God's Holy Vessels 1 Thessilonians 4
1 Thessalonians • Sermon • Submitted
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1 Thessalonians 4:3 (NASB95) — 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
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Your body and mine are tents. As members of the family of God these are tents as holy as it were the one tent that travels throughout the wilderness that was the worship center in the midst of the House of Israel.
You may be anxious to know what the will of God is for your life.
what are you thinking?
Does God want me to be a Doctor or Lawyer. Does God want we to be a pastor or Sunday school teacher or go on the mission field. How many have said or heard others say with a hint of desperation
“I just want to know what God’s will for my life is.” even while being content with one’s own direction in life.
Good news. Here’s the answer!
God’s will for your life is Sanctification.
Keep it simple with one focus with one solitary goal in mind.
Sanctification.
it is entering and remaining in the place of holiness. it is constant residence within a boundaries of God’s Love and affection. Enjoying God and He having pleasure in you.
I used to have this righteous Jealousy of the person of the Lord that we first saw at his baptism and then on the mount of transfiguration.
Matthew 3:16–17 (NASB95) — 16 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
Who is your God?
Is he the Father who you pray to as in
Our Father, Hallowed by thy name?
Are you in any way seeking the approval of this God in heaven? Has it become you greatest desire that at his appearing and presenting to your master a return on his investment in you only to hear those commendatory words
Well, done good and faithful servant.
Or have you reached the peak of your Christian experience with your only ambition to avoid Hell?
The reality is, that at least once every member of the Church Age has experienced at least for a moment that Holy life. at one point we were holy and consecrated for right worship and service to God. that was the moment of our birth into the Family of God.
It was our baptism. the real baptism when we recieved through the power of the Holy spirit the identification with Christ.
what happened at the very instant?
Isaiah 43:25 (NASB95) — 25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.
Isaiah 1:18 (NASB95) — 18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.
At the moment of our Baptism, Faith in Christ, we entered into God’s good pleasure.
Unlike with our first birth being fowled with sin for I was conceived in inequity, my second birth I have been born again by the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit. coming out of that baptism the Father says, “this is my beloved, whom I am well pleased.”
Listen, You cannot go back. when Israel crossed through the water, God closed the path back to Egypt.
At least once we experienced pleasure of God and God being pleased with us.
But then sin tore us away. not positionally but experimentally. Personal sin takes us out and away from the consecrated state as it brings defilement on that which God had made holy.
What is the term that means defilement of that which was made sacred?
Desecration
Defiling an object or place by some unclean or impure act. This can render an object unholy, impure, unclean, or it can simply be a great offense to the object or place. Also: Defile; Defilement;
In the Tanakh the terms clean and unclean applies. when one was unclean for various reasons they were disqualified for worship and not permitted in the assembly of worshippers.
Lets go back to Daniel and see what the consequences of one who had desecrated that which was sacred to God.
Daniel Chapter 5 begins with a party that was being thrown by Belshazzar, the coregent King of Babylon. Then it was that this King commented a great sin against God. He had brought out of the treasury the cups and the dishes that were captured from Judah at the time when Judah was given over by the Lord to Nebuchadnezzar, this Kings grandfather. those cups remained in the treasury untouched for years since, until Belshazzar decided in a drunken stupor to bring the sacred vessels out and defile them to give honor to pagan gods.
The Lord was quick to respond. there came the writing on the wall that Daniel interpreted which spelled the doom of Babylon.
Our bodies are sacred to God.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20(NASB95) — 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
2 Timothy 2:21(NASB95) — 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
Being holy vessels that hold the indwelling righteousness of God, will it be that how we ourselves care and honor that been made holy unto God will it have impact on the life or death of a nation? of our nation?
Paul gives the believers at Corinth a warning.
1 Corinthians 3:16–17 (NASB95) — 16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.
In the Tanakh the garments were literal priestly garments which were worn when representing man to their God.
Zechariah 3:3–7 (NASB95) — 3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. 4 He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Again he said to him, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” 5 Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the Lord was standing by. 6 And the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here.
In the Church age, we are now royal priests before God and our garments is the righteousness that we adorn when approaching God.
Jude 22–23 (NASB95) — 22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting; 23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
Revelation 3:4–6 (NASB95) — 4 ‘But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5 ‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
the defilement is the sin which we have committed in whatever category.
Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon 266 ἁμαρτία
266 ἁμαρτία [hamartia /ham·ar·tee·ah/] n f. From 264; TDNT 1:267; TDNTA 44; GK 281; 174 occurrences; AV translates as “sin” 172 times, “sinful” once, and “offense” once. 1 equivalent to 264. 1A to be without a share in. 1B to miss the mark. 1C to err, be mistaken. 1D to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong. 1E to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin. 2 that which is done wrong, sin, an offence, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act. 3 collectively, the complex or aggregate of sins committed either by a single person or by many.
It means to miss the mark. an it is the mark which is God’s righteousness. God’s Holiness. Sin is that which makes us unclean and outside of acceptable worship to God.
Personal sins can be
Sins of the tongue
Mental attitude sins
or overt sins
and to the extent that the believer indulgences oneself in these things he is rendered unclean.
The principle applies
Point of Doctrine:
1. if we are to approach God in worship, we must approach God on His terms and not our own.
2. God does not accept our sincerity or good intentions.
WE are children of light
1 Thessalonians 5:5 (NASB95) — 5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;
WE have been made righteous and that is how we started out this life but we do carry much by way of baggage within our souls that still linger after salvation. we must be aware of it. as much as we don’t want to, we find that sin still has power over our lives. as Paul speaks of in Romans 7.
Romans 7:1–13 (NASB95) — 1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
Some have fallen away, and they say I can’t do it. I can’t overcome who I am and the way I am. and they are right. they cannot and do not have the power to overcome the power of sin in and over their lives. And I will tell you, do not be judging your bother to hell with your questioning whether or not he is a Christian. at least you don’t know!
Now I grant you, some have given up. Many are content with not going to hell. I hope that they are not. and if they are saved from the wrath, sadly their Christian experience were the few moments that they had when they were baptised in the Lord. the Lord himself had only a pleasing moment or two as one stood righteously before God before going his own way.
What will their eternity before God look like?
I don’t know but I know that I am not content with going my own way.
God’s will for each of us is our sanctification. our consecration for right and honorable worship before him. that we who have been made vessels of honor conduct ourselves in accordance that we were called.
2 Corinthians 4:6–18 (NASB95) — 6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you. 13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak, 14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Does this sound as if God’s will is that we are saved from His wrath and that we shall walk by grace until we enter into the eternal regions with Him?
Now it is that Paul puts at the top of the list the number 1 defiling stumbling blocks as he is warning the Thessalonian Church.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 (NASB95) — 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
aul writes to the Corinthian believers
1 Corinthians 6:12–20 (NASB95) — 12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
As Paul warns the Church of the stumbling block.
There is a common thread that runs throughout the entire bible
starting with Genesis 4:26
To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.
we find Positive motivation here. After the fall of man there is still hope. God has not removed his spirit as man can worship and long for the coming redeemer.
But what happens within the coarse of time?
Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,
that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.
what do we find here?
what happened?
lets go back a little further.
why did man make loin covering to cover his genitals?
was it because of embarrassment or was it covering them for protection against a threat that he knew was there? was it that he knew that his progeny would be under attack in such a way?
Continuing through history over and over and over again there is the act of sexual promiscuity that seeks to bring down and destroy ones sanctity with God.
so must we as parents warn our children. Families are being torn apart and destroyed by what is taken place in schools with little to no resistance from parents.
They have become so successful that Children cannot even discern whether they are girls or boys. And Yes I say successful because it is all about destroying the souls of the youth, destroying the very foundation of marriage which is one man and one woman, for destroying the family which is the very fabric of a nation and all to bring the world totally under Satan’s power with the destruction of the divine institutions.
Sexual promiscuity is and maybe has destroyed our society and like it has throughout history destroyed nations and brought down civilization to the point where God released his wrath on that culture.
Nothing new under the sun folks.
We live in that culture. But it is not a culture that we as sanctified members of the royal family of God have to participate in. we can opt out and we can stand our ground refusing to participate in it. every father who is a father can have this day his Joshua moment
As far as me and my house we will service the Lord.