Certain Sanctification (1 Thessalonians 5:23-28) - Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple

Let's take our Bibles and open up to 1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5, 23 through 28. This is the conclusion

of this letter from Paul and Silas and Timothy

to the Christians in Thessalonica. And as we

come to the conclusion of this book, we don't

actually, we will continue to be in this book.

This book is so good for us. And Lord willing,

we'll get into the second letter in the future.

But we do take time to conclude the sermon series.

But I also want to briefly let you know what's

ahead for us. I think it's a good practice. I

think it's a biblical practice that we would

cover the whole council of God and our preaching

and our teaching. And so next up is the book

of Jonah. And I know we all pretty familiar with

that book, and yet there's so much there. And

so look forward to Jonah. But for now, let us

give our attention to Thessalonians, the first

letter, chapter five, 23 through 28. Please pay

attention, for this is God's holy word. 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 with a holy kiss. I put you under

oath before the Lord to have this letter read

to all the brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus

Christ be with you. The grass withers and the

flower fades, but God's word stands forever.

Let's pray. Father, we pray with thanksgiving

for this word that is inspired by your spirit

and we ask. Lord that you'd open up our hearts

and our minds to receive this word and to apply

this word We pray it in Christ's name. Amen Perhaps

you know of the hymn writer John Newton John

Newton who wrote Amazing Grace in His later years

just a couple of years before his death his eyesight

had grown dim And so what he would do in order

to continue to read the Bible is to have someone

read it to him. And it was very common for John

Newton to have the Bible read at breakfast. And

so one day a friend called upon him for breakfast.

And so John Newton and this friend had breakfast.

And the scripture that was chosen for that day

is from 1 Corinthians 15. By the grace of God,

I am what I am. But it was also Newton's practice

to explain Scripture and to apply Scripture.

And so John Newton said this, I am not what I

ought to be. How imperfect and deficient I am

not what I wish to be. Soon, soon I shall put

off mortality and with mortality all sin and

imperfection yet, though I am not not what I

ought to be, nor what I wish to be. Now what

I hope to be, I can truly say. I am not what

I once was, a slave to sin and Satan, and I can

hardly join in with the apostle and acknowledge

by the grace of God, I am what I am. Friends,

you are not what you will be, but you are not

who you were. You are in the process of sanctification,

that at the moment of regeneration upon the new

birth, God begins the process of making you more

and more and more like Christ a process that

will continue Until Christ returns you are being

made new Today I want to focus on three things

related to sanctification Looking at what is

sanctification? How does sanctification work?

And to what extent will God sanctify? So you

might say, well, yes, what is sanctification?

I think the Westminster Shorter Catechism is

the place to go to hear this definition. Sanctification

is the work of God's spirit, whereby we are renewed

in the whole man after the image of God and are

enabled more and more to die unto sin and to

live unto righteousness. You can hear within

that definition that there are really two parts

to sanctification. There's the dying to sin,

the mortification, but also the living unto righteousness,

the holy living. And friends, that's the point

of this passage. Look in verse 23. Now may the

God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

This is the point of the passage, but it's also,

I would say, the point of the entire letter.

Now you might say, how is this the point of the

entire letter? There's a lot of good stuff in

here. I believe it's the main point of the letter

because sanctification, as one scholar said it,

sanctification is the chief goal of our eternal

election. We are saved not just from something.

We are saved to something. We are saved, friends,

to holiness. And Paul, as we have seen throughout

this letter, his concern has been to minister

to the Thessalonians about holiness. And they

were young Christians, we are to believe. And

so what they needed to hear was that God requires

of us our lives, that we are to give our lives

in faith to Christ who begins this work of sanctification

and doesn't quit. Verse 23 here it reads like

a benediction, but it's really a prayer and as

the source of peace Paul prays for God to sanctify

them through and through you see it there spirit

soul and Body friends at the coming of the Lord

Jesus at the at Jesus's return There will not

be an ounce of your spirit left unsanctified

He will bring it to completion. And when Paul

mentions the body here, perhaps what he is recalling

here is the resurrection. That when Christ comes

and he takes us to himself, what's going to happen

is the resurrection, right? That we will no longer

have bodies that are plagued by sin, plagued

by illness, plagued by injury. We will be perfect.

But it's also been said, That when Christ comes

he comes for judgment you can see here in the

verse blamelessness This is getting at Christ's

righteousness if you are in Christ you were able

to stand in the judgment But if not if you do

not have Christ you will not be able to stand

Blamelessness is getting here that you would

have no spot no blemish and no it's not getting

at skincare This is getting at soul care and

so friends here in this space. Do you have? the

righteousness of Christ It has your body and

soul been saved by Jesus Jesus is the only way

that we will have peace possible with God in

Christ we are safe in the judgment In Christ,

His righteousness is imputed to us. It is ours.

But friends, if you do not have Jesus today,

if you do not have Christ, you are relying on

your own merits and your acts of righteousness

are not sufficient. They're not good enough because

apart from Christ, any good work that we may

do actually isn't that good because it's done

from the wrong motivation. Our good works before

Christ are broken, polluted. We have all inherited

Adam's sin, and surely every day since we have

committed sin. And so no, without Christ, you'll

not be able to stand in the judgment. You need

Christ. Friends, I hope you can see that these

few verses that we look at, this is not a bland

conclusion, but this is a grand conclusion. Paul

is giving us the gospel in a nutshell. We are

being made more and more into the likeness of

our Savior. But friends, can we do it on our

own? No. Look in the verse, verse 23. Now may

the God of peace himself sanctify you completely,

telling us that who is the one doing the sanctification?

The God of peace. It's become common in our day

to talk about using this phrase, do it yourself

DIY. If you go to a Lowe's or a Home Depot or

an AIDS Hardware on a Saturday, you'll see all

kinds of people trying to DIY, do it yourself.

But friends, when it comes to sanctification,

you cannot DIY. You cannot do it yourself. We

need God to work in this way. And so how does

it work? How does he work in us? Well, as we

see the God of peace is the one who does this.

First off, I want you to see that this is certain.

That's what that verse tells us. He will surely

do it. And so you don't have to worry, is God

going to do this? If you are in Christ, he is

at work in your lives. But he does work through

specific means. And these specific means are

very ordinary means. God accomplishes salvation

through the word and the sacraments. prayer and

so we should give ourselves to these things look

in verse 25 brothers pray for us again one of

the means of grace prayer if this is an evidence

for the very fact that we need prayer I don't

know what is because Paul under the inspiration

of the Holy Spirit is calling upon prayer for

himself this is Paul The Holy Spirit wants you

to have these words, to hit your knees in prayer.

We saw in our last section that we are to pray

without ceasing, right? We've also talked about

brotherly love, haven't we? Is there any greater

way we can show love to one another but by prayer?

We must be people of prayer. And we talked last

time about how some of these Some of these prescriptions,

some of these commands within the scripture are

not just for individuals, but for the church,

for church life. And so we recognize that as

a church we must be praying. Friends, we have

a mechanism here at Fairview for prayer for one

another. It's called the prayer meeting. Would

you come on Wednesday nights and be a part of

the prayer meeting of lifting one another up

with united voices? Oh friends, we must do this.

The prayer meeting has been called the engine

room of the church. And so let us as a church

be praying for one another. You can also see

the way that Paul puts this. He says, brothers

pray for us. I don't know how many times he says

the word brother within this letter, but many

times there is a warmth there. There is an affection

there. There is a closeness here. And it's exhibited

in verse 26 as well. Greet all the brothers with

a holy kiss. Again, implying, showing affection

and closeness. Now, I don't think that this is

a command here to all of the church, so you don't

have to be wholly kissing outside of the church

after worship here. Perhaps a hug or a handshake

will do, but in some places, and in this time,

this would have been very common. And so let

us show affection for one another. Let us love

one another as the church. We're reminded here

how much Paul loved this church. Paul loved this

church. He was driven out from the church by

the people in the city of Thessalonica, and he

was prevented from coming back, though he wanted

to, because he loved them, and he wanted to continue

to share Christ with them. But as Paul was unable

to come back to the Thessalonians, he gives them

the next best thing, and perhaps our best thing.

He writes to them this letter. And this shows

the sovereignty of God, doesn't it? That God

would preserve this letter for our edification.

That as the Thessalonians needed this letter,

so do we. And the Holy Spirit supplies it. You

can also see how seriously Paul takes this letter.

Look in verse 27. I put you under oath before

the Lord to have this letter read to all the

brothers. Paul wrote to address specific concerns

within the church, namely sanctification and

the return of Christ. They had holes in their

theology, holes in their practice. This letter

is a response to that. And so as the Thessalonians

needed help with theology and practice, so do

we. And so, friends, as I mentioned, the word

being of the means of grace, let us give ourselves

to the reading of scripture. to the study of

Scripture, to the memorization of Scripture,

and to the meditation upon Scripture. Let us

give ourselves to these things corporately, together.

Children's studies we have here, men's Bible

studies, women's Bible studies, vacation Bible

school, all of these things are centered on the

Word. And we've already seen how effective the

Word is. If you remember chapter two, verse 13.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that

when you receive the word of God, which you heard

from us, you accepted it not as the word of men,

but as what it really is, the word of God, which

is at work in you, believers. Friends, the word

works. The word works. This is the revelation

of God of himself. And so God gives us the Word,

and John chapter one says that Jesus is the Word.

The Word is good for us, it's necessary for us,

and the Word is coming back. Jesus is returning.

Don't you think we ought to know who Jesus is

before he comes back? You know Jesus from the

Word, and the Word sanctifies. But thirdly, To

what extent does God sanctify us? If you remember

Philippians 1 .6, this speaks to it very, very

well. Philippians 1 .6, and 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.

To what extent? To a full extent he will sanctify

us. sanctification it's a process I like how

Martin Luther put it Luther said we in Christ

equals justification Christ in us equals sanctification

and friends on the day of the return of Christ

he will have no unfinished projects right now

in these days we are battling sin We're wrestling

with it. Sometimes we fail miserably, but because

of the Holy Spirit, we can say no to sin. And

some of you are doing that very, very well. You're

saying no to sin. What we have to look forward

to on that last day is when we will be freed

from sinning. What a glorious thought. Do you

know the last verse of Come Thou Found? It was

actually written later. It goes like this. On

that day, when freed from sinning, I shall see

thy lovely face, clothed then in blood -washed

linen, how I'll sing thy sovereign grace. Come,

my Lord, no longer tarry. Take my ransom soul

away. Send thine angels now to carry me to realms

of endless. free from sinning. Are you familiar

with the ministry of Johnny Erickson Tata? If

you are, you know that when she was 17, she had

a terrible accident, a diving accident, that

left her completely paralyzed, a quadriplegic.

You would think that a person who has had to

deal with pain for so many decades and confined

to a wheelchair, you would think that when somebody

would ask her, What are you most looking forward

to about heaven that she would say to be freed

from all of this? But what she really said was

she is most looking forward to being free from

sinning. Friends, verse 24 is abundantly clear.

God is faithful to complete his work. And what

we have before us, this table is a picture of

that. It's a picture of the completeness of Christ

to die on the cross for us. This is what we will

partake of momentarily. But for now, go back

to verse 23 as I begin to wrap up. I said that

verse 23 is the main point, but actually I would

say it's 1A and 1B with chapter 3, verse 13.

Actually, I'll read 11 through 13 that says,

our Lord Jesus direct our way to you and may

the Lord make you Increase and abound in love

for one another and for all as we do for you

So that he may establish your hearts blameless

in holiness Before our God and father at the

coming of our Lord Jesus With all his saints

you can hear the similarity both of these passages

read like benediction, but consider them prayers.

This is how Paul and Silas and Timothy pray for

the Thessalonian church. And you remember how

last Sunday we talked about assurance of salvation.

About those who were in the church who were weak

who were faint -hearted perhaps lacking that

assurance wondering am I getting the mercy of

God or am I getting the wrath of God? Friends

this whole book is written to give you hope and

the certainty that if you were in Christ You

will never be outside of Christ that you have

the righteousness of Christ That you have the

certainty of that fact that he who began a good

work in you will see it all the way to the end.

That's what this book is all about. And that's

not just Paul's prayer. It's not just Paul's

prayer. This is actually Jesus' prayer. Do you

remember John chapter 17, Jesus' high priestly

John 17 · chapter mention

prayer? Do you remember that before Jesus went

to the cross, he prayed for his disciples? He

prayed like this. Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth and then he added For their

sake I consecrate myself that they also may be

sanctified in truth And listen to this part.

It's for you I do not ask for these only but

also for those who will believe in me through

their word friends Before Jesus took to the cross

He didn't just pray for his disciples right then

and there He prayed for you. He prayed for you

to be sanctified. And as the book of Hebrews

says, Jesus lives to intercede. And so there's

no reason to believe that Jesus has stopped praying

this. It has not changed. Jesus continues to

pray for your holiness. And so friends, have

hope in the meantime. At His coming, we will

be what He wants us to be, perfectly sanctified,

spotless, righteous. You have that now in Christ.

But in the last day, you will have it in its

fullness. You will be kept blameless. You will

be perfectly holy.