Sermon Tone Analysis

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

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

The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

The passage before us concludes with an astonishing and a comforting affirmation.

These two verse, coming at the conclusion of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, express his desire for the Thessalonians in the form of a prayer.

Paul puts feet to his longings by presenting his desires before the Great God.

It is not so much the prayer that I wish us to consider today as it is to take note of the confidence which the Apostle expressed.

He was confident that God would indeed fulfil that prayer.

The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

Reading the text in the original language and applying the translator’s art to these verses in order to provide a foundation from which to work, we arrive at a fuller understanding.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved in entirety, free from blame, at the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful; He will do it/./

The changes introduced register no disagreement with the text, but they do emphasise and clarify the intent of the text.

*To Whom We Look For Perfecting.*  God is central to the Apostle’s prayer, but when introduced to the issue, He is referred to as the God of peace/.

/It is God Himself who is at work in our lives, but particularly in His role of introducing peace into our lives.

When Paul wrote of the God of peace he was employing a term which was apparently dear to him.

He likewise speaks of the God of peace twice in the book of Romans, *Romans 15:33* and in *Romans 16:20*, and also in *Philippians 4:9*.

Note that he refers to the Lord God as the God of love and peace in *2 Corinthians 13:11* and note also his allusion to the Risen Lord as the Lord of peace in *2 Thessalonians 3:16*.

To the Corinthians Paul insisted that God is not a God of disorder but of peace [*1 Corinthians 14:33*].

It is as if the Apostle were constantly stressing to believers that peace is the sum total of gospel blessings.

Have you ever noticed that in virtually every letter Paul brings into close juxtaposition God and peace?

To the Romans, Paul opened his missive with a prayer for [g]race and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ [*Romans 1:7*].

He began each letter to the Corinthians in a similar manner with a prayer for grace and peace [*1 Corinthians 1:3*; *2 Corinthians 1:2*].

This observation also holds true in his letters to the Galatians [*Galatians 1:3*], to the Ephesians [*Ephesians 1:2*], to the Philippians [*Philippians 1:2*], to the Colossians [*Colossians 1:2*], and in both missives to the Thessalonians [*1 Thessalonians 1:1*; *2 Thessalonians 1:2*].

Similar prayers are employed in his letters to Timothy [*1 Timothy 1:2*; *2 Timothy 1:2*], to Titus [*Titus 1:4*], and to Philemon [*Philemon 3*].

That God and peace are interrelated is likewise observed in many of the benedictions in his letters [*Galatians 6:16*; *Ephesians 6:23*].

This truth which characterised Paul is found also to be applicable to Peter [*1 Peter 1:2*; *2 Peter 1:2*], to John [*2 John 3*], and to the unknown author of the Book of Hebrews [*Hebrews 13:20*] as well.

God is the author of peace.

Without God there is no peace.

It is significance that the Messiah is the Prince of Peace [*Isaiah 9:6*].

Neither should it be surprising that the Gospel is spoken of as conferring/ /peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all [*Acts 10:36*].

It is said that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ [*Romans 5:1*].

God, through the Prophet Isaiah, spoke long years past:

 

/“Peace, peace, to those far and near,”/

/says the LORD.

/“/And I will heal them/”

/But the wicked are like the tossing sea,/

/which cannot rest,/

/whose waves cast up mire and mud.

/

/“There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked”/

[*Isaiah 57:19-21*].

Our world is engaged in an endless search for peace.

Nations seek peace more diligently than any individual ever searched for gold.

Individuals invest considerable energies and strength in the search for peace.

I am struck by the fact that the more intensely political leaders seem to search for peace and the more ardently those same leaders speak of peace and the more vociferously the populace demands peace, the less of that precious commodity there appears to be available.

Despite every effort of mankind to find that elusive commodity of peace, the Word of God nevertheless warns readers: /While people are saying, /“/Peace and safety,/”/ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape/ [*1 Thessalonians 5:3*].

There shall be an ever more frantic search for peace as age nears a conclusion.

Yet, for all the frenetic, frenzied fury of fruitless search, peace shall prove as elusive as the will-o-the-wisp.

There is no peace for mankind except that peace which is found in God alone.

There is no possibility of peace until we know the Prince of Peace and have the Spirit of Peace occupying the throne of our heart.

We need to hear with fresh ears the promise Christ offers the restless heart: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls [*Matthew 11:28,29*].

Again I urge you to hear His words spoken on the eve of His exodus from earth.

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [*John 14:27*].

Jesus promised His disciples peace with these words I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace [*John 16:33*].

Hearing is insufficient if you will know that peace.

You must seize that peace through surrendering your rebel heart to Him as Master of life.

Do so even now.

Is it not strange that the demons are characterised as restless in Jesus’ revelation?

When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it  [*Matthew 12:43*].

Restlessness, the absence of peace, the failure to find that quiet confidence which is the heritage of the servants of the God of Peace, this is the mark of demonic powers; and those who find their soul characterised as restless and always seeking something more have need to inquire whether they are reflecting the spirit of the Holy One or whether they are demonstrating the rule of the wicked one.

In Port Coquitlam there were several gasoline stations near our residence which were owned and operated by members of a particular ethnic group associated with overt outward religious demonstration of their piety.

These stations, in every instance, featured a sign prominently displayed somewhere near the islands which were easily read from the highway.

These signs pronounced for all to read: “In God We Trust”.

Often I would be with a friend who told me that he gassed up in one or the other of these stations because the owners believed in God.

Once, after my friend had pulled up to the island, I queried the man serving the pumps about his relationship to Christ Jesus the Lord.

He was not a Christian!

How could we think that!

My friend was shocked because he had read the sign and drawn the conclusion that the owners were Christians.

The sect knows little of peace because they know little of the God of peace.

The most prominent feature in the public view of the sect is their constant violence toward one another and toward other individuals of the same racial origin who fail to share their religious persuasion.

The God of peace will so work in our lives to create a life of peace that flows from confidence and certainty.

To say they know nothing of the God of peace is to feature the obvious!

 

*The Work God Is Now Performing.*

The work God now performs in the life of each believer, the work which lays the foundation for peace, is the work of full preservation, a work which frees one from blame.

Confronted by religious leaders, Jesus said of God: My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working [*John 5:17*].

Any who contend that God’s rest following Creation is ongoing ignore the Word of God; God is at work in our world to this day.

Especially is God at work in the life of His people.

Just what is God doing in our world, and what is He doing in the life of His saints?

While I might speak at considerable length on the revelation we are provided in the Word of God’s work in our world today and especially of the work God is performing in the life of the believer, here Paul focuses attention to this one great perfecting work of sanctification, of being preserved for God’s special purpose.

Furthermore, Paul asserts that this sanctifying work is complete for spirit, soul and body.

I am conscious that in Christ we are even now declared holy and perfect.

When God looks on His child He sees that individual as perfect now!  *Ephesians 1:4* makes this abundantly clear.

He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.

When we supply the nouns represented by the pronouns, we discover that *God* chose us in *Christ* before the world was created /to be holy and blameless in [God/’/s] sight/.

The import of that revelation is that we are now holy and blameless in the sight of God.

This is what the theologians speak of as *positional sanctification*.

While I may be now holy in God’s sight, I can attest that I am far from holy in my life.

Even my attitudes and the choices I make are not always pure and unsullied by self.

This demonstrates the need for what the theologian calls *progressive sanctification*, of the need to grow in grace and knowledge or the Lord Christ.

In a previous sermon I focused on the triune nature of man, noting that we possess a body and a spirit, but that we are living souls.

The spirit is dead by virtue of the fact that it is separate from God, and thus the soul is separated and the body likewise has no hope of redemption from the sentence of death.

We sometimes speak of those who are dying as being *terminal*.

I am always tempted to ask, “Aren’t we all?”

The spirit is declared dead because it is not united to God.

We have need of a new spirit which is alive to the Living God and which is able to fellowship with Him.

At the point we believe God’s message, He gives us a new spirit, just as was promised in *Ezekiel 36:26*: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

We are dull and dazed and dead and in need of being awakened to the life of love.