Good evening. Tonight's message
is called Called Unto Holiness. Last week we looked at verses
1 to 6 in our studies of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, where we saw clearly
instruction for us in our daily walk in Christ through this world
while we pilgrimage through this world. Here are four reasons
for holy living before our great God. 1. Because of a living union
we have with the true and living God, the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Because the Holy Scriptures
teach us to be holy, to walk as children of light. 3. Because
holy living is for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
it pleases God. 4. Because it is the will of
God for His children to not even give the appearance of sin, even
though we are sinners. Now let's read verses 1 to 6
of chapter 4. Tonight's message will be in
verses 7 to 9, but I'd like us to read the context, so I'd like
us to read the preceding verses and the verses that follow. So
we're going to read the context of these verses, and we're going
to read verses 1 to 12. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 1 Furthermore,
then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus
Christ, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and
to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what
commandment we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will
of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication,
that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel
in sanctification in honor, not in the lust of concupiscence,
even as the Gentiles which know not God, that no man go beyond
and defraud his brother in any matter, because that the Lord
is the avenger of all such, as we have forewarned you and testified."
Now in those verses right there we see clear instruction for
the daily walk of the believer. And we see in verse seven, let's
read verse seven now, the reason for this instruction. For God
has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. Paul then
continues to speak in verse eight, that if one despises these instructions,
they're actually despising God and not man. Look at verse eight.
He therefore despises not man, but God, who has also given unto
us his Holy Spirit. Now let's read the remaining
verses of the context, which I wanted us to read, verses nine
to 12. But as touching brotherly love,
you need not that I write unto you, for you yourselves are taught
of God to love one another. And indeed, ye do it toward all
the brethren, which are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you,
brethren, that ye increase more and more, and that ye study to
be quiet, and to do your business, and to work with your own hands,
as we commanded you, that ye may walk honestly toward them
that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. Now,
every born-again blood-washed believer, every born-again blood-washed
sinner is painfully aware of our old nature. And we are aware
that we are plagued with this body of sin as long as we are
on this earth. We're plagued with sin. When
we're in this body, we're plagued with sin. And the believer in
Christ's earnest, sincere desire is to bring glory to the one
who loved us, and gave himself for us, and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. But every one of us, if we're
honest, we'll admit that we're nothing but miserable failures
in our feeble attempts to be holy before God. In our flesh
dwelleth no good thing. And while grace does not give
us a license to sin, as much as we hate sin, that's what we
are, and that's what we do. We will never be without sin
as long as we're trapped in the sinful body. But God's born again
children do not sin that grace may abound. No, because Christ
dwells in us, we love what he loves and we hate what he hates. We love righteousness. God's
people love righteousness and God's people also hate sin. And
again, we hate sin more in ourselves than we hated anywhere else.
Spurgeon was so right when he said, I am my own worst enemy. That's why we're miserable when
we do those things we know we shouldn't do, and when we don't
do those things that we should do. That's why Paul the Apostle
cried out, O wretched man that I am. Not that I was. He doesn't
say what I was. He says, O wretched man that
I am. And this is a saved man writing
this. O wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin, Romans
7, 24 and 25. As long as we're in this life
and for all eternity, when this life is over, we will praise
our God and rejoice in Christ who is our righteousness. That
makes us acceptable in God's sight. Christ in Christ alone
is the only one who makes us acceptable in God's sight. And
the born again believer, while they're here on this earth and
for all eternity, will praise our great God and rejoice in
Christ, who is our righteousness. Now, in light of the first six
verses of this passage, which are again filled with instruction
for daily living for the believer, We see the truth of the words,
which Paul wrote to Timothy, describing one of the purposes
of the word of God. Turn, if you would, to 2 Timothy
2, verses 16 and 17. One of the purposes of the word
of God is instruction in righteousness. And this is what we see in these
first six verses, is instruction in righteousness for the believer,
for our daily walk. Look at this in 2 Timothy 3.16,
all scripture, that means all of it, all scripture is given
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
Well, why? That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And we know those
good works mentioned there are not anything that saves us. No,
no faith without works is dead. But those works are fruits of
the Holy Spirit of God. Those are works that God has
ordained for us to do, but they have nothing to do with our salvation.
No, they're just fruit of the great work that God's done in
us, and we do not even know when we do them. I've brought that
out many times before. Now we see brought forth in these
verses instruction for righteousness. In these first verses that Paul
wrote in chapter 4, we see here very clearly instructions in
righteousness. And Paul will conclude his words
on the effects of sanctification and holiness in verse 8, which
we'll look at today. Now remember who Paul's writing
to. He's writing to born-again, blood-washed believers. He's
writing to those who have come out of paganism. They've been
turned from idols to serve the living and true God. And again,
he's writing this by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. And
he's giving this instruction to the brother in this region,
in Macedonia, who were themselves steeped in paganism before they
were born again. And they still live in an area
which is steeped in paganism. And all the instructions of verses
1 to 8 is written for their instruction and also for our instruction.
Paul tells them to avoid and refrain from their former practices,
which we see here is fornication. Why? Well, because the blood
of Christ has bought them. And we see in verse 7 that they
have not been called to uncleanness, but unto holiness. Look at verse
7. 1 Thessalonians 4, 7. For God
has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. Now some professing
Christians have a very flippant attitude when it comes to their
sinful weaknesses in the flesh. They say things like, oh well,
this is how God created me. Or they say this, well, all my
sins are forgiven and now I can do anything I want. I'll tell
you right now, that's nothing but rank antinomianism. And they
have no concern. They have no concern at all when
they offend one of God's children. They don't care. They have no
remorse over their open rebellion against Christ who they profess
to believe in. So we see here then that verse
7 is very clear on the subject of the believer's personal life
of holiness. And remember, we're only made
holy in Christ. We as believers, we hate sin.
We hate sin in ourselves, don't we? And his dear brother, Donnie
Bell said, we sin more than we desire to sin. And we see it
made very plain. Look at this in verse eight.
We see it made very plain that anyone who despises these admonitions
and these warnings, these instructions, which are in these words that
Paul wrote. We see that they don't despise
the messenger, which is the apostle, and today would be pastors who
preach this portion, but rather they despise the author. They
despise God Almighty. Look at verse eight, 1 Thessalonians
4.8. He therefore despises not man,
but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. Now
the word despises there in the text in the Greek, it means to
do away with, to set aside, to disregard, to thwart the efficacy
of anything. to nullify it, to make it void,
to frustrate it. The last portion of the definition
of this Greek word is to reject, to refuse, to slight. Not only do those who are spoken
here despise the words of Paul and Silas and gospel preachers
who proclaim these truths, but they despise God. They despise
God. And every source of any and all
rebellion is the hatred of God. And with that hatred comes the
rejection of His Word of Command. The warning's clear here. There's
no debating this, is there? Here's the clear warning without
debate. To reject the Word of God is
to reveal hatred for God. Part of the pagum Custom and
culture in Macedonia during this time was fornication, which was
a rejection of marriage and therefore a mockery of Christ and his church. And Paul said that believers
in Christ are to flee from those sins. This was not a custom relating
to the church of the living God. No, the church has one focus,
and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we gather together and support
the work of God for the furtherance of the gospel, which speaks of
and proclaims the one thing needful for bankrupt sinners, and that
is the Lord Jesus Christ, who has saved his people from the
judgment and wrath of God Almighty against their sin. And the born
again believer in Christ is made to feel their sins and to trust
Christ as their saviors because we've learned that Christ was
delivered for our offenses and that he was raised again for
our justification. And that all this forgiveness
that we have, it is Christ and Christ alone who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead
to sin should live under righteousness. So we see in verse eight that
our Lord is telling us through the inspired writings of the
apostle Paul, that these teachings concerning what we call practical
godliness, a life of holy living for the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ are not to be despised. These are more than just the
words of God's faithful preachers. These words come from our Lord
Jesus Christ. And if we despise these words,
it's not Paul and Silas. It's not God's preachers we despise,
but we despise God himself. They despise the Holy Spirit
of God, who has had Paul pen these words. for instruction
in righteousness to believers and to lead us into all truth. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
they despise. It is the Holy Spirit of God
who they despise. It's the Holy Spirit of God who
has given us His Holy Word. So if one despises these exhortations
now delivered, these commandments given by the Lord Jesus Christ
and by the will of God, if they reject them with contempt and
take no notice of them and do not act according to them, then
they despise not man but God. And let us also consider the
deity of Christ and the fact that again, whosoever despises
the Lord Jesus Christ, they despise God himself because Christ is
God incarnate in the flesh. And such despisers spoken of
here in verse eight, again, they despise the Holy Spirit of God,
who's the author of the word of God. Now in light of these
exhortations, let us now consider verse nine, 1 Thessalonians 4
9. But as touching brotherly love
ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught
of God to love one another. Paul also penned these words
over in the book of Galatians. He says, In Christ Jesus neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love. And we know that love that Paul
writes about there is the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God. It's
the fruit of the Spirit. We can't muster it up. No one,
no matter how much they tell you to love the brethren, no
one who has not the Spirit of God in them can love the brethren.
They just can't. But if you have the Holy Spirit
of God in you, you will love the brethren, and it'll be manifested.
It'll be manifested not in word only, but in your deeds toward
the brethren. Let's look at 1 John. Let's turn
to 1 John 3. 1 John 3, and we'll read verses 14, and 15. And then we'll just go
over one chapter over after that and we'll look at 1st John chapter
4 verses 7 to 11. So let's first look at 1st John
chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. The scriptures declare, We know
that we have passed from death into life because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that
no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. And turn one
chapter over to 1st John chapter 4 where we read verses 7 to 11. Again, very clear instruction
given to us by John here, John the Apostle. And again, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God. Beloved. Ah, I love that. Divinely
loved ones. Beloved. Beloved. Let us love
one another, for love is of God. and everyone that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. And this was manifest, the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another. Now all true believers
have ceased from their own works, their own labors, and have entered
into the rest of the perfect redeeming work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Only in Christ and Christ alone
can we find perfect peace and perfect rest, and our faith If
it be the faith of God's elect, we'll bow the heart before God
in humble recognition of the fact that we contributed absolutely
nothing to God's unspeakable gift, which is eternal life in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ, the believer's savior and the
believer's redeemer. And with grateful hearts filled
with praise and adoration to our great sovereign God, we echo
the words of Jonah and we echo the words of the saints through
all the ages. Salvation is of the Lord. Also
we see in verse 9 and the other verses that I referenced over
in 1 John, that true saving faith fills our hearts with genuine
love. not only for our great triune God, but also a love for
the brethren, a love for the gospel, and a love for the scriptures. Of course, a love for our Lord
Jesus Christ. And this is a love that we never
had in our unregenerate state. And this gift of God's faith
moves us into loving submission to our new master. the Lord Jesus
Christ. We go into the waters of baptism
with a sincere desire to confess Christ is our perfect Redeemer,
who by himself purged our sins from God's sight forever. And
the love our Lord Jesus Christ has put into our hearts for Him
has loosened our tongues, hasn't it? It's loosened our tongues
to do what? To publicly and boldly declare
that Jesus Christ is our risen, exalted, sovereign Lord. Whenever
the Lord opens a door of utterance for us, which is absolutely marvelous
because that's what it's called, a door of utterance. We speak
of the great things that Christ has done for us. He who works
all things after the counsel of his own will. He who controls
this whole universe and everything in it. And he does it all for
his glory and for the good of his chosen blood-bought children. And the Spirit of Christ dwelling
in us gives us a love for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
a love to want to be where his gospel is preached on a regular
basis, and a love for God's people, those who have also been redeemed
by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we desire
to be with fellow blood-washed saints who add nothing to the
complete finished work of Christ alone. And again, our salvation
and our cry is with Jonah and with all the elect of all the
ages, that salvation is of the Lord. In God's born again, blood-washed
children believe that salvation is the work of our great triune
God, all for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man's work
has nothing to do with salvation. God our Father chose a particular
people in Christ before time began. God the Son redeemed all
the elect with his precious blood, reconciling all of us to God
by laying down his life for us and redeeming us with his precious
blood. God the Holy Spirit quickens,
which means gives eternal life. to those for whom Christ died
were born again by his Holy Spirit, bringing us into a living union
with the resurrected, glorified God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the true and living God, Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. We do believe also that good
works accompany salvation. Ephesians 2 verse 10 tells us
that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus under
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. And, but we also believe that those works do not save
us in any way. They are but fruit of a majestic
sovereign work of God in us. And again, I've said this many
times and I'm going to say it again. We do not even know when
we do these works. Faith, though beloved, works
by love, and it motivates all of God's saints as we serve King
Jesus, our great God and King, who is seated on his sovereign
throne in glory, and by his sovereign power, God's people have been
translated into his eternal kingdom. And right now we're just pilgrims
in sojourners passing through this sin infested world, waiting
for our appointed time of departure or the imminent return of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And by the grace of God, we have
set our affection on things above, not on things of the earth. and
the Church of Jesus Christ is our true family. If the love
of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,
which Romans 5.5 brings forth, it will be obvious to others
that we're disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ because of our love
for one another, which is brought forth in John 13.35. God himself
has taught us to love one another. And a mark
of a true believer is their love for one another. We know we have
passed from death to life because we love the brethren. This is
a mark of every believer. This is something that Satan
cannot counterfeit. Believers, true believers, have
a love for each other, that the world sees it, and the world
knows believers are such because they love one another. But it
does not make the world happy, no. We see in verse 9 that Paul
knows that the Lord has taught these brethren to love one another,
so he has no need to write to them about the fact of it. Brotherly
love to those who are the members of Christ's body, again, is a
work of God the Holy Spirit. It is He who knits our hearts
together in love. It is He who knits the hearts
of God's people together, because they are truly regenerated souls,
and they are one in Christ. So let us remember the words
of Paul the Apostle, which are written by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit of God. that we are to think upon these
things which are true, these things which are honest, just,
pure, lovely, and of a good report. And believers in Christ, they're
to think about Christ. They're to think about these
things. And beloved, Christ is all those things to us. He's
true. He's the true and living God. He's honest. He's pure. He's just. He's lovely. And the
gospel is a good report of the Lord Jesus Christ. I ask you
this, Is there any better report than Christ died for sinners?
Is there any better report than that? Oh my! Oh, to a born-again,
blood-washed believer, there's nothing better than that. This
only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by works of the
law or by the hearing of the faith. Are you so foolish, having
begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Savior and our Lord. Our great Creator became a man.
Why, some may ask? Also, he could establish the
perfect righteousness for his people, which he did when he
honored God's holy law by his perfect obedience to the will
of God and our Father in the place of his people. So think
of this too, how vulnerable and how wicked we must be that nothing
less than God coming down and taking unto himself human flesh,
and being made in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without
sin, so that he would have a body in which he could suffer death
on the cross in the place of his people, when Christ our Redeemer
laid down his life for us, when he satisfied the holy justice
of God for all his chosen people. How wicked must we be! How awful
sin must be and how horribly sinful we must be that Christ
Jesus our Lord must be the one who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree, the sinless one, dying for sinners,
the just one, dying for the unjust. Why? Well, he poured out his
soul and offering for sin and that's our sin, he's sinless.
So think of how exceedingly sinful sin is that it would take such
a sacrifice as the Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered for
our offenses, and who was raised for our justification, the sinless,
spotless Lamb of God. It is He who did this in the
place of His people. How utterly lost, helpless, and
without any ability to better ourselves must we be before an
infinitely holy and righteous God, that Christ Himself, God's
dear Son, would take our place before His holy Father on the
cursed tree, in our room and place, and that he would there
bear what I could not bear and what you could not bear as a
believer, which is the infinite righteous wrath and justice of
God against us and our sin. And by his suffering in our stead,
by his suffering in our place, he consumed the wrath of God
which was against us. He satisfied God's infinite righteous
justice for his people. And yet, yet after Christ having
done all this in our room instead, we are totally unable to see
these things or to know these blessed truths or even care about
them unless we are born again. Our carnal minds were enmity
against but God in our natural state. I had someone one time
tell me I was never an enemy with God. My oh my. That's someone who sits under
the gospel, never an enemy with God. So what you're saying is
you don't believe God's word. That's what you're saying. That's
what you're saying. Because God's word says that
we had enmity against God in our minds and by wicked works,
which we done, which we done. My, so how, how are our minds
changed from enmity and our wills bought into the subjection to
God? Oh, there's nothing we can do
to change that situation, is there? And the gospel preacher
proclaims, this is why, that state that we're in, that enmity
against God, this in our natural state, this is why we proclaim
that nothing, absolutely nothing can be added to the finished
work of Christ, because it's He who's paid our sin debt. It's
He, it's He who's done it all. It's He who paid the sin debt
in full for all those who were given to Him by the Father. In
the eternal covenant of grace, He did it all. And in the only
way our minds, can be changed from having enmity to God to
rejoicing in what Christ has done for us and our wills to
be bought into the subjection of God is to be born again. And
that only comes about by the power of God and the Holy Spirit.
So think upon this, Jesus Christ, the God-man, our sovereign Lord
is right now seated on his sovereign throne in heaven. He's a great
high priest of his people. He's making intercession for
all those he laid down his life for. And he is seated as our
blessed surety with all power heaven and earth, belonging to
him, to make sure that all his blood-bought children are delivered
from the power of Satan, the power of darkness, the power
of sin, and the power of self. Oh my Lord, please deliver me
from myself. And God's people are kept by
his power through faith on the salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. They believe on Christ. They
believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. and our Savior
seated on his throne in heaven as the sovereign Lord over all
his creation. Oh, just think about that. Our
blessed Redeemer is our sovereign God. He has blessed us to be
his people. God's children perform good works,
not in order to be saved, but because we have been saved. And
in our best state, we're still altogether vanity, and we know
it, don't we? And it'll take omnipotent power
to make us willing to be saved. We must be drawn to God because
in our natural state, we're unwilling to come. We must be given a new
heart, new wills, new minds, new desires, new loves, new natures. If we are to enter into the kingdom
of God, you must be born again. And none of these things can
we do for ourselves, but praise God's almighty name. He's loved
us and gave his son for us. And with Him, He freely gives
all things. He sent the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts, and we cry, Abba, Father. God's people now
cry, Abba, Father. Then after the regenerating power
of God, this Holy Spirit, then after being regenerated and fleeing
to Christ, the born-again, blood-washed believer considers it a great
honor to be used of God in any way that He pleases to use us.
And we seek to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. we seek
to bring glory to the one who's loved us and gave himself for
us. In the earnest, sincere desire of every born-again, blood-washed
child of God is to do his will. And this is the will of God,
even your sanctification. Praise be to God that God's people
are sanctified and made holy in Christ and Christ alone. Amen
and amen.