He Will Surely Do It

Amen.

You may be seated, kids.

You are excused to your children's, your King's Kids class.

And I would invite you to open up your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

We're at the end of this great book.

And so I'm going to read verses 23 through 28.

Hear the word of the Lord.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful.

He will surely do it.

Brothers, pray for us.

Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.

I put you under an oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Amen.

In the classic hymn by John Newton, Amazing Grace, we sang it.

There's a piece of it.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come.

Tis grace that brought me safe this far and grace will lead me home.

When John Newton penned that, he's recognizing how God's grace saved him, strengthened him, sustained him to where he was.

And that it would be God's grace that brings him home face to face with Jesus.

What Newton is saying in Amazing Grace is he will surely do it.

What he began, he will surely complete.

And when we sing it, Amazing Grace or Great is Thy Faithfulness, it stirs our souls.

It gives us strength to continue on.

It gives us courage.

Anybody in the room in need of courage this morning?

Feeling a little flat?

Heading into the holidays?

Guys, this morning, I pray that you'll be encouraged by 1 Thessalonians 5, 23-28.

In this passage, Paul is going to reiterate a couple themes throughout the book in order to do so to encourage you.

So, we are to take heart this morning.

And what God will do, he will surely do it.

Do what?

Take heart.

Your God will keep you until Christ comes.

And so, I'm going to focus on verses 23 and 24 and 28 this morning.

And in so doing, I want to unpack five encouraging words.

And I'm going to have you repeat those words when I say them.

So, I'm going to say the word and I'm going to look to you and you repeat it in a robust fashion.

Peace.

Sanctify.

Doesn't that come out real nice?

Sanctify.

Coming.

Faithful.

Grace.

Let's do it one more time.

Peace.

Sanctify.

Coming.

Faithful.

Grace.

Take heart.

Your God will keep you until Christ comes.

That's going to fill your souls this morning.

Surely do it.

So, let's look at this first word, peace.

In verse 23.

Now, may the God of peace.

What we have here in verses 23 and 24 is essentially a benediction.

And 1 Thessalonians closes with like a double benediction.

And it is the apostle Paul wanting God, wishing God, praying that God would do something in the Thessalonians.

And Paul addresses God as the God of peace.

God wants the God, Paul wants the God of peace to do something in the lives of the Thessalonians.

And so, what is this peace?

Well, if you're familiar with a little Hebrew, it's the word shalom.

Shalom is peace of God's making.

The God of peace is the God who makes peace.

And this peace isn't just an absence of hostility, but a fullness of God's goodness.

If you have kids in the home and they're not fighting, you're like, oh, isn't everything peaceful?

Not quite.

A peaceful relationship among siblings would be not just them not fighting, but them embracing each other.

Delighting each other.

Serving one another.

Taking turns.

This peace of God's making is a comprehensive peace.

Think along the lines of four relationships.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they broke peace with God.

And that peace breaking with God resulted in a breaking of peace within them internally.

And it resulted in a breaking of peace between them in their relationship.

And it also was a breaking of peace in their relationship with creation.

And so, now the God of peace is seeking to make peace on a comprehensive scale and scope.

So, he's starting by making peace between you and him.

And then he's making peace within yourself.

And he's seeking to make peace between you and others.

And eventually he's going to make peace between you and me and all of creation.

This plan of God, this is a peace plan.

It's his plan of salvation.

You could call it Operation Forever Peace.

And God makes this peace.

He brings this peace about in an extraordinary way.

In an amazing way.

The God of peace makes comprehensive peace through the death and resurrection of the Prince of Peace.

Remember that great prophecy on Isaiah 9 where unto us a child is given.

And he will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father.

Prince of Peace.

And that Prince of Peace who died on the cross and was raised from the dead is reigning on high on a throne of grace.

And is one day closer to coming back.

It's by his death and resurrection that God brings about peace.

This peace is a gospel peace.

It's a blood-bought peace.

Jesus shed his blood unto death to bring God's peace as far as the curse is found.

And this peace is an already but not yet peace.

Here's what I mean by that.

When a sinner recognizes their sinfulness and what God has done for them in Jesus Christ and they believe,

at that moment that they believe, they are justified.

Romans 5.1, and therefore at peace with God.

At that moment, God thinks of that sinner's, the penalty of their sin as being placed on Christ on the cross,

in all of God's wrath, poured out for all of your penalty of your sin for all time.

So you're forgiven.

And then simultaneously, God thinks of all of Christ's righteousness as being put into your account.

That you've been imputed the righteousness of Christ.

And so not are you just forgiven of all of your sin.

You've been made acceptable to God based upon the righteousness of Christ.

And at that moment, you are at peace with God.

Do I have an amen?

But it's a partial peace.

Because we still sin.

Amen.

We do things that grieve God.

We experience distance in our relationship with God, not because of God, but because of us.

And so there's this already aspect of peace.

You're justified.

But there's a not yet.

When your relationship with God is fully, finally, and forever at peace.

We have degrees of peace within ourselves.

If you became a Christian, you have a whole new identity.

You're a new creation in Christ Jesus.

You are a child of the living God.

You're a child of the light.

No longer of darkness.

But we forget that and we do stupid things in our sinfulness.

We struggle with things that have been done to us and we've done to others internally.

So we experience degrees of peace now.

Already not yet.

We experience the same in relationship with others.

There's an already not yet where we experience conflict in a breaking of peace.

And yet we also experience a degree of fullness.

But there's coming a time where there'll be perfect peace in our relationship with one another.

And of course, there's creation.

There is the already where we see wonderful sunrises and sunsets.

Sunrise, sunset.

We have huge snowfalls that some of us love.

But we also feel threat from creation.

Tornadoes.

Tsunamis.

This thing called cancer.

So we are in between the already and not yet peace.

God through Christ's blood has begun a comprehensive peace plan.

Operation Forever Peace.

And the cross of Jesus Christ is the living God establishing a beachhead on earth of saying,

I am bringing my peace to this planet.

And it's going to culminate when Jesus Christ returns and there's full, final, and forever peace.

This is the God of peace Paul addresses in verse 23.

And you want to know something?

You're a part of that plan.

You're in it.

You're in it.

Have you experienced this peace of God in Christ Jesus?

This God of peace wants to do something else in us.

So we move to word number two.

Sanctify.

Peace.

Sanctify.

In between now and the coming of Jesus Christ, God will be doing something in us.

It is His holy aim.

His holy purpose.

As we are waiting on the return of Jesus Christ, God is getting something done in us as we're moving to that day.

And this is the first major theme Paul reiterates.

It's the theme of holiness.

If you flip back in 1 Thessalonians to chapter 1, in verse 9 we read,

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

You know what that's a picture of?

Someone being set apart as holy.

Holy.

And then we read in a prayer Paul prays in the middle of this letter, chapter 3, verses 11 through 13.

I'll just read 13 for you.

Paul prays,

So that He may, God may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.

So God wants to make us holy.

In chapter 4, verse 3,

For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

Chapter 4, verse 7,

For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

And again in chapter 5, we have this, we are no longer of the darkness, we are children of light,

and so we don't fear that day of Christ's return.

No, we don't fear it, we're ready for it because we're going to be awake.

We're going to walk in the light.

That's a picture of holiness.

So what God is seeking to do is to make us holy as He is holy.

For us to be pure as He is pure.

So when you read in verse 23,

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely,

and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless.

What we're talking about is holiness.

Now let me just assure you,

this isn't some kind of pie in the sky, abstract, theoretical holiness

that God is looking to do in us.

No, this is concrete.

Very specific and concrete.

He's doing a real work.

Have you ever thought of Jesus as holiness incarnate?

God in the flesh, living holy life.

If you read the Gospels and you watch Jesus through that lens,

you get to see a human being, fully God, fully man,

living life perfectly unto God.

And that's why when you get to Galatians 5, 22 and 23,

where we are described the fruit of the Spirit,

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control,

it's a profile of Jesus.

And so when God is seeking to purify you,

He's seeking to conform you into the holy image of Jesus.

It's very specific and concrete.

And He goes on to say here,

and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless.

If sanctifying is this act of purifying,

being kept blameless is this preserving,

it's protecting, protecting your holiness,

protecting you from sin.

Have you heard of the little phrase,

the perseverance of the saints?

That goes hand in hand with another phrase,

the preservation of the saints.

God is preserving His saints as they're persevering all the way to the end.

They go hand in hand.

God will keep you until the end, take heart.

That word blameless?

Does anybody have in their kitchen a non-stick Teflon pan?

I've heard bad things about Teflon, but it'll serve the illustration.

Teflon pans are non-stick.

Nothing sticks to a Teflon pan.

And what God is seeking to do in us as that day of Christ approaches

is to make us blameless when it comes to evil.

No non-stick.

There's no evil that sticks to your character.

There's no evil that sticks to your conduct.

God is seeking to do a work in you

and keep you blameless.

Teflon-like.

He wants to present you to Christ when He comes,

blameless.

Surely going to do that.

God Himself is doing this.

Now may the God of peace Himself

sanctify you completely.

It's God purifying us.

It's God preserving us.

It's a way in which God is loving us into His holiness.

Hebrews 12.

He wants us to share in His holiness

because that's where the greatest joy is.

So in between now and Christ's return,

God has this holy aim in which He is

holy, H-O-L-Y,

and holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y,

at work in us

completely.

So that little phrase,

spirit, soul, and body,

it's talking about

all of who you are.

God is wanting to make

all of who you are holy,

blameless.

He wants to shine you

with the glory of Christ.

I've used this illustration a lot,

so if you're sick of it,

you can walk out.

Let's see who walks out.

Chip and Joanna Gaines,

fixer-upper.

It's a show,

Chip and Joanna,

they restore houses

to their original glory.

Take a dump,

make it into glory.

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

we are God's fixer-uppers.

He's taken people

who have been made

or dumps because of sin,

and He is restoring glory

to us.

And He has purchased

the deed of our lives

through the blood of Jesus.

And between now

and Christ's return,

He will be restoring

each of us

one room at a time

to reflect the glory

of His Son, Jesus.

And more often than not,

truth in advertising,

this is going to be painful.

God's sanctifying holy work

is oftentimes painful

because God is exposing sin

in us that we must die to.

And He's doing it

because He loves us.

And so we kill the sin

by the Spirit,

and by the Spirit,

we bring to life

Christ-likeness.

God Himself is at work

doing this work

of sanctification

in us.

Of course,

we have responsibility in it,

but Paul is closing

this letter

with the emphasis being

on what God is purposed

to do in us.

And let me just read you

this passage

from Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

I'm sure it's kind of

working through

some of your minds

right now

where both

are persevering

and God's preserving

is stated.

Therefore, my beloved,

this is Philippians 2.12 and 13.

Therefore, my beloved,

as you have always obeyed,

so now,

not only in my presence,

but much more in my absence,

work out your own salvation

with fear and trembling.

Persevere, Christian.

Pursue holiness.

And then in verse 13,

for it is God

who works in you

both to will

and to work

for His good pleasure.

That is His preserving

being kept blameless

until that day.

God is at work in you.

You can bank on it.

Take heart.

Let me ask you

two questions.

Are you welcoming

His holy work?

Are you...

Have your way.

Make me more like Jesus.

Are you actively

pursuing holiness?

Do you want to be blameless

as God Himself is?

These are good moments

to reflect upon our lives,

aren't they?

Have your way, O God.

Have your holy way in us.

So we move from

that first word, peace,

to the second word, sanctify,

and now we move

to the third word,

coming.

As in the coming

of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is the other

major theme

of the book

of 1 Thessalonians.

Paul is reiterating

these things

for a reason.

I mean,

in chapter 1,

verse 9 and 10,

you know,

you've been flipped

from idols

to serve the living

and true God

and to wait

for the Son

from heaven.

That's the coming

of Jesus.

Again,

if you look at

chapter 3,

verse 13,

so that He may establish

your hearts

blameless in holiness

before our God

and Father

at the coming

of our Lord Jesus

with all of His saints.

Again,

it's this focus

on holiness

and at the coming

of Jesus.

In 5, 1 through 11,

we are to live

in the light,

awake,

as we see that day

drawing near.

And we're to encourage

one another in that.

It's that day,

verse 9,

at His coming,

and here in 23,

at the coming

of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's a major theme

of this book,

but there's something

even more significant.

Paul is intentionally

raising these two themes

together

at the end of the book.

What he wants you to see

is the relationship

between the two.

The relationship

of being made holy

and the coming

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's a very important

relationship

between our holiness

and Christ's coming.

It makes me think

of what scientists

call a symbiotic relationship.

When two living creatures

are in mutually beneficial,

coexisting relationship

with one another,

think of a great white shark

and a sucker fish,

a remora.

Have you seen pictures

of those?

Big fish,

big shark,

and there are these little

like suction cup fish

on the bottom of it.

It's a symbiotic relationship.

The great white benefits

from the remora.

It's regularly cleaning

off parasites

for the shark.

It's like

spa remora

for the shark.

And the remora

benefits from

the shark,

gets free ride,

protection with a lot of teeth,

and it gets food scraps.

There's this

working together

for the good of both

and that's how we need

to think about

our holiness

and Christ's coming.

Here's how it works.

You start thinking

about Christ's return.

Oh, maybe he's coming

back this afternoon

or next week.

And that

stirs into motion,

sparks something in you.

It's like,

how do I want

the risen Lord

returning to find me?

Do I want him

to find me

doing stupid things?

Grievous things?

Or do I want him

to find me

living for him

as my controlling center

and seeking to actively

kill sin

and bring to life

that which pleases him?

It's the idea of

Matthew 24

and the parable

of the talents.

And so,

as I think about

Christ's return,

it motivates me

to welcome

his holy work

in my life.

And then,

as I'm experiencing

his holy work

in my life,

do you know

what that's going to do?

Oh,

come Lord Jesus,

come.

I'm ready for my

resurrected body.

Come Lord Jesus,

come.

I am ready

for this full,

final,

and forever peace

that you have promised

and that surely

you will bring it about.

And on that day

when Christ's return,

we will be completely

wholly sanctified,

kept blameless.

He will do this.

We will be at full,

final,

and forever peace

with God.

You will experience

full,

final,

and forever peace

within yourself.

Let it be.

You will experience

full,

final,

and forever peace

between one another.

And then we will

experience full,

and final,

and forever peace

with creation

because when he comes back

he's going to

recreate the heavens

and the earth.

No more let sins

and sorrows grow.

No,

no more.

God's sanctifying work

in us

is moving towards

that day.

He wants to present you.

He's purposed

to present you

blameless.

You've been justified now.

You're being sanctified,

and on that day

you will be glorified.

You can say amen.

When we synchronize

our watches

to Christ's time,

Mark,

Christ is one day closer.

We also synchronize

our lives

to the holy work

of God in us.

We welcome it.

Sanctify us.

Peace.

Sanctify.

At his coming.

The fourth word is,

oh,

it's such a good word.

It's going to be

wind in your sails.

It's the word faithful.

524.

In English,

we read,

he who calls you

is faithful,

that first clause.

In the original language

in Greek,

you know how it rolls out?

It starts with the word

faithful.

Faithful

is the one

who is calling you.

And in the original language,

that means

it's putting it forward

first.

It's emphasizing it.

He will be faithful

in finishing

what he starts

in us.

I know there's a bunch

of you who've memorized

Philippians 1, 6,

and Paul writes

to this church.

And can you imagine

the apostle writing

to you

and writing this?

He says,

and I am sure of this,

he writes to the Philippians.

I am sure of this,

that he who began

a good work in you

will bring it to completion

at the day

of Jesus Christ.

God's faithfulness

is his character.

It's who he is.

He always does

what he says

he will do.

He always follows through

on his promises.

And that's why

following this faithfulness,

you have this next phrase,

he will surely do it

because he's faithful.

He will surely do it.

He will finish

what he starts.

He will surely do it.

What is the it?

What is he going to do?

He will sanctify us completely.

He will keep us blameless.

And Christ will return

in glory.

He will surely do it

because he's faithful.

In other words,

nobody on the planet

can stop it.

Nobody can stop him.

He's faithful.

Before I preach here,

just the song we sang beforehand

is,

Great is thy faithfulness.

Third stanza,

Pardon for sin

and a peace that endureth.

Thine own dear presence

and cheer,

to cheer and to guide.

What a great line.

Strength for today

and bright hope

for tomorrow.

Blessings all mine

and 10,000 besides.

Why?

Because God's faithful.

Surely he will do it.

Strength for today

and bright hope

for tomorrow.

Hope!

Hope!

He will surely do it.

That puts hope in you.

Think about this.

Think about this.

Think about

God's faithfulness.

You hearing that

and that hitting

the sails of your soul

and filling them up.

It's like,

Oh yes,

you are faithful.

Surely you will do it.

It fills your soul with hope.

It drives you forward.

It makes you courageous.

It renews your motivation.

It gets you from sitting

into walking.

Action.

Steve opened up our service

with Lamentations 3

in verses 19 through 24.

I'm going to read 21 and 24,

but I just want you

to pay attention

to the word hope.

Hope surrounds God's character.

But this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope.

The steadfast love

of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion,

says my soul.

Therefore,

I will hope in Him.

God's faithfulness.

This peacemaking God

is faithful.

And that should put hope

into our souls.

Take heart.

Our God will keep us

until Christ's coming.

His faithfulness is the divine wind

that fills our souls

and helps us to press on.

Peace.

Sanctify.

Coming.

Faithful.

And now the fifth word.

Grace.

If you skip down to verse 28.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

be with you.

This letter ends with grace.

It's like the second prayerful benediction.

It's like Paul is saying,

may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

be with you,

be at work among you,

be palpable among you,

transforming you

into the image of Jesus.

Did you know that Paul

ends every one of his letters

with grace

in the New Testament?

And interestingly enough,

1 Thessalonians begins

with grace and peace.

Look at 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 1.

1 Thessalonians 1:1

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy

to the church of the Thessalonians

and God,

the Father,

and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace to you in peace.

And here,

at the very end

of 1 Thessalonians,

verse 23,

now may the God of peace

sanctify you completely.

And verse 28,

the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

be with you.

That is not just random.

The Apostle Paul

is framing the whole book

with God's grace and peace.

God's grace

is commonly defined

as God's unmerited favor.

And what favor

is getting at

is God's posture

towards you.

And there's nothing

that we have done

or can do

to earn God's favorable

posture towards us.

You can't win God's favor

because you're so sinful.

Not just you,

me too.

We are sinful rebels

deserving God's wrath.

He doesn't love us

because we're lovable.

He loves us

because He's loving.

And instead of being

on the receiving end

of an eternity of wrath,

Christians,

by God's grace,

are on the receiving end

of God's eternal peace.

God's grace is not limited

to His favorable posture

towards us.

It also includes

His unlimited power

for us.

Ephesians 2.8,

for by grace,

you have been saved

through faith.

God's grace

is what saves us.

God's grace

is His power to save.

It's His gospel power.

It's grace incarnate

was the appearing

of Jesus Christ.

And so Jesus Christ

is God's grace.

His death and resurrection

is His power to save,

to deliver us

from the domain of darkness

and to transfer us

into His kingdom

of His beloved Son,

the kingdom of peace,

the kingdom of light.

And one day,

because we're living

in the already and not yet,

that kingdom

that He has beached head

will one day culminate

in perfect peace

with God,

ourselves,

others,

and creation.

Our salvation,

this Operation Forever Peace

is a working

of God's powerful grace

from beginning

to end.

Think about it this way,

Christian.

Think about it this way.

You're an object

of God's grace.

He graces you.

Amazing grace

goes like this.

Through many dangers,

toils, and snares,

I have already come.

His grace has brought me

safe thus far

and grace will lead me home.

Grace will lead me home.

Grace alone.

So I'll stand in faith

by grace and grace alone.

I will run this race

by grace and grace alone.

I will slay my sin

by grace and grace alone.

That's talking about

our role in sanctification.

I will reach the end

by grace and grace alone.

That's God's role

in our salvation.

And did you notice

whose grace?

In verse 28,

the grace of our Lord

Jesus Christ.

He is our God,

our Savior,

the controlling center

of our lives,

the coming King.

He sits upon

a throne of grace

to help those

in time of need.

Anybody you need?

I'm always in need.

Take heart.

Your God will keep you

by His grace

until Christ comes.

As we get closer

to that day,

we should have

more and more hope.

Because this God of peace,

this God who is faithful,

surely He will do it,

this God of grace

who will sanctify us

until that day,

we have reason to hope.

Hope in that our pursuit

of Christ-like holiness

is not in vain.

Our efforts

to slay our sin,

that's not in vain.

You're one day closer.

hope in that

hope that on the day

of Christ,

when He returns in glory,

we will not dread

His appearing in shame,

but we will delight

when He returns.

And we want to hear

those words,

well done,

good and faithful servant.

Hope in light of all

that we've given up,

in light of all

that we've endeavored to do,

given ourselves to do,

in order to help people

follow Jesus,

to disciple,

because we've been given

the Great Commission.

On that day,

when Christ's return,

we have hope,

we have reasonable hope

to say it was worth it all

for the glory of His name.

Because He is worthy.

And to that end,

we are bound up together.

We're one day closer

to seeing our Lord

and Savior

face to face.

Let me pray.

Lord Jesus,

we take our cues

from the end

of the book of Revelation.

You say,

surely I'm coming soon.

And we say,

come now,

Lord Jesus.

Amen and amen.

God,

would you receive

our praise

and would you stir

our hearts

to be faithful,

even if it's just

for the balance

of today.

Amen.