I invite you to open your Bibles this evening to the letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, a church that he planted with Silas. We find that recorded in Acts chapter 17. And we turn to this this evening because in this letter, as in so many of Paul's letters, he spends much time on instructing the church on how to live as the people of God in this world. And we're going to read that section tonight, but he closes that section. he switches direction almost 180 degrees at the end to offer a prayer. A prayer that he prayed for the saints, a prayer that we can take to our own lips for the saints, and a promise from God that reminds us that as we face all the demands of living the Christian life, demands that can be overwhelming at times, we have a certainty and a security and a driving force behind that that reminds us that we can press on. So as Paul was writing this letter to this church, he had two concerns for them. Number one was that they keep living like Christians. He'd been there. He taught them. He told them, you know what to do. Just do it more and more. And he was concerned to remind them that the end is coming. The Lord will return. Judgment will come and holiness matters. And to live in light of that reality. Not to live as though that's not coming. So those are the two main focuses he has. And he brings those into sharp focuses in chapters 4 and 5. 4 and 5 at the center talks about the return of Christ. Judgment is coming. And as Hebrews 12, 14 makes clear, without holiness no one will see the Lord. Therefore Paul urges them to live in order to please God more and more. And that's the high calling that we share with the saints in Thessalonica. It's the high calling that every saint in every age, in every place has shared. And it's a calling that requires our willing and energetic obedience to the law of God. Fighting against sin and exerting ourselves in holiness. It's not a cakewalk. It's what we're called to fight. And the truth of the matter is that you and I are often caught up in the things of this world. Entangled in our own sinful habits. And too eager and easy to give in to the temptations of Satan. And when we look at our lives in light of this will of God for us. How can we be confident that we're really saved? How can we be sure that we will stand on that last day when holiness counts? Well, too often, truth be told, we look to ourselves. And we look to our own efforts for the confidence and assurance that we seek. And when we do, we're tossed to and fro between pride and despair. We're proud when we do well, at least in our own eyes, or compared to Joe down the street. Or we're prone to despair when the law of God comes to us again and exposes our fraud. We realize that we're not measuring up. Well, what are we to do? And I'm pretty confident that's an experience of a fair number of you at any given day or any given hour. What are we to do? Well, Paul here reminds us of the gospel. And that's what we need to do, is remember the gospel. Instead of focusing on the measure of our holiness, We need to focus on the measure of God's faithfulness to sanctify us, to make us holy. He's promised to do it. Saints of God, that's what our text this evening is about. In verses 23 and 24, at the very end of all the things we're called to do, Paul encourages and assures us of our sanctification, of our being made holy, holy, holy, w-h-o-l-l-y, Completely holy, H-O-L-Y. Pure and blameless in the presence of God. So listen, lots of law. And at the end, Paul's going to remind us of the gospel. Beginning now, the word of God, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 1. Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For we know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God, and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man, but God, who gives us his Holy Spirit. Now, about brotherly love, we do not need to write to you. Ourselves, yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And, in fact, you do love all the brothers through Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will be raised first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage each other with these words. Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as, in fact, you are doing. Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard, in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle. Encourage the timid. Help the weak. Be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire. Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. 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. Here ends the reading of God's Word. Well, the driving theme of this whole section is that you be holy, holy. That's not only Paul's prayer, as we will consider, it's also God's promise. We begin in verse 23 with Paul's prayer. Verse 23, Paul encourages the saints by telling us what he desires for us. He's talking to the Thessalonians, but he wrote to the church. This letter was passed all around. It's come down to us today. This letter is for us just as it was for them. He's telling us what he desires for us and what he has entrusted to God in prayer. He says, 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. I like that prayer. I'm glad it's for me. I hope you like that prayer and that you like it for you. Paul in this prayer presents one request. He sets two things in parallel like stereo so that it's more rich and it's more full when it comes to our ears. His one desire is that you be holy, holy. The parallels are these just to make it obvious to you. The you, of course, is for your. Sanctify equates to as related to being kept blameless. Through and through corresponds to your whole spirit, soul, and body. There's one idea. And Paul addressed his prayers and our attention to God as the God of peace. This is significant. Paul could have addressed God in any number of ways. He could have referred to God in any number of ways, but he could have referred to Him as the God of peace. According to the Scriptures, all men are sinful from birth. Sinful from the time we're conceived and there's no one righteous, not even one. And so we are all, by nature, objects of God's wrath. We didn't quite get that far this morning in the story of the Garden of Eden, did we? But we're going to get there. We're all children of wrath. And for the wicked, God says, there is no peace. There is no peace for the wicked. So unless we're born again by the Spirit of God, we're at war with God. And we suppress that truth in unrighteousness. And unless we're redeemed, we'll suppress that truth right up to the end. As Paul said in chapter 5, verse 3, he warns that on the last day, he said there's going to be people saying peace and safety, peace and safety. And while they're saying it, destruction will come on them suddenly and they'll be destroyed. The wicked have no peace with God, but Paul says he's praying to God, the God of peace for us. And God is the God of peace only to those with whom he's made peace. To those who have received salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. He's the God of peace of those for whom Christ came into the world to save. For those whom Christ was delivered over to death for and for whom he was raised for. For those and only those, he's the God of peace. Paul says it this way in Romans 5, verse 1. Since we, speaking of we who believe in God who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, we saints, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm afraid we take that for granted that by God's sovereign grace and sovereign salvation, He has brought us into a relationship with Him where we can call on Him as a God of peace. And so Paul prays as a saint for the saints, for the holy ones of God, those whom God has made peace with and set apart for Himself as holy. I like to ask this question when it comes time for professional faith, so all you young people pay attention. Are you a saint? If you look to yourself and how holy you are, you're going to say no. But if you look to Christ and the work he's done for you, you'll say, yes, I'm a saint because Christ has made me a saint. He's declared me holy. I've been justified through faith in him. Therefore, I am a saint. I am sanctified. In this sense, I've been set apart for God. It doesn't mean I'm always perfect. It doesn't mean I'm obedient all the time. But it does mean that I no longer belong to God's enemies. I belong to God in Christ. And Paul's concern is that those who are already sanctified in this way, those who've been drawn close to God in Christ, who are by definition holy, that we would be made completely holy in all it is we are, all it is we do, all it is we think, all it is we say. And notice that Paul's prayer is for God himself to do it. After a page of all that we're supposed to do, he's praying that God himself would do it. He didn't pray for God to give the saints a boost. He doesn't pray for God to help those who help themselves. And he didn't pray for God to give the saints a break. You know, give us some extra credit because we try so hard our intentions are good. Or that he would grade our sanctification on the curb. That's not what he asks. He asks for God himself to do it. He prayed that God himself would accomplish this complete sanctification for us and in us. Why does he ask this? Because he knows himself and he knows you and he knows me. The sanctification that God requires to stand in the judgment is beyond what you or I can do in ourselves. It demands a sanctification that is complete both in its extent and in its duration. Our complete sanctification must be extensive. It must be complete. He says, I pray that God himself would sanctify you completely. That he would sanctify you through and through, the NIV says. That he would sanctify your whole spirit, soul, and body. Now the meaning of through and through seems plain enough to me that God must change you completely. Stem to stern, top to bottom, inside out. There's no part of you that doesn't need to be affected. Every nook scrubbed, every cranny cleansed. But not only must he cleanse us completely, he must keep us blameless to the end. Everything about us, every attitude, every imagination, every word, every deed. Therefore, your sanctification must include your whole body, soul, and spirit. All that you are as a creature. We had a little introduction to that this morning as well. Now this phrase, your whole spirit, soul, and body, has been a stumbling stone to some, so I want to spend just a moment on this to explain what Paul is after. The overwhelming testimony of Scripture is that we as human beings are created a duality. That's a fancy way of saying we have two aspects. Each of us is body, each of us is spirit. Sometimes it's body and spirit, sometimes it's body and soul. But we as human beings are a duality, body and spirit. In life, these two are united. And James tells us in chapter 2 of James that the body apart from the spirit is dead. That's what death is. It's a separation of body and spirit. Now, Paul comes along here and refers to your whole spirit, soul, and body. But I want to say to you that he is not suggesting that we are really three aspects. He's not suggesting that any more than Jesus is suggesting that we are four when he says that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. Either Paul nor Jesus are giving us a lesson in what it is to be humans, what it is to be creatures, living creatures. So don't go down that. If you've seen that rabbit trail, close it off. It goes nowhere. The point they're both trying to make is that God's concerned about the wholeness of who we are in our sanctification. There's no part we can leave at home. There's no part we can put on a shelf. There's no part we can wink at and forget about. He wants to sanctify us through and through. But our complete sanctification must not only be extensive through and through, but it must also be enduring. It can't be that moment of brilliance that you remember once upon a time where you got it right before you patted yourself on the back. It can't be a flash in the pan. It can't be a snapshot that carries the day. It has to be how we are, as we are, all the way to glory. And you see, Paul has in view here the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in these verses, he says, May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's anticipating the end. And every day between now and the end. And we know about that end from chapter 5, verse 9. He revealed to us that God has not destined you saints for wrath. On that day, you're not going to be destroyed. He's destined you to receive salvation through Jesus Christ your Lord. That's the end. And he's praying that God would keep us blameless through to the end. Therefore, Paul prayed for God to act in us now, right now. To prepare us for that day and to carry us through that day when we will be entirely sanctified. Transformed in the very likeness of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Perfected in our humanity, body and spirit for eternal life with God. That's what we look forward to. The job is done. It's complete. No sin remains. No weakness remains. No distractions, no temptations, nothing. We're entirely holy. But Paul's concern is not just for what some would call the sweet by and by. He also had very much in mind the rough and tumble here and now. Your life, my life. He's very much concerned for how we live in the meantime. Now, we must not forget that this prayer comes at the heels of what I read, chapters 4 and 5, which makes clear that while we wait for that day of glory, we're to pursue our sanctification. We already know what it is to please the Lord in how we live. We have the Bible. We have more than the Thessalonians had. We hear the law of God every week from this pulpit. We read the law of God often when we read our Bibles. We know what God wants from us. And the call of this life here and now is that in the Lord Jesus that we do that more and more. More and more. You heard it several times in these verses. More and more. Paul sums it up in chapter 4, verse 3. He said it's God's will that you should be sanctified. That's the game plan. That's your marching orders and we carry that with us everywhere we go. Every relationship we have, every job that we do, every word that we say. It's God's will that you should be sanctified. And then he makes a particular application to sexuality. It's not as though that's the only thing God's will is concerned with. It's just a very prominent thing in the Thessalonian church, I would say, in every church of every age. It's an area of universal concern and of public notice. And he says, you apply this game plan with this simple strategy. Avoid sexual immorality and learn to control yourself. That's what it means to be sanctified. Avoid the sin, learn to control yourself, and practice what God would have you do instead. But we should never confuse simple with easy. The implementation of that simple directive is a lifelong endeavor for each of us in one way or another. It requires commitment, it requires purpose, it requires effort. Progress in sanctification here and now in this life doesn't just happen. We don't stumble upon it. It requires us to learn something, self-control. We're not born with that, we have to learn it. And we learn it with practice. And contrary to your coach that said practice makes perfect, it doesn't, but it helps. And we make progress in what we practice. And the progress and sanctification that Paul prays for is experienced here and now at the intersection between this responsibility that we have and God's ability to make it happen. This is a paradox. The intersection of our responsibility and God-given ability. If we rest on either one of those, we will not make progress. If we rest on our responsibility, we'll be prideful or we'll despair. And if all we do is sit back and wait for God to push us there, we're not going to make any progress. We're responsible. He enables. This intersection is clearly revealed very plainly in Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. I hope you have that in your Bible big time. That's the Christian life there in two verses. There we hear the command to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Pursue sanctification, we might say. In other words, make your salvation known. Make it evident by how you live that you belong to God and that you live before His face. Work out your salvation. Don't figure it out. Work it out. Pursue it. Well, how is that possible? If that's all we have, how is that possible? You know and I know we don't. And so Paul continues by saying, For. This is how you can do this. This is the reason you can. This is the purpose for which you do it. For. Because it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. There you have it. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Commandment. For it's God who works in you to will and to act according to His purpose. Divine ability. That's Paul's desire for the saints. That they would remember they're saints now in Christ. They would remember they're going to be entirely sanctified on the last day and they would be committed to living life responsibly, purposefully, fervently, depending on God for the power. Well, that you be holy, holy is not only Paul's desire, it's not only the subject of his prayer, it's also God's promise to you. Verse 24, Paul continues with this bold assertion, the one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. Paul wants us to be assured that God will accomplish our sanctification, completely. Why can we know this? How can we know? Why is this a ground for assurance? Well, first of all, because God is God. Balaam got it right when he said in Numbers 23, God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should change his mind. Does he not speak? Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and then not fulfill? Of course not. What God says he'll do, he'll do. And secondly, from before the foundation of the world, God's redemptive purpose has been to call to himself a people that would be sanctified completely. That's his purpose. You put those together. God's purpose is to gather to himself a perfectly sanctified people. And God does what he says he's going to do. God's faithful. He'll do it. He says the one who calls you is faithful. So he's speaking to how God calls us into this relationship. What is this call? This calling comes to us from the inside and from the outside. From the inside is the Holy Spirit at work in us to open our minds, to understand, to renew our wills, to want and to choose according to God's good purposes so that when we hear from the outside the law of God, we know our sin and our misery and we're convicted and we want a Savior. And the Holy Spirit who is at work on the inside opens our minds and renews our will so that when the preaching of the gospel comes from the outside, the good news of what God has done to save sinners like me, We're persuaded and we're able to trust Christ for our own salvation. That's the calling. The one who's called you, Paul says, by the work of the Holy Spirit through the gospel, he's created faith in you and he is assuring you not only of your salvation, your justification, he's assuring you of your sanctification. Romans chapter 8 shows us the connection between this calling and this promise of complete sanctification. beginning in verse 28, chapter 8 of Romans, verse 28. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. I'll read that again. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. We love that verse. And we probably abuse it. God's not promising us a rose garden here, at least not one without thorns. And He's certainly not promising us anything and certainly not everything that's on our good things list. This good that God is promising us here is a very specific good. We know that in all things God works together for the good. What is this good? Well, verse 29 explains it. Verse 29, Paul goes on, For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. The good for which God works through all things is our conformity to the likeness of his Son. The good for which God works all things together in our lives is to conform us to his holiness, to sanctify us, to sanctify us by definition when we believe in him and are justified, to sanctify us progressively along this life by the power of the Spirit through the Word, to sanctify us entirely when Christ returns in glory. Every circumstance, every trial, every challenging interaction with another person, everything for the child of God is serving this purpose, to conform you, to conform me to the image of Christ. He's fulfilling his purpose. And then Paul connects this eternal purpose to the here and the now and the glory to come in verse 30 of chapter 8, Romans, he says, And those he predestined before the foundation of the world, he called. Those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified. God's good purpose for his people is to sanctify you, to make you holy, to chisel off the corners, to sand down the rough spots, to make you beautiful like his son. And sometimes it involves some hard experiences. But this good purpose is echoed every step of the way through scripture. In calling you, God's purpose is your sanctification. Paul says that plainly in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 7. We breezed right by it when we read it. He said, God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. His purpose in calling you was to make you holy. And your calling is rooted in the death of Christ, which served God's purpose to sanctify you. Ephesians 5, verse 25. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Why? To make her holy. cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. God's purpose in sending his son to die for you is to sanctify you. And the death of Christ is rooted in predestination and predestination in God's election so that God foreknew those that he chose for this purpose, your sanctification. Ephesians 1 verse 4, God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. You see, God's purpose for us has always been very specific. And we want to make it very complicated. He wants us to be holy as He is holy. And He's determined from before the foundation of the world that it will be so. And in the meantime, for the saints, He's given us the way and He's given us the ability to pursue it. Well, God's good purpose, His promise that you be holy, holy, is also guaranteed by his faithfulness. The one who calls you faithful, he'll do it. I was at the bank the other day, and there's a little sign there on the teller's window that says FDIC. The FDIC promises that my money is insured there, up to a quarter of a million dollars if I had it. And it backs up that promise with the full faith and credit of the United States government. Guaranteed. Now, whatever you might think of that guarantee, I don't want to have that discussion right now, it pales in comparison to the guarantee God gives to back up his promise that he's going to sanctify us. Paul makes this comparison in 2 Timothy 2, verse 13, where he assures us that even if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot deny himself. God's being in himself guarantees his promise. And if that's not enough, he certifies that guarantee with another guarantee which is summed up for us in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 when Paul writes that no matter how many promises God has made they are yes in Christ. God has planned, purposed, promised our sanctification. His character demands that He see it through and just to be sure that we don't miss it He sends His Son into the world to secure it. Our God is faithful. He will do it. From before the foundation of the world God's purpose in choosing, predestining, and calling you is your sanctification. He who called you is faithful. He who sent a son to die for you is faithful. He who predestined you is faithful. He who chose you is faithful. He will do it. He will sanctify you. And so, with this encouragement and this assurance ringing in our ears, we can have the boldness that Paul had to offer this prayer. To offer it for ourselves. to offer it for each other. And we can be sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. That's what this text speaks to us tonight. In our busy lives, our troubled lives, our imperfect lives, our sin-stained lives, our frustrated lives, God's at work. He will have his way. As you hear his law and you pursue his will, know that you don't go alone. You go in the very power of God to make this a reality for you. And so from our text, we've been encouraged by Paul's concern and prayer. We've been assured that God's calling carries with it the promise that it will be done. And that's exactly what we need when we leave here tonight to pursue and continue progress in our sanctification.