More Commands from God on Living

Transcript

GRM 720
2/4/2001
More Commands From God on Living
I Thessalonians 5:19-28
Gil Rugh

We looked in our last study at some of the closing commands that Paul gives at the end of this letter, which many believe was his first letter of Paul's epistles. I thought we continue and look at the closing commands there. It's a section that is very compact. A series of short-to-the-point commands without any elaboration as he draws this letter to a close. He has addressed the responsibility they have among themselves as the Body of Christ. He mentioned verses 12 and 13 the responsibility to the leaders that God had provided. They are to be held in honor and respect and appreciated because of their work. Then he gave a deepened exhortation beginning with the word in verse 14, "and we urge you brethren." Through a series then of instructions down through verse 18 where he said, "And in everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." So, we are to be a people that are to be rejoicing always, praying always, giving thanks always. That's God's will for us. That doesn't mean that we never cry. It doesn't mean that there is never any sorrow, but even in that there is the joy of knowing our God is caring for us. We can continue to talk and commune with Him and be thankful to Him for His ongoing goodness and faithfulness.

Paul continues this series of instructions as he draws this letter to a close. You get the sense as Paul writes the letter you can see the difficulty of Paul having to carry on so much of his ministry from a distance and through written communication which would have been much more difficult, much more time consuming then even it is for us today. As it gets to the end of the letter it's like I have so much I want to say to you, I just got to dump it all out now in these short sharp commands, if you will. These are a series of commands beginning with verse 19. They were commands from verse 14 on as well as we noted in our previous study and there is a series here of seven commands down through verse 26, a series of seven commands that he gives to them. They are reversed almost. There is a command except for one verse that has two commands contained within it.

Continues his series of instructions in verse 19 with "Do not quench the Spirit." All of these commands except one are in the present tense. I'll note that one for you when we get to it. This means it's to be the ongoing characteristics of our lives. We are to be a people who are not at any time involved in quenching the Spirit. The Spirit here is viewed as a fire, and you remember on the day of Pentecost his visible presence was manifested as tongues of fire. So, it's a fitting symbol that something of the fire of the Holy Spirit is not to be quenched or extinguished, suppressed, stifled. That's the sense of the word. Do not be quenching the Spirit. Now exactly in what ways does he mean do not quench the Spirit. He does not elaborate on the command and perhaps the purpose is to leave it as broad as possible.

Back up to the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians 4:30, another of Paul's letters, the context again of instructions beginning in verse 25 of Ephesians 4. "We are to be laying aside falsehood, speaking truth each one with his neighbor, be angry and do not sin." Verse 27, "Do not give the devil an opportunity. Don't steal, work hard with your hands." That's an issue that plays a prominent part in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, the necessity for hard diligent work. "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth," verse 29, "only that which would be for edification and building up." Verse 31, "Let all bitterness and wrath, anger, clamor, slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving as God has forgiven you in Christ." Then note verse 30, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." It's a different word than the word "quench" that he uses in I Thessalonians 5 but the idea may be the same. You would grieve the Holy Spirit by resisting and rebelling against Him in these areas. By not submitting to Him and allowing Him to produce His fruit and the character of Christ in your life. The Spirit would be grieved by sin in our lives and that could be involved in the quenching of the Spirit. We suppress His ministry and hold it back and hold it down by our resistance and rebellion when we do not function as He has instructed us.

Come back to I Thessalonians 5. He's going to go on to talk about prophetic utterances. Some believe that he could be talking about quenching the Spirit also in the context of being open and receptive to what God said which is just a little different tilt on quenching the Spirit or grieving the Spirit. That we are not open to what He would have to say to us, being resistive to the exercising of some of the spiritual gifts. Prophesy would be one of them. Remember when Paul wrote to Timothy, and he told him in II Timothy 1:6 to stir up the spiritual gift which is in you by the laying on of my hands. There again is more freedom to the Spirit. Diligently apply yourself to exercising the gift that the Spirit within you has bestowed upon you. Another area which we could quench the Spirit, not exercising our gift as we should. That is suppressing the Spirit. He has come to take up residence within us to enable us and gift us so that we can function as an effective part of the Body and His ministry can have its fullest impact in the Body of Christ of which we have been made a part. But we quench and suppress His ministry when we refuse to function as He has gifted us.

The command to not be quenching the Spirit encompasses any area where we would not be functioning as God would have us function as His children. Sin tolerated in the life, an unwillingness, a laxness, a laziness in functioning within the Body as God would have us function and as the Spirit of God has gifted us to function so that His work can have its full impact and effectiveness within the Body of Christ. If I'm not functioning as I should, exercising my gift as I should, I am suppressing the Spirit to that extent, grieving Him and restraining His ministry among God's people. In this context here we'll see as we've already seen in the previous ones that we are involved in one another's lives in the ministry of the Body. It's never possible for me to function in an unbiblical way and not have an impact on others. By the same token, every time I am functioning in a way that is obedient to God and honoring to Him, I am also impacting people. Our lives have an impact positively or negatively, but we cannot negate the fact they have an impact. By virtue of the fact, we've been made part of the Body. There is no part of my physical body that does not impact my body. When that part of the body is functioning as it should, it impacts my body positively for good, growth and development and effectiveness. When that part of the body is not functioning as it should, it impacts my body negatively and restricts the effectiveness of the body and the development of the body and so on. This whole issue of don't quench the Spirit is a serious matter. If you think about, the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Triune God, and here a command is given to God's people not to quench Him. What a serious issue this is that we would quench or suppress, extinguish in that sense, the ministry and work of God among His people. This is a serious matter. The command is one even though it is brief that is to be taken to heart.

Verse 20 another command, "Do not despise prophetic utterances." Another command in the present tense, something we are not to be doing and this is our continual practice. We are to never despising prophetic utterances. That word "to despise" means "to set down as of no account, to set it not, to treat with contempt." The gift of prophecy was a gift that involved receiving a revelation from God and then communicating it to God's people. This was given at a time when God was adding to His Scripture. There were Old Testament prophets, and we are well familiar with them. Men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Then there were New Testament prophets with the establishing of the Church that were given new truth as a revelation from God. That new truth from the New Testament prophets is what we have as our New Testament.

Back up to the book of Ephesians again and chapter 2. These prophetic utterances are what we have as our present-day New Testament scriptures. There the command, "Do not be despising prophetic utterances," as God's prophets in the church in these early days of its history stood up and spoke a message from God, they were not to treat these prophesies with contempt. For us today it would have to do with our attitude toward these prophetic utterances as they have been recorded for us in inspired Scripture. So in Ephesians 2:19, "You were no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow-citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you were also being built together into a dwelling of God and the Spirit." You see that mutual involvement? As we are God's household, God's building, again as He mixes the metaphors here. You'll note in verse 20, "having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets." The truth revealed by God to His apostles and prophets is the truth that formed the foundation for the Church. The prophetic utterances we have are now contained as part of our New Testament Scriptures and we are not to treat them in any way with contempt, to treat them lightly or indifferently.

All Scripture is God-breathed. In Peter's second letter he includes the writings of Paul with the inspired Scripture. As those who twist the writings of Paul like they do other Scriptures, do so to their own destruction. So even before the completion of the New Testament there was the recognition that the message given to the apostles and prophets was God's message and on the level with the message that has been given to the Old Testament prophets. If you tampered with that message, you brought destruction upon yourself. The instruction here is to take seriously the Word of God. Don't treat it lightly. Now isn't it amazing he has to write to the church at Thessalonica and tell them not to despise the Word of God, not to treat it with contempt. But as we read the letter and other letters of the New Testament, we are well familiar with what happens. There come areas of our lives where we do not take the Word of God seriously. That we become indifferent toward it. It's not only that we would deny it or overtly reject it. We just ignore it, treat it as not worthy of our time and we manifest that by giving it no time, no serious consideration. That would all be contained in the rebuke here, "Do not despise prophetic utterances." Don't treat them with contempt. Don't set them down as if there is no account. They are not worth my time. Every single portion of Scripture is of great value, not because I understand how it just immediately fits into the folding, but because Almighty God has said it. What audacity, what contempt that I should set myself up to say, God has spoken but you know it's not really worth much time. You know it's not something I would want to give serious consideration to. That is contempt. Would you not, see? Would you not agree that the creature would say to God He has spoken but I don't consider that very important. I don't consider that worthy of my time. God has said it. It is of great value. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Don't treat the Word of God with contempt. That would encompass any time when I am not in obedience to the Word and functioning according.

The seriousness of this matter may be part of the instruction he's going to give down in verse 27 that we'll get to in a moment. But he says, "I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren." All concerned about an attitude to the Word of God in the church at Thessalonica. He calls upon them with an oath to be sure this letter is read publicly to the congregation. Which communicates there are some people who might read it and decide it wasn't worth the time. We need to be careful in the church of Jesus Christ today. I fear that sometimes the Word of God is treated with contempt just by the place we give it. The less attention given to the study of the Word; the happier people are. The more superficial the approach to the Word, the more content God's people are. Don't bore me with the Scripture. Don't expect me to come and have to think. Is that not treating the Word of God with contempt and despising God's truth. Not just what we say with our mouth. It's the attitude we have. Like the two sons. One who said yeah, I'll do my father's will and went away and completely ignored it.

These commands that come and they seem so simple. We say OK, of course, nobody would despise prophetic utterances. If I had been there and a prophet stood up, of course I would have given complete attention to it. But you understand that's the message we have and do I give it that seriousness. Every bit as serious is if one of those prophets stood here and gave it verbally today and think about these people. They had to give attention to it when it was just read to them. They didn't have their copy there to follow and say here it is. They were expected to grab on to it, take hold of it and go out and live it. Do not despise prophetic utterances.

But in contrast to that. Take the Word of God seriously and implement it in your life. "But examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil." In verse 21 you have two commands: examine, hold fast. Then we'll get to verse 22 and you'll have the third command that fits in this passage: to abstain. Not despising prophetic utterances but examine everything carefully. When it says do not despise prophetic utterances that doesn't mean we become gullible. We know from the New Testament writings that already there were false prophets, false apostles, invading the churches, attempting to delude and deceive and lead God's people astray. God's people are to be a discerning people and examining everything carefully. Examine everything. Danger, is we reject too much or we accept too much. We can't add anything to or take anything away.

The word "examine," another present imperative, a command given in the present tense. This is an ongoing characteristic of a believer's life. Be examining, putting things to the test to see if they are genuine. This is a word that is used for testing metals like gold so that when it comes through the testing process it's revealed to be pure gold. Believers are to be putting things to the test to check them out, the doctrine, the teaching that is coming.

In I Peter 1:6 & 7 Peter talks about the trials and testings, "Now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials." Verse 7, "That the proof," and that word translated "proof" is the same word we are talking about. It's the same basic word. The examining of your faith, the putting of your faith to the test. "Being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So, their faith was being put to the test under the trials and difficulties and what that does is refine and purify and demonstrate its genuineness. Because under the pressure and trial many of those who are not genuine in their faith manifest that fact by bailing out, abandoning. The various trials and pressures that come into our life serve the good purpose of refining our faith and demonstrating its genuineness and purifying it in anticipation of the day when the glory of His presence and we are there as a people who have been tried and tested and proved genuine. We are to be taking what is taught and putting it to the test, examining it, seeing if it is true and genuine.

Come back to I Thessalonians 5. The command is to examine everything. It's easy for people to look at us and say oh they are always nitpicking. They are always going to look at everything. They are always going to examine it. Well, of course. I mean this is a serious matter. Besides God hasn't given a recommendation here. He's given a command. He's given a command that is to be characteristic of us all the time. The tragedy in the Church of Jesus Christ today is it's giving up on its responsibility of examining everything, putting it to the test to see if it's genuine. Examine everything.

"Hold fast." Another command. Present imperative. "Hold fast to that which is good." That is our responsibility. We put things to the test and what is good we hold fast to it. It is something precious to us. The truth of God is something that we delight in. We don't put things to the test just to be difficult. We put things to the test because we want to put our arms around and embrace and hold firmly to that which is good.

Turn back to Romans 12. You have the same kind of command. "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil." We are going to get to that aspect of this in a moment. Paul has reversed the order in Thessalonians. "Cling to what is good." That is to be the characteristic of God's people all the time. They are discerning people. They sort things out. They don't get drawn into things because everybody is doing, because it's become popularly acceptable even within the evangelical community. No, we cannot give up our responsibility to be constantly examining and then holding firmly to what is good.

In I John 4:1 it says, "To test the spirits." In other words, put them to the test. I'm not talking about testing this demon or test this angel or . . . But the teachers and what is behind the teachers and are they being moved by the Spirit of God or moved by the spirit of the Devil. Test the spirits. Examine things carefully.

Come back to I Thessalonians 5:21, "We hold fast to what is good and we abstain from every form of evil." It's the result of our testing, our examining. We hold ourselves off and there's a play on words here we don't pick in English. "Hold fast to what is good. Hold away everything that is evil." That idea of keeping yourself from evil but embracing the good. This is discernment exercised in light of God's revelation. "Do not despise prophetic utterances," verse 20, "But examine everything." Then with the truth of God things are put to the test. What standard do we have? We have the truth of God. There are issues that get bantered around in churches today, using the word broadly in Christendom. Some churches are mired down in debating is homosexuality sin or is it not. Well, they can debate that endlessly, but the debate could be resolved very quickly if we go to the Scripture and put it to the test of the Scripture, accepting the authority and truthfulness of the Scripture in all areas. The problem is man, and his sin is in rebellion against God and so is unwilling to submit to the truth of God. People try to cover it over in love and kindness and desire to embrace all people. If we are not examining everything carefully in light of God's revealed truth, we get swept along with the emotion of the moment. We don't want to be the hard, unloving, unbending people. We find the need to try to qualify everything we say as many ways as we can as though we are apologizing for what God says. The fact is we hold ourselves off from everything that is evil. There's no middle ground here. Hold on to what is good. Hold off from what is evil and try to live yourself in the middle gray area. No, there are only two parts here, the evil and the good. We hold fast to what is good. We hold off and put off from what is evil.

Turn back to Isaiah chapter 8. This is not a new truth. Isaiah 8:19, "And when they say to you, 'Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,' should not a people consult their God! Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn," no light. That's the standard. I don't have to go and try to find if somebody has spoken to a demon lately or an angel lately or who has been to heaven lately. Turn on the television and some of none sense that's passed off as Christianity. You feel like you need an airplane bag to watch it. It's revolting. It ought to turn your stomach. People turn to these kinds of things for truth, and everybody is going crazy like it's wonderful. Very simple. To the law and to the testimony which was the revealed truth they had at this point, what God had revealed. If they don't speak according to this word, it's because they have no light. That draws the line. They are in darkness. They are blind trying to lead the blind and the standard has not changed. Do not despise prophetic utterance, the Word of God that's been revealed, but examine everything carefully. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from what is evil.

Back to I Thessalonians 5. You understand the context in which I say this. If the early church was responsible for this, how much more are we? You understand they did not walk around with a nice concise complete inspired revelation from God as we do. We have it from Genesis to Revelation. We take it home with us. We can open it up and review it. We probably have multiple copies. There was no slack given in Old or New Testament for failure to obey God's Word. How much more accountable are we. The Thessalonians could go out and you know, I forgot. I didn't hear carefully. I let my mind wonder. When I was reading Paul's letter to us, I was thinking about dinner. I was thinking about a problem, and I didn't hear what he said. You know they are still accountable. How much more of us. We bring our Bible and open up and follow it yourself. We take it home and go back and say now is that what that said. Is my life really in line with this. We have a greater light in the sense, we have a completed revelation from God. We of all people ought to be very careful and very discerning and cling to what is good and abstain from every form of evil.

Verse 23. Ultimately it will be God, and it is God, who enables us to grasp the good and reject the evil. It's His gracious work in our lives. That's why one of the sifting things that goes on in the Church is people who never develop that ability manifest they do not have God at work in their lives. This is not a matter of human IQ. This is a matter of spiritual discernment. The person who is without the Spirit is without understanding. But he who is spiritual, that is, he who has the Spirit, discerns all things. That's the last part of I Corinthians chapter 2. So now we have verse 23, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you in entirely." That work of sanctification is that work of what? Setting us apart from evil, having us hold fast to that which is good. The meaning of the word "sanctify" is "to set apart." It's the same basic word that is translated "saint" and "holy." It means to be set apart. We are sanctified, holy saints, as those set apart from sin for God. God is holy, holy, holy because He is completely and absolutely set apart from all sin and all defilement. Now it's the God of peace Himself . . . You note the emphasis on that. None other than Almighty God Himself, the God who has brought peace to our hearts and minds and lives through His Son Jesus Christ. That brings about this work of sanctification. So, the command is given to us, and we apply ourselves to the obeying of it with all our strength. But it is not something that can be done in human strength as we apply ourselves with diligence to be obedient to the Word. God graciously is working in our lives as His people to sanctify us entirely. A complete work of sanctification that will ultimately reach completion when we are gathered in the glory of His presence. You note it is an ongoing work and it is God's work to sanctify us, and this would help us understand the context back to verse 19, "Don't quench the Spirit." It's God and through the Person of the Holy Spirit who is at work in us and this work of sanctification. We don't want to grieve the Spirit as we saw in Ephesians 4:30. We need lives obedient to Him, submissive to Him, desirous of doing all that He commands us to do and knowing that as we are obedient to His commands, He is working His work of sanctification in our lives.

"And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." I Thessalonians 5:30, wonderful passage. God's work in the lives of His people is a complete work, an all-encompassing work. Soul, spirit, body preserved completely, blameless at His coming. That's remarkable. Remember Colossians chapter 1:22, says we will be “presented before the very throne of God as holy and blameless and without spot.” Same truth. God's work of sanctification is complete, and I praise Him. I realize it's not done in me. It's not done in you, but it is a work that is ongoing if you really belong to the living God. He is at work to sanctify us entirely. That's why those who can be comfortable in living in sin demonstrate they do not have the living God at work in their lives. I'm not saying that true believers can't sin, but the sin of a true believer makes us miserable, not a place we can live. Because God's at work in our lives. Praise Him for that and He's going to preserve us completely.

This is one of those passages that has generated much theological discussion. Do you believe man is composed of two parts or three parts? Dichotomous or trichotomous? Those who believe that man is two parts believe that he is basically the material and the immaterial. The material part is our physical part. The immaterial part is our soul, our spirit. Now everybody agrees there's a material and immaterial part. Anyone who really believes the Scripture. Now some would see in light of passages like this that man is comprised of three parts, not just the material and immaterial but the body, the soul and the spirit because he does speak here clearly of three distinct parts. Your spirit, your soul and your body. Hebrews chapter 4 is the other clear passage on this. Just over a few pages toward the back of your Bible. Hebrews 4:12, "For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the dividing us under of soul and spirit." Now the discussion is does this mean the Word of God goes as far as dividing the soul and spirit, but it doesn't mean it does divide soul and spirit? Or does it mean the Word of God is so powerful, it is able to divide between the soul and the spirit? The problem gets more difficult because neither the passage in Thessalonians or the passage in Hebrews gives us any indication as what the distinction between the soul and the spirit might be. Those who make a distinction between soul and spirit usually do it along these lines. The spirit is the highest part of man. It's that part of man which enables him to communicate with God. As a result of sin man has become spiritually dead and in Christ, we are made spiritually alive. The soul is life as all human beings enjoy it. It's self-conscience life. The soul is the seed of the personality. You see the distinction they are making. The soul is part of being a living human being, a self-conscience being with personality. Where the spirit is that part of our immaterial being which enables us to have fellowship and communion with God.

It gets difficult. James 2:26 says, "The body without the spirit is dead." There it would seem the spirit is being used like soul because the unbeliever experiences physical death. When the immaterial part of the unbeliever leaves his body, he is dead. James 2:26 says, "The body without the spirit is dead." There we can't just be talking about regenerate people who have the spirit part of their immaterial being made alive in Christ and communicate with Him. So, it's kind of like that then, they get a little confusing. There are other passages; we won't take the time to turn to where it seems that we talk about just the material and the immaterial part of man.

In I Thessalonians 5:23, let me read this verse and then I want to go earlier in I Thessalonians. "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; may your spirit, soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus.” This seems to be a repetition of the prayer that Paul gives in chapter 3 of I Thessalonians beginning in verse 11, "Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all men, just as we also do for you; so that He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness." The doctrine of sanctification, remember, complete, blameless. "Before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." There he uses the word "heart." In I Thessalonians 5 he breaks that heart down into the soul and spirit and so what is the distinction? Well, to clarify it for you. All I can say is there may be a distinction between soul and spirit, but I can find nothing in Scripture that tells us what that distinction is.

I understand I Thessalonians 5 speaks and grammatically it seems to be drawing a clearer distinction between spirit, soul and body, and then you add that to the Hebrew 4:12 passage and you say why does he talk about spirit, soul and body. Some would connect it with the Old Testament. You love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Well, do you want to try a distinction between the heart, the soul and the mind. Really, it's just emphasizing with all your being. But he does use spirit and soul here. So, I would not go to the wall and say there's not a distinction between soul and spirit, but I would say I do not know what it is. What I've been able to read, and I have not vastly read on this subject, but that which attempts to deal with Scripture, I am not convinced of the arguments or the case that this is what the spirit does. I Corinthians 2 makes a distinction between the spiritual man and the soulish man but there the distinction is between the man who has the Spirit of God versus the man who does not have the Spirit of God. The spiritual man there is the man who has the Holy Spirit versus the man who does not have the Holy Spirit. The soulish man is the man without the Spirit of God. So, we are not talking in the same context of the Spirit as we have here where we talk about Holy Spirit.

All of that to say I don't have any idea what the difference is. If you would ask me, I'd probably say I'm a dichotomist because in practical functioning in my theology I am a dichotomist because I don't know what distinction there is between soul and spirit if there is one. But by the same token I'm not going to go to the wall and say there is none. But I'm saying I have not been able to learn what that is. I basically function that man has a material part and man has an immaterial part. The Scripture basically deals with us.

Here you are the end of a verse, and you have a major theological issue that's come down through church history over dichotomy and trichotomy and all Paul was doing was closing out a letter and giving a word and so I don't want to make it more complicated than it is. I do know from verse 23 of I Thessalonians 5 that I am going to be preserved complete in all of my being, my immaterial being and my material being with the final completed work of sanctification that God is doing in my life as His child. That ultimately points as we saw at the end of chapter 3 in I Thessalonians and here we have in chapter 5 verse 23, at the coming of Jesus Christ. You know, the real issue is not how people see you now. It's how you will stand before Him. Only those in Christ will be able to stand before Him blameless. We keep that in mind as the goal toward which we are going.

All right let's lock this up at the end of I Thessalonians 5. "Faithful is He who calls you, and He will also bring it to pass." What a wonderful verse of Scripture! You note the context of this. The context of this was in verse 23, my complete and final sanctification in His presence is guaranteed by the faithfulness of God. Even when I am unfaithful, He remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself as Paul wrote to Timothy. I am absolutely confident that God's work will be complete.

Philippians 1:6, "He who has begun a good work in you will continue to bring it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ." It's His work in me. That doesn't mean I just let go and let God. I've just been given a series of commands that I am responsible to obey and implement in my life. My hope is not in my faithfulness in carrying out this. My hope is in His faithfulness in working in my life as I by His grace drawing on His sufficiency attempt to obey Him as He has commanded.

"Brethren, pray for us." That's another command. Be continually praying for us. Paul often asked others to pray for him. We have his prayers recorded. The most important thing you can do for the ministry of this church is pray. Do you pray faithfully, diligently, fervently every day for the ministry of this Body of believers. Nothing would revolutionize the ministry of this church and its impact than if we as God's people would take seriously that we are going to beseech God for His blessing and work in our lives. Brethren, pray for us.

Here's a verse we ought to spend the whole evening on, "Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss." We will immediately practice this following the service (ha ha). Another command. It's given in the aorist tense, not the present tense. You don't have to be kissing them all time. But it is a greeting and was practiced. It did become a problem because you know what happens in the early church councils as we read what they debated in that. They were constantly putting restrictions on the kind of kissing that could go on because it would get out of hand. You know you can enjoy kissing some people. The ushers gave me a hug when I came in. That was all right but just uh . . . But what? It was in the family and that's what we are talking about. You know, parents kiss their kids, a brother and a sister. There's a family greeting and a warmth, expressing affection, and that's what it's talked about here. We're God's household. We're God's family. That warmth that was there and that was the standard greeting of the time. It was how they greeted one another. You still see that when you watch it on the news and so on. You'd be seeing something in the Middle East and what do they do? They come up with their arms around one another and give one another a kiss. It doesn't matter how ugly, whatever. They just come up and give one another . . . It's a form of greeting. Like we do shaking hands. We don't say you're too ugly. I won't shake your hand. Well, they don't say you're too ugly I don't kiss you. It's part of their greeting and we are to have that warmth, that family relationship. It's a reminder here that it's given that we are a family. These commands are given, and they facilitate our functioning together as God's people. Why does the church break down? Why do we fragment? Why do we break into factions? We fail to function according to the Word of God. We're a family. It's sad when you see a human family tear itself apart. You see, you know, suing one another over a will and over . . . And parents suing kids and kids . . . You say that's a tragedy. It's not near the tragedy it is when it goes on in God's family.

We are reminded to greet one another with a holy kiss. We belong to one another. We're family. "I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren." This is the third time in the letter Paul has used a singular "I." Chapter 2 verse 18, chapter 3 verse 5. He's serious about this. His apostolic authority here, "I adjure you." It means to put someone under an oath or bind them by an oath. I bind you by an oath before God have this letter read aloud in the assembly. It's a serious matter. You can get a sense here. Why? Paul would have to say that . . . Wouldn't it be enough to say read this letter? But he says I put you under an oath to have this letter read. You get a sense of something of the tension that existed in the Body. Why some of the commands had to be given that are given here. Why their attitude toward the Word of God is so important and they need to be careful not to hold the Word in contempt in any area. We don't sit in judgment on the Word. The Word sits in judgment on us. We hold everything up to the searchlight of Scripture.

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." All the letters of the New Testament begin and end with grace. It's God's all sufficient, enabling provision for us in Christ that accomplishes everything and that sustains us. It sustained the Thessalonians because God is faithful, and He desires that that grace be multiplied in their lives.

I trust we are a Church functioning together according to the clear, simple instructions of God's Word. That begins by implementing them in my life. You implement them in your life. Each of us are implementing God's commands and His truth in our lives, then we as a Body are characterized by what? Obedience, harmony as God's work of sanctification continues, molding and shaping us to greater perfection in anticipation of that day when we will be in the presence of Christ in the fullness of Glory and be blameless. What a hope! Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, for Your grace. Thank you for a salvation that is so awesome and wonderful and powerful that it takes the most wretched of sinners and makes them pure and white as snow. Thank you for Your work in our lives personally and in the life of this local church. Thank you for bringing us together that we might grow and mature together as Your people. Lord, may we take Your commands seriously and implement them in our lives and in the life of this church. And we rejoice at Your work of sanctification that is being carried out in each of our lives as you prepare us for that time when we will stand in the glory of Your presence and be blameless. We praise you for that blessed hope, that glorious future in Christ's name, amen.