Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Sermon scripture is 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and 24. Please stand for the reading of our King’s Command word.

*1 Thessalonians 5:23-24: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly: and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”*

Please be seated. This time the younger children may be dismissed to go to their Sabbath schools if the parents desire that for them.

Okay, we’re continuing with our series going through the Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, the first epistle. And next week we’ll actually conclude this book of the Bible. We’re reaching very near to the end with, of course, the verses we just read. I’ve entitled the sermon “The Comprehensive Benediction.” Although I’m not sure technically this is a benediction, but certainly it’s an evidence of God’s grace shed upon us as will be seen as we go through the text.

And essentially we want to remind ourselves a little bit of the structure of the book as we begin this—to remind us where we’ve been, where we’ve come through. There is a section of scripture in this particular epistle from the first verse of chapter 4 through the 22nd verse of chapter 5. That section essentially was to aid the Thessalonians in their sanctification. That section began with a prayer in chapter 3:11-13 very similar to the prayer we just read and concludes with this prayer in chapter 5:23-24.

In verse 13 of chapter 3, we read: “to the end that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” Very similar words and thoughts to what we’ve just read in verses 23 and 24 of chapter 5.

So, in terms of the structure of this particular epistle, this wish prayer, as some people would call it, and some might refer to as a benediction—this summation prayer by Paul—it’s at the end of a lengthy series of exhortations, at least in terms of the length of the book, dealing with sanctification.

Paul has essentially given them various elements to guide and to aid their sanctification. He has called them to become sanctified increasingly, and now he prays and he sums up in his prayer the dominant theme of the holy epistle, and that prayer is, of course, Christian living—that they are exhorted to image in terms of their lifestyle. In fact, Paul calls on God here in this prayer to aid the readers in their spiritual and moral progress.

This, of course, would have the effect of reassuring the Thessalonians that they were under the protection of God whatever circumstances they might experience. At the same time, this prayer takes up the theme of the parousia, the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ, which occupied the major role from verses 13 of chapter 4 through verse 11 of chapter 5. Paul points forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the consummation of the process leading to the reader’s salvation.

It is to this goal that the exhortation of the letter is directed. And so in this prayer, Paul sort of sums up the sanctification required of them, the power of God to affect that sanctification, and does that in the light of the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the parousia. Remember we’ve talked about that term. It doesn’t simply refer to the final coming of Christ, but can also and indeed frequently does in the New Testament refer to the manifestation of Christ at a particular point in time.

In this case, one of the manifestations to be that I’m sure it refers to is the judgment upon Jerusalem in AD 70. So Paul clearly wants his converts here, the Thessalonians, to be found complete and without fault in every aspect of their existence at the time of the public manifestation of their Lord. Whether that time is a particular element of judgment in Jerusalem AD 70 or the final coming of the Lord, or indeed the death of the believer as well—that manifestation of the Lord in terms of his own particular life.

This prayer, in other words, has to do with progressive sanctification. Sanctification means to be set apart or consecrated to God, but it implies the growing holiness that consecration is a call to, and that is progressive in the life of the believer. So in terms of the epistle, we’re kind of summing up much of the stress of the entire epistle itself. And so it’s kind of a summation of that, but it’s in the form of a prayer. And specifically, it’s in the form of a doubled prayer.

And so there is essentially, I think, a repetition of these two verses of a single prayer in a short form and then a long form. In the short form in verse 23 in the first portion of it, we read “the very God of peace sanctify you wholly”—that’s a prayer by Paul to God to sanctify them wholly. This prayer is made in the short form to the very God of peace.

Now, this phrase “God of peace” is found frequently at the end of Paul’s epistles as it is here. This term, the God of peace, should be very familiar to us. One of the benedictions we normally use at the end of our worship day together, at the conclusion of communion, is Hebrews 13:20, where we state and read: “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect.” I read that verse to remind us that behind the God of peace is the God who has brought peace between us and God through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But in any event, Paul frequently refers to this term, the God of peace, as he closes his epistles. And he does here in the short form of his prayer—that the Thessalonians be sanctified. He says, “This very God of peace might sanctify you.” And again, here this sanctification refers to a growth in holiness. As Richard preached so well last week, we have been elected by God, but that is to a particular function, and that function is holiness—set apart, elected for a task. That task is a growing holiness in our lives and a sanctification of who we are.

In the deepest sense, this sanctification is, as this prayer indicates, the work of God within us. That is not our work ultimately. It is the work of God in us. In Ephesians 5, in the exhortation to husbands to love their wives, Paul instructs the Ephesians that this is to be done even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify it and cleanse it. So Ephesians 5 tells us that it is Jesus Christ himself who sanctifies us as members of the church.

Romans 15:16: Paul wrote that he should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. So here we have the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, involved in the sanctification of an aspect of the believer’s lives.

So Paul prays that God would sanctify the Thessalonians, and by implication, of course, us as well. Other scriptures point that out clearly as the work of God. But he prays additionally that the very God of peace might sanctify you wholly. He uses the term here referring to the sanctification process—that they might be sanctified wholly. This is a compound word. This is the only place this word is found in the New Testament, and it is a combination of the idea of wholeness and additionally the idea of completion.

The two words being “whole” and the word for “end” or “completion.” Leithart suggests that the meaning then may be given here as “may he sanctify you so that ye be entire in the process.” This word signifies completion in respect to amount—in other words, that in which nothing is wanting essentially.

In verse 11 of chapter 5, Paul points forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the consummation of the process leading to the reader’s salvation. It is to this goal that the exhortation of the letter is directed. And so in this prayer, Paul sort of sums up the sanctification required of them, the power of God to affect that sanctification, and does that in the light of the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the parousia.

Remember we’ve talked about that term. It doesn’t simply refer to the final coming of Christ, but can also and indeed frequently does in the New Testament refer to the manifestation of Christ at a particular point in time.

This prayer, in other words, has to do with progressive sanctification. Sanctification means to be set apart or consecrated to God, but it implies the growing holiness that consecration is a call to, and that is progressive in the life of the believer. So in terms of the epistle, we’re kind of summing up much of the stress of the entire epistle itself. And so it’s kind of a summation of that, but it’s in the form of a prayer. And specifically, it’s in the form of a doubled prayer.

And so there is essentially, I think, a repetition of these two verses of a single prayer in a short form and then a long form. In the short form, in verse 23, in the first portion of it, we read that in body so as to be unblameable in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ—be preserved. That’s kind of a literal translation, and it stresses this entire theme. And this being preserved blamelessly—this process of sanctification that he is praying for here occurs during the present life.

It doesn’t say that this would happen at the parousia, but that this might be accomplished in terms of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ or his manifestation. The sanctification refers to the life lived here on earth. And Paul expresses this closely related wish which pertains to the judgment day or to the manifestation of Christ.

It is important as we consider our own sanctification that we recognize there are eschatologies—there are end points, various times in our lives, and there will be an end point in terms of our own death or the return of the Lord Jesus Christ—to which our lives are lived. The life we live here on earth, while to be lived progressively in a holy fashion to God, is a very short span in terms of eternity. It’s like a breath. Man’s life is as a breath and is very short, like a flower that fades in the middle of the day.

We are all, to use the lyrics of a song that I’ve heard several years ago, dwellers on the threshold, so to speak, of our own meeting our Lord Jesus Christ face to face and moving into eternity. That’s important. And Paul says it’s important in terms of the sanctification process. It’s important that we think of that on a regular basis. Paul repeats that exhortation other times in this epistle and throughout the scriptures. We’re to be reminded that we may meet our maker today, at this very moment. One of us could have a heart attack. Something could happen where we would die. And these eschatologies are real.

Other than that, of course, the judgment to come in Jerusalem AD 70. These judgments by God at special times and in special manifestations are also real in the context of our lives. We must be prepared for those judgments, those evaluations.

Okay, in terms of the outline, then, we’re going to deal with this long prayer a little bit in more detail. Paul prays to God again for their entire sanctification. But he uses a term here—to preserve them, that they might be preserved blameless. This term “preserve” means to keep an eye on something in its root meaning, to hold on to it, or to essentially keep it for a particular task. It is used, for instance, of holding someone in custody, so to speak, in the New Testament, where people would be held awaiting their trial. So it has the idea of being watched and held or guarded—also another context of this.

In Jude verse 1, we read: “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father”—and by the way, there’s the third person of the Trinity accomplishing our sanctification. We talked earlier of the Son and the Spirit. Here’s the Father sanctifying us. And Jude goes on to say: “and preserved in Jesus Christ.” There is a preservation element of our calling before God that is evident in these texts.

It’s interesting though that in the scriptures this keeping of us by God is related to the keeping of us by God’s word. In later on in Jude verse 21, he instructs them to “keep yourself in the love of God.” So God does preserve us or keep us. We are also to keep the love of God ourselves.

Revelation 3:10: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation.” So to the degree that we keep God’s word, and as we manifest the election by him to holiness, to that degree God also keeps and preserves us, holds us safe, and keeps us from harm.

Revelation 16:15: We are exhorted to watch and to keep our garments from being spotted.

Jesus in his high priestly prayer that Richard read last week in John 17—this theme of preservation is very important in the context of that prayer. In verses 12 and 15, Jesus says that he kept those that the Father had given to him. He preserved them. And then he prays in verse 15 that as he leaves, the Father would keep us, preserve us from the evil one. And it is a great thing and great reassurance to us, I hope, to realize that one of the things our Savior has prayed for us is that the Father answers to keep us and preserve us from harm.

But additionally, Jesus talks about those that he prays for in verse 6 of that prayer. He talks of those as having kept thy word. And as a result of them keeping God’s word, then God is exhorted to keep them as his own in verse 11. So again we have this correlation between our keeping of God’s word and the Father then preserving us and keeping us whole.

Finally, in James 1:27, most of us remember, of course, that there’s the description there: “the true religion is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.” That’s usually what we remember, that part of it. But the second side of that is “and to keep yourself unspotted from the world.” So even by way of connotation or implication in this prayer, Paul is exhorting us again that we have a responsibility to preserve ourselves as well as to pray for God’s preservation of us in terms of our sanctification.

The word attached to this being preserved is the word “blameless.” The phrase that God might preserve us blameless. Now, this phrase—to be preserved blameless—is the only place in the New Testament where that phrase is found. But it’s a very interesting historical fact that apparently this exact same phrase and wording was found on the tombstones of some in Thessalonica. And so apparently this was a very much an important element of their understanding of the faith. They retained these words of Paul in their thinking and in their lives. And when a person died in the faith, he would put that phrase—he’d been preserved blameless until his personal meeting of the Lord, the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life.

This blamelessness is the quality desired in this preservation. And the word comes from a compound word meaning “without blame,” “no blame.” It means that there is no cause for censure in the life of that person. It does not imply a condition utterly without defect. It doesn’t mean sinless. In other words, Paul is not here asking for the sinless perfection of the believer. Rather, it means a condition where no just cause can be brought against the person. No just complaint can be raised against him by other people or by God.

In that way, the prayer then is that they may so live that no just cause or charge can be made against them. I’ve listed some scripture references there where this term “blameless” is referred to also.

It’s important to note here in passing that we read in Luke chapter 1 that there were those who were righteous before God, walking in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. That doesn’t mean they were sinlessly perfect. This condition of blamelessness is one that we should attain to in our Christian life. We can keep the commandments of God, and we can keep them in substance and essentially have a lifestyle characterized by keeping the law of God. That doesn’t mean we won’t fall short of the mark, of course, or fall short. Sin is any sort of non-conformity to the law of God. And we all have sin in our life. The Bible makes that clear, and our own personal experience does as well.

But it’s important to recognize, as great as that truth is, that our goal is to have lives that are essentially blameless, where people cannot bring a charge against us. That means a life characterized by the confession of our sins one to the other, and of course to God as well. And as we do that, as we see our lives increasingly sanctified by God, then we also are characterized as blameless in the sight of God.

Okay. So Paul prays at the very God of peace and prays that this God would sanctify them wholly. And then he goes on to explain what he means by that. He prays God that they would be preserved blameless and entirely—another word, a compound word very similar to the word that we read earlier, “wholly” in the short form of the prayer. This word “entirely,” found in the second half of verse 23, is a compound of again two words, and the first one is the same word “holy”—in other words, attached to it is a Greek word that originally had its origins in something that was a portion received by lot, something that was a portion to somebody or given to them. And so it essentially had reference to a thing that would not be diminished in what it was.

In other words, if you were given, for instance, a portion by lot, a particular plot of land, then to be kept wholly entire, you wouldn’t lose any of that land through people moving your borders or for you selling it or whatever it was. In the Septuagint, the verse in Deuteronomy 27:6, where the stones for the altar are to be those that are not cut or worked upon, the same word is used. And it’s a good visual picture of what it means. If you have a rock that is cut, it has lost some of itself. Or even if you polish the rock, it loses some aspect of it.

So for the altar stone in Deuteronomy 27:6, it had to be entire or whole, nothing missing from it. And so Paul here tells us that part of the sanctification that he prays for us is this concept: that our sanctification would be complete in all of its parts, as well as brought to maturity, which the first word means. This word means to be complete in everything that God has called us to manifest. And so it is another word of completion here.

Trench says that this word essentially means “to retain all that was first allotted, entire in all its parts, nothing necessary to completeness being lacking.” So that’s what’s going on here.

Lensky, in comparing these two terms—the term for “wholly” in the short form of the prayer and the term for “entirely” in the long form of this prayer—says the following. He says: “One is spiritually entire when no grace is missing. But one is spiritually whole when grace has not merely made a beginning, but has produced a mature condition.” And so the idea here is that Paul prays for our sanctification in terms of the addition of all the Christian graces to our life, and that each of those graces might be a mature grace in the life of the believer.

Findlay, in his explanation of the relationship with these two terms that are very marked in their closeness in the Greek, says that the former term—the “wholly” term in the short form of the prayer—is collective, while the latter is distributive. The one implies a totality from which no part is excluded. The other an integrity in which each part has its own place and proportion and is, in terms of that, then mature.

So Paul prays for that in terms of our sanctification. He goes on then to use another term of exclusivity or inclusivity of comprehensiveness when he says that this being preserved blameless and entire might be “in terms of your spirit and soul and body.”

Okay, your spirit, soul, and body. This term in verse 23 has probably gotten more ink in terms of the commentary than the rest of this verse, because some people want to use these three terms to describe the believer—a spirit, soul, and body—as indicating a tripartite nature, that men have three essential parts to them: a spirit, a soul, and a body. This is the only verse in the New Testament where you can get that idea. However, and I don’t think that Paul is here giving us some sort of theological or anthropological definition of man. That’s not what he’s doing here.

What he’s doing is using this repeated use of words—spirit, soul, and body—to indicate the whole man. He’s talking about our sanctification being comprehensive in terms of maturity, in terms of all the elements of the Christian graces that God builds into our life, and then in terms of every bit of our being—our spirit and our soul and our body—throughout the New Testament. If you want to look at how many parts man has, usually Paul uses a two-fold view of man, a bipartite division of man, where man is soul and body. But in any event, I don’t think that is critical for what’s going on here. Rather, I think what Paul is giving to us is one more statement of comprehensiveness.

He’s referring to the whole of man by referring to aspects of man’s being—the spirit, soul, and body. The two terms “spirit” and “soul,” of course, are the ones that are of some discussion in this verse, along the nature I’ve just described, because “body” obviously refers to the material aspect of man. And it would be good, I think, for us to understand Paul’s emphasis on the completeness of our sanctification to spend just a minute referring to these two terms.

Generally, in the New Testament, these two terms are somewhat interchangeable. However, in Hebrews 4:12, where we read that “the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,” we read that “it is piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit”—these two terms. So there is some distinction made in some New Testament occurrences of the term “soul” and “spirit.”

Generally, they’re synonymous or interchangeable, but there is some distinction occasionally made in the New Testament.

Hendrickson, in his comment on this distinction, says: When this distinction is not faded away, when “pneuma” (or “spirit”) is used, mental activity, intelligence seems to take the prominence. When the term translated “soul” is used, it frequently points to the direction of the emotional aspect or emotional activity of the believer’s lives. For instance, it is the spirit which perceives in Mark 2:8. It is the spirit that plans in Acts 19:21. And it is the spirit of a man that knows in 1 Corinthians 2:11.

While it is the soul that is sorrowful in Matthew 26:38. It’s the spirit that prays in 1 Corinthians 14:14, and the soul that loves in Mark 12:30. Also, the soul is oftentimes a more general and broader term, indicating the sum total of life which rises above the physical, while spirit is more restricted, indicating the human spirit in its relation to God.

Now, you don’t have to remember all that, but I do want you to realize that when Paul does use these terms distinctly in this verse, he is talking about several aspects of our lives. And from what other verses in scripture seem to indicate, the spiritual aspect tends to become more directed toward our intellectual capacity, as well as our service to God—another area where the term “spirit” is frequently used. Whereas the soul refers to our affections or emotions.

Calvin, commenting on this verse, says: “In terms of what Paul is praying for, he prays that our thoughts might be pure and holy, that our affections or emotions be right and properly regulated by the word of God and by the Holy Spirit, and that our bodies might be dedicated to good work.” And so what Paul is doing here is giving us some comprehensive—another comprehensive term about our sanctification: that our sanctification, our conforming to the image of Jesus Christ, must be in our thoughts. Our thoughts must be conformed and brought captive to Jesus Christ. Our emotions must be brought under the control of God and the Holy Spirit and sanctified in that sense and increasingly sanctified. And the actions of our bodies also must be sanctified.

Again, just in passing, it’s important to note that Paul does include in this set of three terms describing the unity of man the term “body.” This church, I think, is well aware of this fact, but in many churches the body is denigrated. The body is not seen as all that important in terms of our eternal reality. But here Paul includes the body as that which is to be blameless until the return of Jesus Christ.

The scriptures do not see a disembodied man as a good state. And so our glorified body that we’re to receive when the Lord returns is an important aspect of the sanctification process as well. And what we do in our physical bodies is very important and critical in terms of our sanctification.

The verb relating to these three terms, though, is singular. And this again stresses the fact that complex man, as complex as he may be, is in reality a unity, a union, a unit, a single being. And so Paul is not here trying to give us a tripartite definition of man. Rather, he’s saying that our entire man is to be sanctified, and that is to be seen in every aspect of our lives.

And this being preserved blameless and entirely is unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul gives us this doubled prayer—a short form praying for our sanctification, a longer form—and in both forms he stresses the comprehensiveness, the fact that our sanctification reaches into every area of our lives.

And following this prayer, he gives an assurance. In verse 24: “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

This is a wonderful expression of assurance following a very comprehensive prayer or benediction on Paul’s part for the believer, the Thessalonians. In spite of the great demands made of a comprehensive sanctification upon their lives, need have no fear in this way because God himself is faithful, who calls us, and he also will accomplish it.

Chrissum says that in addition Paul is making clear here that the sanctification happens not as a result of Paul’s prayers, even, but rather from the very purpose for which God has called the believer—that election to holiness that Richard spoke of last week. Paul immediately reassures them by adding this verse. The one calling you is faithful, who will indeed do this thing.

Now, this is in the present tense: “the one calling you,” not “the one who has called you” (past tense). “The one who is calling you” indicates that God does not merely call Christians once and then leave them on their own, but God continues to call the followers of Christ to salvation and sanctification, and in that process is faithful to assure that it comes to pass.

Lensky, in commenting on this, says: “The doubled wish prayer is sealed with the assurance of fulfillment in verse 24. ‘He also will do this.’ This is not, however, absolute. But like the calling, this sanctifying and preserving is accomplished only through the word and the Spirit’s grace. These are sufficient. We can rely on them to the utmost.”

The Christian knows, as Luther stated it, “With strength of ours, naught is done. It is only the strength and power of the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit who can accomplish this comprehensive sanctification in all of our lives.”

Throughout the scriptures, the great theme is that God is faithful. 2 Timothy 2:13: “If we believe not, he abideth faithful. And we have small faith. God is faithful and he keeps us.”

Titus 1:2: “God is not a God that lies. God that cannot lie promised these things to us before the world began.”

Numbers 23:19: “God is not a man that he should lie.”

Psalm 36:5: “God’s faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. His faithfulness, the stability of his word and his completion of it.”

Psalm 138:2: “A remarkable verse. I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. That word ‘truth’ is his faithfulness term—that God is faithful. And that verse goes on to say: ‘For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.’ God’s name is his person. And for this statement that God has magnified his word above all his name to be given as an indication of the faithfulness, the truthfulness of God toward those who are called in Jesus Christ, is a tremendous assurance.”

And of course, we see Jesus Christ himself suffering the pains of hell to accomplish salvation for the people that God has given. His word shall be ushered into that salvation.

Lamentations 3:23: “Great is thy faithfulness.” Of course, that great hymn that we sing occasionally—tremendous reminder to us. We need to remind ourselves over and over again that God’s faithfulness is the basis for our assurance that we shall indeed be brought through this state holy and blameless before the Lord Jesus Christ.

So God, through the apostle Paul, gives us this doubled prayer. He gives an assurance. And this is all to a particular goal. He began this prayer by saying, “Now the God of peace do this thing for you.”

In 2 Thessalonians 3:16, we read: “The Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means.”

The God of peace accomplishes this comprehensive sanctification. He is faithful to that goal, to the end that we might be ushered into peace—Shalom in the Old Testament, the comprehensive blessings of God to his people.

Morris, in his commentary on this, says that peace is “spiritual prosperity in its widest sense.” And so characteristic is it of God to bestow this gift that he might be spoken of as the very God of peace.

Lensky says: “The apostolic admonitions constantly prod into all corners of our nature so that may escape purification. No nook or cranny of your life is to be left where the peace of God does not penetrate. It is to reign undisturbed in every province of your being.”

Trazi, in his commentary, says that the word “peace” renders the atmosphere of the kingdom where all God’s promises are realized, and holiness is the basic condition to enter therein. God accomplishes this, has us pray to this end, has worked to this end, and then is himself faithful to accomplish this in our lives—that we might be the recipients of his order, his blessings, his peace, his kingdom prosperity in terms of every aspect of our lives.

If his call to sanctification is comprehensive, it is no more comprehensive than the peace of God that is to invade every nook and cranny of our lives.

Isaiah 26:3: “Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.”

And that is the promise to which the sanctification prayer is offered by the apostle Paul.

So we have here in this section of scripture a prayer for comprehensive sanctification. The entirety idea, as I mentioned, is stressed throughout both forms of the prayer—the short form and the long form: entire, without blame, wholly, preserved, blameless. And you’re talking about man in terms of his soul, his spirit, his body. Comprehensiveness saturates this passage.

A call for comprehensive sanctification—that we might be holy through and through in every aspect of our lives. Our mind, our thoughts, our emotions, our actions, everything. We are to be increasingly in our lives to be in the words of 2 Corinthians 3:18, moved from glory to glory, to be increasingly sanctified and set apart for the purposes of God and for his kingdom. From the tips of our toes, as one commentator wrote, to the tops of our heads, our whole spirit, whole soul, whole body, entire, holding back nothing—all is to be moving on in terms of sanctification. Everything in terms of our living, our thinking, our loving, all that we are is to be seen in terms of the sanctification that God requires of us and has spoken to throughout this epistle.

This is what Paul now prays that there might be accomplished in terms of their life. This is a challenge. This prayer and the rest of the epistle—it is a challenge to, I guess the terminology we’ve used for several years, a biblical world and life view in terms of every aspect of our being.

And I am thankful that as we approach this prayer of Paul’s and the assurance that God indeed hears such prayers and is faithful to answer them for his elect people, I am thankful for this church. This church is characterized by and large by people that hear these claims of the gospel on every single aspect of their lives and respond by saying, “Yes, that’s God’s call for me.” And yes, I know it is a tremendous call to service and puts tremendous obligations upon me individually and upon my family and upon our church and upon our community. But that is what God has called us to do in Jesus Christ.

That is a credit to this church. In the least, calculated report, there’s a statement, there’s an article on Clinton and Elizabeth Miller and the impact of their ministry and the conferences in people’s lives. And it is a true fact. Many of the things, however, in that article that are spoken of as the manifestation of Christian reconstruction of all of life—in terms of education, in terms of seeing Christian principles permeate business, etc.—these are things that have characterized this church since its inception. And these are things that ultimately should be proclaimed in the context of the Christian world.

This church should get the credit and love and lauding, I think, in praise from members of the body of Christ who see what this church has accomplished in terms of the individual action of each member of this church and taking the word of God comprehensively into every nook and cranny of its existence and of our beings individually and corporately as well.

This is not an easy task. The Christian life is not an easy one to have lived. We’ve gone through a series of exhortations in this epistle to the Thessalonians that we now approach the end of. We have tried to get our intellectual understanding of various terms that the scriptures use: faith, hope, love, grace, peace, and others. We tried to reprogram our minds to think in terms of God’s word and its definition for these concepts as opposed to the definition of these concepts that permeate our fallen and secular world around us.

We began this series in November of 1990 with a sermon on comprehensive or perpetual thanksgiving. That’s how we began this series. We went through various admonitions throughout this series—implications of the word of God. For instance, that is indeed sharp and piercing to us, that called us to actions in terms of some of the most intimate details of our lives. You remember that we dealt with portions of the sanctification section of the epistle that dealt with the physical side of the marriage relationship, for instance. Some of the most intimate details of our lives, we attended to regulate according to the word of God as we went through this word.

Some of the most public matters of our lives—our business, our vocational callings—also were subject to the scrutiny or at least the demands of God’s word. That area as well must be an area of comprehensive sanctification. That all of our businesses, in every aspect of our business and vocational calling, in every aspect of it, we’d see it dedicated and consecrated to God. And that each aspect would continue to mature in terms of our applying the word of God and understanding its application to it.

From the most intimate affairs to our most public affairs, we have been challenged as a congregation by this word of God that says that over every one of these areas, Jesus Christ says, “That is my area. I have given that to you to be used for the purposes of my kingdom and for my glory.”

We’ve attempted to take our tongues and see them channeled and regulated by the word of God and the comprehensive and systematic teaching of God’s word. We’ve attempted to see our relationships with each other in the body of Christ, the relationships in our families, examined, evaluated, found wanting, and then rebuilt over and over again, going through this epistle and regulated by the word of God again—the sanctification process in terms of our relationships one with the other in the context of the body of Christ, in terms of our families.

We’ve attempted to examine how we react to the authorities that God places in our lives, whether in church or state or family, and to let those emotions, those feelings, those thoughts as well be regulated by this word of God. We’ve attempted to let this word of God dictate to us in this epistle what we’re supposed to do in terms of people that are unruly and others that are weak in faith, and being patient in all things.

We’ve been challenged by this epistle as we went through over the last year and a half to preach the gospel in all that we do, to be faithful men—men of our word, men of truth, and men and women who are called to exhibit the faithfulness of God’s truth, that he doesn’t lie, and we shouldn’t lie. And to take seriously the covenants and things that we enter into, to the end that the gospel of Jesus Christ might be preached effectually.

Remember we talked about faithful men as the transmission belt of the gospel, and we’re to preach the gospel to the entire created order. Heavy task for a group of people sitting together, huddled together in a relatively small group in the confines of a city that increasingly is apostate. Heavy task that we’ve been called to accomplish.

These things aren’t easy. These things are exceedingly difficult. The Christian life is not a piece of cake. The Christian life is a call to radical commitment and it is a call to radical service. And it is a call to recognize that when the day is done, we haven’t done enough. And it’s a call that leaves us sometimes feeling bad about ourselves.

Roy gave me a couple of articles out of a recent magazine on self-esteem. They’re excellent articles, but a couple of quotes here I thought of as I was going through these scriptures. Mark Twain said that deep down in his heart, no man much respects himself—talking about the concept of self-esteem or self-respect. H.L. Mencken, what a nice way to put it: “Self-respect is the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.” In other words, when you get right down to the end of the day, if you realize the radical claims of God upon your life, then you don’t have self-respect. You’ve got self-challenged by the word of God. At the end of the day, you know you’ve fallen short.

The Christian life is not easy. It is hard. And I bear the scars, not in my body, but in my psyche, in my emotions, of going through this word and trying to apply it comprehensively in my life. I know the failures I’ve gone through over the last year and a half. And I know the persecution I’ve suffered for trying to walk in obedience to this word. And I can believe that if anybody in this church—and I know all of you have—tried to walk in obedience to what we’ve taught from this epistle, you’ve suffered as well.

We went from the call to comprehensive thanksgiving a year and a half ago to this last Thanksgiving, a natural thanksgiving. We went through times when some of us—not all of us, some of us—went through pretty dark times for a while. Tears shed, temptations to not be courageous, temptations not to do the right thing. Desire not to, for instance, admonish the unruly—tough thing to do a lot of times. But when you do it, be prepared. It doesn’t always fall on good ears. It can come back pretty hard on you.

We got to the place of saying, in the midst of all that, God calls us to give thanks unnaturally when we try to do what God calls us to do and find that we’re being looked upon as crazy in the eyes of the world. You know what? We are crazy in the eyes of the world. To simply stand up for the truth that men should keep their word—that’s crazy in the eyes of the world today. It means nothing to them.

You know, I’m beginning to do a lot of reading these last six months in the book of Joshua, preparing for our series, and that will begin next month. You know, it’s interesting because the victory starts with God making the Israelites look foolish in the eyes of the opposition. They march seven times around Jericho, right? Seven days they go around it. That’s going to take the city. God has them look foolish in the eyes of the world. And I’m telling you, if you try to obey the words that we have read now in this short little epistle—little tiny part of this Bible—realizing the implications of them, the comprehensive sanctification called for by God, and you try to implement it, people are going to say you’re nuts.

And I’m not talking about people just outside of the Christian community because the Christian community today has moved away from biblical faithfulness, away from a biblical understanding of peace, away from a comprehensive view of God’s laws that dictates the standards by which we fly through the range of mountains that God’s put up in front of us. Tough sledding. That’s what this is all about.

I know it’s been tough for many people as you would try to apply this word. It is a hard thing to do. The prayer that Paul offers isn’t some kind of nice little addition to everything else. It is absolutely necessary for a proper perspective on the call to service that this epistle gives us. It is absolutely necessary for your mental health to recognize that you have been called to do things, through the plain preaching of what this word clearly says, that you can’t do.

You know, I got this comic record—a guy actually says he’s going to ask this fellow a question you can’t answer. Well, in a way, guess what God does here? He says, “I’m going to tell you stuff to do that you can’t do.” And so the end result of that is you better recognize this is a prayer that you must offer.

If you’re going to do these things in your own strength, forget it. Stop right now, because you’re not going to succeed. You’re going to fail time and time again.

Hendrickson said you can rephrase what Paul’s prayer is. He says: “In your own strength, you cannot fulfill the precepts which I have just given.” And that is absolutely correct.

Hendrickson goes on to say: “The prayer says, ‘You need God, the God of peace, a peace established through the cross, a peace which implies spiritual prosperity in its fullest sense. May this God sanctify you. That is, may he separate you from the life of sin and cause you to be dedicated to him through and through.’”

L.E. Morris said that in this verse, Paul has been exhorting the Thessalonians to a course of conduct which is impossible in man’s own strength, and he utters a prayer which reminds them of the source of the power which alone would enable them to live in this way.

There was an old song I used to listen to by a fellow. I don’t know what he was singing about, and you never do with poetry. You can infuse your own meanings frequently. But one of the lines was: “You have to live the life of love till it drives you crazy. You got to live the life of love till it drives you mad. You got to live the life of love till it makes things easy.” With understanding, he’ll give…