Well good morning to everyone. Bobby and I were driving up W on the way here and I said you ever been to this church before? She said I used to be the cleaning lady there a long time ago. We're glad to be back and please be patient with my voice or if I have a little bit of a residual cough but I'm all better and been better for several days so it's good to be back.

We're gonna be studying 1st Thessalonians 4:1 to 3 today and I'd like to begin by reviewing Paul's words in the first three chapters concerning the church in Thessalonica. If you look at chapter 4 verse 1 you see the word finally, and this word does not mean that Paul is done speaking or this is the last thing. It's the same word he uses in Philippians 3 in the middle of that letter. The word might be better translated furthermore. It's a word that links that which has come before in the first three chapters to what he's about to say. 

We could even translate it therefore, drawing on the truth that he has expressed in these first three chapters and perhaps particularly in chapter 3 at verse 10. If you look at 1st Thess 3:10 with me please. Paul says night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and here's really the key phrase and perfect what is lacking in your faith. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all just as we do to you so that he may establish your hearts blameless and holiness before God and before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

Paul had been hindered from going to them in person to impart some spiritual gift that is to be mutually edified together. So he now pursues this endeavor to perfect what is lacking in their faith through the writing of the rest of this epistle. 

It's very interesting what Paul says in our text this morning. It's all about perfecting what is lacking in their faith, continuing to grow, to super abound. It's all about sanctification and ultimately living a life that is pleasing to God. 

Turn back to 1st Thessalonians 1 with me at verse 5. 1st Thessalonians 1:5. For our gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake and you became followers of us and the Lord having received the word and much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. 

For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth not only in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

If you look at chapter 2 with me please at verse 9, Paul continues. For you remember brethren our labor and toil for laboring night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you we preach to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses and God also how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing because when you receive the Word of God which you heard from us you welcomed it not as the Word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which also effectively works in you who believe. For you brethren became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen just as they did from the Judeans who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us and they do not please God and are contrary to all men.

Now chapter 3 at verse 6 please, but now that Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news of your faith and love and that you always have good remembrance of us greatly desiring to see us as we also to see you, therefore brethren in all our affliction and distress we were comforted concerning you by your faith for now we live if you stand fast in the Lord. 

By all accounts, this was a healthy thriving church abounding in the work of the Lord. We have not to this point in the letter really seen any doctrinal issues or even practice issues. This was an abiding abounding church and Paul seems to have a super abounding love for these people and is very much encouraged by their fruit and progress. 

And yet look at what Paul says in our text this morning, 1st Thessalonians 4:1. Finally then, or we could say therefore brethren we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification. I've given you four points on your outline: first, doing well; second, abide abound; third, the will of God; and fourth, biblical sanctification. 

As I studied this text before us, Living Hope Church came to my mind and this is a good thing. If my assessment is correct, we are a church that's concerned with the gospel. We're a church who’s concerned with the person and work of Jesus Christ and with being witnesses to the world of the saving truth, the life-giving message with which we've been entrusted. 

We are a loving, fellowshipping church and the love of Christ is evident to all who come through these doors, perhaps not as much since Harriet's passed away, but still a loving church. I believe we are a doctrinally sound church concerned first and foremost with preaching the word, the truth in order that we might grow to maturity in Christ and function as a body, a living breathing organism to serve the Lord in all that we do. 

This is also positive, and it was positive in Thessalonica as well. We just read of all those great encouraging passages in the first three chapters. This church was doing well; there was a lot of fruit, a solid witness in the world to the other churches, an example they were doing well. 

But here's the searching convicting part of the words of Paul. Therefore, furthermore he writes, brethren we urge you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus Christ that you should abound more and more just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God. 

So Paul's furthermore, therefore exhortation following all of the encouraging words about how well they were doing is to do better, to continue moving in the right direction, growing in the grace and knowledge of God, abiding in Jesus Christ so that we might be more fruitful in our witness, in our love for one another, and that we might always please God in all that we do. 

You are doing well, now abound more and more. As I pondered this, I thought of and thought about it, studied it, it really struck me. Perhaps it was something I knew, maybe you know, but it's an important lesson to be reminded of: we are never idle. We are never sitting still in our spiritual life. We're either drifting on the current of apathy and distraction in the world leading to fruitlessness, worthlessness, even harm to the cause and purpose of Christ or we are focused, striving, seeking to look to Jesus, to abide in him, to come to know him better, fulfilling a great desire to glorify God in all that we do to walk in a way that is pleasing to him. 

This world's like sitting in a river with a strong current and the Christian life is much like this. It's called a race, it's called a marathon, it takes endurance and focus on the prize. Paul said he disciplines his body, beats it into submission so that he might fight with purpose to win the prize. We are either paddling exerting energy and passion to continue upstream or we are drifting with the current of the world to shipwreck and futility. 

I remember one time back when I was working for Wildlife Services trapping beaver on the Tyler Forks River. This is the river that flows into Copper Falls State Park at Brownstone Falls near Mellon and this waterfall drops just over 30 feet to the rocks below as the Tyler Forks River dumps into the Bad River. My co-worker and I were to canoe this river for a few miles upstream down to the park in order to be sure there were no beaver blocking the flow of water and migration of trout. 

We went down and talked to the park ranger and he showed us where to park our truck and he said you'll come around the last corner and then you'll see the walk bridge. He said just get out of the water before you go under the walk bridge. We said okay. We took the other truck, we went up a few miles and put the canoe in and started our way down. It was a beautiful sunny day, warm day; it was easy going on a fairly large river. 

We didn't see any beaver sign and all was good as we started to feel the gradient increase and the current strengthen as we came into the park. It was getting pretty serious and we were both looking hard around every corner for that bridge so we could get out. We paddled furiously against the current and made it to the bank after seeing we'd come around the corner and we saw the bridge. 

We started to panic so we got over to the side and my buddy grabs a hold of a tag alder and we swing around in the canoe and we're facing backwards and we stopped and just kind of breathed a sigh of relief and at that second the tag alder broke and away we went backward headed for Brownstone Falls. We were still close to the bank and thankfully it was not too deep so I just jumped out, grabbed a hold of the canoe and got over to the bank and we made it out safely but it was much too close as we could hear the roar of the Falls.

The Christian life can be like that day on the river, just a beautiful sunny warm day, a nice slow canoe ride carried along by the current and before you know it immediate peril, imminent destruction is a true possibility concerning sin and our witness and our fruitfulness are walking in a way that pleases God. The Christian life takes focus, takes caution, and preventative measures to avoid sin in a fall. Paul says in Ephesians 5:15 see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise. 

The word translated circumspectly means precisely, cautiously, exactly. It's like when you're walking on black ice in a parking lot; you don't just go walking around all willy-nilly lest you end up on your backside. You walk carefully, you walk cautiously, placing each step with precision. This is the kind of focus we are talking about to avoid a fall. 

The key to super abounding in the Christian life, the key to abounding more and more as Paul exhorts them, the key to abounding is abiding. In verse 1 of our text he says finally then brethren we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more just as you received from us how you ought to walk and please God, for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification. We see three things in these words from Paul: teaching or doctrine, exhortation, and encouragement. These three things should make up the ministry of the pastor-teacher of the local church. This is what he should be about: teaching doctrine, exhortation to obey the word, and encouragement. 

Turn over to John 15 with me please. John 15 at verse 1. John 15:1, one of the great passages, Jesus explaining the Christian life in the New Covenant, he says, I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. 

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. 

If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples. 

As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. 

This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. In this passage, Jesus explains his new covenant plan for producing fruit in the lives of the believers, expressed ultimately in love for one another. But notice what he says: he says you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. 

He said if his words abide in you, you will bear much fruit and he says in verse 10 if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love. Jesus sets a pattern here: first foundational truths, instruction, the words he has spoken. He exhorts the disciples to obey his word, to remain in him, to keep his commandments, to love one another, and he gives them encouragement. He says, you will bear much fruit. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit. 

I speak these things that your joy may be full. Doctrine, exhortation, encouragement. We see this same pattern throughout the New Testament, and particularly from Paul in the words of our text. He says finally then, brethren, we urge you and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more just as you received from us how you ought to walk and please God. 

For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. Paul came preaching the gospel and then he applied that gospel with instruction as to how this new life should be lived out. You see, there must first be salvation. There must first be regeneration. We must receive new life through faith in Jesus alone and be born again. We must be crucified with Christ, buried and raised to newness of life before we can outwardly live a new life. 

If you take a lost man and tell him he should do this and this and this, he has no power to do it. The law gives him no way. He must be born again. But being born again and being regenerated has an incredible impact on our life and who we are and how we live. Salvation, regeneration is the foundational truth for the new life in Christ. 

But that's not the end of the instruction. Paul says we taught you how you ought to walk in order to please God. We taught you commandments based on the truth of who you now are in Christ. We see this throughout the New Testament. This is the teaching. You are new men. Now live like new men. 

So we see instruction, doctrine, teaching. We're going to get into the details of that basis, that instruction concerning who we are now in Christ and what God has done in us in regeneration and why we can live a new life. But there must be instruction. There must be doctrine. There must be teaching. There must be preaching of the word, the truths of who Jesus is, what he has done, who we are in him, what we have in him, as well as what he expects from us in our new life. 

But instruction is not enough. It's not enough to just give out the information or to study for the sake of study as some sort of academic. There also must be exhortation. Brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ that you should abound more and more. We urge and exhort. We beseech. We beg. We exhort you to abound more and more. Obey the words. Believe the words. Abide in Christ. Look unto Jesus more and more and love one another more. 

And be more fervent in your witness, more bold and loving toward the lost in all that you do. Walk in a way that is pleasing to God, glorifying him more and more in your life. Paul is exhorting concerning the word, the doctrine, the commandments. He wants them not only to know the truth, but he wants them to reckon the truth, to submit to the truth, and to obey it in their daily lives. 

We need teaching, but we also need exhortation, and we need encouragement. If there's one word that could sum up the rest of this epistle from chapter 4, verse 1 to the end, it's comfort and encouragement. We're going to see Paul lay out some pretty heavy doctrine concerning the rapture, the day of the Lord, the coming of Christ, and we see him again and again say this: comfort one another with these words. Encourage one another with these truths. 

The point of doctrine is not academic. It's not solely an intellectual endeavor. The point of truth of teaching about Jesus and salvation and the hope we have in him is encouragement. For the believer in Jesus, looking to him, hearing about him, seeking to know him, to abide in him, to be fruitful for his glory, to be his ambassador in this world, this is encouragement. This is edification. This is spiritual progress. This is sanctification. 

And we see even in these first three verses, great encouragement. Paul talks about doctrine, commandments, teaching. He exhorts us to obey them, to walk in a way that's pleasing to God. Then he gives us these encouraging words in verse 3. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. 

I want to get into this a little more in our last point, but here is encouragement for you and for me, my brother, my sister in Christ. This is the will of God. This is his strong desire, his intent for you in saving you, your sanctification. Confirmation to the likeness of Jesus Christ, an outward living that is consistent with who we are inwardly. 

In Romans 8:28 it says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. What amazing promises. God is working all things together for our good, for those who love God, who are the called according to his purpose, and what is his purpose? For whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. 

It is God's will and purpose to make us like Jesus, to sanctify us by his grace and power through faith alone in him. But listen to me now, it's not a passive process. We are called here in our text in 1 Thessalonians 4 and in every epistle in the New Testament to work, to strive, to seek, to look, to trust, to obey, to know, to reckon, to yield. 

And this is all summed up in the words of John 15: we are to abide in him. We are to remain in him, focused on trusting in him to live his life out through us. But this is no passive endeavor. We are never instructed to let go and let God. We are to be active in the pursuit of holiness by a filling of our hearts and minds with the words of God, with the instruction. We are to be exhorting one another, encouraging one another to look unto Jesus, to trust him, to obey him and his commandments. 

But God has promised that he will sanctify those who are his. He will continue this work, which he began of conforming us to the image of Christ until the day of Christ. Turn over to Philippians 2 with me please. Philippians 2 at verse 12. Paul writing to the Philippian believers who are also a fruitful church and encouraging church. He says, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 

For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. There may seem to be a tension here in this doctrine, like so many others in the scriptures, but God sees no tension. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Notice it does not say work for your own salvation or work for the love of God. We have salvation through faith in Jesus alone. We who have heard the gospel and who have believed have passed from death unto life. We are new creatures in Christ. 

We experience no condemnation and we're secure in the promises of God standing in his grace. We live in the sphere of the love of Jesus Christ. God has poured his love out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us as a deposit, guaranteeing our final salvation. 

When Paul says work out your own salvation, he's talking about working out in your walk, in your daily living, what you already have, who you already are, what is true in you. Work it out. Live a life consistent with who you are by the grace and life and power of Jesus in you. But notice what he says next in Philippians 2, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. 

God by his grace for his purposes is working to make us like Christ, and it's by his grace through faith we are sanctified. What we see in our text this morning and in so many others is that God has prescribed that it is by his words, through teaching, exhortation, and encouragement that he does this work. Jesus said sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. 

We need sustenance to grow, and our food is the word of God. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We need teaching, we need doctrine, we need to be exhorted to know, believe, and obey that truth, and we need encouragement that God is sovereign, working out his will in our lives as we abide in him. 

The last three weeks were a struggle for me. For about ten days I was in pretty rough shape. I had absolutely no desire to do anything, to even move. I just wanted to lay still on the couch. I didn't want to eat, I didn't want to drink, I didn't want to watch anything, I didn't want to listen to a sermon or open my Bible, nothing. Just lay there motionless. 

Bobby was worried about me getting pneumonia, so she would set the timer on the stove and make me sit up on the couch for fifteen minutes at a time, and kept imploring me to get up and go walk outside and get some sun, but I couldn't for several days. I just wanted to give up. I was pretty sick, but it was a strange emotional battle like I never had with the flu. 

And the result of this extended period of time, without any instruction, without any truth, without any exhortation or encouragement or fellowship, was that I was drying up on the vine. Ashley had started some plants for our garden, and I was thinking about those little tiny vulnerable plants when they were first coming up. They needed nurturing care and heat and water and sunshine, and Ashley was caring for them in these ways, trying to get them to grow. 

But if she forgot to water them just one day, or left them out in the cold overnight, or left them in the scorching sun too long, those plants would dry up or freeze, they would wither away. That's how I felt the last three weeks: dried up, withering, with no instruction, no exhortation, no encouragement. 

And my thoughts and my mouth and words and actions began to show my malnourished state. Not that it was some great sin that had overtaken me, but this was a stressful time for our family, trying to keep up with all the babies on the farm and the chores and the spring work. And I was just sick, useless. And everyone was stressed and worried, and none of us were being nourished. 

This little brief experience, which is so insignificant compared to what so many go through, was just a picture for me of what Paul's talking about here in Thessalonians to us. You're doing well, he says. Salvation has transformed you and made you into new men. The word came to you with power, and there's been much fruit. 

And he says, now I beg you to abound more and more. Remember the words of God we spoke to you, the commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus, and obey, seek, strive for holiness. I had this question for myself as I studied this text. How serious am I about holiness? How important is holiness abounding more and more to me? 

It's a convicting question, but the scriptures are abundantly clear that God is concerned with holiness. With a special, separated people, his children, here to display the power of his salvation and to walk in a way that pleases him. What am I striving after? What am I in pursuit of? Is it holiness? 

You know, it seems in the church today that we have a 12-step program or a help group or a book study for just about every problem: financial problems, family problems, marriage problems, sin problems. But it occurred to me as I studied Paul's words that if I personally would just pursue holiness in my life, if I would seek after, look to, abide in Jesus, and seek to know him and to have his life lived out through me by faith, if that was my great pursuit every day, if this was the great desire of my life through his word, through exhortation, through encouragement, I wouldn't really need those books, those programs. 

And if I want to please God, if I want to be fruitful, to be a witness, then I must be fixed on Christ. I must be serious about living out who I am by his grace, through faith and trust in him. What else matters? And I fail so often. 

And in our text this morning, we see doing well. We see abide and abound. We see the will of God. And finally, I just want to talk briefly about biblical sanctification. We're going to get a little deeper into this next week in Romans 6 in our communion service. But I'd like to touch on a few points as we close just to be sure that we have a biblical understanding of sanctification. 

If you'd turn to Romans 5 with me please. Romans 5 at verse 20. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that, here's the purpose. Watch your purpose words. So that as sin reigned in death, and Adam, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Look at 6:1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized, that word means to be placed into, it's a dry verse, as we're baptized into Christ Jesus we're baptized into his death. 

Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, look at these words, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, do you believe this? 

Verse 6: That our old man was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead dies no more, death no longer has dominion over him. 

For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. We've seen this several times already this morning, but I think it's a vital point to make here, and that is that when God saved you, he intended to make you holy. He intended to make you like Jesus Christ, to continually gradually transform you into the likeness of Christ. 

I've heard many Christians say many times, well we're gonna sin. I always tell them to be careful because they'll live up to their expectation. You know Paul said, the things I want to do I do not do. The things I don't want to do I'm continually perpetually always doing them. Present tense in the Greek. We're gonna get to Romans 7 and what Paul was saying there, but let me say this. Nowhere in the Bible does God's Word excuse sin or give a place for sin in a believer's life. 

Sin still dwells in the believer, and we will not be perfectly sinless in this life, but God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. As we just read in Romans 6, God has crucified our old man, that man in Adam, dominated and controlled by sin. He's buried us with Christ. He's raised us with him to a new kind of life. 

We are now free from the controlling power of sin. We are dead to sin. We are dead to the law, and we are free from the bondage of fear of death. We're alive to God. We're living under grace, righteousness, and life, and God has made every provision in Christ and in his regenerative work in us to equip and empower us to live a righteous life every day. 

And my friends, this is his expectation and intent for you and he's given us clear instruction as to how this works out in our lives. In passages like Romans 5 and 6, in passages like Ephesians 1 and 3, where he explains that it is his power, the very power that raised Jesus from the dead, that works in you. That it's his Holy Spirit who imparts strength to our inner man. 

It is Jesus who lives his life out through us as we believe, trust him, abide in him. In Romans 12, Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable, logical service. 

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The mercies of God, doctrine, teaching, truth, from those first 11 chapters of Romans. He says it's our logical way to live, because we are new men. It's our spiritual act of worship. 

And briefly, simply, the way to do this is to stop being conformed to this world and start being transformed by the renewing of our minds. We must not let that which is outside of us, this world, conform us into its ways and practices, living like the Gentiles. Rather, we need to be continually renewing our mind to his word, to the truth of God, in order that we might be being transformed. 

This word refers to our outward actions coming into conformity with the inward reality of who we are in Christ. And in this process, this daily discipline of hearing, studying the word, seeking to know Jesus, pursuing holiness, by his power we will grow and bear fruit. We will abound more and more. 

We need instruction. We need teaching and doctrine. We need exhortation, a beseeching to obey and to be holy as he is holy, to live out who we are. And we need encouragement. We need fellowship, appointing to Jesus and his word and his promises, the power and promise of the God who cannot lie, our Father who works and wills in us according to his good pleasure. 

And my friends, we find all of these things right here, in preaching, in teaching, in Bible studies, in fellowship. And we need to be here. We need to be at Bible study, to be studying in our homes with our families. 

And we need to be setting an example for others concerning pursuing holiness and walking in a way that is pleasing to God. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for your word, your truth. We thank you. You've saved us, that you've regenerated us, that you've dealt with the sin in us, and that now through an abiding relationship with Jesus, he lives his life out through us for your glory. Help us to pursue that, to seek after that. Help us to have a great desire, great desire for you, for your word, and for your glory. In Jesus' name.