Be Ye Holy
Text: 1st Thessalonians 4:1-8
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
Now if you remember last time we talked about how Paul prayed for the Thessalonians that the Lord would make them increase and abound in love to one another and to all, so that He may establish their hearts blameless in holiness. I also told you how Paul had changed his focus, from what had already happened to the present and the future.
Now the main point of this passage is that God wants us to be holy. In fact, in verse one Paul even says this is pleasing to God. The holiness and sanctification of the Christian is in mind throughout this entire passage. We see it in verse 3, we see it in verse 4 and we see it in verse 7.
Now holiness is not only living a morally pure life. That’s a big part of it, but Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 that being holy also involves a form of offering ourselves, totally devoted to the Lord. He says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of god, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Now to a Jewish person, any time the word “sacrifice” was used, they would’ve immediately thought about the lambs that were sacrificed at the temple. Those sheep were raised up, they were fed, taken care of and protected, for the sole purpose of the sacrifice on the alter of God. That’s what a shepherd did. So in a sense, my job as a pastor is to lead you to offer yourselves up to Him in total devotion and service. That kind of puts a new twist on being the Lord’s flock doesn’t it? But in a sense that’s what is expected from us. And sometimes it’s a minute by minute choice that we have to make – Am I going to submit to the Word of God, or am I going to live by my own authority? Am I going to please God or please myself? Am I going to do what I know is right, honorable and holy, or am I going to do whatever I want? Is Jesus the Lord of our lives, or are we?
Over the Christmas break we had our nieces visiting, you all saw them in church last Sunday, and let me just tell you that there are few things in life that I find more enjoyable than being around those kids. Just wrestling around with them and being a part of their lives is a great joy to me. Well one particular evening we all got to drawing pictures and one of my nieces looked at the picture I drew and said, “Uncle Kenny how do you draw so good?” So I took the opportunity to give a quick art lesson, and she said, “I can’t do it.” And I said, “Sure you can, you’ve just got to stop your way and start my way.” And that’s really the choice that we face in every situation in life. Are we going to give up our way of living so that we can learn God’s way? That’s what holiness is about. It’s something that we develop through time, submission, through learning, God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s worldview.
The great reformer John Calvin, in talking about a heart fully devoted to God, once said, (my paraphrase), “there must be no little hidden ‘back shop’ in which a side line of business is carried out with secret customers.” We can’t do legitimate business with God up in the front room, while we’re doing business with sin in the back room. It doesn’t work that way.
So tonight I want to look at how we can cultivate this kind of desire in ourselves. Please understand that ultimately it’s a work of God’s grace, God has to be involved and central to it, but as you all have heard me say before, God not only ordains the ends, but He also ordains the means to those ends. And so I want to look a couple of ways that God uses to accomplish His will in our hearts.
The first and foremost way is to look at the cross. Study what that means, meditate on it, get a good understanding of what the cross is all about. On my first day of Ranger School our senior instructor said to us, “Some of you won’t make it through this training… most of you won’t. And it has nothing to do with your physical ability, your mental capabilities, or intellect. It has to do with how much heart you have. And what’s driving you.” And he was right. But let me give you an analogy if I can. The ability to make it through that training is like the life of holiness. People might go through the motions, but if there isn’t something compelling them, inspiring them, driving them, captivating them and giving them the desire and the power to offer themselves up to God as living sacrifices, they aren’t going to make it. 1st John 2:19 says it this way, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
Let me explain it this way. All the worlds religions are religions of works, they are religions of “DO.” The only one that isn’t is Christianity, Christianity is a religion of “DONE.” We just have to walk it out. In the OT, God told the Israelites, “See I have given you the land, now go take it.” In the NT, God says to us, “See I have made you righteous in my Son, now go live it.” We call that sanctification, and it’s been done, but it also involves effort on our part as well. But the thing is, if Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior, if He is not what is compelling you, and inspiring you, and driving you, and captivating you and giving you the desire and the power to offer yourself up to God, then what happens is your efforts at obedience will at some point become tedious, you will loose your joy, you will be burdened by your own efforts at righteousness, and eventually you will give up.
So we look at the cross, we look unto Jesus.
Secondly; get into the Word of God. Does this sound familiar? If you were here this morning it should. Because basically it’s the same thing, I’ve just come at it from a different starting point. The Word of God is essential to sanctification. Turn with me to John 17:14-19 (Read). Jesus has given us God’s Word. He in one sense is God’s Word, made flesh. And the world hates us. Now I’m going to say something really hard here, but it’s something that Scripture teaches over and over and over again. And that is, if you claim to be a Christian yet the world does not take issue with you, then something is very wrong. It’s either #1 you are keeping your faith well hidden, or #2 you’re not a Christian. And if you’d like to argue that point with me, then I’ll be in my office tomorrow from 2-4. Look at what Jesus says in verse 15 (Read), Jesus isn’t praying that we will be taken out of the world, but that we will endure… that’s important for what we will be looking at a little later in this study of 1st Thessalonians. But verse 17 is what I want you to look at tonight. Jesus says, “Sanctify them by your truth…” What is God’s truth? His Word! “Thy Word is Truth!”
2nd Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, FOR INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS…”
What’s the point of reading your Bible, coming to church, coming to Sunday School, coming to discipleship class – I mean, if you’re a Christian, you’ve got your ticket to heaven, why bother right?
Well here’s the thing. The Bible talks about being reconciled to God, but if you are reconciled to God, if you are adopted into His family, then by all intents and purposes, and Scripture teaches and implies that you have also been reconciled to God’s people. MariJo and I have been talking about another child, I think we’ve decided that adoption might be a better option, depending on circumstances, regardless it’s a few years down the road either way. But the thing is, if you’re an orphan, you don’t adopt your parents; they adopt you. Now if we did decide to adopt, that child would be given our last name, and that child would be required to attend the McKinley family dinners around the dinner table every night, with MariJo and I, as well as Leslie and Gabriel. On that day of adoption that child becomes part of a family, a family with siblings.
Well in the same manner, God is our Father, He has adopted us, and Jesus and the Church are our siblings. Only your name is not McKinley, it’s Christian. Named after the One whom through you were adopted – Christ.
Hebrews 2:11, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one…”
So we look unto Jesus and we get into His Word. And in one sense those are one in the same, as Jesus is not physically here with us today. We instead look at how He has revealed Himself to us, through the Word of God. And we do this in the hope of becoming more like Him. God is no respecter of persons. He’s not going to inspire Paul to tell the Thessalonians to pursue holiness and not tell us to do the same.
That’s what our text is telling us this evening.
PRAYER AND CLOSING
