if you will, to open your Bibles
with me to 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, reading
the first 12 verses. Furthermore, then, we beseech
you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you
have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so
you would abound more and more. For you know what commandments
we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God,
even your sanctification. that you should abstain from
fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess
his vessel in sanctification and 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 also have forewarned you
and testified. For God hath not called us unto
uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth,
despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy
Spirit. 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, you do it toward
all the brethren which are in all Macedonia. But we beseech
you, brethren, that you increase more and more, and that you study
to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your
own hands as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward
them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing. I want to speak to us this morning,
especially from these eight words in verse one, how you ought to
walk and please God. How you ought to walk and please
God. All of us understand that by
the word walk, it means our conversation or the way that we live. how
that you ought to walk the way you ought to live and please
God. I have three parts to the message. Very simple outline. First of
all, these words, how you ought to walk and please God, are addressed
to the children of God. You notice he says brethren.
These words are addressed to those who know the Lord Jesus
Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is obvious, but let me point
this out to us. Consider these two verses of
scripture. Romans chapter eight and verse
eight, where the Apostle Paul said, so then they that are in
the flesh cannot please God. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But our text says how you ought
to walk and please God. And then of course in Hebrews
chapter 11 and verse 6, the apostle said, but without faith it is
impossible to please him. Now these two words cannot and
impossible are emphatic. They are emphatic. They that
are in the flesh cannot please God. And without faith, that
is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is impossible to please Him. So who are these people? In those
two texts, who cannot please God, it's impossible for them
to please God. Who are they? They're lost men
and women. There are probably some of you
here today, no doubt about it. Lost, still dead in trespasses
and sins. You do not know God. You do not
know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And God
says it is impossible for you to please Him without faith.
And being in the flesh, You cannot please God. The unsaved, lost men and women,
they do not know and they do not trust in Jesus Christ as
their Lord and Savior. My point is, these words are
addressed how you, you who are saved by the grace of God, how
you ought to walk and please God. They are addressed to the
children of God. You say, well, aren't they still
in the flesh? They are still in the flesh.
All of us who live in this world are in the flesh. But by flesh
in scripture does not only mean this mortal body that we live
in, but the flesh is the old man. It's also referred to as
that body of sin. And it's called the old man because
it's just as old as you are. From your very moment of conception,
it was conceived in you. The old man. That old poison,
as one writer said, that comes to us from Adam. That is that
sinful nature that all of us bring with us when we come into
this world. The old man. But those who are
born again, those that this verse addresses, these words address,
are men and women who, yes, were born into this world, sinners,
but through the amazing grace of God, Through the new birth,
the Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. And he went on in that same passage
to say, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. When a person is born
again of the spirit of God, there's a new man created in us, or in
that person. In fact, in Ephesians 4, the
apostle says that this new man is created in righteousness and
true holiness. Righteousness and true holiness. If you look in Galatians, turn
back just a few pages to Galatians chapter 5, verse 17. And these words are also addressed
to believers. For the flesh, well let's read
verse 16. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And what he is saying here is
that old nature, that old body of sin, the old man, He's not
eliminated when a person is born of the Spirit of God. The flesh
remains, not the mortal body, but the flesh, that body of sin,
even though it was crucified with Christ and its damning power
has ended, but it still remains. It still remains in every child
of God. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, that new nature. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Our Lord said that which is born
of the flesh is flesh and let me just emphasize it will continue
to be flesh until we leave this world. Until the Lord comes for
us or we die, that old sinful nature in every child of God
continues to exist. and the flesh, that's it, it
lusteth against the spirit, against that new man, that new creation
in Christ Jesus. These words in our text this
morning are addressed to the children of God, those who have
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as all, A-L-L, all our righteousness. All our righteousness for God
to justify us and for us to be accepted by God is all found
in the person and the work of Jesus Christ alone. These words are addressed to
such people. Now we come into this world and
that's all we are, flesh. We live in a house of flesh and
we have that old nature. But then, and let's read about
this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 because these words are addressed
to people who have experienced the saving grace of God. Look
in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Now the Apostle Paul came to
the city of Thessalonica and for three Sabbath days he went
into the synagogue and reasoned with them out of the scriptures.
Out of the scriptures. And God did a work of grace in
the hearts of many of them. Not all of them, we know that
because he was run out of town. But notice what he says beginning
with verse four. Knowing brethren beloved, that's
the first thing I would mention about God's children. They are
God's beloved. They are God's beloved and he
has loved them with an everlasting love. Never has been a time when
he has not loved his children. Knowing brethren beloved, Your
election of God out of that love. Now this is important to recognize. Out of that love, that eternal
love, the fruit of that is God chose a people. He elected a
people. And he chose the same people
in Christ. Christ is God's first elect. And then all of those that he
loves he chose in Christ. Knowing, the apostle said, brethren,
beloved, your election of God, for our gospel came not unto
you in word only. Now it did come in word. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Yes, Paul
came there and he began to preach. Preach the word of God. No one
is saved apart from the word of God. Of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth. The word of God is that incorruptible
seed by which men and women are born again. Paul said, the word
of God came unto you, not in word only. It did come in word,
but it also came in power. And I would just like to say
this. There's many people, I have no
question, in our land and in this world who have heard the
gospel, that is, with their ears. They have sat under the sound
of the gospel, and many of them can probably even repeat a good
deal of it, but it's never come to them in power. It's made no
difference in their lives. These people, when the Word of
God came to these people in power and demonstration of the Spirit
of God, they were never the same people again. They were born
again. They were born of the Spirit
of God. And they have a new nature. They're
new creations in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. I heard this story one time,
and I don't know for sure it's true, but I wouldn't doubt it.
You know, these people, they claim they're soul winners, so-called. And some of them, back years
ago, I don't know if they still teach this stuff or not, but
you need to sneak up on a sinner. Sneak up on a sinner. You know,
you get him, you start asking him questions where he has to
say yes, he has to answer yes, he couldn't possibly answer no.
And then before you know it, you pop this question. Wouldn't
you like to be saved? Well, he's already in that mold,
you see. But I heard this story of one
of these people. Some of you are looking at me like a calf
looking at a new gate. And I'm glad. I'm glad because
I believe that means you have never experienced something like
I've just said. But many of us here today know
exactly what I'm talking about. But this one of these guys, he
got a man to repeat the so-called sinner's prayer. And like Brother
Terry said the other day, I've never found that in the Bible
yet. And this person repeated after
the so-called soul winner, the sinner's prayer, and after he
said amen, the first thing he said, now don't ask me to come
to church. Don't ask me to come to church
now, because I'm not going to do that. What kind of salvation
is that? What kind of coming to know Christ
is that? If a person can repeat a prayer,
if a person can know certain doctrines and truths, and yet
it makes no impact on their life. It has not come into them, it's
come unto them, but into them, into their heart. The word of
God comes into the heart. Creating faith in Christ Jesus
born of the Spirit of God. That's what Paul is telling these
to whom our text is directed How you ought to walk and please
God here were people who had heard the gospel and the gospel
had come unto them in power of the Holy Spirit and much assurance
that means they recognized that's God's Word and That's what that
means. It doesn't mean that they immediately
had assurance they were on their way to heaven. No, it meant,
it means they recognized that message is the message of God. That's God's word that these
men are preaching unto us. And it's come unto us in power,
much assurance, And then Paul says, you know what manner of
men we were among you for your sakes, how in the next chapter
he speaks of him dealing with those people as a nurse would
deal with her patients or a nurse would deal with babies, how tenderly
and kindly they had dealt with these people there in Thessalonica.
And notice, and you became followers of us and of the Lord. And you only follow a man as
he follows the Lord. I don't care what man he is.
You only follow him as he follows the Lord. That's what Paul said
to the church at Corinth. Having received the word in much
affliction. I mean, it wasn't an easy road. Their friends turned against
them in much affliction. Someone said, well, I just thought
that if I Became a Christian that all my life would be a bed
of roses from now on. Well, that's not true. That's
just not so. And the Bible doesn't teach anything
like that. These believers, they received
the word in much affliction, but at the same time with joy
of the Holy Ghost. They had a joy in their heart.
Why? Because Christ now was in their
heart. Because their sins were gone. Because they were forgiven. They were reconciled unto God
because they were children of God. Who couldn't have joy? And they became examples to all
that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord. Not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
actually those in Macedonia received the word before those of Thessalonica. Paul was in Philippi before he
came to Thessalonica. But God did such a work here
in Thessalonica that it just sounded out. I mean, the fame
of it, as we might say, an awakening, a great awakening took place.
And the sound of it was spread abroad. For they themselves show
of us what manner of entering in we had unto you. Now notice
this, and how you turned to God. This is conversion. Regeneration,
giving of life, absolutely, but also conversion. They turned
to God, and when they turned to God, that means they turned
away from their idols. And they turned away to God to
serve Him, the true and the living God. And to wait. And to wait for His Son from
heaven. How are they waiting? Sitting with their hands under
their seat? No. They're serving. Their hands
are engaged in serving the Lord. But at the same time, they're
waiting. Expecting. Waiting! for his son from heaven, because
he's coming again. He's coming, even after all these
years. We're still waiting, but he is
coming, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath
to come. You say, whose wrath? God's wrath. God's wrath is going to be poured
out upon all unbelievers, all who do not bow to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is, my friends. The scripture
says he hates the workers of iniquity. And I know we live
in a day when people say, well, don't talk to me about God's
wrath and I don't believe in that kind of a God. Well, you
may not believe in him, but my friends, you're going to meet
him. You're going to meet Him whether you believe in Him or
not. And if you've not been delivered from His wrath through the saving
work of Jesus Christ our Lord, you will experience His wrath. And you deserve it. I do too. We all do. That's the reason
grace is so amazing, isn't it? So that's my first point. These words, how you ought to
walk and please God, are delivered to God's children. Those who, yes, they still have
the flesh, but they have a new nature. How you are to walk and
to please God. Now second, these words, how
you ought to walk and please God, remind us that there is
conduct which doesn't please God, and there is conduct which
does please God. Now, as is usual with the Apostle
Paul, he always begins with the negative and then comes back
with the positive. But we see here in these verses,
he begins with the negative. These are things that you ought
not to do. You're not going to please God
if you engage in these things. And for the most part, his negative
things deal with sexual immoralities, such as, as are listed here,
fornication, lust of concupiscence, and uncleanness. Now that word
uncleanness, it just is an umbrella word really that includes all
sexual immoralities. All. Homosexuality is included. Fornication, adultery, all of
these things that the flesh engages in. Now Paul says that's to be
put away. That kind of conduct does not
please God. Now in the world in which these
people lived, in the Gentile world, these sins that I've just mentioned,
they were so accepted that no one thought anything wrong. It
was just an accepted way of life. And when I prepared these notes
for this message this past week, I couldn't help but think, what's
different about our day? Is there any difference? Thank
God there are still many people who recognize, and even lost
people who recognize, but don't we see even in our country, in
my lifetime at least, how these things that years ago everyone
just believed were wrong, were evil, were sinful. and now accepted. So Paul begins with these negative
things and you notice the reason I say that in the Gentile world
of that day all of these things were looked on as no big deal,
certainly not anything that you would call sin. Even in the people here in Thessalonica,
you cannot help but wonder, if you look at verse 8, what he
says, He therefore that despiseth, or rejecteth, rejecteth not man,
but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. Now, is he saying that there
were some even in the church there at Thessalonica? who didn't
accept what he had just written there. If there are, he says,
I want you to know that if you reject this, you're not rejecting
me per se, you're rejecting God, the Word of God, because the
Apostle Paul was writing under inspiration of God. But as I
said, here he deals with the negative, the only thing basically
is with sexual immorality, In the letter of Ephesians, he goes
a little bit into more detail, and he brings up such negative
things as to do with the tongue. And the Bible has a lot to say
about the tongue, doesn't it? Lying, boasting, bragging, gossiping, all deals with the
tongue. Put away lying. And then anger. Now, anger is an emotion that
we all have. God created us with this emotion,
and it can be used for good. And there's something wrong,
really, with a person who can never get angry at some things
that we hear about and see. Right? When I hear about these
child molesters, I get angry. And I think there's something
wrong if you don't. And not just child molesters
either. I mean people that take advantage of other people. A
lot of people take advantage of the old people. And since
I'm old, I especially get mad about that. Anger. But Paul said, don't let
the sun go down on your anger. Be angry and sin not. Not only
anger, but stealing, taking things that are not yours, just helping
yourself. And we see a lot of that, don't
we? People feel like they're too good to work, so they just
live off of somebody else's labor, take things that are not theirs.
Corrupt communication, just filthy talk. Alright, notice the positive
here. Now that's the negative. That's
the negative. But now notice the positive,
beginning in verse 9. There's two things I point out
to us. First of all, brotherly love. That's touching brotherly
love. And do you see, Paul said that
you already are practicing this. But as touching brotherly love,
you need not that I write unto you, for you yourselves are taught
of God to love one another. Remember in the first letter
of John, one of the signs, one of the marks of a person being
born again is that we love the brethren. He wrote it like this. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death. But notice this, even believers,
as Paul says here, I don't really need to write to you about this
because you're already practicing it, but abound in it. Notice at the end of verse 10.
But we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more. And like every Christian grace,
every Christian grace, it may increase. And we should never
come to the place as believers, as children of God, and think,
well, I've arrived. My love doesn't need to grow.
My faith doesn't need to grow. My joy doesn't need to be increased. My patience doesn't, no. Any
of these Christian graces, all of them, we are encouraged to
grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the way we grow in grace
is to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There'll be no
growing in grace apart from growing in the knowledge of Christ. That's
the reason we preach Christ and Him crucified. Every message must be full of
Christ. And then the second thing he
mentions is an orderly walk. I use that word because in verse
11 he said that you study to be quiet and to do your own business
and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. That you
may walk honestly toward them that are without. Look over into
2 Thessalonians just a moment, just a page or two over. 2 Thessalonians
chapter 3 and verse 11. The reason Paul wrote this to
this church, evidently there were some people in this church
who were not earning their own bread. He said, for we hear,
verse 11, for we hear that there are some which walk among you
disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now, them
that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ
that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. I don't need to say this, but
I will. You know that welfare in this country has been a detriment
to many people. God had a welfare system for
the nation of Israel. You can read about it back in
the Old Testament. God provided for the poor. He
really did. But it didn't mean that they
just sat at home and waited for the postman to bring a welfare
check. That wasn't it. They had to go
out, gather, And even among these in the church
at Thessalonica, there were some who were taking advantage of
the knowledge that Christ is going to come again. Well, he
may come today, no need in me going to work. No need in me
taking care of my family. A man told me several years ago
the Lord had saved him, and I thought, and I told someone, I said, when
he takes responsibility for his children, that's when I will
put some confidence in his salvation experience. But as long as he's
content to let someone else support and raise his children, I don't
see much saving grace in that heart. Do you? He said, well, And remember now, we're thinking
about walking to please God. We have examples in the Bible
of both those who did not walk so to please God. I'm talking
about God's children and those who did. And I choose David as
an example of a person who did not walk so as to please God. And the reason I choose David,
he's not the only one by any means. But this very word is
used in the scripture in 2 Samuel chapter 11 and verse 27. After
David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, the scripture
says, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Displeased the Lord. God's children,
we are admonished to walk so as to please the Lord. And here's
an example of those who please the Lord. If you turn over to
Hebrews chapter 11, I'm sorry, Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13 in verse 16,
the apostle said, but to do good and to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices, God
is well pleased. Now, to communicate, this is
what is referred to as almsgiving in the book of Matthew, that
is helping those who are in need, helping those that have a need. And this, of course, must be
done out of a principle of love and faith and for the glory of
God. I understand that, but God's
well pleased, it says here. All right, here's the third part
of the message. These words, how you ought to
walk and please God, are part of the all scripture which is
given by inspiration of God, which is profitable for instruction
in righteousness. Now I say this because if you've
turned back here to 1 Thessalonians, and I hope you will, I want you
to see this. Notice in verse two, he said,
for you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. What commandments we gave you
by the Lord Jesus. He did not just give them the
commandments that came by Moses. That's a point now. He did not
just give them the commandments that came by Moses. He gave them
the commandments that came by the Lord Jesus. Now, if you read
the law, the law tells us to love our neighbor, but our Lord,
he teaches us to love our enemies. The law tells us to go, if your
enemy compels you to go one mile, go two miles with him. And I'm making this point because
I've heard recently, especially some men that seem to teach that
the Ten Commandments is to be the rule of a believer's life. And they seem to imply that a
person goes to Calvary, to Christ for justification, but then goes
back to Mount Sinai, to Moses, to the Law of Moses for sanctification. But I read in the scriptures
that when that Roman soldier took that spear and thrust it
into the side of our Lord's body, that both blood and water came
out. Blood justifies and water to
cleanse. And you cannot separate justification
from sanctification. And they are both in Christ. He is made unto us. our wisdom,
our righteousness, that's justification, our sanctification, and our redemption. We know that is so. The Ten Commandments
was a covenant. Now if you'll just keep that
in mind, the Ark of the Covenant, why is it called the Ark of the
Covenant? Because the covenant was put
in the Ark. What was put in the Ark? The
Ten Commandments, the two tables upon which God wrote the Ten
Commands with His finger. That was placed in the Ark of
the Covenant. That was given to the nation
of Israel as a covenant and it gave no power. It was all outward. It was written on tables of stone.
You and I, the Lord Jesus Christ, He instituted the New Covenant
in His blood and the New Covenant The law is written upon our hearts. That's that new nature. By the
Spirit of God. And we have Christ living in
us, the hope of glory. So much different from those
who live under that old law. No, we live under all the Word
of God. All the Word of God. Not just
that which was given on Mount Sinai. No. And for us, To walk
so as to please God means that we are to walk in the Spirit. That is, God the Holy Spirit
who lives in us, using His Word which He has inspired, is to
lead us and guide us so that we walk to please God, so as
to please God. When you have, it's kind of like
I read years ago, Charles Spurgeon. I've read a lot of Spurgeon.
I love to read him. You know these church bells back
in rural England, rural US or anywhere, you know, people live
out and they put these bells outside the church. Sunday morning
comes, get ready to go to church, someone, bang, bang, bang. Ringing people to church. Charles Spurgeon says, when God
does the work of grace in your heart, he puts the bell in the
heart. You don't need to hear some bell in a steeple ringing. No, you've got the new nature
within you. It's time to go. worship God,
to assemble with the people of God. And that's not just on the
Lord's day, it's every day, isn't it? To worship and serve Him. May the Lord bless His word.
Number 506.