Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3

Chapter 4:1-3 topic is the will of God and sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 1-3. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. “Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication.”

And we talked about the last couple of weeks about how that’s kind of a transition point to the second half of the book which we start today. We talked last week about the perseverance of the saints talking about Paul’s prayer that God would cause them to abound in love one toward the other and of chapter 3 to them he may establish your hearts growing together in love in order that you might establish your hearts.

Leon Morris in commenting on that verse that we talked about last week and the relationship of love to this says this: “Paul’s thought is that the whole personality of man can be established, strengthened, settled, given a sure confidence only when there is a basis of abundant love.” See, he says he prays the end of chapter 3, you might abound in love then you might establish your heart. Heart means this whole personality all of man.

Morris goes on to say: “If the center of a man’s life is himself, then at best he will have an element of weakness and instability. But where he has learned to love the Lord his God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself then he has a firm foundation for life.” We’ll be returning to this concept of the importance of love for the brother as we go through the second half of this book.

But perseverance means that we persevere in the will of God over the course of our lives. Even though we may for a period of time live in rebellion against God, still the true saint will persevere. God’s grace causes that to happen. God’s persistence as it were causes us to persevere in the faith.

We tried to give a little corrective last week in terms of perseverance. We said that the actually the root meaning of the word perseverance from the Latin through the French means to persist in a purpose. To persist in a purpose. And what we said last week is that certainly one of the purposes that Paul alludes to in first Thessalonians is to be able to escape the wrath to come. Remember the Jews did not escape the wrath to come because they didn’t fill up their love. They filled up the cup of their wrath by filling up their sins as mentioned in chapter 2.

So regardless of which coming is spoken of at the end of chapter 3, what we said is that perseverance means that in spite of whatever judgment we see in the future, whether it was AD 70 then, whether it’s the judgment of God upon an apostate nation here in America in the next 20 years or 100 years, or whether it’s the final consummate judgment, the perseverance of the saints in holiness, their growth in holiness, which we’ll talk about today, certainly redounds to their being saved from destruction. The scriptures say the evil ones can’t touch us.

But we said more than that, this perseverance that keeps us from the wrath to come is for a positive purpose. And that is the establishment of the saints. The judgment of God, his coming comes to establish the saints as well as to judge the wicked. And we persist, we persevere in that purpose. And so there is a postmillennial cast or an optimistic eschatological cast to the whole doctrine of perseverance.

Now in today’s text, we move to another basic doctrine of the faith and that is sanctification. And in somewhat the same way that we said last week that the basic thrust of the end of chapter 3 is motivational and preparatory for the last section of the book which is the section of exhortation or commands. In the first section of the book, chapters 1 through three were essentially narrative, although there were commands and encouragements given in the context of that.

So, this afternoon’s talk on the will of God and sanctification is also somewhat preparatory for consideration of the rest of this epistle. Next week, we’ll talk about holiness as it’s related to the marital relationship, particularly to sexual relations. Holiness. After that, we’ll talk about the holiness in business relationships in verses 8 through 10 of this fourth chapter and then we’ll talk about holiness in everyday life and then we’ll go into a doctrinal section of chapter 4 dealing with the second coming and those who are departed in the Lord and what that means.

So we’ll begin a series of very practical exhortations that Paul gives them beginning next week in terms of sexual relations. And we’ll go on then and you’ll see if you read through chapter 5 in the next week that there are a number of exhortations toward the end of chapter 5 that are specific very practical applications of what he is preparing them for here and that is how to live a holy life. He talks for instance about how to help the weak. He tells them to encourage the fainthearted. He tells them to admonish the unruly.

He says that they should live at peace with one another. They should be patient with all men. They should seek the good and they should evaluate all things. And we’ll spend weeks on each one of these short exhortations of Paul. We have about I would guess 15 or 20 sermons left in this book. And the bulk of those will be very practical oriented.

But this section today, these first three verses sets the stage for all that in this transition material by talking about the will of God which is their sanctification. Paul says that as he has exhorted you by the Lord Jesus as you should walk continue to walk in that way that you might abound in your walk of faithfulness. And then he says in verse two, you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. This is the will of God even your sanctification. And then next week we’ll talk about the implications of the word fornication in the second half of that verse.

So we’re going to talk about sanctification this afternoon. Very important doctrine of the faith and we’re going to spend some time on that. Berkhof in his systematic theology defines sanctification and this is somewhat some introductory material before we get into the heart of the outline. Berkhof said that sanctification is that gracious and continuous operation of the Holy Spirit by which he delivers the justified sinner from the pollution of sin, renews his whole nature in the image of God and enables him to perform good works.

And you’ll see there he said there were three things. Deliver us from the pollution of sin, renew your whole nature, the image of God and enable us to perform good works. Sanctification itself, the word means to set apart or to consecrate to a particular purpose. And so we are to be set apart increasingly in our lives for the purpose of obeying God. Essentially, it means determining all things and the basis of our relationship to God. How it undergirds all the decisions in our life or is to do that.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, which we read last week on perseverance, we’ll read chapter 13 of the confession this week on sanctification. And we’ll be reviewing this in some detail so you don’t have to try to catch it all here. This, as you know, the confession is like it’s like fruitcake, you know, it’s just really jam-packed full of all kinds of things and there are frequent allusions to the scriptures in the very language that the Westminster divines used.

Chapter 13 on sanctification says the following: “They who are once effectually called and regenerated having a new heart and a new spirit created in them are further sanctified really and personally through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection.” Now that’s a very important theme which we’ll return to. We are sanctified through Christ’s death and resurrection by his word. We’ll return to that later and spirit dwelling in them. We’ll return to that as well.

“By all these things, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified, and they more and more are quickened and strengthened, and all saving graces to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” That’s a direct quote from scripture. Without holiness, no man will see the Lord.

“This sanctification is throughout. This is the second part of the definition. This sanctification is throughout in the whole man yet imperfect in this life there abiding still some remnants of corruption in every part whence ariseth the continual and irreconcilable war the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and here in the doctrine of sanctification they again are guarding against the heresy of perfectionism that somehow we can be perfect in this life and that the end result of sanctification is you reach a particular plateau in your spiritual life where you no longer sin they’re saying no that doesn’t happen there always is some degree of warfare between the spirit and the flesh.

“Third section, in which war, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, yet through the constant supply of strengthening from the sanctifying spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome. And so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” And that’s essentially a good summary definition of sanctification as well. We grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Again, a direct allusion to the scripture. In the catechism that the Westminster divines created for the purpose of the reformed church at the in the 1600s and following we read: “What is sanctification?” This is question 75 of the larger catechism. “Sanctification is a work of God’s grace whereby they whom God hath before the foundation of the world chosen to be holy are in time through the powerful operation of his spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them renewed in their whole man after the image of God, having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces put into their hearts.

Put into their hearts. And those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened as that they more and more die into sin and rise unto newness of life.” You see the resurrection death language? They die into sin and they rise into newness of life.

Relation or another question of the catechism, question number 77, they talk about the relationship of sanctification and justification, saying this: “Although sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ in that God in justification imputeth the righteousness of Christ, in sanctification his spirit infuseth grace, and enableth to the exercise thereof. In the former, sin is pardoned. In the other, it is subdued. The one does equally free all believers from the avenging wrath of God and that perfectly in this life that they never fall into condemnation.

The other is neither equal in all nor in this life perfect in any but growing up to perfection.” And so there’s the relationship between the two. Justification fully puts us at peace with God and his condemning wrath is no longer upon us. But sanctification is a process whereby we grow in grace.

Now the scriptures, several scripture references on your outline of this first point basically talk about what sanctification is. This term is used in three places in first Thessalonians. Well, we’ll see. We’ll start in Job. Let’s see. Yeah, there are pictures of sanctification given in the Old Testament. For instance, in Job 17:9, “The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.” Last week, we read a responsive reading in the Psalms about going from strength to strength. And the righteous is getting coming stronger and stronger.

That’s a picture of sanctification of growth in grace. Psalm 92:14, “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.” In old age, Jesus says he gives us fruit that our fruit is to abound more and more and we will still be bringing forth fruit in old age. The sanctification process doesn’t stop at age 55. It continues into old age. “They shall be fat and flourishing.” Proverbs 4:18, “The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

So the picture of sanctification there is an increasing light and believers lives should become more and more reflecting the light of the sun the Son of God that is as the moon reflects the rays of the sun. John 15:2 our savior said: “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit what does he do? He purges it. He prunes it. Why? That it may bring forth more fruit.”

These are all pictures from nature of growing sanctification or strength that God gives us. This is the process of being perfected in holiness. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3 verse three, we read: “This is the will of God even your sanctification.” And verse four goes on to say: “That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.” As we said, we’ll talk about that next week. It relates to the sexual relationship. And then in verse 7, “For God not call us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”

The word holiness there is the same word as sanctification. And so many times you’ll see the word holiness and sanctification. Many times they’re the same actual word in the Greek. So we grow in holiness and the process is referred to as sanctification. As we said, Hebrews 12:14 says that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. It is a very important part of the Christian life.

Perhaps one of the good summary statements of what this actually means in the life of the believer is found in Romans 6:19. He says: “As you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.” And that word holiness there is sanctification. So increasingly believers take whatever they have in this life and see it as consecrated to the person of God for his service and they grow in that work.

We talked about this aspect of resurrection and the importance of Jesus’s death in this process. We read in Hebrews 10:29: “How much sorer or punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trod underfoot the Son of God and has counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing.” So we read in Hebrews 10 that the blood of the covenant is what we were sanctified with.

Again, in Hebrews 13:12: “Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate outside of the city.” And so the blood of Jesus Christ, his death and his atonement are very essential aspect of the sanctification process.

John Murray in his book Principles of Conduct quoted by Greg Bahnsen in Theonomy and Christian Ethics talks about this relationship of the death and resurrection of Christ to the growing mortification of the flesh and sanctification of what we do in a positive sense toward God. Murray says this: “This is why the resurrection of Christ is the dynamic of the biblical ethic. The resurrected Lord is lifegiving spirit and therefore communicates life to those who are in him. The scriptures tell us in other places than parenthetically here that it’s the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus up and Jesus becomes then in the words of scripture a lifegiving spirit and Murray says that therefore he communicates life to those who are in him.”

Quoting Murray again: “This is but another way of saying that the dynamic of the biblical ethic is the Holy Spirit as the spirit of Christ sent forth in accordance with the promise of the father. It is scarcely necessary to draw attention to the relation which the Holy Spirit sustains to ethical life. It is only they who are after the spirit, who have the mind of the spirit, who are in the spirit, who are indwelt by the spirit of God and have the spirit of Christ, who are able to do that which is well pleasing to God.”

And that is really essentially another summary definition of sanctification. Doing those things that are well pleasing to God. Well, that’s what this text is all about.

One final aspect of introduction on the concept of sanctification. There is a definitive sense of sanctification as well as progressive sense. And what I mean by that definitively, we have been sanctified past tense. We read in 1 Corinthians 1:2 that “to those that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints.”

Okay, past tense. Again, in 1 Corinthians 6:11: “It says that we were many of us were wicked sinners, but ye were washed. Ye were sanctified. Ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.” So once for all definitively, we have been sanctified in the Lord Jesus and set apart or consecrated for God’s purpose. But additionally, there is a progressive element to that sanctification. Many of the verses we just read speak to that, but a couple of other verses would help as well.

Ephesians 5:26 says: “That Christ will sanctify and cleanse the church with the washing of water by the word,” indicating a process whereby the body institutionally and each one of us individually are washed with the word and cleansed definitively.

1 Thessalonians 5:23: “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly.” In other words, progressively more and more may all of your life become sanctified, set apart from uncleanness and sin, and consecrated to the purposes of God.

A picture of this in the Old Testament priestly rite was the priest had to be washed before he could minister in the temple, cleansed, but then he also put on wondrous garments. And those garments are spoken of later in the book of Revelation as the righteousness of the saints. We’ll return to that in a little while. The point being that has this two-fold aspect of sanctification which is seen in the death and resurrection of Christ.

Sanctification is seeing ourselves as dead to sin and alive to Christ. We mortify the desires of the flesh that are opposed to God and we increasingly give obedience unto those things that honor and glorify God and consecrate more and more of life to his particular to his calling and to his purpose.

Murray in his definition of definitive sanctification said: “Union with Christ is the pivot on which the doctrine turns specifically union with him in the meaning of his death and the power of his resurrection.”

Speaking of the believer’s progressive sanctification, Murray said: “The believer’s life must be one of progression, a progression both negative and positive, consisting thus in both mortification and sanctification.” Okay, that by way of introduction to the concept of sanctification.

And now let’s look at the specific exhortation to sanctification that’s given by Paul and some of the implications from it.

Verse one of our text 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul says: “We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.”

Here Paul exhorts the Thessalonian believers and those who had read this epistle throughout the generations including us as we read it. He exhorts us to please God and to sanctification. Notice first of all the nature of this exhortation. We beseech you. Beseech is a term of request. We ask you. In other words, notice that he addresses them as brethren, an affectionate, endearing term, a term of brother to brother. Okay? Not stressing his superiority to them, stressing his equality as brothers with them.

Then he says: “We exhort you also by the Lord Jesus.” A literal translation of this is found in Neil’s commentary. And he said essentially this verse could be translated more literally this way: “Finally, then brothers, we beg and beseech you in the Lord Jesus that as you have received instruction from us how you ought to live so as to please God and indeed you are so living that you increase in it more and more.”

So that first section here finally then brothers we beg and beseech you in the Lord Jesus. He treated them with affection. He encouraged them he exhorted them but he also requested of them. Now finally he adds in the Lord Jesus we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus.

Ronald Ward summing these three aspects up says that challenge, persuasion, and authority are all combined in Paul’s exhortation to the believer’s sanctification that they grow in grace, challenge, persuasion, and authority.

Now, I only pause there and bring those elements out because I think I’ve mentioned this before, but that is a very good model for us. First, in the terms of how we raise our children, second, in terms of how we encourage and exhort those in our extended family and our friends. And then third, if you’re involved in any kind of in-depth counseling situation where you’re trying to help another believer move through a particular problem, sin that he has, these are three important elements of Paul’s exhortation.

As we looked at Paul’s prayer a couple of weeks ago as a model for our prayer, so we should look at his exhortation to sanctification as a model for how we’re to counsel as well. We must challenge and exhort by the word of God. But we must also use persuasion. We must be endeared to those who are in the faith and see them as brothers and sisters in the Lord and make requests of them. But we also want to speak when there are specific matters the word of God speaks to with the authority, not our own authority, but the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s what Paul’s exhortation had in it. Those things.

Notice also the besides the nature of the exhortation and the authority for the exhortation, notice the content of the exhortation in a phrase here. Paul puts a phrase essentially equated with sanctification. He asked them to walk increasingly pleasing to the Lord. He says specifically in verse one again: “As you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.”

You’ve done good. Abound more and more in the way you ought to walk to please God.

Lensky in his commentary says this is the only question really that Christians should have. How must we walk to please God. Now, this implies a couple of things. First, it implies our entire walk, all we do in all things. And implies also of being able to please God. I those of us who have children, our children should be taught that one of their prime calling in life, this is their only question too. How should they walk? What should they do in order to please God?

Now, look at the connotation that puts that puts on it. That word please. He could have used word the word there to obey God. And certainly there’s a time when that word is appropriate and good for us to use. But he uses specifically a word here to please God.

Now, it’s very important, I think, when our children do something for us and they try to please us, it’s important that we recognize what joy they take in our pleasure in their works. One of my daughters gave us a anniversary present yesterday, and she did it specifically to please us. And when we’re pleased with those sorts of actions, that’s very comforting to them and it brings them a great deal of joy. And what we want to get our children to see is that they should learn to please God in that same way. And that God takes the same kind of delight and pleasure in them and in their sanctification and their growth and grace that their parents do and the acts that they’ve done to please them.

I mean, it implies a lot of things about the relationship between the believer and God. A very close relationship is implied here. God taking pleasure in those whom he has brought into existence for this very term. “For thy pleasure they are and were created” is what we read in the book of Revelation.

Now Paul himself had already told them used the same word and I point this out again. You’ve seen this several times now as we move along in this epistle that he kind of put forward a good example and a bad example to them in the past. In this narration section that preceded this exhortation section, he told them in verse four that the pleasing of God was his motivation for all that he and the rest of his company did. He said: “We didn’t walk so as to please men. We walked so as to please God.” That was our motivation.

On the other hand, he said in verse 15 that the Jews who sought to stay the gospel and to derail the gospel train, so to speak, that those Jews do not please God and as a result they have filled up their cup of wrath and they suffer wrath to the uttermost because they don’t walk in a manner pleasing to God.

So the content of Paul’s exhortation is that we might walk increasingly in a measure that pleases God. Matthew Henry commenting on this verse says that faith without knowledge without works is dead excuse me so without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. Knowledge without works is dead. Also, he tells them they must abound and continue to walk. Matthew Henry says: “The design of the gospel is to teach men not only what they should believe, but also how they ought to live. Not so much to fill men’s minds with notions, but to regulate their temper and behavior.”

The apostle taught them how to walk, not how to talk. To regulate the temper and behavior. We talk about the regulated principle of scripture. And sanctification is the process whereby the scriptures become more and more the regulator, the regulated principle in all that we do and say. That’s increasing sanctification. And that’s what Paul calls him to do. Not simply to walk so as to please God, but to do it increasing, continue to do it in abundant fashion.

He says, as we said, the branches that bear fruit are to bear more fruit. The Thessalonians bore the fruit of faith, hope, and love. And he wants them to abound in these things.

Now, he’s talked before about this abundance. He’s talked about how they’re to abound found in their love one toward another. We read that in chapter 3:12. In verse 10, he again says that you increase more and more in your love toward the brethren. Here he uses a more general term. He doesn’t restrict it to the love of the brethren. He says that they should abound more and more in their walk that pleases God.

Now it’s important thing to recognize that this abounding is only possible because God and his grace causes his grace to abound to us in the scriptures because his grace then abounds to us and so then our grace as well our manifestation of that grace abounds as well in 2 Corinthians 9:8 we read this: “God is able to make all grace abound toward you,” that’s this particular word, it bubbles over as it were, “that you also that you always having a sufficiency in all things may abound to do every good work.”

So he causes his grace to abound to us so that our works and our walk may abound as well.

Okay, turn to Zechariah 14:20 and 21 and we’ll try to relate what we’ve just said specifically to the concept of progressive sanctification. Zechariah 14:20 and 21, one of the minor prophets just before Malachi, just before Matthew, the end of the Old Testament, Zechariah 14:20 and 21 speaking of the last days and the coming fulfillment of all things in the Messiah he says in verse 20:

“In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yay, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein, and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.”

Now, this is a pretty well-known passage from the Old Testament picturing the great fruition of things, the coming of the Lord Jesus. And it is very important as a picture for us of sanctification and holiness.

What he does here is he uses common elements, the bells of the horses, the little bells that would let one should know where the horse had strayed away and got lost. It says that even the horses shall have upon them holiness unto the Lord. That phrase was the phrase inscribed upon the mitre of the high priest. He was emblazed with that slogan as it were holiness unto the Lord. And he talks here about the pots of the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.

The bowls before the altar were the bowls that caught the blood. And they were in as you went into the Holy of Holies. As you went through the temple, you became increasingly aware of the consecration of all things to God. You’d have silver stuff out here. And as you moved toward the interior, things would get more and more gold. In fact, as you went from the tabernacle, which was the place of God’s resting place or God’s dwelling place while they were in transition to the land into the temple, you saw this elevation up of consecration as well. Silver things became gold, gold things became very fine gold. And so this increase in consecration.

Well, what he’s saying here is kind of the reverse. He’s saying that the Holy of Holies where the priest would go in and the holiness to the Lord that is put upon his head picturing the great priest to come Jesus Christ, the bells of the horses will be seen in that same sense. And the bowls that caught the blood that were close to as were the sacrificial system, the pots in which the sacrifices were served, they would be as holy as those bowls.

And he goes on in verse 21, he says: “Every pot in Jerusalem will be that sort of holiness. And what he’s describing here is a time when everything is consecrated in a very visual emphatic sense in the life of the people to the purpose of God.

Now, I’ve got some quotes on this that I want to read. Most of these quotes are found in R.J. Rushdoony’s Salvation and Godly Rule where he quotes several other commentators on this particular verse from Zechariah to reinforce to you what I’ve just said.

First, Howe in his commentary on these verses. He says that this verse tells us that in that day there will be a general elevation of everything in sanctity. Even the bells upon the horses will like the plate of gold and the mitre of the high priest have inscribed on them holiness to the Lord. The pots of the sanctuary in which the peace offerings were cooked will be raised to the grade of sanctity of the bowls in which the blood was caught. And the ordinary pots will be raised to the grade of sanctuary pots.

Hengstenberg said: “The meaning therefore is this, in that day the Lord will adorn the horses with the symbol of holiness which has hitherto been born by the high priest alone.” Hengstenberg went on to give an extended commentary about how essentially God had through the historical process as part of that process separated a land a country rather from all the rest of the earth. The holy land one place in it and then the Holy of Holies within at and saw this distinction between the holy and the profane. The term profane means literally outside of the temple. And so it means in that sense things that are done outside the temple are profane. They’re not explicitly consecrated to God.

And essentially Hengstenberg says this occurred so that this sense of holiness would be understood by the people. And then as history moves on as Messiah comes everything then is to is to manifest that degree of sanctification and holiness and that is an essential component of the doctrine of the progressive sanctification of the believer. There is a progressive sanctification Zechariah tells us not simply for the individual believer but for the whole world and the entire created order as well.

Returning now to some comments on this text and now from Leopold’s comment on this text from Zechariah. “One might call this one of the passages that operates on the principle of the old proverb. You recognize the lion from the mere claw. One seemingly trifling incident is recorded in order to indicate that the whole situation must be at this blessed future time. But it must be at this blessed future time when it is said that even such trivial things as bells and the harnesses of horses shall be holy to the Lord and shall bear an inscription to the effect even as the high priest wore a gold band on his official cap with these very words inscribed on it.

That is the equivalent of saying that such a complete state of sanctification or consecration shall mark the life of God’s people that nothing shall be exempt from its all-pervading influence.”

And now to quote Moore, Thomas Moore on his commentary on this passage: “The bells of the horses were those bells that were fastened to them partly for ornaments and partly to make them easily found if they strayed away at night. They were not necessary parts of the harness and trifling in value. When therefore it is said that even they should have the inscription that was engraved on the breastplate to the high priest. This declares the fact that even the most trifling things in the future state of the church should be consecrated to God equally with the highest and holiest. Moore went on to say, ‘All shall be happy because all shall be holy. Sorrow shall cease because sin shall cease. The groaning earth shall be mantled with joy because the trail of the serpent shall be gone. And the Eden of the future makes us cease to look back with longing at the Eden of the past.’

Next, if then a man would have the beginnings of heaven, it must be by the absolute consecration of everything to God on earth. Progressive sanctification is the key to happiness because that’s what God has called us and created us to do this very thing. To bring all things under the authority of Jesus Christ to live every area of our life in terms not of ourselves, nor our children, nor our wives, nor the institutional church ultimately, nor the state, but instead to live all of our lives in terms of God, letting his word regulate all that we have to bring all things under the authority of Jesus Christ.

And so, it’s no wonder that Paul quotes the authority of Christ, not just in verse one, but now as well in verse two where he gives us the means and stresses the means to sanctification. After giving them this encouragement, this exhortation of sanctification, he then in verse two goes on to talk about the means.

This is what we want, right? That picture in Zechariah where everything’s inscribed with holiness to the Lord and we come to the place in our own lives personally and corporately where increasingly everything that we see around us is manifested as consecrated to God. How do we get there? How does this happen? What are the means of our sanctification individually and corporately and then society as well?

What defines the good works that Berkhof in his definition spoke of sanctification? That’s the end of sanctification. Do these good works what are these how are these good works defined? Well, Simeon Stilites, whose dates were 390 to 459 in his interpretation of sanctification, lived on a 66-foot pillar topped with a flat summit 3 feet wide. And on this pillar, he spent 37 years in all kinds of difficult weather. His concept of sanctification was a little unusual. He saw sanctification somehow as a flight away from the world that God had created and the responsibilities he was to exercise toward his brother, toward the family that men are normatively to have, etc.

Well, Paul tells us in verse two what the means of sanctification is to be. He says: “For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.”

He told them in verse one, “We told you various things in Jesus, and we want you to increase and abound in obeying these things. Verse two, you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.”

Now, the word commandment here is a little different word than is normally used for commandments. It’s only used here and in 1 Timothy 1:5 and 18 to refer to commands in the faith. The term is a military term. It was the term used for the head of the army, what he would pass on to the sergeant who would pass on then to the buck private what to do. Those were the commands and that’s what this term means. The term command means that Paul had been given a set of laws by King Jesus. And he had then imparted and passed those laws on to those functionally inferior to him, the privates out in the field, so to speak, or the sergeants in the church at Thessalonica or whatever it is.

We sing this little song in our house during family worship occasionally. I’m in the Lord’s army. Yes, sir. I may never ride in the cavalry, march in the increase, shoot the artillery, but I’m in the Lord’s army. And we are in the Lord’s army. And the Lord’s army is governed not by subjective feelings, not by our own decision on what is holy and what is good and what is proper, but by the commands of the King Jesus, who sits at the top of the rank, sits in heaven as our great King of Kings, and issues forth his law to his army. We walk according to him.

It was a delight to me in the recent commentary which is I do not strongly recommend this commentary by Charles Waker. It’s the New International Greek Testament commentary on 1 and 2 Thessalonians. He’s got some funny things to say in some areas but it was a delight to read what he says about this particular implication of verse two. He says about this he says that Paul maintained the ethical law of Judaism as normative for Christians because as far as he was concerned it remained the will of God. The reason for this is contained in the expression your sanctification. In verse three, Paul understood God to be the holy God of the Old Testament who is set apart from every form of sin and impurity and who demanded similar holiness from the people of Israel through separation. Leviticus 11:44 19:2 etc. God has not changed. So the same requirement was laid on the new people of God, the Christians. Paul said that the means of sanctification was the law of God.

In Ezekiel 36:27, we read that God says: “That in the new covenant times, he will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances.” Remember, it’s the spirit who ministers to us with the newness of life in Jesus Christ. The spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit makes us increasingly holy. And he does so according to Ezekiel by teaching us the commandments of Jesus said that the Holy Spirit, the comforter, would come. He would bring to remembrance the things that Jesus told us and that Jesus would command us various things and these commandments are consistent with the law revealed in the Old Testament.

Now there has been times in the history of the church and this is understood. The Formula of Concord developed in 1576 declared in article 5 and two. “We believe, teach, and confess that the law is properly a doctrine divinely revealed, which teaches what is just and acceptable to God, and which also denounces whatever is sinful and opposite to the divine will.”

In article six, the Formula of Concord declared the law to be its third purpose, excuse me, that regenerate men, quoting now: “That regenerate men to all of whom nevertheless much of the flesh still cleaves, for that very reason may have certain rules after which they may and ought to shape their lives.” So the law was given to regenerate men to shape their lives to teach us what is the will of God and what pleases him. The law gives us the way of sanctification as opposed to what the Formula of Concord referred to as the impulse of self-devised devotion.

The impulse of self-devised devotion and that’s that Simeon Stilites climbing up to the top of the pole and attempt to achieve holiness before God. That is not revealed to him in the word of God and in God’s law. God’s law is very specific in its demands upon us in the way it tells us to walk. That is to be the means of sanctification because that’s the means the Holy Spirit uses. Sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit in our life to cause us to become more and more holy. And the spirit speaks through the word. The spirit takes the law of God and writes it upon our hearts progressively as the means by which we to live our lives.

Now, the scriptures that would teach us are abundant. I’ll just quote a couple. 1 John 3:22: “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” That links the doing of the commandments to what is pleasing in God’s sight. Psalm 40:8: “I delight to do thy will, oh my God. Yay, thy law is within my heart.” The will of God is related to the law of God and that within our hearts, the will of God and pleasing God is defined in the scriptures as being found in the law.

And so when Paul says you’re supposed to leave a live a life pleasing to God and this is the will of God, your sanctification, and then he says that the commandments that I gave you by the Lord Jesus are to be the means of your sanctification. He makes it very clear with several pointers here that the law is an essential aspect of our sanctification. The Holy Spirit ministers it to us.

I remember an incident. It’s been I guess four or five years, so I guess I can use this now. We had a particular individual visiting church one Sunday and came up to me afterwards real upset. He said, “You know, I came here thinking that wanted to get blessed today. I wanted to worship God in a in a good sense and get a blessing from the service and I walk away from here really disappointed.”

And I said, “Well, what’s the problem?” And he said, “Well, So, I sat down in the pew. I looked across the pew and there was a guy sitting there with a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. Wow. Well, that’s interesting, isn’t it? What had he done? Let’s think about this a little bit. I don’t want to pick on this particular fellow. Hopefully, he’s matured in the faith since that time. I don’t know where he is now, but what had he done?

What was his vision of sanctification of how God would bless him? Well, I think it was a little subjective. Number one, I don’t think it was tied to God’s law. I think it was subjective. Now without getting into a big discussion of smoking the scriptures have a lot of commandments about a lot of things and cigarettes is not one of them. Now by implication obvious…