Amen.
You may be seated, kids.
You are excused to your children's, your King's Kids class.
And I would invite you to open up your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
We're at the end of this great book.
And so I'm going to read verses 23 through 28.
Hear the word of the Lord.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.
And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful.
He will surely do it.
Brothers, pray for us.
Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.
I put you under an oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Amen.
In the classic hymn by John Newton, Amazing Grace, we sang it.
There's a piece of it.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come.
Tis grace that brought me safe this far and grace will lead me home.
When John Newton penned that, he's recognizing how God's grace saved him, strengthened him, sustained him to where he was.
And that it would be God's grace that brings him home face to face with Jesus.
What Newton is saying in Amazing Grace is he will surely do it.
What he began, he will surely complete.
And when we sing it, Amazing Grace or Great is Thy Faithfulness, it stirs our souls.
It gives us strength to continue on.
It gives us courage.
Anybody in the room in need of courage this morning?
Feeling a little flat?
Heading into the holidays?
Guys, this morning, I pray that you'll be encouraged by 1 Thessalonians 5, 23-28.
In this passage, Paul is going to reiterate a couple themes throughout the book in order to do so to encourage you.
So, we are to take heart this morning.
And what God will do, he will surely do it.
Do what?
Take heart.
Your God will keep you until Christ comes.
And so, I'm going to focus on verses 23 and 24 and 28 this morning.
And in so doing, I want to unpack five encouraging words.
And I'm going to have you repeat those words when I say them.
So, I'm going to say the word and I'm going to look to you and you repeat it in a robust fashion.
Peace.
Sanctify.
Doesn't that come out real nice?
Sanctify.
Coming.
Faithful.
Grace.
Let's do it one more time.
Peace.
Sanctify.
Coming.
Faithful.
Grace.
Take heart.
Your God will keep you until Christ comes.
That's going to fill your souls this morning.
Surely do it.
So, let's look at this first word, peace.
In verse 23.
Now, may the God of peace.
What we have here in verses 23 and 24 is essentially a benediction.
And 1 Thessalonians closes with like a double benediction.
And it is the apostle Paul wanting God, wishing God, praying that God would do something in the Thessalonians.
And Paul addresses God as the God of peace.
God wants the God, Paul wants the God of peace to do something in the lives of the Thessalonians.
And so, what is this peace?
Well, if you're familiar with a little Hebrew, it's the word shalom.
Shalom is peace of God's making.
The God of peace is the God who makes peace.
And this peace isn't just an absence of hostility, but a fullness of God's goodness.
If you have kids in the home and they're not fighting, you're like, oh, isn't everything peaceful?
Not quite.
A peaceful relationship among siblings would be not just them not fighting, but them embracing each other.
Delighting each other.
Serving one another.
Taking turns.
This peace of God's making is a comprehensive peace.
Think along the lines of four relationships.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they broke peace with God.
And that peace breaking with God resulted in a breaking of peace within them internally.
And it resulted in a breaking of peace between them in their relationship.
And it also was a breaking of peace in their relationship with creation.
And so, now the God of peace is seeking to make peace on a comprehensive scale and scope.
So, he's starting by making peace between you and him.
And then he's making peace within yourself.
And he's seeking to make peace between you and others.
And eventually he's going to make peace between you and me and all of creation.
This plan of God, this is a peace plan.
It's his plan of salvation.
You could call it Operation Forever Peace.
And God makes this peace.
He brings this peace about in an extraordinary way.
In an amazing way.
The God of peace makes comprehensive peace through the death and resurrection of the Prince of Peace.
Remember that great prophecy on Isaiah 9 where unto us a child is given.
And he will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father.
Prince of Peace.
And that Prince of Peace who died on the cross and was raised from the dead is reigning on high on a throne of grace.
And is one day closer to coming back.
It's by his death and resurrection that God brings about peace.
This peace is a gospel peace.
It's a blood-bought peace.
Jesus shed his blood unto death to bring God's peace as far as the curse is found.
And this peace is an already but not yet peace.
Here's what I mean by that.
When a sinner recognizes their sinfulness and what God has done for them in Jesus Christ and they believe,
at that moment that they believe, they are justified.
Romans 5.1, and therefore at peace with God.
At that moment, God thinks of that sinner's, the penalty of their sin as being placed on Christ on the cross,
in all of God's wrath, poured out for all of your penalty of your sin for all time.
So you're forgiven.
And then simultaneously, God thinks of all of Christ's righteousness as being put into your account.
That you've been imputed the righteousness of Christ.
And so not are you just forgiven of all of your sin.
You've been made acceptable to God based upon the righteousness of Christ.
And at that moment, you are at peace with God.
Do I have an amen?
But it's a partial peace.
Because we still sin.
Amen.
We do things that grieve God.
We experience distance in our relationship with God, not because of God, but because of us.
And so there's this already aspect of peace.
You're justified.
But there's a not yet.
When your relationship with God is fully, finally, and forever at peace.
We have degrees of peace within ourselves.
If you became a Christian, you have a whole new identity.
You're a new creation in Christ Jesus.
You are a child of the living God.
You're a child of the light.
No longer of darkness.
But we forget that and we do stupid things in our sinfulness.
We struggle with things that have been done to us and we've done to others internally.
So we experience degrees of peace now.
Already not yet.
We experience the same in relationship with others.
There's an already not yet where we experience conflict in a breaking of peace.
And yet we also experience a degree of fullness.
But there's coming a time where there'll be perfect peace in our relationship with one another.
And of course, there's creation.
There is the already where we see wonderful sunrises and sunsets.
Sunrise, sunset.
We have huge snowfalls that some of us love.
But we also feel threat from creation.
Tornadoes.
Tsunamis.
This thing called cancer.
So we are in between the already and not yet peace.
God through Christ's blood has begun a comprehensive peace plan.
Operation Forever Peace.
And the cross of Jesus Christ is the living God establishing a beachhead on earth of saying,
I am bringing my peace to this planet.
And it's going to culminate when Jesus Christ returns and there's full, final, and forever peace.
This is the God of peace Paul addresses in verse 23.
And you want to know something?
You're a part of that plan.
You're in it.
Have you experienced this peace of God in Christ Jesus?
This God of peace wants to do something else in us.
So we move to word number two.
Sanctify.
Peace.
Sanctify.
In between now and the coming of Jesus Christ, God will be doing something in us.
It is His holy aim.
His holy purpose.
As we are waiting on the return of Jesus Christ, God is getting something done in us as we're moving to that day.
And this is the first major theme Paul reiterates.
It's the theme of holiness.
If you flip back in 1 Thessalonians to chapter 1, in verse 9 we read,
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
You know what that's a picture of?
Someone being set apart as holy.
Holy.
And then we read in a prayer Paul prays in the middle of this letter, chapter 3, verses 11 through 13.
I'll just read 13 for you.
Paul prays,
So that He may, God may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.
So God wants to make us holy.
In chapter 4, verse 3,
For this is the will of God, your sanctification.
Chapter 4, verse 7,
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
And again in chapter 5, we have this, we are no longer of the darkness, we are children of light,
and so we don't fear that day of Christ's return.
No, we don't fear it, we're ready for it because we're going to be awake.
We're going to walk in the light.
That's a picture of holiness.
So what God is seeking to do is to make us holy as He is holy.
For us to be pure as He is pure.
So when you read in verse 23,
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless.
What we're talking about is holiness.
Now let me just assure you,
this isn't some kind of pie in the sky, abstract, theoretical holiness
that God is looking to do in us.
No, this is concrete.
Very specific and concrete.
He's doing a real work.
Have you ever thought of Jesus as holiness incarnate?
God in the flesh, living holy life.
If you read the Gospels and you watch Jesus through that lens,
you get to see a human being, fully God, fully man,
living life perfectly unto God.
And that's why when you get to Galatians 5, 22 and 23,
where we are described the fruit of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control,
it's a profile of Jesus.
And so when God is seeking to purify you,
He's seeking to conform you into the holy image of Jesus.
It's very specific and concrete.
And He goes on to say here,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless.
If sanctifying is this act of purifying,
being kept blameless is this preserving,
it's protecting, protecting your holiness,
protecting you from sin.
Have you heard of the little phrase,
the perseverance of the saints?
That goes hand in hand with another phrase,
the preservation of the saints.
God is preserving His saints as they're persevering all the way to the end.
They go hand in hand.
God will keep you until the end, take heart.
That word blameless?
Does anybody have in their kitchen a non-stick Teflon pan?
I've heard bad things about Teflon, but it'll serve the illustration.
Teflon pans are non-stick.
Nothing sticks to a Teflon pan.
And what God is seeking to do in us as that day of Christ approaches
is to make us blameless when it comes to evil.
No non-stick.
There's no evil that sticks to your character.
There's no evil that sticks to your conduct.
God is seeking to do a work in you
and keep you blameless.
Teflon-like.
He wants to present you to Christ when He comes,
blameless.
Surely going to do that.
God Himself is doing this.
Now may the God of peace Himself
sanctify you completely.
It's God purifying us.
It's God preserving us.
It's a way in which God is loving us into His holiness.
Hebrews 12.
He wants us to share in His holiness
because that's where the greatest joy is.
So in between now and Christ's return,
God has this holy aim in which He is
holy, H-O-L-Y,
and holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y,
at work in us
completely.
So that little phrase,
spirit, soul, and body,
it's talking about
all of who you are.
God is wanting to make
all of who you are holy,
blameless.
He wants to shine you
with the glory of Christ.
I've used this illustration a lot,
so if you're sick of it,
you can walk out.
Let's see who walks out.
Chip and Joanna Gaines,
fixer-upper.
It's a show,
Chip and Joanna,
they restore houses
to their original glory.
Take a dump,
make it into glory.
Brothers and sisters in Christ,
we are God's fixer-uppers.
He's taken people
who have been made
or dumps because of sin,
and He is restoring glory
to us.
And He has purchased
the deed of our lives
through the blood of Jesus.
And between now
and Christ's return,
He will be restoring
each of us
one room at a time
to reflect the glory
of His Son, Jesus.
And more often than not,
truth in advertising,
this is going to be painful.
God's sanctifying holy work
is oftentimes painful
because God is exposing sin
in us that we must die to.
And He's doing it
because He loves us.
And so we kill the sin
by the Spirit,
and by the Spirit,
we bring to life
Christ-likeness.
God Himself is at work
doing this work
of sanctification
in us.
Of course,
we have responsibility in it,
but Paul is closing
this letter
with the emphasis being
on what God is purposed
to do in us.
And let me just read you
this passage
from Philippians chapter 2.
I'm sure it's kind of
working through
some of your minds
right now
where both
are persevering
and God's preserving
is stated.
Therefore, my beloved,
this is Philippians 2.12 and 13.
Therefore, my beloved,
as you have always obeyed,
so now,
not only in my presence,
but much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling.
Persevere, Christian.
Pursue holiness.
And then in verse 13,
for it is God
who works in you
both to will
and to work
for His good pleasure.
That is His preserving
being kept blameless
until that day.
God is at work in you.
You can bank on it.
Take heart.
Let me ask you
two questions.
Are you welcoming
His holy work?
Are you...
Have your way.
Make me more like Jesus.
Are you actively
pursuing holiness?
Do you want to be blameless
as God Himself is?
These are good moments
to reflect upon our lives,
aren't they?
Have your way, O God.
Have your holy way in us.
So we move from
that first word, peace,
to the second word, sanctify,
and now we move
to the third word,
coming.
As in the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is the other
major theme
of the book
of 1 Thessalonians.
Paul is reiterating
these things
for a reason.
I mean,
in chapter 1,
verse 9 and 10,
you know,
you've been flipped
from idols
to serve the living
and true God
and to wait
for the Son
from heaven.
That's the coming
of Jesus.
Again,
if you look at
chapter 3,
verse 13,
so that He may establish
your hearts
blameless in holiness
before our God
and Father
at the coming
of our Lord Jesus
with all of His saints.
Again,
it's this focus
on holiness
and at the coming
of Jesus.
In 5, 1 through 11,
we are to live
in the light,
awake,
as we see that day
drawing near.
And we're to encourage
one another in that.
It's that day,
verse 9,
at His coming,
and here in 23,
at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a major theme
of this book,
but there's something
even more significant.
Paul is intentionally
raising these two themes
together
at the end of the book.
What he wants you to see
is the relationship
between the two.
The relationship
of being made holy
and the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a very important
relationship
between our holiness
and Christ's coming.
It makes me think
of what scientists
call a symbiotic relationship.
When two living creatures
are in mutually beneficial,
coexisting relationship
with one another,
think of a great white shark
and a sucker fish,
a remora.
Have you seen pictures
of those?
Big fish,
big shark,
and there are these little
like suction cup fish
on the bottom of it.
It's a symbiotic relationship.
The great white benefits
from the remora.
It's regularly cleaning
off parasites
for the shark.
It's like
spa remora
for the shark.
And the remora
benefits from
the shark,
gets free ride,
protection with a lot of teeth,
and it gets food scraps.
There's this
working together
for the good of both
and that's how we need
to think about
our holiness
and Christ's coming.
Here's how it works.
You start thinking
about Christ's return.
Oh, maybe he's coming
back this afternoon
or next week.
And that
stirs into motion,
sparks something in you.
It's like,
how do I want
the risen Lord
returning to find me?
Do I want him
to find me
doing stupid things?
Grievous things?
Or do I want him
to find me
living for him
as my controlling center
and seeking to actively
kill sin
and bring to life
that which pleases him?
It's the idea of
Matthew 24
and the parable
of the talents.
And so,
as I think about
Christ's return,
it motivates me
to welcome
his holy work
in my life.
And then,
as I'm experiencing
his holy work
in my life,
do you know
what that's going to do?
Oh,
come Lord Jesus,
come.
I'm ready for my
resurrected body.
Come Lord Jesus,
come.
I am ready
for this full,
final,
and forever peace
that you have promised
and that surely
you will bring it about.
And on that day
when Christ's return,
we will be completely
wholly sanctified,
kept blameless.
He will do this.
We will be at full,
final,
and forever peace
with God.
You will experience
full,
final,
and forever peace
within yourself.
Let it be.
You will experience
full,
final,
and forever peace
between one another.
And then we will
experience full,
and final,
and forever peace
with creation
because when he comes back
he's going to
recreate the heavens
and the earth.
No more let sins
and sorrows grow.
No,
no more.
God's sanctifying work
in us
is moving towards
that day.
He wants to present you.
He's purposed
to present you
blameless.
You've been justified now.
You're being sanctified,
and on that day
you will be glorified.
You can say amen.
When we synchronize
our watches
to Christ's time,
Mark,
Christ is one day closer.
We also synchronize
our lives
to the holy work
of God in us.
We welcome it.
Sanctify us.
Peace.
Sanctify.
At his coming.
The fourth word is,
oh,
it's such a good word.
It's going to be
wind in your sails.
It's the word faithful.
524.
In English,
we read,
he who calls you
is faithful,
that first clause.
In the original language
in Greek,
you know how it rolls out?
It starts with the word
faithful.
Faithful
is the one
who is calling you.
And in the original language,
that means
it's putting it forward
first.
It's emphasizing it.
He will be faithful
in finishing
what he starts
in us.
I know there's a bunch
of you who've memorized
Philippians 1, 6,
and Paul writes
to this church.
And can you imagine
the apostle writing
to you
and writing this?
He says,
and I am sure of this,
he writes to the Philippians.
I am sure of this,
that he who began
a good work in you
will bring it to completion
at the day
of Jesus Christ.
God's faithfulness
is his character.
It's who he is.
He always does
what he says
he will do.
He always follows through
on his promises.
And that's why
following this faithfulness,
you have this next phrase,
he will surely do it
because he's faithful.
He will surely do it.
He will finish
what he starts.
He will surely do it.
What is the it?
What is he going to do?
He will sanctify us completely.
He will keep us blameless.
And Christ will return
in glory.
He will surely do it
because he's faithful.
In other words,
nobody on the planet
can stop it.
Nobody can stop him.
He's faithful.
Before I preach here,
just the song we sang beforehand
is,
Great is thy faithfulness.
Third stanza,
Pardon for sin
and a peace that endureth.
Thine own dear presence
and cheer,
to cheer and to guide.
What a great line.
Strength for today
and bright hope
for tomorrow.
Blessings all mine
and 10,000 besides.
Why?
Because God's faithful.
Surely he will do it.
Strength for today
and bright hope
for tomorrow.
Hope!
He will surely do it.
That puts hope in you.
Think about this.
Think about
God's faithfulness.
You hearing that
and that hitting
the sails of your soul
and filling them up.
It's like,
Oh yes,
you are faithful.
Surely you will do it.
It fills your soul with hope.
It drives you forward.
It makes you courageous.
It renews your motivation.
It gets you from sitting
into walking.
Action.
Steve opened up our service
with Lamentations 3
in verses 19 through 24.
I'm going to read 21 and 24,
but I just want you
to pay attention
to the word hope.
Hope surrounds God's character.
But this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope.
The steadfast love
of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion,
says my soul.
Therefore,
I will hope in Him.
God's faithfulness.
This peacemaking God
is faithful.
And that should put hope
into our souls.
Take heart.
Our God will keep us
until Christ's coming.
His faithfulness is the divine wind
that fills our souls
and helps us to press on.
Peace.
Sanctify.
Coming.
Faithful.
And now the fifth word.
Grace.
If you skip down to verse 28.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you.
This letter ends with grace.
It's like the second prayerful benediction.
It's like Paul is saying,
may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you,
be at work among you,
be palpable among you,
transforming you
into the image of Jesus.
Did you know that Paul
ends every one of his letters
with grace
in the New Testament?
And interestingly enough,
1 Thessalonians begins
with grace and peace.
Look at 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 1.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy
to the church of the Thessalonians
and God,
the Father,
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace to you in peace.
And here,
at the very end
of 1 Thessalonians,
verse 23,
now may the God of peace
sanctify you completely.
And verse 28,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you.
That is not just random.
The Apostle Paul
is framing the whole book
with God's grace and peace.
God's grace
is commonly defined
as God's unmerited favor.
And what favor
is getting at
is God's posture
towards you.
And there's nothing
that we have done
or can do
to earn God's favorable
posture towards us.
You can't win God's favor
because you're so sinful.
Not just you,
me too.
We are sinful rebels
deserving God's wrath.
He doesn't love us
because we're lovable.
He loves us
because He's loving.
And instead of being
on the receiving end
of an eternity of wrath,
Christians,
by God's grace,
are on the receiving end
of God's eternal peace.
God's grace is not limited
to His favorable posture
towards us.
It also includes
His unlimited power
for us.
Ephesians 2.8,
for by grace,
you have been saved
through faith.
God's grace
is what saves us.
God's grace
is His power to save.
It's His gospel power.
It's grace incarnate
was the appearing
of Jesus Christ.
And so Jesus Christ
is God's grace.
His death and resurrection
is His power to save,
to deliver us
from the domain of darkness
and to transfer us
into His kingdom
of His beloved Son,
the kingdom of peace,
the kingdom of light.
And one day,
because we're living
in the already and not yet,
that kingdom
that He has beached head
will one day culminate
in perfect peace
with God,
ourselves,
others,
and creation.
Our salvation,
this Operation Forever Peace
is a working
of God's powerful grace
from beginning
to end.
Think about it this way,
Christian.
Think about it this way.
You're an object
of God's grace.
He graces you.
Amazing grace
goes like this.
Through many dangers,
toils, and snares,
I have already come.
His grace has brought me
safe thus far
and grace will lead me home.
Grace will lead me home.
Grace alone.
So I'll stand in faith
by grace and grace alone.
I will run this race
by grace and grace alone.
I will slay my sin
by grace and grace alone.
That's talking about
our role in sanctification.
I will reach the end
by grace and grace alone.
That's God's role
in our salvation.
And did you notice
whose grace?
In verse 28,
the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
He is our God,
our Savior,
the controlling center
of our lives,
the coming King.
He sits upon
a throne of grace
to help those
in time of need.
Anybody you need?
I'm always in need.
Take heart.
Your God will keep you
by His grace
until Christ comes.
As we get closer
to that day,
we should have
more and more hope.
Because this God of peace,
this God who is faithful,
surely He will do it,
this God of grace
who will sanctify us
until that day,
we have reason to hope.
Hope in that our pursuit
of Christ-like holiness
is not in vain.
Our efforts
to slay our sin,
that's not in vain.
You're one day closer.
hope in that
hope that on the day
of Christ,
when He returns in glory,
we will not dread
His appearing in shame,
but we will delight
when He returns.
And we want to hear
those words,
well done,
good and faithful servant.
Hope in light of all
that we've given up,
in light of all
that we've endeavored to do,
given ourselves to do,
in order to help people
follow Jesus,
to disciple,
because we've been given
the Great Commission.
On that day,
when Christ's return,
we have hope,
we have reasonable hope
to say it was worth it all
for the glory of His name.
Because He is worthy.
And to that end,
we are bound up together.
We're one day closer
to seeing our Lord
and Savior
face to face.
Let me pray.
Lord Jesus,
we take our cues
from the end
of the book of Revelation.
You say,
surely I'm coming soon.
And we say,
come now,
Lord Jesus.
Amen and amen.
God,
would you receive
our praise
and would you stir
our hearts
to be faithful,
even if it's just
for the balance
of today.
Amen.