Book of 1 Thessalonians - Ch. 4, Vs. 6-14 (09/04/1999)

Honest Dealing, Holiness, and the Indwelling Holy Spirit

Everybody move to the first four rows, please, or I'll never see you. And nobody moved. All right.

Then I just won't call on you. This is row one, this is row two, this is row three, that's row four.

All right. 1 Thessalonians 4 and 6. I have received another definition of what Jesus did while he was in the tomb. Unless you hand it in today, it's not acceptable. But anytime today. All right, we're in the discussion of the letter Paul wrote to Thessalonica.

And in the sixth verse, he says 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. A Christian must be honest.

And you must leave space for God to work. He is the avenger, not us. Greg, when we take it into our own hand, which we're so tempted to do, because we want to see results right now. And we want the perpetrator to know why he's been punished.

But it isn't always like that. When we try to do it, we're usurping one of God's attributes. He is the avenger. And I guess, Debbie, that is one of the areas, many areas in which I just completely fall apart.

My first reaction too many times is to get even. And then I set about figuring out how to get even. But we know we should not do that. Verse seven, for God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

We have the story of the prodigal son, and I guess everybody will remember that. I hope. Anyone not familiar with the prodigal son? Then everybody is familiar with the prodigal son? Let me see a hand.

All right. When he had gone as far as he could go physically, he hired out to a swine producer. And that was the lowest of low for a Jew. But he made a very outstanding statement to himself at the close of his time spent in the pig pen.

Does anybody remember what he said? His servants were fed better. All right. But before that, just before that, he didn't make the statement. The Holy Spirit gives the editorial. Who's talking? When he came to himself, most important, he decided that himself was still the son of the father, of his father.

Now, God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. The prodigal son is a beautiful picture of this. As we stray away and then as we come back, he may be in the pig pen, but you won't stay there forever.

If you can stay there and like it, then you're not a child of God. And the Holy Spirit is not in you. Verse 8. He, therefore, that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.

Now, Steve, what does the word despise mean to you? Dislike? Right now, it's a train whistle. Hate? All right. Anything else? Reject? Dislike? Yes. Now, he, therefore, that despises you, does not despise you.

He despises the spirit that is controlling you. And it is his spirit that's doing this, if we're talking about a non-Christian. I hope there is no one that we despise. Now, there's lots and lots of people that I'd rather not meet and would really not shed too many tears if they should be taken out of the world.

But why is it? Why is it true that we do not despise man, we despise God when we do this?

Because we're despising the Holy Spirit.

All right. What causes us to despise somebody? You have made a decision that they're not doing right. It's either hurting you or hurting some of your family or hurting somebody else or they're getting something you want or whatever.

Now, what is it that controls that situation of them getting what they want? God. So, Greg, it goes straight to God. When we despise man, we're despising God and His providence. Because everything is controlled by who?

By God. When was everything finished, Greg? All right. That's a good way of putting it. Everything's been already done. I hope you can get that fixed in your little head computer. Everything has already been finished.

Complete. God's not making it up as He's going along. He's not waiting to see what's going to happen tomorrow. And He's not just opening up one page at a time, one day at a time. It's already done. Now, the Holy Spirit, as Fred pointed out, is the indwelling Holy Spirit.

And with that Holy Spirit in you, you cannot live in sin habitually. Fred, what's habitually mean? All of the time? Then habitual is a habit? Maybe we get habit from habitual. Lifestyle? Habitual. Someone help Fred out a little bit.

Who said that? You do it without thinking. We get another wonderful word from the root word that gives us habitual. And it is breathing. Does that help you understand habitual? Very, very few times do you have to remind yourself to breathe.

That's habitual. It's just a way of life. It's your nature. The Holy Spirit is the only means, and we'll never know what comes next. Well, the Holy Spirit is the only means by which we can live this life.

If it were not for the indwelling Holy Spirit, we would not be able to live the holy life. So the life then that we possess is really who? Belongs to who? Jesus. It is Jesus. It is Jesus Christ. He is the new life.

Christ is eternal life. Eternal life is not something He has handed you. It is Himself. Do you understand? I'm looking desperately for verse 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.

This word love. I spent a little time this morning looking them up again. And I found four in the Greek. Phileo means to love as a friend. Philadelphia is not the Greek pronunciation, but it means love of the brethren.

Agapio is a social or moral sense. And the godly love is agape. Agape. Agape. Agape and agapio. Agapio is a moral sense. We're told to love our neighbor as ourself. To love our enemies. That's agapio.

Treat them in a decent moral way. Doesn't mean to love them as a brother. And Paul tells these people that as touching brotherly love, I don't need to write to you anything. Because this kind of love can be produced only by what?

The Holy Spirit. So if you do not have the Holy Spirit, can you agape anybody? We all know people that are not saved, apparently not saved, yet they love their family. And Fred, they love their family just as much as possible.

And they think they could never love them more. But they could if they were Christian. When I first met my wife, 100 years ago, I fell in love with her. And joy, I loved her just as much as was in me.

But today, 50 some years later, looking back at that first love, it was nothing. So we grow in this kind of love. This kind of love can be produced only by the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is not an abstract kind of love.

It must be in the concrete. Now Fred explained abstract and concrete. How do you know you have concrete love? That's true. How do I know you have concrete love?

If my being doesn't show you that I have concrete love.

The illustration I used between my wife and I, it is more, it is more. When we eventually enter the eternal life, we will love the Lord. But Greg, did you know that we will love Him more the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next age, and the next age.

That it will continue forever. And we will be in school forever. Because the Bible tells us, He will teach us Himself. That's right. Many, many untold ages to come. Now, the converse of that is, those in hell are there as far as they're concerned because they hate God.

They don't like God. Will that change when they get into the torment? What? It'll deepen. They'll hate Him more, and more, and more. There are angels that have been locked in the pit from the time of the rebellion.

In Revelation, we see them come forth. And they come forth more angry than when they went in. They hate God. Love for the brethren is an area in which we all need to grow. Eleven. I like this verse, Debbie.

And that you study to be quiet. And to do your own business. And to work with your own hands. As we command you. Brian, you've been around a long time. Do you know of any school that offers a course in how to be quiet?

No, sir. Do you think we need such a course? Yes, sir. Why is it so easy to tell others how, what, when, and where they should, and why they should not have done a certain thing? Why is that so easy, Steve?

It may not be easy for you, I'm assuming. Well, that's certainly part of it. What? All right. I think I saw Jesse come in. Is he back there? Jesse, why do you think it's so easy to tell others how, what, when, and where they should or should not have done a certain thing?

Well, yes. Well, that's all true. Debbie? I think it's easier to see what other people do. Well, it's easier only because we don't want to. But the real reason why it's so easy for me to tell Greg what to do is I don't have to do it.

So, it comes easy to tell others as long as we don't have to do it. We are to attend to our own lawful calling in a lawful way. I have known teachers in churches that really didn't work at their gift.

They had the gift of teaching, but they have decided that they would rather be a soloist. And they spend all of their time and money trying to learn how to sing and become a soloist. That's not right.

If God moves you into that area, that's fine. But work within your own God-given calling. You have the Holy Spirit to empower and exercise your gift, so do it. And every one of you that belong to God have a gift.

Now, don't spend your life trying to figure out what it is. Just handle whatever He brings you. And go toward that that you like to do. Because that's your gift. Very simple.

Sure. Alright. The Dallas Morning News, which used to be a very conservative, Christian-oriented newspaper, has so deteriorated in the last few years to where they are accepting any and everything that comes down the pike.

They have hired people that represent all of these areas that we find abominable in so many ways. And now on their religion page that comes out in the Saturday paper, they have embraced every religion under the sun.

And they have writers who extol its virtues over and above everything else, including all those that are out to kill Christians and to the whole matter there. And I'm not able to love all of those. And that's a fault of my own, isn't it?

I think you just told me that. Well, Fred, it depends upon your definition of the love you're trying to extend toward them.

I think I've not been trying to extend any of it.

All that we are required to do is to be morally just. Morally just. We're not to love them in our definition of love. I would prefer to use some other word because love to me is a very holy word. But the Bible tells us the type of love, and we can only get that in the Greek.

We can't get it in the English. But we are to be civil. We're to be just. We're to be fair. We're to be above reproach when we're talking with those people or talking about those people. Does not mean that we cannot point out their faults.

But at the same time, we do not hate them.

Or we should not hate them. Maybe that's where the quiet part comes in. I should just be quiet.

We all need to be quiet. We all need to not talk so much. Our mouth gets us in trouble. A little bit more on this being quiet. This refers to one who does not present social problems. Or generate conflict among those people in his life.

But whose soul rests easy even in the midst of difficulty. If news comes too late to be of any benefit to anybody, what are you to do? Keep it to yourself. But Fred, we don't like to do that. We like to go and broadcast it even though it's not doing any good whatsoever.

Paul later deals with those who did not mind their own business at Thessalonica. Because so many powerful and influenced political rulers are hostile to God. They are often the targets of bitterness and animosity.

That's been so easy in the last, what? 10, 15 years. Paul urges believers to pray that these leaders might repent of their sins and embrace the gospel. How many? Now I'm not going to ask that. But I would dare say that there are some here that are not too interested in those kinds of people becoming saved.

They deserve hell, we've decided. Well that's not what scripture tells us to do. This means that the Ephesians were even to pray for the salvation of the Roman Empire, which was Nero. You remember Nero from history?

One of the most cruel people that ever lived. That would be hard for me to do. Quiet refers to the absence of external disturbances. Peaceable. Refers to the absence of internal conflicts. Are you at peace in your heart this morning?

Do you have a guilty conscience this morning? I hope not. You cannot worship God with a guilty conscience. He says I will not hear you. The business of life is a personal work. No matter how much I try to influence other people in what they should do.

Brian, I can't do it. Because I urge everyone to not do anything just because I ask you to or because somebody else does it. Brian, why should you do anything? What's the basic rule for your guidance?

You do it because you're impressed of God to do it. Teach these young people that. Not to be like everybody else. Just so you can be like everybody else. You be what God is leading you to be. It may be the same thing.

But at least you're doing it for the right reason.

Discernment, Calling, and Quietness in Christian Conduct

You said it in another way one time. We know with people trying to figure out what to do. I was talking about Hannah one day. You said just tell her that she knows what not to do. That's right. It's really that easy.

That's hard to do. I've had so many people ask me, well I don't know what to do. How do I find out what I'm supposed to do? Harvey, I tell them you know what you're not supposed to do. Just quit doing that.

That's a pretty long list. And little by little, one at a time, you'll move closer to the Lord. If you stop doing what you're not supposed to do. We all have our own needs and our own surroundings, aptitudes, obligations.

Quiet work is the strongest and happiest of all the work that we do. We must continually aim at increasing all the holy things. I believe every Christian should be doing something that is tangible for the Lord.

I've heard so many times people say, well if I have a gift, it's just to come sit on the pew. I really can't believe that. Everyone, Debbie, has the potential to talk too much. It's fine to make a simple statement about that which you intend to do.

But never talk and talk and talk about it. Why?

Well, it tells us that there's...

Alright. Give me another up to date meaning.

When you're talking, you're wasting time. Alright. What if you can't do it?

I'm sorry? What if you cannot do it? Did you ever know of someone, even yourself, that talked about what you were going to do on a certain day if certain things happened? And you talk about that quite often.

Did you realize there is a satisfaction in just talking about it? It relieves some of the pressure if you're not doing it. And then if you never get around to doing it, you'll never have to explain why you didn't do it if you don't talk about it.

It's kind of like cleaning my closet. Well, I would never clean it if I were you. Well, we've decided not to.

Just let the estate sale people have it. That's a good philosophy.

Probably open the door and it's like Fever McGee's. It's always better to remain quiet and be thought wise than to open your mouth and prove that you're as dumb as a possum. They're the dumbest one of God's creatures.

And to do your own business. Keep your nose out of other people's affairs. Work with your hands. It is my belief that every boy at an early age should learn a trade by which he can support him and his family with his hands.

A professional white collar is fine. But it isn't if that's all you know how to do. I also have come to this conclusion and have proved it myself that everyone needs to have a hobby. Something you really enjoy doing besides just your work.

It will make you a better employee. It will make your employer happier. If you have something of your own going. And who knows, it might develop into a full time work that you could retire and just work it in.

Have something to do. Verse 12. That you may walk honestly toward them that are without and that you may have lack of nothing. We're to do all of this to walk honestly toward them that are without. Debbie, who is it that is without?

The unsaved people. Did you know that there are churches that employ organizations to contact the elderly, senile, old people to try to get them to will their estates to the church? I cannot believe that's their Christianity doing that.

God's judgment will not be kind if we do such as this. Now, Paul wants to change the subject a little bit. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren. Jenny, I thought about reading it the other way, but I didn't.

Concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. The return of Christ is imminent. How many would agree? Could happen any time. In Titus 2 .12, we read, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

It's the next thing on the calendar. All prophecies have been fulfilled that were prophesied to come to fulfillment before his return. There are no prophecies concerning his return. There are some statements, but there's no prophecies.

All of the prophecies deal with after his return.

Well, it seems to me that it's going to pop your children around a lot. It just is not there.

That's true. I'm not telling that to the lost, because they cannot discern spiritual things. But this thing of Christ returning, let me illustrate it like this. Every once in a while, every three or four years, we fly to Idaho.

Once we have reached our cruising altitude, the captain usually comes on and gives us a little speech about the weather ahead, and either how good or how bad it is, and how the weather in Boise is 72 degrees, and the sky is clear, visibility is unlimited, and just all the things about it.

I have yet to see anybody grabbing their coat and suitcase and running for the exit, because they know we're not there yet. Same way with us. We're ready. We're going. We don't know exactly when the plane's going to land, but we're ready.

But we're not trying to get out before it gets there. Now, one other thing, I've heard so many people say, and there are those that teach that the rapture is not taught in the scripture, in the Bible.

They say you cannot find that word in the New Testament. Well, after a lot of research, I disagree with them. It's found in verse 17. If you'll skip over to that. The word rapture is in that. The Greek translation of the term caught up is harpazio, and it means to catch up, to grasp hastily, to snatch up, to lift, to transport, to rapture.

So the word is there. It was just not translated that in our Bible. The state of being transported by lofty emotion, ecstasy, the transporting of a person from one place to another, especially to heaven, means abduction or carrying off.

The word rapture is just as good a word as any of the others that they put in there. Verse 14, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Now, the word sleep means to lie down. There is no such thing as soul sleep. It's the body that lied down or lay down or whatever. This refers to the dead body, never to the soul or spirit of man. Sleep is a temporary thing.

Death is also temporary. Sleep has its waking. Death has its resurrection. In Ecclesiastes 12 .7, and you need to always know where this is. And it says this, Ecclesiastes 12 .7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Now, I've explained to you before, but I feel compelled to do it again. The dust, which is our body, will return to the earth as it was. We were made out of dirt. And the spirit, the God image that is in every human being, saved or unsaved, will return to God who gave it.

God put his image into mankind. You remember in Genesis, let us make man in our image. That wasn't a physical image. He's spirit. He made us in his spiritual image. He put into every human being his spirit.

So we are a trichotomy. Body, soul, and spirit. Body, life, and spirit. Soul and life are the same. Pneuma. So, if we did not have the spirit, Debbie, we could not be saved. And if we did not have the spirit, God could not judge man.

But Adam, in his disobedience, caused us to die spiritually. Our soul was divided from our spirit. The spirit is going home when the body dies. If you have a new life, which is Jesus Christ, it and the spirit are one.

So, if you die as a Christian, your life goes home with your spirit. And we go to be in the presence of the Lord. If you die and you are not a Christian, then your body and soul are still separated from your spirit.

And your soul goes into Hades. The body goes to dirt. But the image of God, the spirit that was in that person, returns to God.

Yes, that's right.

The seed of sin is passed on by man, not by the woman. That's right. Isn't that good? The Holy Spirit just then revealed that to him. So, he's here, isn't he? The resurrection is for the body only. The soul and spirit never die.

Now, when I was young, I could bound up and down stairs two or three steps at a time. Fred, can you remember that? Today, it's different. I come down steps one at a time and there's no bounding at all.

My knees hurt and I groan and my wife tells me I groan too much. I tell her it's scriptural to groan. Turn to Romans 8 .23. Greg, read Romans 8 .23. So, you see, it is scriptural to groan. Who said that?

Go to 2 Corinthians 5 .2. 5 .2. Greg, read that. It says nothing about the spirit. Now, go to 2 Corinthians 5 .4. Alright, all of this goes along with what Paul is instructing. He doesn't want them to be ignorant concerning those that are asleep or have died.

Now, let me make one more statement about that. They had the mistaken idea that the return of the Lord was very imminent. They all expected him to come back in their own lifetime, including Paul. So, the question arose very quickly in their minds, Harvey.

There's some of us died before he returned. What about them? And as far as they could understand, they'd missed it. If you die before he comes back, you've just missed it. And that's what Paul's getting ready to address.

And we'll go into that next week. Are there any words of wisdom from anybody now? Someone tell me what the date is next week. Anything else? That was used by Peter a lot when he said, one place I can think of, he said, there was no little stir about it, meaning there was a great one.

Well, that'd be interesting to look up if I knew where to go look. Fred, would you dismiss us today, please?