Preservation of the Believer

00:01 I want to greet each one of you this morning in the name of Jesus. We want to give glory to God, for He is the one who has created faith in us, and He is the one who is going to complete faith in us if we will continue to trust Him, follow Him, lay hold of Christ, lay hold of eternal life, the Scripture says, 00:20 and be faithful to the Lord with His power and divine enablement. Certainly want to extend our condolences to Brother Aaron and also to Brother Lynn. It's unusual for our congregation to experience the loss of two fathers so close together. 00:40 And so the Lord be with both of you. And many of us can identify with having lost a parent. And so may the Lord give you grace as you work through that and as you go through the grieving process and the process of letting go and moving on, carrying on. 00:58 Invite you to turn in your copies of the Scriptures this morning to the book of 1 Thessalonians for a preparatory message this morning before we take your counsel in relation to communion at the end of the service. I'd like to talk about the preservation of the believer. Brother Aaron did not know what I was planning to preach this morning, 01:18 so when he started talking about the preservation of our souls and of the believer, I got a little... my heart was warmed, I'll put it that way, that the Lord would lead us both in the same direction. The Scripture says in verse 12 through 24 of 1 Thessalonians 5: "And we urge you, 01:40 brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, 01:59 uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 02:21 Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." Now I want you to pay particular attention to the next two verses. "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, 02:41 and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 02:49 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it." I wonder what you would think this morning if I told you that you can go within 20 feet of the Niagara Falls and still be safe. 03:08 Within 20 feet or maybe even a little bit less of the powerful Bridal Veil Falls and Niagara Falls is what is called the Cave of the Winds. And it is located behind the falls. You take an elevator down about 175 feet, put on some yellow ponchos and caps and galoshes, 03:29 and follow a guide over a series of wooden walkways and look at behind the falls thousands of tons of water rushing over that great precipice with a thunderous roar and blinding splash of spray of water. If you were in the water just 20 feet forward, 03:51 you would immediately be dashed to the savage rocks below. But here, except for getting a little bit wet, you are completely safe and preserved from all evil. It's a wonderful thing to think about that. 04:06 I've been there, and maybe some of you have also, where you can actually look at the falls from behind the falls and be completely safe and protected in the cleft of the rock, as it were. Now we think about that this morning in relation to verse 23 and 24 about being preserved blameless and completely sanctified. 04:28 And Paul's prayer for these Thessalonian believers in Thessalonica was that they would be sanctified completely and have their whole spirit and soul and body preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he said, 04:47 "Faithful is he who calls you to this sanctification, and he will do it." You see, this morning God intends to accomplish His work in us. If you are a surrendered true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Child of God, He intends to finish the work. Philippians 1:6 says, 05:06 "Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." While we may be discouraged at times with our own progress, and we might even be discouraged at times with the process that this involves, eventually things begin to take shape. 05:28 It's a little bit like putting together a piece of machinery or something, and whether big or small, and you got a piece here and a piece there and a piece here and a piece there and a piece over here, and you begin to wonder, "Will this thing ever look like what I thought it was going to look like? Will it ever be what I thought it would be? Will it ever be what I bought into?" Until finally, 05:47 as you follow the directions, men and women as well, but as you follow the directions, things begin to take shape. And you say, "Ah! I begin to see now some shape coming to this as the pieces begin to come together." Eventually you say, "I think I'm beginning to see the purpose of this process." Well, 06:08 the finished work this morning, I'm happy to tell you, does not depend on you. The sanctification does not depend on you, and the being presented blameless does not depend on you. It is the work of God. He is faithful, and He will do it. 06:27 However, having said that, there are things that we do that greatly aid that process or hinder that process. 06:37 But God says, "For the true Child of God, who is surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, He intends to finish the work because it is His work." And so He intends to make us holy, to purify us, to cleanse us, and to set us apart and consecrate us to Himself. 06:57 That's in essence the meaning of the word sanctify. To sanctify something means to make it holy, to purify it, to cleanse it, to set it apart for a special use, and to consecrate it for God's own use and service. And God is going to do that in His true children. 07:16 Now I want to look this morning at the sanctification as the work of God Himself. Then we want to look at aids and hindrances to the sanctification process, and sanctification has a goal. And so what is this thing of sanctification? It is the work of God. John 17:17 says, 07:36 "Sanctify them," Jesus praying to the Father, "by your truth. Your word is truth." And then He talks about Him sanctifying Himself, that they... that's us... also may be sanctified by the truth. Acts 20:32, Paul says, 07:55 "So brethren, I commend you to the God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified." Sanctified how? By the word of His grace. Acts 26:17, Jesus speaking to the Apostle Paul and Paul reciting it in His testimony before King Agrippa, 08:16 "I now send you to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me," Jesus saying. 1 Corinthians 6, 08:37 "And such were some of you after He named a list of sins of the flesh. Such were some of you, but you are washed, but you are justified, but you are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." So we're sanctified in Jesus' name and by the Holy Spirit. 08:58 Hebrews 10:10, "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Jude 1, Brother Aaron referred to it this morning, "To those who are called sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:25, 09:18 speaking of the analogy of Christ and the husband in marriage, "That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word." Hebrews 13:12, "Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, 09:36 suffered outside the gate." And 1 Thessalonians 2:13, the Bible says that we have received sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. So how are we sanctified? We are sanctified by the truth. We are sanctified by the word of His grace. 09:55 We are sanctified by faith in Christ. We are sanctified in the name of Jesus and the Spirit of God. We are sanctified by the offering of Christ. We are sanctified by the Father. We are sanctified by the washing of water by the word. We are sanctified by the blood of Jesus. We are sanctified by the Spirit and the truth. That is the work of God. 10:15 And so Paul says, "Now may the God of peace Himself, the very God of peace Himself, sanctify you completely, wholly, thoroughly, through and through," the NIV says. 10:32 "And may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." He is faithful. He will do it. And so this morning, as a Child of God, be convinced that you are being sanctified and have been sanctified. 10:51 Sanctification is an event and a process. It is an event that happens at salvation where you're justified. You're also set apart. Now it's a process of growing and changing and becoming more like the Lord Himself. And so the Bible says that we are sanctified by the work of God. 11:10 Now that does not mean that there is nothing that we have to do with this process. Sanctification is greatly aided or hindered by our responses. 1 Thessalonians 4, just a page over, verse 3 and 4 says, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification, 11:30 that you should abstain from sexual immorality, because it is inconsistent for a sanctified person to indulge in sexual immorality." So He says, "This is God's will. 11:41 It's your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality and that each one of you, each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor." And so we need to learn how to possess our vessel, how to live for Christ, how to come under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, 12:02 how to allow the soil of His working in our lives to produce growth and fruit and spiritual maturity. And so what are some of those things that cause either us to aid or to hinder the work of sanctification, not only in our lives but in the lives of others? 12:23 So we look in the context this morning in verse 12. 12:29 Well, let me just preface this by saying sanctification does not take place well in the life of a person who does not follow these instructions in verses 12 through 22. 12:46 And so what we have here is the context in which spiritual growth and spiritual maturity and spiritual health grows and develops. The Gospel takes root in this kind of a context, and you are given choices in this matter of how rapidly, how quickly, 13:06 how thoroughly you are sanctified and what the process looks like that God has to take you through in order to complete this work. And so verse 12, He says, "You should heed warnings. You should heed warnings from those who are over you in the Lord and admonish you." And that word admonish means to warn. 13:28 And so part of the role of us as pastors is to warn and to encourage. Yes, that'd be the word exhort. To feed, that would be to give the word of God and put it down there at a level that can be absorbed, 13:48 and it can be assimilated, and it can be chewed on, and it can be engrafted. But also part of our responsibility is to warn. And we try to do that. We do that from the pulpit. We do that in private. We do that in a variety of ways. But sometimes we have to take a person aside and say, "You know what? 14:08 We're going to warn you about the course that you're on." That's one of the least favorite parts of being a pastor, is the warning part. 14:18 But we have to do it just like we warn our children, just like we warn people in the public square through various signs and and and and warnings on the highways and so on. We warn. We warn. 14:33 And so you are given a choice whether or not you heed the warnings or you arrogantly push forward with one's own agenda. The second thing we're told here... Now remember, this is the context in which sanctification takes place. Verse 13, "To be at peace among yourselves. 14:55 Be at peace among yourselves." Now that is God's instruction to us, to as much as we can be at peace rather than keeping the pot stirred or being critical or being hard to get along with or demanding our way. We're to be at peace amongst ourselves. In the body of Christ, in the local church, 15:15 in the family, we're to strive for peace. That doesn't mean that we have peace without any standards or beliefs. It doesn't mean that it's peace at any cost, because Jesus said that there are times when Jesus comes to bring not peace but a sword. And so we have to strive as much as we can to be at peace. 15:37 And then He says in verse 14, "We exhort you, brethren, to warn those who are unruly." The word there has the idea of being lazy or out of order. The word originally meant soldiers who left the ranks. Were to warn the quitters. Warn the quitters. 15:57 And comfort the fainthearted, to comfort the fearful, and to cling to the weak, to uphold the weak. Those who are are are are struggling, we come alongside and we hold them up and we pray and we counsel and we encourage and we be patient with all. And this is in the context of the entire body. 16:20 So in verse 12, He's talking about leaders warning and admonishing. In verse 14, He's talking about the brethren. Warning the unruly, those who have walked away, comforting the fainthearted, upholding the weak, and being patient with all. 16:39 Now the alternative to this is just sit idly by and refuse to participate. And that is always a choice that we make, whether we're going to get involved in people's lives, get involved in the church, get involved in ministry, 17:00 or if we're going to just sit idly by and watch. He says, "I exhort you, encourage you to get involved." Then He says, "To lay down." In verse 15, "See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone." And so there are times when we have offenses, 17:21 and there are times when we have things that others have done to us or for us or against us that sometimes that offense is intentional. Sometimes that offense is not intentional. And again, we're made given a choice. We can either hold on to grudges or we can lay it down. 17:41 Paul says, "Lay it down. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone." Either in our families, in our communities, in our churches, lay it down. Verse 15, He also says, "To pursue what is good. To do what is good both for yourselves and for all. 18:04 Pursuing excellence and goodness even when it's not deserved, rather than pursuing mediocrity or withholding good because it's not deserved." And sometimes we don't do good to people because we have this idea, well, 18:19 they don't deserve it or they don't need it or they wouldn't appreciate it or any number of excuses why we would not do good to a person. He says, "Don't withhold good when you have an opportunity to do it. Pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all." And then verse 16, He says, "Rejoice. 18:39 Rejoice. Don't be depressed and downcast and pessimistic and fearful. Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always," He said in another passage. And again, I say rejoice in case we don't get the message the first time. He said it again. And so rejoice always. And then He says, "To pray. 18:58 Pray continually. Don't give up on praying. Don't neglect praying." Now sometimes that has the idea... We come up with the idea that is we pray and pray and pray all the time, all the time. Pray without ceasing. That's one application. The other application is to continually pray. Don't give up on praying. 19:19 Yes, be in an attitude of prayer, be in a spirit of prayer, be always connected with God so that at a moment's notice you can respond to His promptings to pray. But over the long haul also, don't forget to keep praying for people and praying for situations. I don't know about you, but it's easy for me to look at that thing in the bulletin where it says, 19:40 "Praying for our lost and unsaved loved ones and backslidden loved ones," and say, "Well, we've been doing that for a while and still they haven't come back to the Lord." Paul says, "Pray without ceasing. Don't stop praying. Don't stop praying for your loved ones and for one another." And then He says in verse 18, 20:01 "Give thanks in everything." In everything. He doesn't necessarily say for everything, but in everything, give thanks, for this is God's will. It is God's will that we give thanks rather than being critical and ungrateful and self-centered and grumbling and complaining. Someone has said, 20:20 "There's no great loss without some small gain." What do we look at? Do we look at the loss or do we look at the gain? It's our choice. It's our choice. And then He says, "Heed the promptings. Do not quench the spirit. Do not stifle the spirit. Do not keep the spirit... 20:43 Keep the spirit from having complete influence in your life and in your services as a church. Do not quench the spirit. Don't ignore the promptings of the spirit." Again, we're given a choice. Do we heed the promptings or do we allow the promptings to go unanswered? 21:03 Verse 20, "Do not despise prophecies, despising the message that God wants to communicate to you through others." Have you ever done that? Well, that's just so-and-so going off again or that's just their opinion. 21:19 But maybe God has something He wants to share with you through the words of someone else and the counsel and the instruction. And yes, maybe even the prophetic insights of taking the word of God and applying it to certain areas. Don't apply or don't despise that. 21:41 Don't despise when God gives some a word, but then He says, "Test it. Test all things. Test that word and hold fast what is good. Listen to others and exercise discernment rather than gullibly accepting everything you hear. Exercise discernment." And then in verse 21, He says, "Test all things. 22:03 Hold fast. Hold fast to what is good. Don't let go. Don't give up on good things. Don't give up on good works. Don't give up on seeking to be associated with good people. Don't become cynical." I'll tell you, if there's ever a thing that can happen in our age, it's for people to become cynical. 22:24 I sense it in my own life at times. When you've seen so many things that have come and gone and you just kind of throw up your hands and say, "Well, I guess this is just another round... Go around the mulberry bush, you know? 22:37 I've seen this before and it failed." No, don't become cynical, but rather hold fast to what is good and then abstain from evil. From every form of evil and from every appearance of evil. Either one is a viable translation. 22:55 To avoid evil rather than dabbling in questionable activities, avoid it. Separate yourselves from evil. Now that is the climate with which spiritual growth and sanctification takes place. 23:11 That is the soil that the Gospel takes root in, and that is the soil that in a congregation or in a life or in a family where spiritual maturity can grow and develop. And so He says, "Preservation is a work of God. 23:32 Sanctification is a work of God, but the hindrance or the aid to that sanctification is greatly dependent and determined by how we respond to the situations of life." So sanctification number three has a goal. We've talked about sanctification as a work of God. 23:50 We've looked at aids and hindrances to sanctification. Now what is the goal of sanctification? Sanctification has a goal, and that is the preservation of the believer. The preservation of the believer. Preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24:12 Spiritually mature, kept by the power of God by faith. Did you realize this morning that the same faith that saves you is the same faith that keeps you in the palm of His hand? The same faith that keeps you. 24:31 The word here in preserved means to keep an eye on, to watch, to guard as a warden. Do you realize that God is guarding you as a warden, guarding a prisoner? God is preserving you. 24:50 God is reserving you for Himself. 24:54 Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Word says, "It means continuous preservation of the believer as a single complete act without reference to the time occupied in its accomplishment." In other words, there's no timeframe in this except the end. The end. 25:13 It's an act of God that when the end comes, whether your end through death or your end through rapture, you are preserved. You are preserved blameless without blame. You see, God is faithful. He reminds us in this about the faithfulness of God. 25:33 If there's one thing that we can learn through Scripture is that God is faithful. If there's one thing you can learn from the life of Abraham is that God is faithful. From the life of Isaac and Jacob, God is faithful. From the life of Moses, God is faithful. David, Daniel, 25:53 even the people of Nineveh found that God was faithful. He said, "I will destroy you unless you repent," and they repented, and He did not destroy them, at least not at that time until they went back into sin again. 26:06 They found the God of Israel faithful, and the new covenant which we enjoy in Christ is a faithful covenant. God preserving His people faithfully unto the end. This brings great joy. 26:26 You see, one of the things you see here, especially in verse 16, is that this soil, this environment that we've described here this morning is an environment that brings great joy. The joy of living the Christian life. The joy of of of of knowing Christ. The joy of having our sins forgiven. 26:48 The joy of being kept safe and preserved. The joy of being used by God. The joy of having fellowship with God's people. The joy of looking forward with hope to be reunited with our loved ones. This ought to create an environment of joy and rejoicing. 27:08 And I think some of you should stand this morning. Let's stand up. Let's have just a little stand here. It'll get a little groggy, a little not much joy there. So you can say, "Amen to the joy part," if nothing else, and you may be seated again. God is faithful. The joy of the Christian life. 27:28 The joy of knowing that He will not abandon us. The joy of knowing that He will preserve us through and through, making us holy, setting us apart for His glory. That brings forth joy. The marks of a Christ-filled church, 27:48 someone has said from this passage, is that it's a happy church. There's an atmosphere of joy. Sometimes we come to church and we bring our burdens... We need to bring our burdens to church. We need to bring them to the Lord, and then we need to leave them there at the altar and experience His joy. And one of the paradoxes of the Christian life is that there can be joy in the midst of sorrow and pain. 28:10 So a Christ-filled church can be a happy church. It can be a praying church. It can be a thankful church. It should be. The atmosphere of joy, the climate of faith, and the habit of gratefulness, that is the soil and the environment with which spiritual maturity and sanctification happens. 28:33 I want to close this morning, this part of the service, with a song that we used to sing. I don't know. I guess it's still in our purple books. We haven't sang it here for a long time. There's a cleft in the rock of ages where my soul may safely hide while the storms of life are raging and the billows roll over the tide. 28:53 Oh, the cleft of the rock. Oh, the cleft of the rock where my soul may completely hide though the storms around me are raging and the billows roll over the tide. There is peace for the soul that hideth in the rock that is higher than I, for the soul that only can fighteth and the cleft of the rock will try. 29:15 O soul, thou who now art weary to the rock, do come for rest. Come to Him who only can shear thee to the dear loving Savior's breast. 29:29 Poet's way, a songwriter's way of saying, "Come and experience that protection, that preservation." God is preserving you if you're a child of His. If you're a surrendered child of His, He's preserving you. He is strengthening you. 29:44 He has you hidden in that cleft, in that protective secret place behind Niagara Falls. If you can picture that... How many of you have ever been there? Been back behind that rock, behind those falls? 29:59 You just think of the power and the storm that rages with those falls and to know that you can stand there and look at it and be completely safe. Oh, you get a little splash on you. You get a little wet on you, but you're safe. And I thank God this morning. 30:19 There are times, brothers and sisters, in my own life that the enemy presses in. 30:24 Last week, we had a tremendous week of meetings at East Union. God showed up in a very powerful way. All night, every service but one, we had response. People committing their life to the Lord, making decisions, making commitments. That comes with a price. 30:45 For that week and into this past week, I've experienced the pressing in of the enemy, and I've had to come back. I had to come back. 30:54 This ministered to me yesterday to know that as a surrendered child of God, I can be at the falls watching and defended and preserved and protected because it's Jesus that is my defense. It's Him that is my sanctification. 31:15 It's the Holy Spirit that has sealed me and made me God's child. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Father in heaven, we thank Thee this morning for the cleft of the rock, the preserving power of God, 31:36 power of Christ. Lord, we want to be holy Christians. We want to be sanctified. We want to be set apart for You. That's why You saved us and sanctified us. We want to aid You in that. We want to live in an environment, Lord, 31:56 where there's peace and care and rejoicing and prayer and warning and coming under that warning and submission and all of the things we've described here this morning. 32:10 Lord, thank You for the opportunities that we have to grow and to move forward. Thank You, Lord, for the opportunities we have to lay things down. Lay it down and not seek revenge or vengeance. 32:32 And Father, as we come to this time of taking counsel this morning, we just ask, Lord, that we might be honest with You and allow You to warn us, to admonish us, to encourage us, to strengthen us, and to receive us, 32:50 to receive one another at the communion table next Sunday evening. We pray that You'll bless the rest of this service. In Jesus' name, Amen.