(1 Thessalonians) Practical Results of Christianity — Willie Mullan

The Two Divisions of First Thessalonians 4

Letter to the Thessalonians, chapter four. First Thessalonians, chapter four. Now I have given you the notes already this evening, just to try you out. If you get away ahead of me, then I'll take them off you next week and you'll not get them.

But if you just go along as I want you to go, I think it will be good for you and it will make it much easier for me. If you have been reading this chapter through the week, you will notice that it divides itself very simply into two sections.

From verse one down to the end of verse twelve, we have what I shall call the practical results of Christianity. The practical results. And then, of course, from verse thirteen to the end of the chapter, we have the personal return of Christ.

These are the two divisions of the chapter. The practical results of Christianity and the personal return of Christ. I want to take you through these practical results very carefully. I think that Paul underlines eight things when he touches the practical side, and I think he underlines eight things when he touches the personal return of Christ.

It's wonderful to notice this before we get into the chapter, that when Paul had to flee from Philippi in Acts chapter sixteen, you remember that? And he went down the coast and came to Thessalonica in chapter seventeen of the Acts of the Apostles, and you remember when he preached that Thessalonica, a great multitude of Greeks believed.

Very well worth remembering that a great multitude of Greeks believed. You see, Paul went into Thessalonica with the evangelical message. He said, Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost, I am as much assured.

He preached evangelical truth. But mind you, he didn't stop there. As you can see from all the chapters that we have examined, he must have taught these young believers dispensational truth. Because the end of the first chapter ends like this, Ye turn to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven.

So he must have taught the young believers about the Lord's return, and they were waiting for his Son from heaven. And in every chapter of these five chapters of 1 Thessalonians, you have some mention made of the Lord's return.

So that he taught them not only the evangelical message of the gospel, but the dispensational truth of Christ's return when the age of grace that we are in now should end. But mind you, he didn't only teach evangelical truth and dispensational truth, Paul taught them practical truth.

And that was very essential. It's all right getting saved, it's all right having one eye on the cross, and it's all right having the other eye on the coming, it's all right embracing Christ and waiting for Christ, but you need to live for Christ in between.

So this is the chapter where he's outlining practical things, practical things. That's the way a good preacher preaches. Teach the gospel and get them saved. And teach them the dispensation. And you can go on to devotional truth too.

And you need doctrinal. But very essential, you need to touch continually practical truth. You've examined how I've conducted this class, you'll find that's how I've conducted it. For months I took you through the teaching of the cross.

Twenty-two weeks we spent examining the message of the cross, the meaning of the cross. That was evangelical. Then I spent ten or eleven weeks on the high priest's garments. That was devotional. Perhaps that's the side of things that I like most, but I'm not allowed to do all with what I like.

Devotional truth is very rich and wonderful. It fills your soul. And then I spent weeks on looking into the future, you remember. Twenty-six weeks on looking into the future. That was dispensational truth.

And these past nights we've been touching very practical things, and we're getting into the depths of practical truth just now, in the first twelve verses of this chapter. Look at verse one. Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us, how ye ought to walk and to please God.

Now that's very practical, isn't it? You see, when Paul fixed the gospel and they got saved, Paul taught them how they ought to walk and to please God. That's very essential for young believers. You know, you don't make a decision, or put your hand up, or sign a card, or do whatever you may do, and then do what you like afterwards.

Because if you do, you've only got an empty profession, son. And it's time you were saved. Men who embrace Christ have got life, and life must have a note, a note to put. It must really it. My, when men get saved, they long to walk, so as to please God.

Paul was teaching these young believers how they ought to walk and to please God. And we get into this here, verse two, for ye know what commandments we gave you. You see, when Paul was teaching these young believers to walk, my, he laid down a lot of commandments.

He wasn't putting them under law again, you know, not a bit of it. Oh, no. He was teaching them the teachings of grace. You see, this New Testament is full of teachings of grace. And every commandment in the epistles can only be kept by you when you're controlled by the Spirit of God.

I'd like you to get the hold of that. Next week when we get to chapter five, there are a whole lot of wonderful wee things all crushed up together, pray without tasting. Well, just you have a go at it on your own strength, do you see?

And you'll fall asleep on your knees if you try it. Rejoice evermore! Have a go at it, do you see, on your own. And you'll not be under too many storms, for you'll not be rejoicing very much. The commandments of the epistles, the teachings of grace, can only be kept by you through the power of the Holy Ghost.

It's not I that lives, but Christ that lives in me. But Paul's going to underline a few things for them here, and I think it's such a wonderful thing how we ought to walk and please God. Virtually, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification.

Sanctification as Separation from Sin

Now, let me be very careful with this. Let me be very honest with it. If I upset something that's in the back of your mind, by bringing you clearly what's on this page, now you take it from the Lord, and don't argue with His word.

There's a lot of people read this phrase, and they read it like this, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, and they put the full stop there. Put the full stop, and that's all they see.

That's all they want to see. That's not what it happens to say here. It doesn't happen to say any such thing. And don't you be putting any full stop there, because I'll tell you what you do if you put a full stop there.

You say this is the will of God, even your sanctification, and you're making sanctification an experience that somebody's got to have. It doesn't put any full stop there. Here's what it does say, for this is the will of God concerning you, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, not ye should abstain from fornication.

You see, this word sanctification has been murdered throughout the land. They make it an experience. Some people say that unless you've got sanctified, in the sense that they try to talk about, well, you're nobody as far as they're concerned.

Well, what you would need to be careful with sanctification, because 1 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 14 says that the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife. Mind you, when you get an unbelieving man sanctified, don't you say he's got the second lesson anyway, or you'll be in a fix if you do.

You'll just be in a fix, that's all. Now, we would need to be honest and careful with this thing. Sanctification is brought before you in this book in quite a variety of ways. When we come to 2 Thessalonians, just have a look at it for a moment, and the second chapter, and if the Lord tarries, that'll be a wonderful chapter.

But here's one of the most wonderful verses in your Bible, verse 13. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. That was the Thessalonians that he pointed to the Lord.

Because God has, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. If I ask any young believer how God wrought out salvation in their life, tell me what comes first.

Sanctification and belief of the truth. Sanctification of the spirit comes first, not second. Look, I preached to this place on Sunday night when it was jammed to its utmost. We were at our limit on Sunday, we had to bring in form.

And out of all the hundreds of people that were here, when the message was sundered over, they all went away but one. One young woman stayed behind in the faith. You know, when she came to me and looked up into my face and said, Mr. Moulton, I want to get saved.

You know, some power had taken her out of the giddy thong. That was sanctification of the spirit. It was the Spirit of God, through the message of God, that had taken her out of the giddy thong. What did she need now?

Belief of the truth. That's what I led her to, the truth as it is in Christ. And then I could say when she had trusted the Lord, the Lord hath chosen you from the beginning onto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.

Sanctification of the spirit's not a second blessing, it's the first one you ever had before you were saved at all. The Spirit of God lays hold on people and brings them out in its belief of the truth to me.

That's what I call initial sanctification. And that's what I long for, to see the Spirit of God dealing with people. When we were preaching at Lisbon, a postman went out of the meeting and only got halfway up Long Stone Road, a street, and then stopped in the footpath and cried.

He could neither go on nor go back, for at that second he was at a door of a believer. He didn't know the man, but he knew this man was saved. He knocked at the door. What made him knock at the door? What made him cry?

What made him stop? The Spirit of God, what do you think? What did he need? Belief of the truth. And so you get saved. And unless the Spirit of God takes hold of you and somebody leads you to the truth that it isn't Jesus, you'll never know a thing about salvation.

Now that's initial sanctification. Here's sanctification in a different sense. Look up Hebrews chapter 10. I mustn't butter this up too long. Hebrews chapter 10, just to get the sense, verse 7. Then said I, Lord, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, God.

Remember how I read that to you on one occasion as another translation. Jesus came into the world, he said, I come to do thy will as it is written in the book concerning me. And he came to keep everything that was in the book concerning him.

Now verse 10, by the which will, God's will, we, that is we believers, are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, one for all. Are we? Are we sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all?

Let God will. You see, this word sanctification simply means at all times separation. The word sanctify means to set apart. Sanctification means separation. You see, when the Spirit takes hold of an unsaved man and brings him out of the clouds, he's being separated from the giddy throng.

That's sanctification of the Spirit. When a man trusts the Saviour through the sacrifice of Calvary, the body of Jesus, given on the cross once for all, he's set apart for God, for all eternity. Now that's sacrificial sanctification.

You have initial, that's by the Spirit. You have sacrificial, that's by the cross. Ah, but you have practical sanctification in the book too. That's what Paul's up back here, practical sanctification.

Now watch it now, do you see? First Thessalonians, chapter four, and verse three. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification not ye should abstain from fornication. You know, the first thing that he was trying to inoculate into these young believers is this.

You fellows who have trusted Christ must be separated from every form of fornication. You know, that may not sound very much to us tonight, but it sounded a lot to them then. You know, they were living in a pagan world, and immoral living, and sexual impurity meant very little to them.

Why, they just treated a woman like a beast. And I heard Dr. Billy Greene saying the other night that New York wasn't very far behind Sodom and Gomorrah. And I would think he was telling me as a father.

And the great truth that he was inoculating these young believers with is this, that now you've trusted Christ, you can't play about with immoral and sexual things. You must be separated from fornication.

This is the will of God, your separation from fornication. That's what he was talking to them about. He wasn't making them experienced out of anything. He was just saying, you know, you stop this sexual, the moral living that you've been brought up in, and you stand out now as a separated, purified, peculiar person.

And he goes on with it. Watch him. Therefore, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and love. Dr. Bollinger puts that more clearly. He reads it like this, that every one of you should know how to possess his body.

You know, now you're saved, your body becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost. He said, you know, this sexual, immoral impureness is carried on with your body. But you're to be separated from fornication, and you're to get to know how to possess your body in a separated and honorable way.

That's great proof, you know. You see, these are things that he had told them when he was there. I think perhaps he had taught them the truth that he taught the Galatians, that if you walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Let me tell you, if sexuality is your great temptation, you'll never overcome it, young man, by making up your mind. It may be obnoxious to you, and it may be something that makes you blush. It may be something that's so horrible that you're fed up with it completely.

But let me tell you a wee secret, you'll never get rid of it by making up your mind. You'll only get rich, my young woman, young man, by being controlled by the Spirit of God, and no other way. And if you're led by the Spirit, see what this book teaches, ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Don't want to butter that up too much, if you think at all. You ought to learn how to possess your body in a separated and honorable fashion before God. There's five, not in the lusts of controversies, even of the Gentiles, which know not God.

It's said you're not to be gripped by the lusts of impurity, like these Gentile pagans and heathens around you that don't know God. You're different now. That no man should go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter.

Now you'll notice the word any is in italics, and some of the greater Greek scholars believe this, that it would have been far better if they'd have put this matter in there, because I think it's on the same subject.

You'll find the answer even when we go to the next verse. It says don't go beyond and defraud your brother in this matter. You can't fool around with your brother's wife, you know. That's what it's talking about.

But you know, you believers, you've got to learn these things. You've got to learn that you're to be separated from fornication. You've got to learn how to possess your body. You've got to recognize the brotherhood of believers.

Mind you, this is something I think sometimes even in this day and hour we forget. We forget sometimes that all sins don't only grieve the Holy Ghost and clump all possibilities, but they hurt somebody else.

Remember young man, you're very careful about letting your sexual appetites get loose. You can hurt somebody else. I'm talking to my own children, you're not. You just be careful, dear. Maybe I'm telling you something your father would like to tell you.

Well, you take it from the platform. Remember that you can wreck and blast and break the character of a child of God, and if you do, God will avenge that child. That's something you need to know. You'll not get off with it.

My, if you just think that you can do what you like with the children of God, you'll very soon find out you can't. For God is the avenger of all such. You see the things he's underlining? Are you watching these paddings?

There's to be a separation from fornication, there's to be a possession of the vessel, there's to be a realization of the brotherhood. And then he goes on to the next verse,. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

The word holiness is just the exact same word as sanctification. Holiness and sanctification just means separation. God has called us unto a separated life from all the unclean things. That conviction should be upon every belief.

Because you know, you should know how to possess your body. You should know how to live separated from this thing. You should remember that a child of God may be going to be hurt here. You should remember your conviction of your cause should be upon you.

God has called you children to holiness, not uncleanness. Tremendous, you know, what he said to young believers. And then he goes on still further, He therefore that despises us. Despises what? Despises the teaching that I'm underlining now.

He therefore that despises, despises not man, but God, who hath given unto us his Holy Spirit. You see, that's how I know that the subject was right on down through there. Well, this is a wonderful thing.

He's talking to young believers who've only been saved a few months back. You remember he got hunted out of Thessalonica. You remember how he came down to Berea, came on to Athens, and now he's at Clarence and he's writing back, and it's only a few months past since these believers got saved.

But remember this, the Holy Ghost was in them. What this is, God has given his Holy Spirit on the rocks. Aye, there were only young believers, but they were indwelt with the Spirit of God. But you know, we should recognize that this body that lust wants to take and hold the helm off the way it did with Samson, we should recognize that it's the temple of the Holy Ghost.

It was good teaching, wasn't it? It was very wonderfully put, that you just were separated from fornication. You learn how to possess your body. You realize what brotherhood means. You get the conviction of your cause.

You recognize that the Holy Ghost indwells you. Then he goes on, on to a different line of faith. But, you can always get these very easily if you want, but, but, but a touching brotherly love, you have no need that I write on to you, for yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

Brotherly Love and Minding One's Own Business

You see, this is very practical. We are to love one another. Mind you, that doesn't mean to say that we must put up with one another. No, it doesn't. And it doesn't mean to say that we just close our eyes and just get along as best we can with one's suffering.

No, it doesn't. It means exactly what we are to love one another. But mind you, the believers don't. Why have you had them tittle-tattling, you know, behind each other's backs? They pull somebody to pieces.

Then when you want the facts, you can't get them. You see, I never listen to tittle-tattle. If you come round to me with a yarn, I want facts. And I want you to stand behind the facts. And then I'll go and see who you're talking about.

And usually when I start to do that, nobody wants to do it. The man stops talking. Try loving for a change. That poor lass that's got such a nature that she's a problem, would you try to love her? No, you would rather ridicule her, wouldn't you?

Or that fellow, you know, that just doesn't fit into the niche, who's sort of awkward in everything. Would you try loving him? That doesn't mean you're to be soft, you know. Paul loved Peter, but he told him off when he needed him.

And I would tell you off if you needed me. Because I would still love you. I'd be trying to help you. But when I've done all that I do, you know, I'm just a man. And now and again I make mistakes. And you would need to love me too.

We'll not go on with that very much further. There should be enough action for the saints. Here's a wonderful one. Verse 10 is connected with verse 9, and we needn't trouble with it. Verse 11, that ye study to be quiet and to do your own business.

Isn't that wonderful? You see that word study, it's a very wonderful Greek word. It's the word ambition. It's the Greek word ambition. And here's what Paul's saying to them, you know, this should be the ambition of your life.

To shut your mouth. I think the only time that some of you have this ambition is in the prayer meeting. Just when you should open it. For if you talk to God a bit more, you talk a bit less about others.

This is written on the page of God's Word for our edification tonight, not for our amusement. God's saying to you, son, study. To shut your mouth and to mind your own business. And mind you, it's good exhortation.

Good to God, that was the ambition of our souls. That we would keep our mouths shut and mind our own business. You remember what David said when Saul was framed? Why, Saul was his enemy. Is that what he said?

Don't call it in last, don't call it. He's quiet. Why, when a believer tumbles and rolls over, how they all get going. Their tongue is wagging. They would love to publish it in the paper. When you should be studying, to be quiet and mind your own business.

Great reward, isn't it? Without practical Christianity, no. Learn to possess your body. Learn to love your brother. Learn to shut your mouth and mind your own business. That's good, isn't it? My Paul could preach, couldn't he?

He could really wrap it up, couldn't he? I mostly underline the things he did. Then he goes on a little bit further, in verse 12 he says, that ye may walk honestly toward them that are with us. My, that's a lovely conclusion to the whole thing.

Are you looking at the notes now? Here they are. A separation from fornication. A possession of the vessel. A realization of brotherhood. A conviction of the call. A recognition of the Spirit. An affection for the saints.

An ambition for the soul. And if you do all that, you'll be an exhibition to the world. My, the man that can control his body, and the man that loves his brother, and the man that can control his tongue and mind his own business.

He'll be an exhibition for the world. Let me say you'll never do any of these unless you're indwelt and sold and controlled continually by the Spirit of God. But it was wonderful practical teaching, wasn't it?

These are the practical results of Christianity that Paul looked for. Now we come to the second part of this wonderful chapter. The personal return of Christ. Verse 13, But I would not have you to be ignorant, Brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you saw them not, even as others which have no hope.

The Hope of Christ’s Return and the Resurrection of Believers

You see, Paul's underlining their ignorance here. I want you to get the hold of the scene. Paul went to Thessalonica and preached the gospel, and a multitude of Greeks turned to God from idols. Then Paul got hunted down to Berea, and on to Athens, and then to Cones, and a few months had taken place.

And in these few months, some of the saints that had trusted the Lord at Thessalonica had fallen asleep in grief. They had died. And you know, these other fellows standing round them, laying them in the graves, they're all worried about it.

Paul told us the Lord was coming, for these fellows have missed the coming, and they were sorrowing with a deep sorrow. He said, You're ignorant, my dear, ignorant. There's something you don't know. He's underlining their ignorance.

He said, You're sorrowing like others that have no hope at all. You're as bad as a heathen now standing at a grave. So first of all, he underlines their ignorance. And then he gives them an assurance from two angles, and I want you to watch it.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, let me stop there just for a moment. Mind you, if you don't believe that Jesus died and rose again, you're not saved. I want you to get that bit clear.

You see, I believe that a man gets saved like this. The Holy Ghost comes upon him and makes him to realize that he's a deep-dived, desperate sinner without God and without hope. And in that hour of being burdened by the Spirit of God, he's led to the cross.

And the revelation comes to his mind that Jesus died for him. And you know, it's a great moment when you stand before the old blood-stained, rugged cross of Calvary, and you look at the Son of God, and you believe, He died for you.

And you say, I believe He died for me. I'm perfectly sure about it. I haven't once ever in my soul, if there wasn't another soul in the world to stand before yon cross, I could stand there. And I know God's Son died for me.

I'm sure of that. But mind you, I'm sure of something else. I'm sure that He not only died for me, but that He rose again. You see, I believe in the sacrificial work of the cross. I believe. But I've also received a living Saviour of mine.

But I believe you get saved by believing and receiving. You believe the sacrificial work, and you receive the living Christ. Tell me, is that what you've done? Because I believe in the finished work, and I have received the living Christ.

And to as many as received Him, for them to give me power to become the sons of God. So you get saved. And if you don't believe that He died and rose again, you're not saved. You can go through all the ritual of all the traction.

From you're a baby till you're an old man. And if you don't believe in the finished work and receive personally and experimentally the living Saviour, then you'll die and go to hell. How could you get saved without the faith?

So he's putting it up to you. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with them. Here's another way that that verse is written in one of the old translations.

If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also that them which sleep may come out of the grave with Him through the power of God. Now that's the idea. You see, I wanted to get the hold of this, that the sacrificial work and the glorious resurrection of young Christ doesn't only save and secure living saints, it saves and secures dead ones.

I'm an adult. My every body of every saint that's in the dust is as safe as God can make it. Is as God can make it. That work covers them too. For when Jesus Christ went into the realm of death and defeated him who had the power of death and rose triumphant over the grave, you know, he became the first fruit of all his people.

He's conquered the grave for us. You know, he didn't only die to satisfy God, and he didn't only rise to be a living Savior for me, but he triumphed over the grave and death so that every enemy has been dealt with.

When he has finished the grave, we have no fears about it. They may put me in a box one day and throw soil on my head, but that will not be the end of it. Jesus Christ will see to that. I'll come out of it.

Don't worry. I'll come out because he came out. That also, souls also got them which sleep in him, so I'll come out with them through the power of God. Now, just let me go back to Mark's gospel for a moment or two, way near the end of the gospel.

27. Mark chapter 27. Now watch this. Verse 50. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, seated up the coast, and behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints, I want you to watch the word saints, I believe, which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection.

You see, when Jesus rose, he brought a whole lot of bodies out along with him. Didn't he? You see, some of those saints had been sleeping there for a long time. But on that glorious, wonderful resurrection morning, many of the bodies of saints that slept arose and came out with him.

And you know, when he ascended up, they went up with him. And when he went in, they went in with him. You see, you can look at all the angels and say, you know, I'll finish the whole job like that there.

There's a cloud of them down there carrying on the work yet. But when I've got the job finished, they'll all be like that. That was the first proof of the glorious resurrection. That was just the corner of the harvest field.

But one day you'll reap it all, and we'll all go in perfectly like him. Listen, brother, not only do you believe that Jesus died and rose again, you can be perfectly sure that them that sleep in Jesus, God will bring out in the same way as Christ came out.

So that he was giving them, first of all, assurance about these saints that were sleeping from the resurrection of Christ. Ah, Paul didn't leave it there, you know. What's this? That's the key. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord.

You know, Paul was going to give these ignorant Thessalonians assurance, first of all, from the resurrection of Christ, then from the word of the Lord. It's always good to base everything on the word of the Lord.

It says, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. Now, it's very unfortunate that that word prevent has lost its old, its old meaning.

In the early days, that word had this meaning. It meant to go before. We which are alive and remain shall not go before them which are asleep. The word prevent tonight just means tender, but in its early English sense, it meant to go before.

Someday you'll be reading the Psalms, and you'll come upon this phrase, the Psalmist said, I prevented the dawning of the morning with my breath. Do you think that it meant that he prevented the sun from rising, from praying?

No, it meant that he was up before the sun was up to pray. He went before the sun. And here's Paul giving them the word of the Lord. As sure as Christ come out, these things will come out, and here's the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain will not go before them.

So when you meet and stand and weep around the grave, he said, do you see the body that's a way down in there? When you see the coffin of a saint going down, and you see it touching the bottom of the grave, you can know that that body is nearer meeting the Lord than you are.

He said, for you'll not go before us. We don't worry about them. They'll be away first. Don't you worry about them. I haven't lost anything. What a wonderful word to bring to these sorrowing saints. Now, when he had touched or underlined their ignorance, and he had given them this assurance from two angles, from the resurrection of the Lord and the word of the Lord, then he teaches them the appearance of the Lord.

The Lord Himself Descends from Heaven

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. Boy, that's a great phrase. That's truth, you know. I like this emphatic pronoun that he uses. It would be perfectly good English to say, the Lord shall descend from heaven.