Sermon: 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-12 Walking Worthy in Holiness

Have you ever been driving off the beaten track, no signposts, grass up the middle of the road, and you come to a crossroads. You haven’t a clue where you are. You have to decide what to do, which road to take. How do you make your choice? Pick one at random? Take the one that looks the nicest? Follow your intuition? It’s one thing if you’re out for a Sunday afternoon drive, just exploring, and you know that sooner or later you’ll come back to a main road with some kind of signpost. It’s different, though, if you’re on your way to someone’s house for dinner. You’re late. You’re lost. You’d need some direction. Where to turn?

As we travel through life, we’re faced with all sorts of decisions about all sorts of things. Some people see those choices as whatever makes you feel good. You pay your money and take your chance. But oftentimes Christians want to know what God’s will is for them - who to marry, what job to take, and so on. Sometimes we get so worked up about knowing God’s will for every detail of our lives. In our reading today, Paul gives us what God’s will is for our life. In this passage, it’s not complicated - but working it out might not always be easy.

Look at verse 3. ‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification.‘ God’s will is our sanctification. Now what does that mean? Sanctification is one of those churchy word that sounds great, but no one really knows what it is. It simply means the process of becoming (more) holy. And holy, or holiness (as we have in our passage) is being set apart. So God’s will for us is to be set apart (for him).

In nearly every home (although less so these days with the healthy eating advice), we have something that’s holy, set apart. If you still have a sugar bowl, then you probably have a spoon which is set apart, only to be used to lift the sugar from the sugar bowl. You don’t use it to put sugar in your tea, then stir it, then put it back in the bowl. You’ll get hard, brown lumps of sugar. The sugar spoon is holy, set apart only for the use in the sugar bowl.

In the same way, we’re holy, set apart for God. There are lots of things we could do, but we’re set apart to only do the things God wants us to do. Back at the end of chapter 3, Paul had prayed that God ‘would strengthen {their} hearts in holiness that you may be blameless...’ So now he gets to the heart of what that will look like. In verses 1-2, Paul reminds them that he had told them how to live and to please God, and they have been doing it, so now they should do it more and more. But remember that this isn’t a ten step programme to make God accept you. This is written to Christians who have already turned to God from idols (ch 1). This is how we’re to live when we are saved. Not how to live to be saved.

So what does holiness look like? What is God’s will for our sanctification? Paul breaks it down into three parts, which follow on from each other. The first is in verse 3. ‘that you abstain from fornication.’ Newer versions use the words ‘sexual immorality’. But the word Paul uses is ‘porneia’ - from which we get ‘pornography’. It’s any sexual activity outside of marriage. Christians are to be set apart for God, by being set apart for their own husband or wife - or in the absence of a spouse, to be celibate.

Following on from that - and in order to do that - we’re called to ‘know how to control your own body in holiness and honour, not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.’ The world will be different, it burns with lustful passion - as is clear in so many ways around us. But we’re called to be different, to control our bodies in holiness and honour. You’re not responsible for what someone else does, but you are for yourself. Be self-controlled (one of the fruit of the Spirit). Take control of yourself - if certain situations or programmes or internet causes you to stumble, then deal with it.

Thirdly, ‘that no one wrongs or exploits a brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things.’ A few years ago we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the ending of the slave trade by William Wilberforce. Yet today human trafficking still continues. Even in Northern Ireland, women have been brought to work in the sex industry. Exploitation continues.

We’re called to be different. That call is expressed in verse 7. ‘For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.’ God didn’t call us to say ‘yes’ to lustful passions and impurity. He has set us apart for him. You see, this is God’s will, not just something Paul made up. This is God’s call, so we don’t reject human authority if we disagree - we reject God’s authority over the creation he has made. His holy will calls us, and wants to make us holy, separate, different. We’re called in his holiness, to be holy, by saying no to lust.

That leads us to ask the serious question - where do we get our values from? Who do we look to for approval? Whose pleasure are we living for? Our own? The world’s? Or God’s? As Paul writes to the Corinthians - You are not your own. For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6:19-20) To do this, what things will need to change? Who might you need to step back from? What do you need to stop watching or thinking about or doing? God’s will is for us to be holy by saying no to lust.

At the same time, God also wants us to say ‘yes’ to love. Look at verse 9. We’re getting into the season of school reports. We’re all different, but most of us probably had things we were good at, and then there was always some subject that said ‘must do better.’ Paul says in verses 9-10 that the Thessalonians are top of the class. In terms of love for the brothers and sisters, they don’t need to be told; God has taught them, and they are doing it. Full marks, top of the class.

But look at the middle of verse 10. Top of the class, but keep going, more and more! Verse 11 shows us how to love one another - but it might not be what we would expect. To love one another you would... fill in the blank. Did you say ‘to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands’? This is how Paul describes loving one another in this context. It seems that some people were expecting Jesus to return any day - so why bother working? They could exploit the generosity of their fellow believers and live off handouts. But Paul says the loving thing is to get on with your own work (if you’re able - 2The3), so that outsiders won’t be disgraced by your actions, and that you’re not dependent on anyone else.

God’s will is that we say yes to love. How can we grow in love for one another? What are the ways we can love each other, so that those watching on say ‘see how these Christians love one another?’

When we started off, we were in the wee country roads with no signposts, facing a decision. Left, right, straight on? Going to a friend’s house, we’ll have their directions. As we come to those decisions, big and small, in our daily life, as we choose which way to go, we have God’s directions. God’s will is for us to become more holy, as we say no to lust and yes to love. We’re on a lifelong journey. We’ll sometimes take wrong turns. We’ll find ourselves at the same junction a few times. God’s will is for us to be holy. He is guiding us, restoring us, forgiving us, and encouraging us. And he will bring us home, if we listen to him.

This sermon was preached in Aghavea Parish Church on Sunday 14th June 2015

Book Review: The Power of Words and the Wonder of God

The Desiring God conferences appear to be powerful times of teaching and fellowship - at least if their books are anything to go by. This, the edited and expanded transcript of the proceedings of the 2008 conference, entitled The Power of Words and the Wonder of God, gives a taster of the conference and a permanent record of the Bible teaching on offer.

As Justin Taylor, one of the editors (along with John Piper) asks in the introduction: 'What do words have to do with Christianity? Almost everything. At every stage in redemptive history... "God is there and he is not silent." God's words decisively create, confront, correct and comfort.' (p. 15) Taking this thought on, he asks: 'If God is a God of words, and if Jesus and his gospel are inseparable, then how should we - those who seek to follow him - use our words?' (p. 18) The aim (and indeed their prayer) is God-glorifying: 'May our great and glorious God graciously use these imperfect words to equip and encourage you in a path of using life-giving words to honour his name, edify the church, and call the lost to the gospel of Jesus Christ.'

There follows the six main speakers, with their particular chapters. Paul David Tripp kicks off by thinking about the War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God's Sake. Exposing the power of words, he shows that 'The book of Proverbs is, in ways, a treatise on talk. I would summarise is this way: words give life; words bring death - you choose.' (p. 24) Reminding us that Jesus is the Saviour for the big sins as well as the little ones, our words as well as our deeds and thoughts, he gets to the heart of the problem: 'Here is what you and I need to understand: word problems are heart problems.' (p. 30)

As he concludes though, there is grace: 'There's an organic consistency between what is in my heart and what comes out of my mouth. The struggle of words is a struggle of kingdoms; a war between the kingdom of self and the kingdom of God. The kingdom that rules your heart will dictate your words. But there is grace - glorious, powerful, enabling, forgiving, and delivering grace - for this struggle.' (p. 44)

Sinclair Ferguson gives a masterly exposition of James 3:1-12 within the context of James' letter as a whole, and the wider scripture under the title of The Bit, the Bridle and the Blessing. There is much to rebuke the comfortable and relaxed Christian of today, who pays little attention to their speech and silence, and his twenty resolutions on the use of the tongue from James would be well adapted into anyone's life. Ferguson also uses a wonderful illustration of the change that is required, which comes about from a renewed heart and a transformed tongue, as he speaks of his Scottish accent being noticeably different and out of place in his adopted home of the United States: 'The most important single aid to my ability to use my tongue for the glory of Jesus is allowing the Word of God to dwell in me so richly that I cannot speak with any other accent.' (p. 64)

Is there Christian Eloquence? is the question that John Piper tackles, asking if it is possible to use words well, or if it is disallowed on the grounds of the worldly wisdom that Paul renounced in his gospel preaching in Corinth. Through careful argument and close exegesis, he shows that the cross itself stands against worldly wisdom, and thus the message of the cross is in similar vein. Nevertheless, in the Scripture as a whole there is a great variety of literary devices, 'and it seems to me that God invites us to join him in this creativity of eloquence.' (p. 76)

In what may be one of his favourite topics, Mark Driscoll looks at the whole area of controversy in his chapter, 'How Sharp the Edge? Christ, Controversy and Cutting Words.' In one sense, it didn't appear to be anything new or different to the same things he regularly says in his podcast sermons (which also seem to be repetitious at times), but he made some clear points: 'Throughout God's Word, the Scriptures, God speaks tough and tender words to his people.' (p. 81) He calls for us to follow in this way: 'Indeed, some Christians are always angry and won't stop fighting. But it is equally true that some Christians are rarely angry and won't start fighting. The former are always renounced while the latter legion gets away with perennial cowardice in the name of nicety.' (p. 93)

In his desire for catergorising and labelling of people (shepherds, sheep, swine, wolves and dogs) and how to relate to them based on their labels, it seemed as if there wasn't much room for grace, or for change. I'm sure Mark would desire for sinners to become saints, but the way he approaches the whole thing in the chapter left a big gap.

Daniel Taylor uses his chapter to consider Story-Shaped Faith, in realising that 'God is telling the world a story' and finding ourselves in that story, and telling that story to others, inviting them to join in.

In the last chapter, Bob Kauflin changes the tempo, adds a melody and asks 'What Happens When We Sing?' He suggests that music helps us to remember words, to engage emotionally with words, and to demonstrate and express our unity in the church.

Alongside these chapters, the book contains a bonus resource of a transcript of the authors / speakers in conversation. For me, it was useful to see these men engage with their topics further, and interact with each other's questions and themes. Within that section, Piper argues powerfully for the use of the internet to spread resources: 'And if you're going to do it for one person [researching and writing on a pastoral theme] you might as well put it on the Web and just multiply your usefulness.' (p. 141) To that end, he is certainly consistent, as this book and indeed most of his books are available for free from Desiring God in pdf format - sometimes it's not ideal for the Kindle (whole pages appear on the screen of the Kindle which makes the print very tiny), but what a generous sharing of these words for the study of the word of God!

All in all, I really enjoyed this volume, and would heartily recommend it for pastors and preachers, in particular, who use their tongues for God, but also for any Christian to think about the sanctifying of your words. You can get it free in pdf here, or for the Kindle, or in dead tree format.

Book Review: Men Made New

In 1965, John Stott spoke at the Keswick Convention for the first time, leading a series of four Bible studies from Romans 5-8. These were subsequently released as a little paperback book by IVP, under the title of Men Made New. In just over one hundred pages, Stott opens up the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer as he explores the work of sanctification in a Christian. It's a great wee book, and one that I immensely enjoyed on my holidays.

Observing that Paul's letter to the Romans is 'the fullest and most coherent manifesto of the Christian gospel in the New Testament', Stott declares that 'there is a grandeur, a comprehensiveness, a logic about his exposition.' After showing the need for justification and how it is achieved, chapters five to eight are the fruits of our justification, 'the great privileges of justified believers, of Men Made New.'[As a side note, when this series has been collected into the bigger volume called 'John Stott at Keswick', the title was changed to 'The Privileges of the Justified.'] Those privileges are found in each of the subsequent chapters - peace with God, union with Christ, freedom from the law, and life in the Spirit.

As ever, Stott was in fine form as he teaches and applies the word of God to the situation he finds in the church around him: 'Many think and behave as if the gospel were good news of justification only, and not good news also of holiness and of heaven.' The fruits of our justification are seen to be peace, grace and glory - reflecting the three tenses or phases of our salvation. But not to be missed or neglected is also the suffering that comes with the Christian life.

While most of us shrink back from suffering, Stott shows that Paul is clear that suffering is essential for the Christian, because it produces endurance, like antibodies are produced by infection. 'We could not learn endurance without suffering because without suffering there would be nothing to endure.' Our suffering is rooted and made bearable because of Christ's suffering for us, as he notes the 'unflattering terms in which we are described... failures, rebels, enemies, helpless to save ourselves.'

On God's love, he reminds us of the objective and subjective awareness believers experience: 'This is how we know that God loves us. We know it rationally as we contemplate the cross, where God gave His best for the worst. And we know it intuitively as the Spirit floods our hearts with a sense of it.'

As he turns to consider union with Christ, he declares that it is 'a state which leads to holiness.' 'It is not the literal impossibility of sin, but the moral incongruity of it, which the apostle is emphasizing.'

'So the secret of holy living is in the mind. It is in knowing that our old self was crucified with Christ. It is in knowing that baptism into Christ is baptism into His death and resurrection. It is in reckoning, intellectually realizing that in Christ we have died to sin and live to God.'

As he discusses the relation of the Christian to the law, he notes that we are still slaves (free slaves!), but not to the law, but to Christ. 'The law says, 'Do this and you will live.' The gospel says, 'You live, so do this.''

On the Holy Spirit, Stott summarises his work as follows: 'These, then, are the four gracious activities of the Holy Spirit. He subdues our flesh, He witnesses to our sonship, He guarantees our inheritance, and He helps our weakness in prayer.'

All in all, this is high quality bible teaching, exactly what you would expect and we came to love from the one known as Uncle John. My little book was a 1978 reprint of a 1966 edition which had sat on my bookshelves, having been rescued from a retiring minister's library, and caught my eye as I was picking holiday books. I'm glad to have read it, although you might be better able to read the version of the chapters in 'John Stott at Keswick'. Get it, read it, and rejoice in God's glorious work in your life.

Book Review: The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

What does it look like to live as a Christian? In this little book, really an expanded, transcribed sermon, Tim Keller reveals what true freedom - the freedom of self-forgetfulness is. For the half an hour it'll take you to read it, and the little sum of money (99p in the Kindle store) it'll cost to buy it, this book is definitely worth it.

While our society concerns itself with the ego - self-esteem, self-development and such like, believing that we need to help people increase in self-esteem and that the big problem is low self-confidence, Keller argues that we actually have too high a view of ourselves:

'Our belief today - and it is deeply rooted in everything - is that people misbehave for lack of self-esteem and because they have too low a view of themselves.'

'Trying to boost our self-esteem by trying to love up to our own standards or someone else's is a trap.'

Keller's answer is the gospel's answer - by not connecting sins and identity, we see ourselves as God sees us, and find our value in God's opinion rather than our own or anyone else's:

'The essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.'

'True gospel-humility means an ego that is not puffed up but filled up.'

The problem is widespread:

'What Paul is looking for, what Madonna is looking for, what we are all looking for, is an ultimate verdict that we are important and valuable. We look for that ultimate verdict every day in all the situations and people around us. And that means that every single day, we are on trial.'

The answer?

'He says that it is the Lord who judges him. It is only His opinion that counts... Paul is saying that in Christianity, the verdict leads to the performance. It is not the performance that leads to the verdict.'

'Because he loves me and he accepts me, I do not have to do things just to build up my resume. I do not have to do things to make me look good. I can do things for the joy of doing them.'

This little book is perhaps the best short introduction to the whole connection between justification and sanctification I've ever read. It's completely life transforming, and will do your heart good. Buy it now from the Kindle store.

Book Review: Respectable Sins

This was a difficult book to read, not because the words were hard to understand, but because the words impacted so well, through the nudging of the Holy Spirit. For that, I must thank Jerry Bridges for writing this book, Respectable Sins.

So often if we mention the word 'sin', our minds naturally turn to the big, bad sins we see all around us in culture and society. While they may be big and bad, they're not what Bridges has in his sights here. Rather, 'This book is about sin - not the obvious sins of our culture but the subtle sins of believers.'

Following a great reminder of what the gospel is, how the good news saves us, and how it continues to sanctify us, Bridges then turns to a variety of 'decent' sins which we seek to overlook or excuse; sins we have accepted and made respectable: ungodliness, anxiety, discontentment, unthankfulness, pride, selfishness, lack of self-control, impatience, anger, judgementalism, envy, jealousy, sins of the tongue and worldliness. Using an array of illustrations and personal examples, he helps us uncover those sins within our hearts.

Oftentimes you'll hear that a book has changed someone's life; you may not believe it. This book really has - many times since reading this book I've been caught thinking/saying/doing something that was exposed in the book, so that I have been helped and encouraged in my sanctification.

This book is for all Christians who want to grow in their faith, who may be discouraged by the ongoing sins in their heart, and who need to be reminded of the glorious truth of the gospel which brings freedom and will lead to ultimate victory through Jesus' sanctifying death.

Nearer, but Further Away

I've noticed something slightly odd on my travels recently. While you're getting nearer to a place, you're actually further away. Allow me to explain.

When you're leaving the village of Augher on the A4 heading east, there's a signpost which declares Belfast to be 56 miles away. Drive a mile or so closer to Belfast, and the next signpost declares Belfast to be 57 miles away! You're going in a Belfast direction, but you've still further to go.


View Larger Map

Sounds strange, doesn't it? It's all down to the recent roadworks, and the extension of the A4 dual carriageway from Dungannon to Ballygawley. The 56 miles to Belfast sign is from the pre-dual carriageway days, along the old A4 through Killeshil, Cabragh etc. The closer to Belfast but further away sign was installed when the new road was built - which doesn't follow the path of the old A4, but loops further south, slightly closer to Aughnacloy. In effect, Augher and Enniskillen are now further from Belfast, thanks to the course of the new road.

You think you're getting somewhere, only to find you're not as far as you thought you were. The believer's sanctfication is a bit like that. You've come to faith in Jesus, your sins are forgiven, you're free to love and serve the Lord, and you're ready to go places, thinking that you're going to be just like Jesus tomorrow.

The gift of the Holy Spirit, though, highlights our sinfulness, bringing things to light which must be dealt with, repented of, abandoned. We're making progress to be more like Jesus, but these can seem like setbacks. The closer we get to God, the more we're aware of our sinfulness.

This isn't a bad thing - it's the way it's meant to be. Just think of Isaiah, who was pottering along, then he had that vision of the Lord in his holiness, and Isaiah is ruined (Isaiah 6).

It might seem like you're further away, but you're going the right way. Keep going!