1st Thessalonians Part 4 – Lawson Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends, we are talking today from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where Paul talks about the hope of the gospel. Jesus coming for his church. I have a question for you: Are you ready for his coming? Did you know what? The Holy Spirit and the word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ have equipped you so you can be ready for Christ’s coming. Paul says, if we don’t have this hope in Christ, we are, of all men, most miserable. The hope of the resurrection. He talks about in chapter one, he says, first of all, we were examples to you. But then he says in verse seven, “You were examples to all who believe,” in Macedonia and Achaia in that whole area. Their faith and their love was expanding. And people heard about, you know, their lifestyle and the gospel. Chapter 2 is all about the gospel. Paul talks about in verse 3 that they were declaring the gospel to them. He goes on and talks, he said “They were entrusted with the gospel.” And he goes on and says this, that declaring the gospel is actually in the modern English version. He says, “We imparted the gospel. Not only were we entrusted with the gospel, but we imparted the gospel to you.” In verse eight. And finally, he said, “You receive the word or you receive the gospel.” So, you know, thank God for the gospel. You know, the gospel changes lives. Paul says, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel, of the good message of Jesus and what he’s done.” You know, the good news, praise God? For it is the power. The gospel is the power. The gospel releases the power of God to salvation, to everyone who believes that. He said to Jews first, also to Gentiles. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed. Really, the gospel is the revelation of righteousness. And it’s been revealed from faith to faith, the faith of the Jew to the faith of the Gentile, according, as it’s written, the just shall live by faith. Now, in chapter 3, Paul talked about what we do during affliction. That’s not exciting, is it? Did you know what? If you live for Jesus and you live, the Bible actually says, “All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” That’s, we don’t put that one on our refrigerator. But it’s true! I’ll be talking a little bit about it Sunday. But, did you know what? If you live godly in Christ Jesus, everybody in the world is not gonna like it. Jesus said, “Listen, they persecuted me, they’re gonna persecute you, but rejoice.” But, he says, “During our afflictions,” in chapter 3, verse 7 and 8, “We were in encouraged by your faith.” So we continue to live by faith in the midst of trial. Did you know what? If you don’t have faith in trial, you really don’t have any faith. So you gotta keep your faith, praise God? Now we’re gonna be in one Thessalonians chapter 4. And we’re gonna talk about living holy in hope of Christ’s coming. You know, the closer that that we get to his coming, it says, “He that has this hope in himself,” in 1 John, chapter 3, “Purifies himself, even as he’s pure.” If you really believe that Christ’s coming, you ought to, and you really get to know who he is, you ought to be looking more like him. Everyone who has this hope in himself, first John chapter 3, right, about verse 2 and 3, purifies himself, even as he’s pure. If you’re living more like the world you probably don’t really, maybe you don’t know him. See, a lot of people talk about it, but there’s a difference in talking about it and really, personally, knowing him. So he talks about this. Let’s go to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4. He says this in verse 7, then we’ll go back in a minute. “God has not called us to uncleanliness, but he’s called us to holiness.” So we’ll talk a little bit about that when we go through there. And then in verse 14, I said, “In hope of Christ’s coming, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again-” How many of you believe Jesus died and rose again? I wanna ask you the rest of the scripture. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, also those who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. If we believe he died and rose again, we also believe he’s coming again. Some people have taken this scripture out of their Bible. I’ve been asked in some places, “Don’t preach on this scripture.” Don’t preach on some scriptures that I’m gonna share with you tonight. Well, what are you gonna do? Take ’em outta your Bible? Just tear John 3:16 out. How’s that work? 1 Peter 2:24, Philippians 4:19. Just take all those out, too. Why don’t you start believing the Bible? The problem is, sometimes we throw the baby out with the bath water, and so we just ought to get back to believing the word, okay? So we’re gonna talk about living, right, in the hope of Christ coming. First of all, he talks about in the first eight verses, “We have been called to holiness.” Look at this, beginning reading in verse 1. “Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, that you and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you should walk and please God, so you would abound more and more.” Paul said, “You’ve received of us how to walk and please God.” We want you to grow in that, right? Abound in that, more and more. Don’t go backwards in it. Grow in it, for you know the commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication. Now, what’s it mean to be sanctified, set apart to God? Now, our spirit was sanctified the moment that we believed on Jesus, right? 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 30. “Christ of God was made unto us, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” If Christ was made into you, it’s not something you did. It’s something that you received when you believe. So your spirit is sanctified the moment that you believe on Jesus, the moment you’re born again. Your spirit cannot get any more sanctified than it already is. But Jesus prayed for his disciples in John 17, after he prayed for his disciples, he prayed for those of us who would believe on him through their word. And this is what Jesus, with prayer, says in verse 15. He says, “I’m not praying that you would take them out of the world, but I’m praying that you would keep them from the evil.” And then he goes on and tells us how we’re gonna be kept from the evil. He says in verse 17, “Sanctify them, set them apart through thy truth.” “Thy word is truth.” Now, Paul says this in Romans 12, verse 1 and 2, he says, “I beseech you now therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.: Then in verse two, he says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” So your spirit was sanctified, the moment that you were born again, your spirit is sanctified, your spirit is righteous. Your spirit has all four aspects, Christ of God was made unto you, wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption, but your soul is being sanctified. In fact, the Bible talks about this, that we believe to the saving of the soul. So Jesus is praying that we’d be kept from the evil in the world, right? He didn’t say, go out and have a commune, all out, separate from everybody, where no evil can get in. No, he says, “I want you to be kept from the evil. Don’t take ’em outta the world, but keep ’em from the evil that’s in the world.” And here’s how it happens. Sanctify them by the truth. Thy word is truth. So our soul, which is defined by great spiritual leaders, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagen, Andrew Wommack, Dr. Lester Sumrall to name four, okay? The soul has been defined as the mind, the will, and the emotions. Okay, so our soul is being sanctified. Our spirit has been sanctified, our soul is being sanctified. But he says right here, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 3, he says, “This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication.” When he is talking about fornication, what is a definition of fornication? Sexual immorality. Actually, sex outside of marriage when you’re not married, right? So fornication, sexual immorality. So he says, so that’s talking about your body. And he goes on and says this in verse 4, that, “Every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification.” We need to know how to take care of our body, right? You might have to be like Joseph. Run, baby, run! You know what I’m saying? Right? You might have to, right? But he says, every one of us needs to know how to possess our vessel in sanctification and in honor. So you figure out how to take care of your body, right? How to possess your body. You possess your body. Mm-hm! In other words, you don’t let your body have the best of you, you possess it. He says, we need to know how to possess our body, our vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence. That’s just, concupiscence is like evil desire. It’s like letting your flesh get the best of you, okay? You know, sin is emotional. You know, sin is stupid. You know, sin is deadly. Now, 1 John 3 says, “Whoever’s born of God, sins not.” What part of you is that talking about? It’s talking about your spirit. It’s not talking about your soul or your body, right? Because I’ve been born again since I’ve been eight years old. So I’ve been born again for 52 years. Have I sinned since I’ve been born again? Yes. Is my spirit still born again? Yes. So he, whoever’s born of God, sin of thought, that’s not talking about my body, that’s talking about my spirit, but my spiritual condition directs both my emotional condition, if I renew my mind, my soul, right, and my body, am I correct? So I’ve gotta let my spirit, you want to let your spirit be king. You understand who you are in the spirit, you renew your mind to that, and you be, and then you let your mind, you let your soul be the servant to your spirit. And what happens to your body? Your body will come into subjection to your spirit. Praise the Lord, friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been watching the program today. I’ve been teaching live in church on a Wednesday evening service sharing about the hope of Christ’s coming. We have all of these teachings available to you in downloadable form, free of charge, on our website, and many more, at charischristiancenter.com. Isaiah 5:13 says, they’re kept in bondage because they have no knowledge. But when I found out the truth, I remember that I was so excited when I first heard the full gospel preached. When I found out I didn’t have to be sick and poor and defeated by the devil, that I could believe God, that God had a better life. I remember I was so excited! In verse 22, “Put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust.” Don’t live like an unborn-again, person. Don’t live like you did before you came to Christ. Then he says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You gotta change the way that you think. You gotta change the way that you look at things. And then he says, “Put on the new man,” put on, which is created after God in the likeness of God, in righteousness. Your spirit is created righteous when you were born again. See, you receive the very righteousness of Jesus the moment that you were born again. And in a spiritual sense, you are either 100% righteous or you’re 100% sinful. You’re either saved or you’re lost. And if you die, you’re either going to heaven because you believe Jesus and you were made righteous, or you’re going to hell because you didn’t. Okay, I’m talking Bible now, all right? So your spirit is either 100%, you’re either 100% a child of God, or you’re 100% lost. If you die, you’re either going to heaven because you believe Jesus, or you’re not because you didn’t believe Jesus, okay? All right, so we’ll leave it like that for everybody that has at least reached the age of accountability, that’s another story we’re not gonna talk about tonight, okay? Okay, but we’ll, we might get into that some other time. But anyway, your spirit, you must, that’s why Jesus said you gotta be born again. But he says you’re called to holiness. So he said, we need, every one of us should know how to possess our body. So our spirit was sanctified, our soul is being sanctified and our body, we need to know how to possess our body. Our body’s gonna be sanctified completely when we get a glorified body when Jesus comes again. He talks about that later in here, not in the lust of evil desire, even as the Gentiles who know not God. In other words, he says, since you’ve been born again, since you’ve be become a child of God, you need to live like a child of God. There ought to be a difference in you and the world.

Congregation Member Amen!

So if you really understand grace, I’m a grace person. I love the grace of God. Grace is an empowering thing, right? But if you really understand the grace of God, it should not make you live more sinful. Right, and it should make you live more holy. In fact, if you understand what the scripture says, your spirit was actually made holy, right? And we’ll talk about that. So he talks about that here in a minute. He says that, “No man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter.” Don’t cheat your brother. Don’t lie. You know, I know a lot of Christians that lie. I don’t wanna lie. Just better just to tell the truth, right? So he says, “Because the Lord is the avenger of all, such as we have forewarned you and testified.” “For God,” in verse seven, “Has not called us to uncleanliness, but to holiness.” Is this New Testament? Okay. So we’re not called to uncleanliness. We’re not called to live like the devil. In fact, Joseph Prince says, “If you have a revelation of grace, it’s not gonna-” And Joseph is a grace preacher. “It’s not gonna cause you to sin more. It’s gonna cause you to sin less because sin does not have dominion over us because we’re not under law, but under grace.” Romans 6 says that, right? So we left the reign of sin and death. We came into the reign of grace and righteousness by faith in Jesus. So he says this, “We’ve been called to holiness.” Now in Colossians chapter 1, turn with me a minute to Colossians chapter 1. Let’s look at this, Colossians chapter 1. We’ll start reading in verse 20. He says, “And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him, to reconcile all things to himself, by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.” So what he’s saying here is Jesus, first of all, was Lord in heaven. He created all things. And then right here he is talking about Jesus is Lord of the earth. And God made him Lord of the earth. When Jesus walked on the earth, Jesus was Lord over every situation. But Jesus demonstrated his lordship, right? When he went to, when he died, and then he goes on and talks about how Jesus is not only Lord of heaven creating all things, Lord of the earth, right, through his life on the earth and through his death on the cross and resurrection. But he talks about how he’s Lord of the grave. In Colossians chapter 2, verse 13 to verse 15. So Jesus is Lord of heaven, Lord of earth, Lord of the grave. But he’s saying right here, he says, “You who were sometimes separated, alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works has he now restored to right relationship or reconciled.” So we were alienated from God by wicked You know why you don’t wanna sin? One reason you don’t want sin is because sin, the knowledge of sin, right? Condemns you and causes you to have less of a grasp on who God really is. Does that make sense? So sin hardens your heart towards the spirit of God and the things of God. Does this make sense to you? And he says, “You’re alienated in your mind.” In fact, if I defined, if I defined what spiritual death is, Ephesians 4:18 says something like this, “That we were alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in us because of lust.” What happened in the garden? Lust. The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, right? That’s what happened in the garden. That’s what took man down. What did Jesus defeat in Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4? The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and and the pride of life. The same things, Jesus was tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin. So it says in Ephesians chapter 4:18, verse 18, that we were alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us because of lust. So when sin and death entered with lust, had its way in the garden, it caused man right to be hardened, right? They were alienated from the life of God or to be ignorant, spiritually ignorant, of the things of God. And the reason you don’t wanna live in sin as a believer is it makes you spiritually It dumbs you down spiritually. It makes you spiritually ignorant. Sin is emotional, sin is stupid. Sin is deadly, right? You don’t want us live in sin, Why? Because the way Paul talks about it in Romans chapter 6, he said, “Here’s why we shouldn’t sin.” “Number one, we’re dead to it. Number two, we’re free from it. Number three, we’ve got authority over it. Number four, the wages of sin is death, it’ll kill you.” That’s Romans 6 in a nutshell, okay? You could take my word for it. Okay? But that’s what he says. That’s what Paul says in Romans chapter 6. But look at what he says here. You hath, you were sometimes alienated enemies in your mind by wicked works. Has he restored the right relationship, reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you wholly unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. So when you come to Jesus and you’re born of God, Jesus presents you to the Father holy. He presents you unblameable He presents you unreprovable. That is how Jesus Christ sees you. And that is how he presents you to the Father, because you put your faith in the work that he did on the cross. And he goes on and says this, “If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and don’t be moved away from the hope of the gospel, that’s what we’re talking about. You continue in the gospel, don’t be moved away from your faith in Jesus. Amen?

Congregation Amen!

So we’re called to holiness. Let’s go back here. Nobody’s gonna argue with me now, are you? For God did not call us to end cleanliness. He didn’t call us to live a… Right, if you really understand grace, it’s not gonna cause you to live worse. It’s gonna cause you to live better. But unto holiness, he therefore that despises, despises not man, but God, who has also given us his Holy Spirit. How do we live this out? We live it out by the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s no longer I that live, but it’s Christ that’s living in me, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul talks about Colossians chapter 1, verse 27, verse 29. He says, “I labor according to his working, which works in me mildly.” Romans chapter eight, he says this in verse nine, he says, well, I have to go there and think about it, but in the end of verse nine, he says, “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he’s none of his.” But he says, “Now that you’re in Christ,” in verse 10, “The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is live because of righteousness.” And then he says in verse 11, “But if the spirit of him that raised up from the, Christ from the dead dwells in you, he will bring life, he will strengthen. He will quicken your mortal body by his spirit that dwells in you. Guess what? I can’t live holy on my own. I can’t do it, that’s the whole Old Testament. The whole Old Testament showed man, that man could not live holy by his knowledge of good and evil, by his human ability to govern himself, through the human family, or through human strength. In other words, the the Bible showed me in the Old Testament that man failed in his innocence, in his conscience, in his ability to govern himself. Did you know what? The governments of this world are never gonna solve the problems of the world. The UN is never gonna solve the problems of the world. And neither is the Republican party of the United States of America. And I’m proud to say that I’m a Republican on most cases. Some cases they’re slipping a little, okay? But in most cases I’m proud to say I’m on the conservative side. It’s sure better than the other side, okay? So anyway, talking about that, the government’s not the answer, but he says essentially, man failed in his innocence. He failed in his conscience. He failed in his ability to govern himself. He failed in the human family. Then he failed in his ability to do what’s right under the law, right? So we went from the creation to the fall, to the flood, Noah, to Abraham, the human family, to Moses the law. So man failed in every realm. And then God came in the person of Jesus and did for us what we could never do for ourselves. Amen? So it’s not in our own strength, it’s not in our own ability, but it’s through the power of the spirit of Christ that’s in us. If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. Paul says in Romans chapter 8, in verse 10, “But it’s alive because of righteousness and the spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, he will bring life to your mortal body by his spirit that dwells in you. Friends, we’ve been talking about preparing for the Lord’s coming, but in the last part of this teaching, I share on the hope of Christ coming for his church. And the Bible has a lot to say about it. Paul said, “If we don’t have this hope, we are of all men most miserable. So you can go to our website, at charischristiancenter.com and hear the rest of this message plus many more. And if you need prayer or you want a partner, just give us a call today. We’re waiting to receive your call.

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