Thank you, Mark, for leading us again. Good morning to everyone. Good to see you all here this morning. A beautiful morning, a little cooler, nice and cool this morning; been a little hot lately in case you didn't notice.

We're gonna be studying 1st Thessalonians 4:9 to 12 this morning. And in our study of 1st Thessalonians 4, Paul's been teaching us about God's will for us, which is our sanctification. We've been studying the truth that God saved us with the intention of making us holy, setting us apart, that we might live a life that is ever-conforming to the likeness of Christ in order that we might be a witness in this world to the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

And this is really important to understand because so much of the church today expounds doctrine that undermines this very truth. There are those who have a great emphasis on the sinfulness of the believer, teaching that believers are saved, that they're positionally righteous in Christ, justified, but that salvation is really little more than this. They'll apply verses like Jeremiah 17:9 to the believer, that our hearts are evil, that we are desperately wicked just as the men in Adam. Or some may teach that we are two men somehow in Adam and in Christ at the same time, that salvation is simply an adding of the new nature to the old. 

But our nature is the essence of who we are. And as we have learned in the past couple of weeks, the man who was taken out of Adam and placed into Christ, united to Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection, to newness of life, is no longer who he was. And he's no longer under sin, law, and death, no longer in Adam. He is in Christ. He's a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. He's been crucified with Christ, given a new heart, a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling him to empower him to live a new life. 

It's vital that we use biblical terms and have a proper understanding of who we are in Christ. It's not that we are sinless or perfect in this life. That same indwelling sin is still there in the believer, but our relationship to it has changed. And we are holy; we are born again; we are regenerated on the inside, and therefore we should expect, as God expects, to live a holy life each day for his glory. 

So we see in chapter 4 that God's very intention in saving us was to show his power in and through us as we live as new creations in this world by the power of Christ's life in us, abiding moment by moment in him. This is the essence of the Christian life: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Well, in our text this morning, we're going to see these truths worked out in a practical way, in everyday living, in attitude and purpose, and in a way that is contrary to the wisdom of this world. Paul is exhorting us to love one another more and more, to lead a quiet, peaceable life, and mind our own business, and work with our hands. 

And this is the fascinating part to me: in order that, he says, for the purpose that we might walk properly towards those who are outside. We will see in our study this morning that loving God and loving one another, living a quiet and peaceable life, working with our own hands and minding our own business, is the very way that we can and will walk properly toward those who are outside and lack nothing in our witness. This kind of attitude toward life, this simplicity of Christ, facilitates a good and healthy relationship toward the lost and an effective witness for the gospel. 

And the converse is true as well. When we are anxious all the time, when we're wrapped up with the cares and the problems of the world, when we're seeking worldly solutions and fighting the battle with worldly carnal means, when we become immersed in the cares of the world rather than the will and the purpose of God in our lives and His Word, then we will not walk properly toward those who are outside, and we will not have an effective witness in this world. 

Think about this with me. The world is a big hot mess. Men are anxious. They're filled with fear. They're agitated. There's no peace, no joy, and an inherent inability to exercise love. They have no answers for the problems and worries of life. They're all wrapped up and getting all that they can and holding on to it at all costs, and it doesn't matter who gets hurt along the way as long as I get what I want. And this selfishness breeds all kinds of emotional, mental, and spiritual consequences that men have no way to deal with. 

There's no peace for the man in Adam apart from Christ. So what kind of persons ought we to be? How should we live each day in the midst of this decaying, out-of-control train wreck of a world? What facilitates an effective witness concerning how we live? If we as believers in Jesus Christ are agitated, fearful, panicking, fighting all the time, seeking to use the means of the world to cure the ills of the world, then what do we offer the world? What is the difference? 

But if we have peace, if we are so wrapped up in Jesus that the world can't move us, can't shake us, if we live a quiet life, mind our own business, and work with our hands to provide our own bread, no matter how the world is falling apart today, this is attractive to the world. This is something they want and do not have. This is a witness through how we live that shows the power of the gospel that we preach. 

That's Paul's message to us today in our text, and it's a powerful one and one that I dearly love because it's where the rubber meets the road concerning the simplicity of the Christ life. Let's look at our text in 1st Thessalonians 4:9. 

But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more, that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

I've given you three points on your outline. First, love one another. Second, a quiet life. Third, walk properly. 

First, in verses 9 to 10, we see love one another. Paul uses the word for brotherly love here, and note what he says in verse 9. He says, concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 

Love for one another, especially for the brethren, is a result of salvation. Jesus taught this from the beginning. John 13:34, he said, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. John 15:12, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Verse 17, these things I command you, that you love one another. Love is the hallmark of Christian living, of the true believer in Jesus Christ. By this, Jesus said, they will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another. 

Paul wrote in Romans 13:8, oh no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. The believer loves, and this is because of the work of salvation that God has done in him. He has poured out his love into our hearts, and that love, that bond that we have for our brothers and sisters in Christ, is a common thing to every born-again person in this world. 

I've told you before about when I went to India, and people I've never met, in an instant bond, in a different culture, across the world, because we love Jesus, because we have been saved, and are in Christ, and God has poured his love out into our hearts. Romans 5:5 says, hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 

God poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Who has the Holy Spirit? Romans 8:9 says, now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. Every believer is taught by God to love. 

1 John 3:11, John says, for this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Verse 14, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Verse 18, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And verse 23, this is the commandment of the new covenant, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. Chapter 4, verse 7, beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 

Pretty clear throughout the Scriptures. Paul says, there's no need for us to write to you to love one another, because you are taught by God to love one another. But then notice what he says in verse 10 of our text. He says, and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia, but we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more. They were practicing love; they were loving the brethren, but just as Paul said before, up in verse 1, they needed to be exhorted to continue in love and all the more, that you would increase more and more. 

As we discussed before, sanctification is a lifelong project. It's a continuous growing and increasing as we look to Jesus, as we abide in him and his words abide in us. This is an active pursuing of Christ. It's a daily discipline to be in the word, in fellowship, and actively seeking and choosing to love one another. There's no idle in this life; there's no coasting. We're either drawn in by the cares and the troubles of the world and all its false solutions and wisdom, or we are focused on Christ and his word, seeking to know him more and more, to love God and love one another, to be fruitful for the cause of the gospel and his glory. 

And when we're focused on those things, then we will minister to one another; we will love one another; we will meet the needs of people for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of encouraging the brethren and leading the lost to Christ—not for the sake of fixing the ills of the world or making things just in this world. Only Jesus will make things just when he comes. 

I was talking to someone the other day about the last year or so in the situation with COVID and we're talking about the fear that grips so many people, an absolute panic that disabled them from normal life and rational thinking. It reminded me of what Jesus said in Luke 21:25 concerning his second coming. He said, "...and there will be signs in the sun and the moon and in the stars and on the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them from fear, and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of the heavens will be shaken." 

Men's hearts failing them from fear. We can see that now, understand that a little more. Fear even unto death. Serious things come upon us in this life, in this cursed world, including things like COVID. But let me ask you, how should we as believers respond to these things? Surely we should be wise and prudent, attempting to rightly assess things and behave accordingly, but we should never be incapacitated by fear. We should never panic; we should never exhibit in our lives the great uncertainty of the lost, because we have the promise of eternal life and our trust is in Jesus and we do not fear what is to come by death or by life or through the wrath of man in this world. 

Sometimes the wrong seems awfully so strong, right, as Julie sang this morning, but God is the ruler yet. We don't need to worry; we don't need to fear; we're in Christ; we have abundant life today. He is our everything; He is our all-in-all, as Paul says. He's in control; He's sovereign, and He does what's best for me. 

Turn with me to 2 Peter 3, please. 2 Peter chapter 3 at verse 10. Peter says, the day of the Lord, we're going to be talking about the day of the Lord soon in the book of 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 

In recent months, I've thought a lot about why men are so afraid. I began asking people, why are you afraid? Are you afraid to die? Why? Why are you afraid to die? We've seen in Luke and we see in Revelation that there's coming an awful, horrible judgment for the one who does not believe in Jesus. When He comes, it will be a holocaust on those who do not believe, who set themselves against Him, and men should rightly fear. 

Revelation 6:15 says, the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For great is the day of His wrath. Who is able to stand?" Fear. Men should fear. But what about for the believer? There is no fear. There's no trepidation about the second coming of Christ. We will not experience His wrath. 

Peter says Jesus is coming. There'll be a judgment. The elements will melt with a fervent heat. There'll be a destruction of all that offends, and even a destruction of this old creation. And he says, in light of these truths, what manner of persons ought we to be? Isn't that a profound question? In light of those truths, what manner of persons ought we to be? And then he says, in holy conduct and godliness. 

My brothers and sisters, we look forward to these things. We have a promise. We have a secure hope. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Death is a departing. That's what Paul says. My departure is at hand. It's like getting on a flight at the airport. A departure. I hear people say, oh, we lost Him. Or they are gone. We didn't lose Him. Not for the believer. Death is nothing to fear. It's a departure from here, and we will be carried on the greatest flight of our lifetime to our permanent destination, our home in the Father's house.

We don't fear judgment. We don't fear death. My friends, in light of these truths, what manner of persons ought we to be in holy conduct and godliness? Love, peace, and witness. This is what we see in our text. This is what should be true of every believer: loving one another. Pursue it. Do it all the more. Encourage one another. Pray for one another. Meet the needs of the brethren. Live in peace, a quiet life, minding our own business, working with our hands. 

And it's this kind of focus, one of loving others, one of trusting Jesus and being at peace in this crazy world, that is a witness that you may walk properly towards those who are outside. Love, peace, and witness. First, Paul says love one another all the more. You're doing it. Well, now do it more. 

You know, Living Hope Church is an interesting place these days. We've undergone quite a change in recent years. I think when I preached my first sermon here in 2005, Bobby and I were certainly the youngest people here. And now I look around, and I see all these children. Someone told me there's 39 children in our church and young families, and now Bobby and I are old folks. And lots of new people. 

I'm still trying to learn names and where everyone's coming from. It's amazing what God is doing here. Ashley had an idea yesterday I thought was very good. She's written down everyone's names in the church from doing the directory on a little piece of paper. And she has them in a basket out here in the hallway. And what she'd like for you to do is to take one of those slips of paper, then seek to encourage that person in some way. Pray for them. Write them a note. Or if there's some need, seek to meet it. Maybe get to know that person or that family. And when the basket's empty, we'll fill it up again. 

You are loving one another. You're taught by God to do this. He has put this love for the brethren in you, pouring out His love by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Now do it more and more. Think about it. Pray for one another. And pray for the lost and opportunities to witness to them.

Well, next we see in our text a quiet life, and I love this. First Thessalonians 4:11, that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your own hands as we commanded you. Paul says you should aspire to lead a quiet life. The word aspire means to be eager, earnest, to strive, and to labor. Paul says strive, labor, earnestly seek to live a quiet life. 

That seems strange, doesn't it? But this is because this quiet, peaceable life where we mind our own business and we work with our hands does not come naturally. It's not natural to man to want to just live his life in peace and quiet, to eat his own bread, to help his neighbor, to preach the gospel. He wants to be somebody. He wants to do something great. He wants to have power and position and great influence to leave his mark on the world, and he thinks this comes by gaining power and fame and money. 

Jesus spoke to this with the disciples who were seeking to be great in this world and in the next. Turn over to Mark 10 with me, please. Mark 10:35. 

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him saying, "'Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.'" My kids have said stuff like that to me. "'Whatever I ask you, dad, I want you...don't ask me what it is. Whatever I ask you, I want you to do it.' And he said to them, "'What do you want me to do for you?' They said to him, "'Grant us that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on your left, in your glory.'" But Jesus said to them, "'You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?' And they said to him, ''We are able.' So Jesus said to them, ''You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with, you will be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.’ 

And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John." Why were they greatly displeased? They're worried they're going to get ahead of them, right? We should ask first. They were all competing; they wanted to be something great. 

Verse 42, "'But Jesus called them to himself and said to them, "'You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. And it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever of you desires to be first shall be a slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. The first shall be last, the last shall be first. Greatness in the kingdom for the glory of God comes through service, through love, through a quiet life that is a witness to the world." 

And there seemed to be a problem with this in Thessalonica, especially working with your own hands and providing for your needs. It seems that there was a great longing for, a watching for the second coming of Christ. And they had become so sure that Jesus was coming at any moment that they quit their jobs. They failed to maintain their normal duties of life and were just waiting, waiting on Jesus to come. 

It strikes me that we have the opposite problem in the church today. We are so fixed on earthly things, so consumed with the cares of this world and trying to fix them, that we have no real anticipation for the rapture and the coming of our Lord to take us to be with Him forever. That's the text for next time. The Scriptures teach a balance in this. We are to be maintaining the affairs of normal life, working with our hands, eating our own bread, witnessing to the lost, encouraging the brethren, all these things, while also watching, waiting for, and anticipating our Lord that is coming. 

Turn over to 2 Thess 3 with me, please. 2 Thess 3:1. Paul addresses this again in the second letter. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. 

And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do things we command you. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. Now look at verse 6, but we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. 

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you. What does Paul mean by disorderly? He says, nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. Not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. Verse 10, for even when we were with you, we commanded you this: if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all but are busybodies. 

Now those who are such, we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. What an amazing witness it would be if we would just heed these few words in the midst of the world in which we live. 

What does it mean to live a quiet life, to be at peace in the world? In 1 Timothy 2:1 it says, therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and all who are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

Our brothers and sisters, we live in this world, but we are not of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. 

We're not to be rebellious, contentious people. We're not here to right the wrongs of the world. We have a specific mission: to be witnesses to the lost, to bring the saving gospel to every creature, and to live a life that does not undermine, but rather undergirds our message of salvation. We should always speak the truth; we should stand for righteousness, and we should do what is right today. But we are not to be causing trouble for the king. We're not to be leading revolutions in politics and using militant means to force people to be Christians, as has happened all through history. 

We're not here to fix the social ills of this world. I know this rubs some the wrong way; it rubs me the wrong way. But I want you to pay special attention, close attention to the amazing link that Paul makes in our text in 1st Thess 4, and in that passage in 1st Timothy 2. He says in verse 10, we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more, that you also aspire, strive to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your hands. 

And at this point, we might want to yell out, and what's this going to accomplish? Where are we going to get in this world living like that? But notice what Paul says next: that, so that, for the express purpose that, you may walk properly toward those who are outside. God says here in his word that striving, laboring, earnestly seeking to live a quiet and peaceable life, minding your own business, working with your own hands to provide for your own needs and to share with others, this attitude, this way of life, this simplicity of Christ, the Christ life, will result in, will facilitate, will encourage us to walk properly toward those who are outside. It will be a witness. 

And it will keep us looking and seeking to love others enough to tell them the truth. This is amazing to me. And in 1st Timothy, he says, be praying for the king. Be praying for those in authority over you. Why? That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

But Paul, you don't understand our king. I mean, he's evil. Our government is corrupt. In fact, there's endless injustice all around us, and if no one stands up, it's just going to go on. You mean like the evil men that David experienced and those who desired to kill him? The wicked who prospered and David longed for God to exact justice on them? There's nothing wrong with wanting justice. God has put that in us as well. 

But my friends, we are not here to bring justice to the world, but rather to save men out of it. Only Jesus will bring justice when He comes. But think about the context in which Paul wrote these words. He was under the evil Emperor Nero. Here's a man who poisoned Britannicus, the rightful heir of the Emperor Claudius. A man who had his own mother killed. A man who burned Rome to the ground so they could rebuild it and fiddled while it burned and then blamed the fires on the Christians and began a great persecution that took Peter and Paul. 

This is the man who removed Paul's head from his body and then shortly after, he took his own life, committing suicide. And yet Paul says, pray for the king, for those who are in authority over you, in order that, for the purpose that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. And here's the kicker: for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be saved. 

Paul again links our quiet and peaceable life to the furtherance of the gospel, to the salvation of lost men. Jesus said, they'll know you are my disciples by this, that you love one another. How will they know we're Christians? How will they know we're followers of Jesus? By our love. By being available to men, by being willing to sacrifice ourselves and give our time and our money and to love men enough to tell them the truth. 

Apparently, according to this passage and the one we read in 2 Thessalonians 3, some of the believers in Thessalonica who were so wound up about the coming of Christ that they quit working must have had a lot of time on their hands. Or as we might say today, they were all up in everybody's business. Busy bodies, Paul says. And they became sponges, moochers, eating other people's bread because they were not working. What kind of witness is this? They became a burden to the believers who were doing what Paul had commanded and they needed to be dealt with, and Paul says don't keep company with a man who will not work. 

Think about that in our world today. You'd lose a lot of friends. Don't keep company with a man who will not work. If he does not work, he should not eat. And look at our world today. My brothers and sisters, there's a lot of people eating who are not working, and this is destroying our society. It shouldn't be so in the church. 

Paul's exhortation here is that we should not be living like the pagans. We should not be unwilling to work with our own two hands, aspire to leave a quiet life, mind our own business so that we might eat our own bread, and we might have something to share with him who has a need. 

In Adam, we were selfish. We were thieves. Taking what wasn't ours, but look at Paul's words in Ephesians 4. Turn over to Ephesians 4:17 with me, please. This I say, therefore, in testifying the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, as we once walked, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you have put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be being renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you have put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. 

Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 

Paul gives us these great truths that we have put off our old man. We died. We've put on the new man. We were born again. We are being renewed in the spirit of our mind by the words of God. Sanctification. Then he makes these very practical applications, especially the one in verse 28. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, so that he may have something to give him who has need. 

Think about this. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to transform lives, to turn a thief into one who labors, working with his hands what is good, so that he may give it to someone who has a need. What a turnaround, and we see this all the time. We've seen it in our own lives. 

No false religion can reform a man. I've known many religious men in my life. I was one of them. Church every Sunday, live like hell all week. The power of our witness is in the gospel preached. The message that is the power of God to save everyone who believes, but consistent with that throughout our New Testament is the witness of the lives. How we live, how we act and react in this world, and the peace and assurance that we have in Jesus. Our willingness to work hard, to share, to give, to meet needs, and especially to love one another. 

I just thought of something, but an appropriate illustration. Doug Foley always says, I can't do business with Ray Brown, or Ron Heft, or John Neuse, because it's always inequitable. They always cheat themselves. Doug, did you ever see that before you were saved? No. Everybody had an angle, right? I had an angle all my life. Believers want to give. Believers want to love. They want to help. They want to lead men to Christ. 

This is what it's all about. Our living should work to undergird our message, not undermine it. This should be our aspiration, our labor, our striving to live a quiet and peaceable life, to mind our own business, and to work with our own hands. In this life, along with the message of the gospel, we'll make sure that we walk properly toward those who are outside, that we might always be a witness to them of the saving power, the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for these practical words. Thank you that you tell us the truth, and thank you that your will is to make us like Christ, that you've saved us, and equipped us, and given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, changed us, that you crucified us with Jesus. We've died to sin, died to the law, died to the fear of death, and now we can live as new men by your grace, and your power, your life in us, and all for your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.