another as I've loved you. And in Leviticus
chapter 19, You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against
the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor
as yourself. I am the Lord." I love how God
signs these things. I'm the Lord. Love everybody
the same way you love each other, the way you love yourself. I
am the Lord. I'm God. Listen to me. Don't disregard
me. That's how they were taught by Christ. When the disciples
preached the gospel and they received the gospel by the power
and the work of God through the Holy Spirit, they became new
creations. When they believed, they were
no longer dead in their sins. When they were born of God, they
were not born of the world any longer. They were new. They were
made new. And all their affections were
new. All of your affections, beloved,
are new when you're in Christ. And for some of these affections
that we had before we were born of God, before we were saved, some of them go away immediately.
And some of them, like some of these Thessalonians, it may take
a while. It may take some instruction.
It may take some rebuke. It may take some maturity. But they gave evidences that
they loved each other. Look at verse 10. For that indeed
is what you are doing. You are loving. And that is what
you are doing. Stay the course. Maintain this
in your life. And do it more. Well, I know
it usually comes, and this will be a review of many weeks, but
what are some areas in our lives in which we show love for each
other? What are they? Well, let's just
walk through a list of some of the things that we've seen that
Paul says happens and has done himself and has sort of given
admonition to the Thessalonians. He gave them admonition that
they, number one, believed. Therefore, he praised God for
their belief. And then part of their love for
others is that they prayed. They rejoiced seeing others come
to faith. They shared the gospel. This
is all acts of love. They gave to others in need.
They served others in the face of persecution. They supported the work of church.
If you look at Romans 15, you see that the churches of Macedonia
and Achaia gave to the church of Jerusalem financial support
to the poor of the church. You believe that? Because you
know, when we're running for our lives, the last thing on
our mind is to go and support somebody else, isn't it? They couldn't help it. It compelled
them. The Gospel compelled them. Is it going to take persecution
by the sword for us to live as lovers of the brethren? I don't
think so. It will intensify it, but I think
we can live that intently in love with each other right now. But ultimately, the context in
which Paul is speaking here, most importantly, is that they
gave of themselves to show hospitality to those other Christians. Not
only those who came in their own area, but those who traveled
from other regions. They showed that they cared.
They put themselves out so that they could minister to others.
Friends, listen, that's what it's about. Let me tell you about
missions giving. I'm a big proponent of missions
giving. It takes money to do the work of missions. I mean,
you know, you can't even get to Nepal if you don't have a
plane or ticket to a boat or a plane. Unless you want to,
like, ride in the bottom of one of those big ships in the port
and hope you get there. Next to the cabbages or goats
or whatever might be in there. But they put themselves out.
And when it comes to mission, it's easy for, oh, you know,
I'm convicted, let me give $100. I'm not knocking now. I'm just telling you that that
is loving, but it's not as costly as it could be. I'm not saying
as it should be, as it could be. You see that? Don't hear
what I'm not saying. I'm not belittling or making less of
anything the Lord calls us to do. We give money from time to
time to missions and organizations. We believe in them. Many of you
do too. You've told me that. But it's easier to give there
than it is to bring it here. It's easier to give somebody
a sack of food than let them come in and just sort of take
your bed from you for a couple of months and you feed them directly.
And that's the hospitality that was seen here. That's the natural
outcome. It's not necessarily as much
today in our culture Because we don't see hordes of
churches, hordes of congregations nomadically traversing through
our towns and being persecuted and go, wow, what are we going
to do for them? Well, maybe we do. But maybe it's political rather
than congregational. But this church gave of themselves.
They showed hospitality to others. And Paul is commending this as
affection for the church. And saying that they need to
continue to do that work. You ever heard a testimony of
someone about the Lord? The Lord's work in their life?
And it's 2016 and they're given a testimony about what happened
in 1990. And the closest point of the
testimony of the work of God in their life is like 2006. And
that's it. For 10 years, there's like nothing
to say. We do that sometimes in our love.
Well, you know, 40 years ago, I let a missionary stay in my
basement with my dogs. It was hard. I had to give it
flea bath. What are we doing now that's
loving? How are we loving this day? We don't negate that which
we've done, but friends, we're not looking back at how we loved
yesterday. We're not looking back at how
we ministered to someone this morning. We're looking forward
to see how we can love someone now. How can we love some tomorrow? How can we give and sacrifice
and engage in such a way that we're embracing one another this
very day? That's what we're doing as a
church. That's the body of Christ. We don't feel good about what
we've done because we've done it out of our affection. Someone invites us over for a
steak dinner if you like that kind of food. Or a hot dog dinner
if you like that kind of food. Or lettuce and carrots if you
like that kind of food. Or whatever it is that you might
eat. And it's just something you love. Somebody invites you
over for food and They offer it to you and you go, no, no,
no, no, I had steak 20 years ago. I'm satisfied in that. You're crazy. You'll chop that
thing up and swallow it whole if you like that. Friends, we
ought to be looking to swallow whole the opportunities to share
our lives together in love and sometimes in affliction in love. You see? And so the burden is
on all of us to share our burdens, to share our needs, to share
our afflictions, to share our struggles. And I don't mean we
have to take turns passing the microphone. That's really unproductive.
Because there's some of us that don't need to hear everything
from all of us. I know I can't take it all. Sit in the corner
and cry at the house. Dad's been in the bathroom about
three days. What's wrong with him? Shower's running. That's
how I mourn the death of my grandmother. I don't want anybody to see me
weep. I got in the shower for an hour. Just let it run while
I was out on the floor. I should have told somebody I
had a need. I should have expressed it. Broken
and bewildered. I don't know what to do. You ever been there? Tell somebody
in the body. Let the body of Christ pray for
you and love you and give to you and engage with you and embrace
you and weep with you and rejoice with you when God answers their
prayers for you. Some thoughts on brotherly love in closing.
Let's think about these things. These are reminders. In verse
10, like I said, I'll probably just mention verse 11 and 12.
We'll pick it up next week. But just in closing, some thoughts
on brotherly love. Remember that it is always a
work of God, not a work of the flesh. Though we can be really
loving sometimes in our flesh, there will come a time where
there'll be a rub. It's like, this is really encroaching
in my life. This is encroaching in my time.
This is encroaching in my life. This is encroaching in my finances.
This is encroaching in my personal space. This is encroaching in
my emotional ability to deal with this. And sometimes we do
have to say, okay, we need to engage someone, another brother,
another sister to help us in this. Because we don't want to
fall prey to falling into sin when we're helping others deal
with theirs. But remember, it's a work of
God, beloved. It's not in us. Don't feel guilty that you haven't
figured out how to love so well. Because even the Thessalonians
had figured out how to love so well by the power of the Gospel,
and Paul prayed that they'd do it more and more and more. Because
it wasn't good enough, but it was good enough because it was
God. It's not only a work of God,
it's a continual striving. It's a continual striving out
of the affections of our heart. Our hearts are always at war, are
they not? right now in the midst of this room, and if you listen
to this sermon 30 years from now, when you hear these words,
you will be in a conflict. You'll be at war with the affections
of your flesh and the affections of the Spirit of God. You will
be struggling and battling. Wow, I see idols in my life.
You know what can be an idol? Everything can be an idol. Anything
can be an idol. I love John's drive at the very
end of his first epistle. Keep yourself a model, beloved.
And I love to teach that and I love to express that. I love
to meditate on that and look at my own life and see the things
of the world that can so easily ensnare my affections. For some of the brothers who
were here Saturday, yesterday morning when I shared some deep, dark
secrets about my journey through depression. And it's amazing that as I contemplate
on those things and I realize that most of them were because
I was at war with the affections of my flesh and most of my idols
were ministry, esteem, success in the gospel. I didn't even have time to talk
about those. Anything can be an idol. And
so, the love of God, brotherly love, is God's working in us
as we strive to put to death the affections of our flesh,
as we look not for social influence, not for cultural change, not
for moral reform, as somebody's recently told me. The Gospel's not about moral
reform. The Gospel's not about social justice. Come Tuesday
if you want to hear what I believe the Bible teaches on those issues. Brotherly love requires a giver,
someone to give love, someone to serve as a lover, and a recipient,
someone to be the loved, to be the beloved. It doesn't work
without both. We can't just all have a bottle
of love and ready to give and nobody to pour it on. We're just a merchant with no
clients. That's called bankruptcy. We don't want to be spiritually
bankrupt in our ability to love each other, so we must have opportunity
to love each other. Friends, if we're not together,
there's no opportunity to love each other. Some of the most frustrating
moments of my pastoral ministry has been when I've tried to counsel
people who refuse to be part of the local fellowship of believers. And they want their own private
church service, their own private sermon, their own private fellowship,
their own private everything. And I didn't know that early. People tried to tell me. I'm
like, no, I got this because one of my sins is just thinking
I can do it all. That's pride and arrogance, by
the way. That's not Superman complex. That's sinful. Oh, I can just sit down with
them. I can talk them into it. I'll show them what the Bible
says. It'll all work out. It doesn't work out like that,
friends. You can't get counsel if you're refusing to obey the
simplistic reality of God calling you to salvation, which is being
together with the church of Christ. That's why the writer of Hebrews
says that that's one of the tests of people who are apostate, who
are not in the faith. They fail to do what's required
of them in the basics of getting together with the church on a
regular basis. In worship. You know what's incredible
about worshiping together today? You are accountable to God because
you're sitting under the teaching of God's Word. And you're accountable
to each other because everybody in the room can see your face
and know you hear it. Unless you're in there. It's not as bad. And you and I are accountable
to each other because God's Word has put us in that place. You
can't be accountable to the Word of God effectually as you depart
from the church. And then you wonder, why, why,
why, why are you not answering my prayers, God? Because you're
disobeying me, son. I'm not going to answer your
prayers. You know what I want from you. Do that, then come
back to me. Now, I just put words in God's
mouth, but find scripture that refutes that and we'll talk. Sin hinders our prayers. And
it is a sin to ignore the affection of the church. You can't love
if you're not here. You've got to have a recipient.
It's often sacrificial love, brotherly love. It's costly,
time, treasure, talent. It costs our trust sometimes.
Sometimes we're made vulnerable when we love or when we are loved. That's the point of it. Was Christ
not vulnerable becoming human? Is Christ not vulnerable to subject
Himself to the hands of sinners by the will of the Father who
put Him forth as propitiation? And brotherly love, as I've already
said in the beginning, is that no part of the church is not
necessary, especially in the love of the body, for the care
of the body, for the prayer of the body, and the praise of the
Lord by the body. You are necessary, beloved. You are necessary. And what we teach and what we
hold to and how we do things is so different than the norm
of the majority of the churches in our culture. And friends,
I am not standing here to say they're all wrong and we're all
right. I'm just saying is that I don't
care anymore what I used to do. I want to do what God's called
me to. And if the Scripture doesn't agree with it, then I will change. So anything that steps in the
way of that obedience on my part and your part, we throw it in
the fire. We destroy it. We remove it. Any obstacle to loving each other
and having the time to love each other must be removed from our
midst. And everything that we do, must
be done to the praise of the glorious grace of God. In these last few verses, I'll
let them sit and we'll look at them next week. But as we're here today, remember,
beloved, you can never love too much, you can never serve too
much, you can never share too much, you can never pray too
much, you can never embrace Too much. And when we do, we love
like Christ. Rest in Him. Believe and trust
in Him that He can work that in you. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for your
love for us. Please, Lord, settle in our hearts this good
news that we've heard over and over again today. Christ's love
for us calls us, saves us, seals us, preserves us, sanctifies
us. And Lord, I pray that anyone
here who cannot see that You would
open their eyes to see, they could just see clearly Christ
before them as their only hope. That Jesus is the only way. And Father, protect us from believing
that our power and our flesh can do anything for Your glory,
but that all good things from us come from You. And Lord, please help us to love
each other more and more and more. And not just to love each other,
but to also have patience and love for those who are not of
us, as we pray for their salvation, as they look in on our lives
and see Your love. Lord, if they hate us, let them
hate us because we love each other, not because we're hypocrites. Father, we thank You for the
grace to see and to believe and to stand this day and to pray
to You. We thank You for Your supremacy.
We thank You that You never change. And You are forever our loving
Father. Even before we were, You loved
us. So let us love each other. In
Jesus' name we pray. Amen.