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Dr. Lars Larson
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Thessalonians 5, one last time I think, and Lord willing we'll complete our study of this epistle this morning, if all goes well, and then again
I'll be gone next week, and then the following week is Palm Sunday, the week after that is
Resurrection Day, Easter Sunday, and then the week after that, Lord willing, we'll begin 2
Thessalonians, and so we'll continue on into that book.
2 Thessalonians is a fascinating study, and I think you're going to find it quite interesting as we consider some of the historical understandings, particularly of the men of sin, the apostasy in 2
Thessalonians 2, chapter 2, but we'll get there some time later this spring. Well last
Lord's Day we addressed 1 Thessalonians 5, 21 and 22, in which we are commanded, test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil, and so we emphasize how as Christians we are to live each day, through each day, assessing and evaluating everything using
God's Word as our standard. We are to employ the Word of God, the
Holy Bible, in order to distinguish between good and evil, between truth and error, between right and wrong.
This is how we are to live day by day as Christians, and we are to affirm and embrace what is good, and we are to abstain from every form of evil.
This is how Christians think and live, or at least they should. Of course the people of this fallen world are opposed to this kind of living, this kind of way of thinking.
They may not state it this way, but this is what they believe. You're wrong to say that some ideas, some behaviors, and some actions are wrong.
The world is fairly recent, by the way, in that kind of declaration, but that's how it's been in post -modern times.
But if you consider what they are saying, and I don't believe I'm setting up a straw man here,
I think this accurately describes the fallen world's view. They too are saying that there are some things that are wrong when they tell you you're wrong in declaring things are wrong.
You see that? They have, in other words, they have a moral standard too, don't they? And I would argue that they cannot escape thinking in categories of right and wrong, because that is how
God made us. He made us moral beings. And so the people of the fallen world have not abandoned making judgments themselves, although they condemn us for making judgments.
Really what they've done is they've changed the standard of making judgments, haven't they? And they impose that standard upon you and me.
But we are to cleave to our responsibility before the Lord to assess the world from God's perspective according to God's laws that he has given us in his holy word.
Test everything. Hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil, and we are to live this way in the face of the fallen world that demands increasingly that we do otherwise.
And hence, you know, this is why Christians that are living for Christ, we're going to have difficulty in this fallen world.
Now let's give our attention to 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 -28, which follows. And these are, of course, the concluding words of Paul's epistle, first epistle to the church at Thessalonica.
After the apostle offered a form of prayer on behalf of the church, which is in verses 23 and 24, he gave forth two last commands of the total of 18 we've considered in this final section of the epistle.
He then wrote a few words regarding the distribution of this epistle, followed by a word of benediction.
And so let's read these words. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, he who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it.
Brothers pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before the
Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. And the last verse of this epistle, the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And so first we have a prayer on behalf of these
Christians in verses 23 and 24. It is a prayer, I believe. Now may the
God of peace himself sanctify you completely. Now he's directing it to the people, but clearly his heart is directed to the
Lord. May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit and body, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our
Lord Jesus. He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it. First consider the description or the title of God here, a description of God.
He is described as the God of peace. We've talked about this numerous times in the past, but here it is again, the
God of peace. Paul wrote, now may the God of peace himself. There's actually five instances in the
New Testament, including this one, in which God is described as the God of peace.
We read the other four places, Romans 15, 33, may the God of peace be with you all, amen.
That's his benediction in the epistle to the Romans. And then
Romans 16, 20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
That's kind of a sense of a conflict in ideas.
Here you have the God of peace and he's going to crush Satan. You see the contrast there being expressed.
Philippians 4, 9, what you have learned and received and heard and seen and may practice these things and the
God of peace will be with you. That's a blessed promise. And then Hebrews 13, 20 and 21.
Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever, amen.
And so the God of peace is used elsewhere in the New Testament, particularly by the apostle
Paul. What does this description, the God of peace convey? Well it probably speaks of God in two senses, the
God of peace, and it really all surrounds that little preposition, the word of, the
God of peace. First, it describes God who is at peace with his people, the
God of peace, thankfully. And this is sometimes referred to as the objective peace of God with his people.
In other words, a state of peace exists between God and you if you're in Jesus Christ, us if we are in Jesus Christ.
This state of peace is in our relationship with God, with all his people who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ.
And so this objective peace is a state of peace, this is not how you feel, but this is how you believe and think because of the promises of God in Christ.
This is not a matter that you feel, this objective peace, it describes a state, a truth.
God is at peace with you and me through Jesus Christ, it's objective. Before people receive salvation,
God is not at peace with them. The world thinks they are, and oftentimes even
Christians try and portray God in that way so that, you know, they perceive God as welcoming them because he's a
God of peace. But in actuality, the scriptures describe a state of war existing between God and fallen men and that is found throughout the entire word of God.
The scriptures speak of a hostility between God and sinful men. And so the word of God declares that before we come to Christ as our
Lord and Savior, we were opposed to God and God opposed to us. There was a state of war existing, we were enemies to God and God was an enemy to us.
We were opposed to his rule over us, just as the people of Israel were opposed to his rule over them.
And so the wrath of God came upon them historically in history. But Christ as the Prince of Peace ended that hostility between God and ourselves.
He gained peace for us, the Lord Jesus did, by dying on the cross for us.
This appeased God's wrath, which was upon us, which the
Bible set forth in terms of the word propitiation. And propitiation means God's wrath ceasing.
And now a state of peace exists. Christ propitiated God through his death upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. With regard to those that believe the gospel, believe on Jesus Christ, God is no longer angry with them.
That is, full of wrath toward them. But he's in a state of peace with them through Jesus Christ.
Thank God for this. And so because of the death of Jesus Christ that satisfied the justice of God on behalf of believers,
God was propitiated with regard to us. His wrath was abated toward us.
It is no longer. And the result was that Jesus Christ secured a state of peace between God and his people.
And this is the same for every one of his people that are truly in Jesus Christ. A state of peace exists.
Doesn't know any degrees. We are all in Christ equally in this state of peace with God.
Colossians 121, Paul wrote of it. You who once were alienated and enemies in your mind.
That was before we were Christians. We maybe weren't aware of that, but we were.
Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his death to, and here's a purpose clause, in order to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach in his sight.
Isn't that amazing? God is going to present you above reproach on the day of judgment because of Jesus Christ.
Bearing the penalty that you and I owed when he died upon the cross. This objective peace, this state of peace, belongs only to those who have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
For he alone is the basis and the securer of peace between God and fallen humanity.
Those who believe on Jesus, those for whom Christ died, enjoy this peace.
Christ obtained this peace for them. Secured it for them. They are justified through faith, faith alone.
And so we have peace of God, the peace of God, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so in this way we were reconciled.
That carries the idea of an ending of hostility, right? God and we were reconciled through Christ.
This is stated in Romans 5 .11. Romans 5 .1 declares the state of peace.
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. And this is true of every
Christian. Regardless of whether you feel you are at peace with God.
This is true of every true Christian. You are at peace with God. And you ought to believe it.
It's a blessing. Because God has declared it. But in Romans 5 .11 it speaks of reconciliation linked to this.
Not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Reconciliation is a word that describes the cessation, the ceasing of hostility between two warring factions.
Resulting in peace between them. How does this reconciliation take place? Well, it can only take place when their former hostility and rebellion ceases.
And the justice of God toward their crime has been satisfied. God is at war with sinners.
And has purposed to punish them for their sins. Because they have violated, transgressed his laws.
And God demands justice with regard to them. They must answer to the judge of all the earth for every sin.
We've got to answer to God for Adam's sin. We've got to answer to God because we're sinners by nature.
We've got to answer to God for every sin we've ever committed. God demands justice.
And this is due to his unbending, inflexible justice. Because he's a holy God. And so, because Jesus Christ bore their punishment on their behalf when he died upon the cross.
God reconciles these former warring people against him.
And they become no longer his enemies, but his people. And they are at peace with him, thankfully.
We read of this in Colossians 1. For in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
And through him to reconcile, there it is, to himself all things. And that's what Jesus Christ was sent on a mission to do.
God is the king over all creation because he's a creator. But when Adam and Eve sinned, everything became rebellious to God.
Even the creation itself was resistant. Thorns grew up, difficulty.
And so even though God was king and he was sovereign over all, nothing was willingly subjected to God. Nothing.
Everything was in rebellion. And basically throughout the entire Bible, the story of the
Bible is the mediatorial kingdom of Jesus Christ whereby he brings back the entire rebellious creation into a willing subjection to God.
And by the time Jesus returns, that's what's going to happen. Everything will be reconciled to God.
Even those in rebellion, they'll be damned of course, but even they will bow the knee to Christ, won't they?
And confess with their tongue that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. And so though Jesus is sent on a mission, the
Father in essence says, my whole creation is in rebellion to me. Go win them back.
Bring them back into submission to me. And Jesus Christ succeeds in doing that. And thankfully he does that in securing our reconciliation and our compliance to God.
And he did so by, first of all, paying for our sins when he died upon the cross.
And then of course, giving us the blessed gift of the Holy Spirit, enabling us and giving us a desire and the ability to live for him.
And so this is objective peace. And it's through his work of reconciliation through Jesus Christ on the cross that God secured our reconciliation.
And really this blessing of peace, this objective peace, can only be appreciated fully when we consider the state of the unbeliever, the non -believer, who is not at peace with God.
We live in a world in which people will allow you to believe in any kind of God you like, but if you say that you believe in a
God who is a God of wrath toward those who are outside of Jesus Christ, look out. You'll be rejected and opposed.
But this is what the scriptures teach. There's even a reticence, a reluctance of churches and Christians to speak of God as a holy
God, a just God who will damn those that are in rebellion to him.
However, again, thankfully, we have been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. But what of those who are not justified through faith?
They do not have peace with God, but rather the wrath of God rests upon them. Can we imagine what that is?
John 3 .36 reads, He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. He who does not believe the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. The wrath of God abides on every human being until that man or woman, boy or girl, believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There exists a state of war between God and man.
Jonathan Edwards lived out here in Northampton and later out in Stockbridge.
He wrote of the dreadful condition of fallen men in a sermon, Natural Men in a
Dreadful Condition. And Edwards had a way of articulating things that everybody understood what he was saying.
And here he's describing those that are outside of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only Savior, the only hope of sinners.
And here he's describing those without Christ. They are not only without God, but the wrath of God abides upon them.
There is no peace between God and them, but God is angry with them every day. And that's a quote from scripture from Psalm 7 verse 11, by the way.
He's not only angry with them, but that to a dreadful degree. There is a fire kindled in God's anger.
It burns like fire. Wrath abides upon them, which, if it should be executed, would plunge them into the lowest hell and make them miserable there for all eternity.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, and God has been angry with them ever since they began to sin.
He has been provoked by them every day, ever since they exercised any reason.
And he's provoked by them more and more every hour. The flame of his wrath is continually burning.
There are many now in hell that never provoke God more than they, nor so much as many of them.
Wherever they go, they go about with the dreadful wrath of God abiding on them. They eat and drink and sleep under wrath.
How dreadful a condition, therefore, are they in. It is the most awful thing for the creature to have the wrath of his
Creator abiding on him. The wrath of God is a thing infinitely dreadful.
The wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion. But what is the wrath of a king who is but a worm of the dust to the wrath of the infinitely great and dreadful
God? How dreadful is it to be under the wrath of the First Being, the
Being of Beings, the Great Creator and the Mighty Possessor of Heaven and Earth. How dreadful is it for a person to go about under the wrath of God who gave him being and who he lives and moves, who is everywhere present and without whom he cannot move a step nor draw a breath.
Natural men, inasmuch as they are under wrath or under a curse, God's wrath and curse are continually upon them.
They can have no reasonable comfort, therefore, in any of their enjoyments, for they do not know what they are given them in wrath, and shall be curses to them and not blessings.
As it said in Job 18 .15, Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. How can they take comfort in their food or in their possessions when they do not know what all are given them to fit them for the slaughter?
That's the direct approach. But this is a very biblical teaching, a scripture.
And this explains why the Lord Jesus Christ only could atone for sin.
And this describes the terrible, terrible suffering and death that he underwent when he died upon the cross.
We will not read through John Gill's lengthy description, but he sets forth the same idea.
There is safety in Jesus Christ, but outside of Jesus Christ, there is nothing but the unrelenting, infinite wrath of God upon sinners.
But thankfully, in Jesus Christ, God is at peace with us. When the sinner turns from his sin and believes the gospel, believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ, God, I have been in rebellion to you. I have not been mindful of you.
I have been living as though I am my own Lord in this life. I turn from that sin. Indeed, Jesus is
Lord. I believe on him as my Savior. And as you enabled me, Lord Jesus, by your
Holy Spirit that you give me, I will live for you and order my life according to your will.
That's what it is to become a Christian. And the moment a person lays down the weapons of his rebellion and he repents in that fashion, amazingly,
God immediately regards that man, that woman, that boy, that girl, no longer under his wrath, but now in a state of peace.
And the favor of God is now upon that believer. And this objective peace, again, is infinite in nature.
And the blessings of God will be shown to that one throughout eternity, all secured because of the merit and work of Jesus Christ, not due to anything in us, not due to the tears that we shed, not due to the efforts we put forth, not due to the many prayers that we might offer, but it's only because of Jesus Christ, his righteousness, and his death.
And so we entrust ourselves to one who is outside of us to do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves.
And when we wholly put our trust in him and only in him, we enter into this blessed, objective state of peace.
Why would anybody turn away from that? But there is a second idea conveyed in this idea of God as a
God of peace. God, of course, the God of peace, sets forth God as the source of peace for his people.
And so not only is God in a state of peace with those who have faith and grace of peace to his people, this is different than objective peace.
In this objective peace, God comforts his people, assures them in their lives they belong to him and that his favor rests upon them.
And so this is not something that we necessarily believe, but it's something that we feel. This is truly subjective.
And whereas the objective peace does not vary between any Christian, everyone is equally at peace before God because it's all based upon Jesus Christ and what he did.
But this subjective peace, this feeling of peace that you have in your soul, the rest that God gives in Jesus Christ, varies in each and every one of us.
And sometimes it's greater than at other times, sometimes less. And at times, you know, certainly it could be greater for us if we would follow the biblical prescriptions of it.
Paul wrote of this subjective peace in Philippians 4, 6, and 7. Be anxious for nothing.
For in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And so you let the
Lord know all your troubles, and you leave them with him. And what do you get in return? The peace of God which surpasses all understanding.
In other words, it doesn't make sense. You're feeling at peace when the whole world tells you you ought to be a wreck.
It passes understanding. But this peace, the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds, set a watch around you, a guard around you through Christ Jesus.
And so God gives, thankfully, his people a sense of peace, which is a restful, settled spirit, which is to be received and enjoyed by those who entrust themselves to their
God through Jesus Christ. This sense of peace, again, is commonly called God's subjective peace, not objective, subjective.
In other words, it's enjoyed by the subject, we, us. Subjective peace is the awareness that the believer senses in his soul that he's at peace with God.
And so whereas objective peace between God and his people is what the Christian is to believe we're in a state of peace, this subjective peace is what people feel.
Because of our faith in Christ, we may sense peace, or a tranquility of soul, a settling of our guilty conscience respecting sin, when we receive through faith our free and full pardon of sin due to the death of our
Savior. And so we're secure. And so if we're thinking and believing rightly, we feel ourselves to be as secure.
Romans 1 through 7, Paul expresses desire for them early in his opening of the epistle.
He says that we may experience peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, a subjective peace that we may enjoy in our relationship with God.
Again, all disciples of Jesus Christ are in a state of objective peace with God, and all disciples of Jesus Christ may enjoy a subjective peace with God, but it's sad they all don't for different reasons.
Now, let's continue now after considering his description,
God of peace, and let's consider his work, what he does on behalf of his people.
Paul wrote, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And we've talked about this, of course, sanctification.
It is an important foundational doctrine of the Christian life, and every one of us should have an understanding of this, and I hope that we're arriving to the place where many of you can say,
I've heard this before, and I understand it, and I know it. That's our goal. We want to get to the place where there's nothing
I can stand up here and say to you that's new. You've heard it, you know it, you understand it, and you can convey it.
But nevertheless, there's things that we need to be reinforced in continually, isn't there? May the
Lord sanctify you. We dealt with this in some degree when we were back in 1 Thessalonians 4, the previous chapter, verses 3 through 5, when
Paul wrote, This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel, in other words, his own body, in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the
Gentiles who do not know God. But Paul deemed this matter of the believer's sanctification so important, he expressed it again here at the conclusion of his epistle.
Paul set forth his desire, even his prayer, that their God would sanctify them completely.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. The basic idea of the verb sanctify is to make holy.
That is, for God to separate his people unto himself. For God to sanctify his people means that he's making them, gradually, more holy in character.
We ought to be more like Christ today than we were a year ago, ten years ago, whatever.
God is preparing his people for the life to come, and so this is salvation from the power of sin in our lives.
This is what sanctification is. The Westminster Shorter Catechism sets forth the classic definition.
Question 35, what is sanctification? The answer is sanctification is the work of God's free grace. It's God who does this.
It's God who sanctifies you. May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.
It's a work of God. The work of God's grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.
And so each of us who are truly Christian is experiencing a work of grace in our lives that is sanctifying us.
This is the will of God being accomplished in every Christian. Again, back in 1 Thessalonians 4 .3,
this is the will of God, even your sanctification. More specifically, when the
Bible speaks of sanctification, really two ideas emerge, and I might just say this at the outset, there is a positional sanctification, and there's a practical sanctification, and we're dealing with practical sanctification, but we need to mention positional.
Everything that belongs to God is set apart by God for God. We read in the
Old Testament that the tabernacle, the articles of furniture in the tabernacle, the utensils used in the tabernacle, the priests themselves who ministered in the tabernacle, all were sanctified for that purpose, and only to be used for that purpose thereafter.
They were set apart for God and His worship, and the Bible speaks of Christians being sanctified in this sense, set apart.
Through the work of Christ and through coming to salvation, we have been sanctified positionally entirely, and again, this is the same for each of us.
When Paul was parting from the elders of the church at Ephesus, he said, Now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified.
God has set us apart from the fallen world. All who belong to Jesus Christ have been sanctified positionally.
We've been separated. They've been set apart, sanctified in the mind of God from all others.
Remember back in the days of Moses when Korah and his family and others rebelled against God?
God told Moses, You set yourselves apart from them. And the earth opened up, destroyed those in rebellion.
God has set us apart from those that are under His wrath, thankfully. We are in Christ and in a covenant relationship with God, having been chosen, set apart from the world as a unique people.
God has done this. In the mind and purpose of God, we are separate, set apart.
No, we're sanctified from the fallen world, and therefore He has glorious and vast different designs between those of the world, fallen world, and those who
He has sanctified. This position of sanctification was a work of grace on our behalf.
And again, this occurred once for all time for each of us when we came initially to salvation.
In fact, actually, when Christ died. Hebrews 10, 14, For by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
We're set apart. This is a work of God's grace, accomplished by Christ.
And so there is that positional idea of sanctification, but most of the time, sanctification is not speaking of a position that we enjoy, but rather a work of grace performed in our lives where we become increasingly holy.
And so secondly, sanctification speaks of being purified or made holy in our lives.
And this is the idea being conveyed here in our passage in our text. 1 Thessalonians 5 .22
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. You can tell that's an ongoing work, isn't it?
He's not speaking about our position. We've already been sanctified, set apart by Christ in our salvation.
He's talking about being purified or made holy in life. What's the cause of our sanctification?
Well, the scriptures speak of it in different ways. I love the way the Westminster Confession sets it forth.
It declares the moving cause of sanctification is the grace of God. It's the grace of God that causes us to be sanctified.
The meritorious cause, secondly, is the blood and righteousness of Christ. That's why it takes place.
Because of Christ. And in all work of Christ is performed due to Christ and what
He performed for us through His life and through His death. And then third, the efficient cause.
In other words, what is it exactly that causes you and me to become more holy? The efficient cause is the
Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit working in us. He's the one who does the work of sanctification in us.
The Holy Spirit empowers us. He gives us the desire and the ability to do the will of God.
And so we are to look to the King Jesus each and every day. Lord Jesus, bless me with the presence and power of the
Holy Spirit that I might do the things that you command me. For apart from the Holy Spirit, I cannot do it.
We trust the Holy Spirit to do in us that which we are incapable of doing. And again, one of the most common problems and errors of Christians is they think that because they've been given the desire to please
God when they were converted through regeneration that they have the ability to do the will of God.
No. You have the desire, but you do not have the ability. The ability can only come daily as you look to the
Lord Jesus to give you the Holy Spirit. As you yield to Him to enable you to do that which you are powerless to do apart from Him.
And if you try to do the will of God, keep all these commandments, these 18 that we've been talking about, put them as a big list,
I'm going to do each one, God, and you think you're going to do so apart from the power of the
Holy Spirit, you're going to fall on your face. Because you and I don't have the ability. We have the desire, but the
Lord gives us the ability as the Holy Spirit enables us each and every day.
What is the nature of sanctification? Well, I listed a number of things here. Let's run through them quickly.
First, sanctification is the fruit and evidence of salvation. That is, the fruit and evidence of justification. Every true child of God has this work of sanctification being wrought in him or her.
You need to understand that. Secondly, sanctification is the way, that is, the course of life which leads to our final and full salvation on the
Day of Judgment. And so the scriptures describe it more like in Pilgrim's Progress, like a narrow way.
Or in Isaiah, it's described as a highway of holiness in which we're as pilgrims journeying back to our heavenly
Zion. This is the way of sanctification. And really, it's one of the major themes of the book of Hebrews.
In which we are following on this pilgrimage path, following our
Lord Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. In other words, he's the trailblazer who's already gone first, as well as other
Old Testament witnesses. And now we're following behind as one large procession through history, moving to Zion.
And so, this is, sanctification is a way, a course in which we follow.
And yet, thirdly, sanctification is a gradual process. We reject the ideas of our Pentecostal friends, those who hold to Wesleyan sanctification, that you can get a second blessing and all of a sudden you arrive.
And you're elevated all of a sudden to a life of victory. Now, it's gradual.
Yes, sometimes the Lord gives, you know, deliverances from specific sins. But for the most part, it's a gradual process that takes place over life.
Four, sanctification involves the entire person in all aspects of life.
Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Fifth, sanctification is the conforming of the Christian to the very image of Jesus Christ.
The work of sanctification makes the believer Christ -like in his thinking, his attitudes, his actions, and his reactions.
Sixth, sanctification will never be fully seen in this life, in this world. Our complete sanctification will occur when we stand before Christ on the
Day of Judgment. When we see him as he is. Seventh, sanctification is the work of God's free grace.
Again, God is performing this work in us of his own free will. This is suggested in our text.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you. It's him that does it. Right?
He doesn't say, now sanctify yourselves before the Lord. But may God sanctify you, the
God of peace. And yet, even though it's all a work of grace,
God's grace, sanctification is nevertheless a duty of every Christian. Is that not right?
Our sanctification is a work of God's grace in us, but it requires our attention, our energy, our faith, our repentance, our obedience.
It involves the humbling of ourselves before God, our yielding to the Spirit of God. It involves conforming every thought, attitude, and action to the
Word of God. And so these last two points, number seven and eight, show us that sanctification, although being a work of God's grace, is also the duty of every
Christian. These two aspects of our sanctification must always be kept in balance.
If you emphasize one to the exclusion of the other, you get yourself into trouble. Some only rely upon themselves, and they are doomed to fall and fail, as we've already described.
For sanctification is a work of God's grace. But others are too passive. They claim to believe, but they don't take action.
They don't obey. It's of grace, they say. And so I'll just sit and trust, for He is able to do it in me.
And they take no action. And that is error, too. This one becomes idle, careless, caught up in, and bound in sin.
The first group ignores grace. They see it only as a duty.
That one will lack the power of God to live godly, and will tend toward failure and defeat. And if he happens to attain any measure of improvement in his life, it's only a human, a moral renovation, and it will tend toward pride and self -righteousness.
The second group, however, sets aside their responsibility. It's all of grace.
It doesn't matter how I live. Lenny was telling me about a church this morning.
They preach a gospel. All you have to believe. You don't have to repent. And so he asked me,
Would you baptize someone who is living with someone in an unmarried state, and they claim to believe the gospel, and yet they're still living, committing fornication, and yet they're baptized and brought into the church?
No, of course not. And that's the error of antinomianism. It doesn't matter what
I do. All I have to do is believe. It doesn't matter how I live. I can just set that aside, and I'm safe. I'm okay.
And there are churches that teach that. And that's errant. And so on the matter of our individual sanctification, we need to keep these two matters in balance.
They are like spiritual Siamese twins. They cannot be separated from one another.
Philippians 2, 12, and 13 speaks of both of these, grace and duty. Paul wrote, Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Work it out. And that's duty, isn't it? And then he speaks of grace. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
It's duty and grace, sanctification. Well, let's consider, thirdly, and we don't want to spend a lot of time here, but we'd have to address it.
Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And then I've emboldened and italicized this next expression.
May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless of the coming of our Lord Jesus. The Lord is preparing us to stand in his presence one day.
And, of course, he justified us when we first believed the gospel. And we believe what
God said regarding him, Jesus. Jesus is Lord, the crucified, risen, enthroned king to whom we look.
We've submitted unto him, committed our lives to him. And since that day, we were justified by God. He's been sanctifying us through his grace.
So that we may stand before him on that great day. And our claim to be his people will be substantiated by the work of grace that he performs in us.
We're not saved by our sanctification. We're saved through justification on that great day.
But our sanctification justifies or vindicates our claim that we're justified through faith alone.
Sanctification is the proof that you're justified. John the Apostle wrote, don't be deceived in this.
The one who practices righteousness is righteous. The one who is being sanctified is justified.
Even as God is righteous. Now we need to address a matter that's suggested in this text.
But again, we'll only address it briefly. We've spoken about this matter before. But it bears repeating.
Most evangelical Christians believe, for this is what they've been taught, when God created
Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve, each of them was comprised of three parts.
Body, soul, and spirit. And here,
Paul wrote, may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so most evangelical Christians argue that every person is made up of body, soul, and spirit.
The most historic Protestants did not hold this view. And I used to. Until not that long ago, maybe 10 years ago.
Rather, historically, Protestants viewed man as a duality. Not as a trinity.
A duality. Man as body and soul. And many times in Scripture, soul is described as spirit.
In other words, soul and spirit are one and the same. They give it a different emphasis, a different perspective.
But it's one and the same. Body and soul. And so the common understanding goes something like this.
And I put it forth. These are my words. But this is what I used to believe, because this is what I was taught. When God created man and woman,
Adam and Eve, God created each of them with a body, soul, and spirit. First, there is the body, which is understood as being the means by which a human being is able to interact with the physical world through his five senses.
Second, there is the soul, which is viewed as the sphere of the mind, that is, the intellect, the emotions, and the will.
This is the center of a person's personality. Thirdly, however, and most importantly, many would say, is the spirit, which is said to proceed immediately from God and give spiritual life to the soul and body.
And so the spirit is viewed as a separate entity from the soul, the true and highest spiritual self, which is able to know
God, hear from God, and communicate with God. It is then said that when
Adam and Eve sinned, that spirit in each of them, which is characterized by spiritual life and knowledge, died and was extinguished.
And so after Adam and Eve sinned, they were just body and soul, not body, soul, and spirit, it is taught.
And so since the Fall, when one is born into the world, he is soul and body only, for he does not have a spirit, he is spiritually dead, he needs a new birth.
When God causes his spirit to be created anew in him, so only then does he have the capacity to know
God and relate to God through his own spirit, for he is once again comprised of body, soul, and spirit.
That is the most common evangelical view. However, it is not biblical,
I would argue. But because this is believed to be biblical teaching, the following assumption is embraced.
Ideas have consequences, and here is the consequence of this. They argue that what is most important for the
Christian is to know God, hear from God, and relate to God in one spirit, not in one soul or body.
And so what sadly results is the common, intentional marginalizing of the soul, especially the aspect of the soul, which again is the mind or the intellect, and the emotions and the will.
And thus doctrine, for example, which would be seen in one's soul, one's mind, is viewed as less than important than the impressions that God gives you directly in your spirit.
You follow? And what results? It's a promotion of mysticism. It's a setting aside of the mind and understanding of doctrine in the scriptures.
And many times people who have this understanding of the Christian life, they think that God is communicating them directly.
Well, it doesn't matter what the scriptures say. God is telling my spirit that that's not right. And they take that as their authority.
And that is unbiblical. We are to measure everything by our understanding of the scriptures, which is a part of our soul.
And we would argue that the soul and the spirit are one and the same in mankind.
Now for the sake of time, I've got to abbreviate here. Why is it called soul and spirit then? Why is there a distinction?
Well, when the Bible frequently speaks about the soul, it's speaking about your individual entity or identity as a person, as a human being, unique, your living soul.
But when the scriptures speak about you, your body, and your spirit, the soul, when it's described as the spirit, speaks about the fact that you have a spiritual dimension, that you're connected with your
Creator. He's the one who's given you life. And that you have a responsibility, an opportunity, to relate with God in the spiritual realm.
But the soul and the spirit are one and the same. And I set forth about five or six pages at the end of your notes to set forth the biblical reasoning for this.
Because oftentimes in the scriptures, you find things described as being attributes or characteristics of the soul.
In other places, the same things are said about the spirit. And there are places where it speaks about the body and soul of a person, and other places where it's talking about the body and the spirit of a person.
And so we understand, as the Reformed people before us, that the scriptures do indeed teach that a person is a body and soul.
And many times that soul is described as spirit. There are two passages, however, that are argued to suggest differently.
And one of them is right before us. 1 Thessalonians 5. May the
God of peace sanctify you wholly, in body, soul, and spirit. And those who would argue that man is a trinity would point right here.
See? There's three parts here. And yet we should understand that this is not what's being emphasized.
But rather, and I have a quote in your notes here, I think of John Murray.
In fact, it's in the middle of page 9 of your notes. And I think he's right in the way he understands this verse.
This verse is not contradicting everything else that is taught in the scriptures regarding the body and the soul, or the body and the spirit.
But rather, he wrote of this verse, it is in accord, or in accordance with the usage of scripture to employ an accumulation of terms to express completeness.
And it would be unwarranted to assume that it's intended to provide us with a definition of the component elements of human nature.
In other words, Paul here is not describing the components of a human being, a human nature.
What he's trying to express here is that God should sanctify you in all aspects of life.
Your body, and your soul, and the way you relate to one another, and your spirit, your soul, which is your spirit, and the way you relate to God, and the things of God.
Every aspect of life, may the Lord sanctify you. And therefore, to build a doctrine of man based upon this verse is unwarranted, especially when you consider everything else that is taught in scripture.
The other passage that is commonly used to argue for the trinity of a human being is in Hebrews 4.
And I can't quote it exactly, it's in your notes, but I don't know where it is. But the writer to the
Hebrews speaks about the word of God is sharper than any two -edged sword, and that it's able to pierce through and divide even soul and spirit.
But in that text, and the way the Greek word is speaking about dividing, it's never used to divide two things from one another, but rather it's always used to divide one thing into two pieces.
And what it's saying is that the scriptures are used by God where they can even come in and separate and distinguish that aspect of your soul in which you relate to one another in the world about you, and that aspect of your soul which is spirit, which relates to God.
And the word of God is able to cut right through this, and make these distinctions, and reveal these nuances to us.
And so again, it's not a legitimate basis to argue that man is a trinity.
I know the time, give me five minutes, we'll be done. We want to finish the epistle today.
Now let's look toward the bottom of page 9, and here we see that God gives a promise, of course, to the
Apostle. He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it. He will sanctify you. God has purposed, he will do it.
If you're a Christian, you are going to be increasingly sanctified. And thankfully, even though you may stray and become stubborn and harden your heart, if you're a
Christian, he's going to bring you back to himself. There is such a thing as backsliding, where a true
Christian can wander and stray and harden his heart in ways that, you know, would cause us to scratch our head.
But God is sovereign, and he is faithful. And he says, everyone I've justified,
I'm going to sanctify. Everyone I've sanctified, I'm going to glorify. Faithless he, he'll do it.
Thank God for that. Because if it was dependent upon you or me, we'd have some cause to worry, wouldn't we?
Now we look at the 17th command of the passage, Brothers, pray for us. This is
Paul the Apostle's writing. Paul was a great man, but he was only a man.
He needed prayer. You need prayer. I need prayer. We all need prayer.
Brethren, pray for us. And brothers, you know, pray for me. Pray for one another.
Is that not right? This is one of the means that God has appointed. And then the top of page 10, the 18th command of our passage,
Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I don't think that we ought to incorporate this in our midst.
I'd have a problem with this. But this, of course, is a way that many people through history, and people in some places of the world today, this is how they greet one another.
And I've been in situations where I've observed this. Men kissing one another.
And, of course, it's a holy thing. They're Christian brethren. But I'd just assume we're not. The whole point is that we greet one another warmly, don't we?
We have an affection for one another. We appreciate one another. And we might express that in a warm, you know, word of thanks, and a warm handshake, and a pat on the shoulder.
Let's stick that way, all right? Although a hug once in a while is okay. But greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
There ought to be a communion among us. We ought to enjoy one another's presence, and value and appreciate one another when we see one another, and greet one another.
And then there are a few words regarding the distribution of the epistle. I put you under the oath before the
Lord, to have this letter read to all the brothers. Perhaps in the church at Thessalonica, maybe to the other churches.
And so they were to make it known. And so Paul saw this epistle as valuable, and practical, and needful for the people of God.
And, of course, we understand it as scripture, and to be distributed and read by all.
And then the final benediction, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. We are all in need of the
Lord Jesus to impart grace to us. Grace, in this way, is Him giving the desire, and the ability to do the will of God.
You need grace. There's times when you don't feel like doing the will of God. There may be times when you don't want to do.
There sadly may be times when you say, I'm not going to do the will of God. Well, we need the grace of God, don't we?
And God gives grace to those who humble themselves. He resists the proud.
But when we humble ourselves, Lord, my heart is harder than stone. Please give me grace to, you know, that I might desire once again the things of Christ.
And that I might be enabled by your power to do the things that Christ commands me.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And this was
Paul's desire for them. And this should be our desire for ourselves. Amen.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for this epistle. Help us to take these matters to heart, we pray.
Understand them more clearly. And apply them more judiciously.
Amen. Amen.