Called in Holiness

Awaiting Christ and the Shift from Personal History to Teaching

So we've been reading through and preaching through 1 Thessalonians, which is about awaiting Christ. And thus far, you've probably noticed that there's a lot of personal communication going on in this letter, right?

There's Paul talking to the Thessalonians about his time with them, his time away from them, about how the Thessalonians have received the gospel and what their response has been. And it is here in chapter 4 that we start the second half of the letter, where there's a— most people who read this letter think it can be chopped up into two parts.

The former part, which was more those about the personal history of Paul and about the Thessalonians, and now his more didactic, which means teaching-oriented, things about what they should be doing and what they should be believing, their practice and their doctrine.

He's been talking about awaiting the Son the whole time, but now it's what should we do and what should we believe as we wait for the Son, as we wait for Christ to return. And so the answer that we see in this passage is holiness.

We'll be looking specifically at verses 7 and 8 today, but I'm going to read 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 through 8. So if you would please stand for the reading of God's Word. Not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one transgress or wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, as we look at this passage, I pray that you would indeed lead us into holiness.

You have called us into holiness. I pray that you would accomplish that holiness in us. And I pray that you would help me as I preach. It's a daunting task, preaching on holiness and being someone who lacks holiness.

God is a very sobering thing. And so I pray that you would uphold me and that you, for the care of your people, for your love for your sheep, that you would use these words in this book to reach their hearts and to draw them closer to you.

In Jesus' name, amen. Most of you know that a few weeks ago, I went to Maryland and Pennsylvania to go to my grandmother's memorial. And while I was there, most of my family is Christian believers. So I spoke to a lot of my family about the faith.

And I was speaking to my grandfather, who I call Gran. If I call him Gran, you'll know who I'm talking about. I was talking to Gran, and we were talking about God as a father. And he was pointing out that there are a lot of people who think that God is everyone's father.

And I agreed with this because I'd actually recently been talking to Mormons who were trying to assert that God is everyone's father. And he said that there are many people who think that God is their father no matter what.

And there's no conditions placed on that. But that he was reading in the Gospels where Jesus said, or where Jesus was teaching, and someone came to him and said that his mother and his brothers were looking for him.

And he said, who are my mother and my brothers? These are my mother and my brothers, those who do the will of God, those who hear the will of God and do it. And so being a child of God is not something that's natural.

It's only for those who do the will of God. And later on that same trip, I was speaking to my father. And my father, we were talking about prayer and how many people think that they can just pray for whatever they want and get whatever they want and that nothing is required by God of them.

But once again, holiness is required by God. Those who do the will of God, those who hear the will of God and do it, those are Jesus' brothers. Those are the ones who truly have God as their father, like God is the father of Jesus.

Now, I thought this was interesting, having a very similar conversation with both my grandfather and my father, because that suggests to me that these two men who are older than me have seen a pattern as time has gone on, a less and less felt need for holiness, less and less care about holiness, and thinking that they can be right with God without holiness.

But as it says in Hebrews 12, 14, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. And so Paul, in this passage, does not want the Thessalonians to be deceived. He does not want them to think they can be right with God apart from holiness.

And that the Lord, as it says in the previous passage, is an avenger in all these things. And therefore, they must be pursuing holiness. So we're going to look at this passage. And I want you to see God's desire for our holiness, that he has a purpose in our holiness, and we, therefore, have an obligation to holiness, and that finally, though, finally, he has equipped us, he has empowered us for holiness by his Holy Spirit.

And so it is not by our own strength that we can be holy, but by God's strength. Through his Son and through his Spirit, that we have been called holy in Christ, and we are led to holiness by the Spirit.

What Holiness Is: Separation Set Apart from Sin

But first, prior to looking at those several items, I'd like to consider for a moment, what is holiness? What is holiness? If you had to define it in your head, how would you define it? Holiness, put very simply, at its core, is just separation.

It's separation. Now, we usually think about it in moral terms, and there are moral terms to think about holiness in, but at its very core, it is simply separation. Consider this. Consider that the holy place in the temple is called the holy place, but one place is not more moral.

One place does not commit more righteousness. Places cannot be righteous or do righteous things. It is holy because it is set apart for a special use. Consider also that in the Garden of Eden, God was still especially holy, though none of his creation had yet sinned.

Adam had not sinned. There was no sin in the earth. And yet, God was still, at that time, especially holy. So, he was not holy simply because he was separate from sin, because there was no sin. He was holy in that he was separate and different and greater than all creation.

So, at its core, holiness is simply separation. However, when we think of holiness, we often think of it in terms of righteousness. Why is that? It is because we have been called to be holy in a sinful world.

And so, what makes us holy in a sinful world is simply being separate from sin. God, in calling us to holiness, has called us to be separate from sin. In this context here, when he talks about impurity and holiness, he has in mind specifically sexual immorality, that we have been called to be separate from acts of sexual immorality.

We are not to be like others. Those who serve God, those who will be acceptable in his eyes, are called to be different, are called to be holy, separate. And God, he has a purpose in this. He has not decided this for arbitrary reasons that we would be holy, but he has a purpose.

God’s Purpose in Holiness for His Name and Our Good

We see in verse 7, For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. God has not called us for impurity. Now, that is a fairly obvious statement, that God has not called us for impurity. But the implication of that is that he has instead called us for a different purpose, for the purpose of holiness.

And I think it is really important for us to, excuse me a second, I think it's very important for us to understand this purpose of holiness. Specifically because understanding that purpose is a great encouragement to us.

I was talking to someone recently about how to raise children, especially when children ask the question why. A lot of people think that it's very cruel for a parent not to answer their child when they're asking why all the time.

But those who have kids know that half the time when the child asks why, it's not out of genuine curiosity, right? It's out of a desire to make the parent justify themselves. You know, the parent gives some command and the kid doesn't want to obey, and so they ask why.

Justify me to yourself. You know, justify me, or justify yourself to me, mother, father. And so as we were discussing, it was saying that on one hand, you don't want to give in to that sinful spirit that desires disobedience, right?

That desires to make an authority justify themselves. And so you require that they begin to obey and they say yes, or depending on how you run your family, yes sir. And then afterward, they can ask permission to ask why.

So they can say something like, yes sir, may I ask why? And so that way, they can satisfy their curiosity, but at the same time, keep from asking their parent to justify themselves. Now, not only do you keep your child from that sinful tendency, but also in giving them the reason and having an opportunity for them to get the reason for the command, you've established some motivation for them.

You know, Ephesians tells us not to exasperate our children. And one of the ways that we can keep from exasperating them is to give them reasons for the commands that we give them, to tell them why we don't want them to touch the stove, because it's hot, to tell them why we've given various commands.

Now, it's the same thing with God. God has not, God is a good father. You know, he is not intent on exasperating us, but in his kindness to us, he has given us the reasons for things. And so we should consider why it is that he has called us for holiness.

You know, and speaking of for impurity, he implies that we have been called for holiness. What are his reasons? One is that the world might see God's kingdom as being different than the things that they are used to.

God has a name for himself, and he is making that name great in all the earth. And so part of that is having a people who are holy, who are separate. Now, if you think about it, this is the opposite of what most people want in their lives.

You know, most people don't want to be separate and different. They want to fit in. How many people here in high school did not want to fit in? You know, I'm the most contrarian person, or one of the most contrarian persons that I know, and even I wanted to fit in in high school.

This is not something that people naturally desire, is to not fit in, and yet that is what God has called us for, to stand out, to be different. We live in a world full of unholiness, unholy thoughts, unholy speech, unholy entertainment, unholy activities, unholy practices.

And He has called us to be holy, to be different, and that requires boldness. We must be willing to not fit in. If we want to stand before the Lord, we must have the courage to be different, to be set apart from the world.

And that brings us to the second reason, is that God wants us to be able to stand before Him. He is a perfect, holy God. He will not allow evil in His midst. And so if we are to dwell with Him forever, the only way that we could do so is by being holy, and so He desires for us to be holy so that we may stand before Him on the day of judgment.

On the day of judgment, many will stand before Him, and all those who are unholy will perish in the lake of fire forever. All those who are holy will stand before Him. And so this is not something arbitrary that God has decided for us.

He has not given us a command because He wants to watch us dance. He has given us this command so that we can have an eternal life of bliss in His presence. And so it is for our good that He has commanded this, and the more we embrace this, the more we understand this purpose, the more we'll be willing to comply with His commands.

Remember, He has given us this guidance for a reason. He has not left us without this purpose. I talk to a lot of people who, when I talk about the rewards that Scripture offers or other things it says about God's purpose in doing good and the ways that we benefit, they identify that as selfish, right?

They think it's selfish to think about the ways that we benefit from obedience to God. But God knows we are weak. He has given these things for our good, and so it is not wrong to focus on the things Scripture tells us about rewards and about what it is we have awaiting us for our obedience.

He has not called us to be good just for the sake of being good. He has called us to understand these things and to wholeheartedly embrace that end for which we are headed. You know, even Jesus, in Hebrews 12 too, did not go to the cross without a thought of the reward set before Him, but for the reward set before Him, He endured the cross despising the shame.

And if we are to be holy, despising the shame that we will encounter, we need to have that reward set before us, an eternity of bliss in the presence of God. And so it is with this that we come to the obligation we have to be holy.

The Obligation of Believers to Obey God’s Holy Law

God has a purpose in it, and we have an obligation. It says in verse 8,. Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. We see previously in, excuse me, 2 .13.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

You know, there is something special about receiving the word of God as the word of God. In the same way, this command to holiness is not something from men, it is from God. And therefore, we are obligated.

God in His nature is holy. God is perfect, and we ought to be holy and perfect like Him. And so we are obligated. You know, consider whether or not you are holy. Ask yourself whether or not you are holy.

Consider the Ten Commandments. God has given them to us as a summary of His law, as a way of considering whether or not we are holy. His first commandment, we should be worshiping God, that we should have God above all other gods.

You know, is He first in your heart? What else competes with God? What else competes with service to Him? The second commandment, that we should not have idols, that we should not be corrupting the worship of God, that we should be worshiping Him as He has called us to worship Him.

Yet all kinds of things corrupt our worship. All kinds of things compete for that position. The third commandment, that we should not use the Lord's name in vain. Now maybe you don't use God's name in vain in your speech, but in considering those things that require reverence, how often do we lack reverence?

How often in prayer is your mind straying from the reverence that it should have toward God? How often in the middle of a sermon do you find yourself drowsing off because you do not have reverence for what is taking place as God is speaking to you through His word?

The fourth commandment, the Lord's Day, set aside for holy use. What do your Lord's Days consist of? Are they set aside for holy worship of God? The fifth commandment, to honor your father and mother.

Now maybe you don't even have a father and mother. Maybe they have deceased, but it's still the case that there are authorities and it's probably the case that you have people underneath you and so part of that commandment is to encourage them in obedience.

You know, we were talking about exasperating your children. Do you make it easy for your children to obey you? Or do you make it difficult for them? Will there be a day when they look back and they say, my parent made it difficult for me?

The sixth commandment, you should not murder. Jesus made it very clear that even anger violates the sixth commandment. When was the last time you were angry? Was it recent? It was for me. God has required us to be holy and part of that is ceasing from anger, ceasing from impatience.

The seventh commandment, once again Jesus clarifies this commandment to us that it's not just about sleeping with your neighbor's wife, but any kind of lust. Are you guarding your eyes? Are you guarding your heart from lust?

The eighth commandment, I shall not steal, but considered positively, it also speaks of generosity. Maybe you don't think of yourself as a thief, but God has given you good things to be a steward of them and to be generous with them.

And have you withheld that? Are you being generous in your actions? The ninth commandment, thou shall not lie, but how often do we withhold the truth? When there is someone that we need to resolve with, we harbor our grudge and we don't be honest with them and we don't speak to them because it would be too difficult to do so.

And the tenth commandment, not to covet. Are you discontent with your life? Are you discontent and in so saying so, God, you have not given me enough. God, why didn't you give me more like these other people have?

Violation of any of these means that you lack holiness. You know, if you want to grow in your holiness, if you want to expose the sins of unholiness, a practice I would recommend to you. And if you remember, a couple years ago when we had a set of special prayer meetings for the Great Commission, we did this.

As we went through the catechism questions, beginning with question number 50, which is about the ten commandments. And we read these and it explained all the different ways that these commands are kept and all the different ways these commands are violated.

You look at these and you use these as a template for confession. You look at these and you see where you have failed. And I would even recommend doing this from the Westminster Larger Catechism, not just the one that we typically use.

But if you look at the Westminster Larger Catechism, beginning with question 103 and you move through there, it is much more expansive in describing the ways that these laws are kept and the ways that they are violated.

If you want to get wrecked, this is a way to get wrecked is read these things and see how far you have fallen from God's standard of perfection. And this obligation is so much increased for believers.

It is so much increased for believers. It says that, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. There's something special about being given the Holy Spirit.

There's something that makes us especially obligated to holiness if we have his Holy Spirit. You know, it's a common misunderstanding that the purpose of the gospel is to free people from the law. Our confession says that our obligation to the law is in no way diminished, but is in fact greatly strengthened by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now why is that? Well, first of all, we have an example in Jesus. You know, when Jesus came, he told the disciples, a new command I give you, that you should love each other as I have loved you. So prior to this, it was still a command to love each other, but in setting an example, Jesus made this command new.

He made this command in a way greater and more obligatory. Now, you know, we're already perfectly obligated, but we have far less excuse if we have this example of Jesus Christ given to us, who offered his own life out of his great love for his people.

It's also the case that we ought to, that we as believers are especially obligated to God because it's our identity. You know, God is supposed to be our Father. You look at Matthew 5 and it explains several times that because God is our Father, you know, we should be kind to the ungrateful and the evil, just as God is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

He is perfect, and so we, if we are to call ourselves children, must be like our Father. We must also be perfect, and also in thankfulness. You know, if God has saved us from our sins, then out of thankfulness, we ought to be serving him.

We ought to be growing in holiness. You know, imagine two citizens in a kingdom, and for one, the king has done no wrong to him, but for the other, the king has not only done no wrong, but has done great things.

Out of his private pocket, has given him money, has given him possessions for his family, has listed him to a high estate. Who is more obligated to serve that king? Now, you might say, well, they both are.

You know, they both have perfect obligation to. However, that one has so much less excuse, has so much more reason and motivation to serve that king who is so good to them. And then finally, the last reason is present right here.

It's because God has given his Holy Spirit to you. If you have the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you are equipped for this task. You are equipped to pursue holiness, though you not be holy. Consider this.

Consider in verse seven the change in prepositions. One says, for God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. You know, for impurity, but in holiness. Now that's intentional. So he's packing a little more meaning into this phrase than it would have otherwise.

He's saying not for purity, so the implication being for holiness. But he doesn't finish with that. He just lets that be an implication. He says, but we have been called in holiness. God has called us in holiness.

How? What does that mean? God has called us in Jesus Christ. Ephesians explains that we were chosen in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. It is only Jesus Christ who is perfectly holy. We aren't, of our own selves, perfectly holy.

There is no way that you can make yourself perfectly holy. And if you've listened to everything I've said before and thought that that's the goal is to make ourselves holy, you are gravely mistaken. Imagine you take a gallon of sludge from a septic tank and throw it into a bucket and then try to use an eyedropper to dilute that sludge until it was perfectly pure.

It's never going to happen even if you had a larger bucket. It would never be diluted enough to be perfectly pure. It would still have that gallon of septic in it. There is no way that you, of your own strength, can make yourself holy.

But God has called us in Christ so that when He died His substitutionary death on the cross, His holiness is counted to us. And our sinfulness, our unholiness, was credited to Him so that Christ suffered the penalty for unholiness.

But in Him, we are counted as holy. We are counted as already perfectly holy. So that when we stand before the Lord, when we are before Him on judgment day, we don't have to worry about whether or not we have managed to dilute our sin enough with good works.

But we must only worry about whether or not we are in the Son. And it is through that great gift of Jesus Christ is through being called in holiness and not just for holiness, but being called in holiness that we can stand before the Lord.

If you want to be holy, do not look to yourself, do not look to your own self-righteousness, but look to Jesus Christ. But, but, there's something special and counterintuitive about the way that God has brought this about.

You know, God, first of all, God could say, well, you know, they're not going to be perfect until the resurrection, so just let them live like they want, and at the resurrection I'll make them, you know, or at their death I'll make their spirit perfect, and at the resurrection I'll make their body perfect.

God could have done it that way, but remember, one of His purposes is to make His name great in all the earth. And so He has decided to have us be a holy people while being on this earth, visibly holy to the world.

Now, the other option He could have done is He could have said, well, you know, I want them to be a holy people on this earth, so I'm going to instantly zap, make them holy in body and soul, and they'll have their new resurrection bodies, and they'll have a perfect spirit so they sin no more.

God could have done that. There might be theological issues with that possibility that I haven't considered, but if you, if you consider for a moment that He could have accelerated this track to holiness, why didn't He?

He must have a purpose in this. He has desired this for a reason, and as we sit there and contemplate what that might be, I think it is quite reasonable to say that the same reason He decided to not save us, you know, in the earliest ages of childhood, many of us, but only much later, is so that we can realize our great need for Him, so that we are not instantly made perfect, but as He brings us through trials, making us more perfect, He causes us more and more to be reminded of our sinfulness and reminded of our need for Him, so that on that day when we're all together and we all are perfectly holy in all aspects, body and soul, and not just positionally from a legal standpoint in Jesus Christ, that we will have so much more appreciation, so much more love for God who did this wonderful thing for us because we are weak creatures.

We are those who do not understand how great God is and how needful of Him we are, and so He communicates this to us by causing us to rely on Him for growing in holiness. He has equipped us with the Spirit.

He has called us in the Son. It's this perfect Trinitarian work that is accomplishing this. Now the world, the world doesn't think that holiness is necessary. The world doesn't think that there's anything special about being different, but God has a great purpose in this, and He has equipped us for it.

He has equipped us by His Holy Spirit, and so let us stand before our great God on Judgment Day, perfectly confident in Jesus Christ and the work of the Spirit in us. It would be a terrible thing to go against God.

God is so high and so great. He is omniscient and omnipotent and omnipresent. He knows all things. He can do all things. He knows where we are, and our lives are in His hand. You know, I heard a story one time about a plane that had crashed in some forest in the Northeast, and apparently there's enough unexplored land in the U .S. still that this plane wasn't discovered for 50 years, even though they already had been looking for it.

You know, you could hide in a much smaller nook and cranny than that plane. You could make a submarine and hide in the deepest trench in the ocean, and God would still find you. He is all-powerful. The strongest men are cut low by cancer.

This pandemic is a great reminder of God's strength and His ability to cut men low. It is a merciful reminder. You may not think so because it feels cruel of God, but if you are still alive and healthy, it is a merciful reminder to you that God is all-powerful and He is not to be mocked, and those who will stand in His presence must be holy.

The only way to holiness is in His Son and through His Spirit. Imagine what it would be like for this church if we were to grow in holiness, if we were to grow in holiness. There would be evangelistic benefit to this.

You probably heard it said often, you know, we should live our lives in a way that people ask us what's different about us. Now, I usually don't like that phrase because usually it's either used as a way of saying that we don't actually need to share the gospel, or it's used as a way of dumbing the Christian life down to a happy disposition, you know, and if we have a happy disposition, others will want some of what he's having, but we should be living our lives in a way that's different, in a way that people see that we are different.

It will not always cause the world to turn and want some of what we're having, but it will be a call to repentance. Consider Noah. Hebrews 11 .7 says that by faith, Noah condemned the world, right? By faith he built the ark and condemned the world, and so Noah, Scripture said, was a preacher of righteousness.

He was calling people to repentance by his holy living. Now, he didn't have a single convert except for his own family, but yet he was still doing what God had called him in an evangelistic way, but we are not like Noah in that we live in the time of the gospel, in the time of the express declaration of the gospel where God is fulfilling the great commission through us, and so we can have great hope that he will do wonderful things through our evangelistic efforts in living a holy life.

We don't have to despair like Noah, but at the same time, we should not think that the number of people who come to the faith through our holy living or the number of people who are pleased in looking at our holy living is the measure of whether or not we're doing it right.

We are called to call people to repentance by being different. Remember, why did Cain hate his brother? Because his deeds were righteous. His brother's deeds were righteous and his were evil. Now think of also what this holiness would do for unity.

A lot of people think that it's an improvement on unity to lower the bar, to not confront sin because then everyone is perfectly accepted. We should be welcoming people into the faith. We should be compassionate on those who struggle with sin.

But holiness is a way to unity, not unholiness. Holiness is a way that we grow together in the image of Christ so that we are all united. If we remain in unholiness, we remain diverse, separate in our own sins.

But holiness draws us together. And how much more would we love and appreciate each other if we were so holy and we were so different from the world that this is where we found more and more our true unity, our true similarities between others as we are growing in the image of Christ.

There are wonderful, wonderful things that can come from holiness. If you are a person who recognizes that you lack holiness, you must come to Christ. You must be found in him. It is the only way to stand before the Lord.

It is the only way to be part of this glorious kingdom and not the kingdom, the world that will eventually perish. And if you think that you can live the Christian life without holiness and you think you have done that, that's not the Christian life.

The Christian life is following this path of sanctification that God has planned for us. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, verse three, is following this path and being found righteous in God's eyes by being in Jesus Christ and having our trust in him and by growing in the power of the Spirit, relying on God, coming to him in prayer, trusting not ourselves, not our own self-righteousness, but only him to expose our hearts and to grow us so that one day when we are with him, we are all together, perfectly holy, and we can see what he has done in us, growing us in holiness.

We will love him. We will love each other. We will love this wonderful thing that he has created. We will have such appreciation for this holiness. You know, the thing he is doing is so wonderful. If you lived, you know, in a time before modern education and you didn't know the difference between a diamond and a piece of coal, and I gave you a piece of coal and I asked you, you know, could this become that diamond?

You would say no. It would just be a very simple no, it couldn't. But a coal, while on one hand could be burned, on the other hand, by carefully applied pressure, carefully applied heat, it will become a diamond.

It will become something beautiful. And so we, in our natural states, are ugly, filthy lumps of coal destined for fire. But God has chosen his path of sanctification that by pressure, by the work of the Holy Spirit in us, by the sacrifice of Christ, that we would grow through trial, through temptation and holiness to stand perfect as a diamond before him.

This is our great hope. This is a great hope. Let's pray. Dear Holy Father, we are, by our own natures, unholy people. You created man holy, but the man sought his own devices. And now we have no path forward apart from you, apart from your Son, apart from your Spirit.

And we thank you for your Son. We thank you for his great sacrifice. And we ask that we would not be distracted, but would turn our eyes ever again to him and that by your Spirit we would grow in holiness so that we become more and more separated from the world and the world's unholiness and more and more like Christ.

Thank you for this wonderful plan of sanctification you have. In Jesus' name, amen.