The Kind of Sexual Conduct that God Desires (1 Thess. 4:3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/6/2014 7:36 AM

My Worship Time                              Focus:  What Kind of Sexual Conduct Does God Require?

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  1 Thess. 4:3

            Message of the verse:  “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;” 

            We will try and answer this first question from verse three, a question that some may be surprised at the answer, but the answer is given at the end of verse three where Paul writes:  “that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.”

            John MacArthur points out that the conjunction “for” links this command to Paul’s previous exhortation that the Thessalonians strive to excel more from verses one and two of chapter four.  As we read over chapter 1 and verses 3-10 we will be reminded that these people had a desire to do the will of God, and so Paul is explaining more fully this command which is the will of God.  People desire to know what the will of God is and there are different places in the Word of God that tells us exactly what the will of God is for our lives.

            Paul begins by giving a general or broad governing principle of what the will of God is and that is sanctification (hagiosmos), which is the Greek word translated in the NASB as sanctification.  In some other translations it is translated as holy.  MacArthur writes that it is the “process of being separated from sin and set apart to God’s holiness (Ps. 4:3; Jer. 1:5; John 17:17; Acts 20:32; Rom. 6:22; 15:16; 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 5:26-27; 2 Tim. 2:21; Heb. 2:11; 10:10; 13:12; cf. 2 Cor 6:17; Eph. 5:7-9; Phil. 2:12-13).  God wants believers to be separated from all that is evil, fleshly, and impure.  The sanctification process is the direct result of salvation, as Paul instructed the Corinthians: ‘Such [sexually immoral] were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.  The apostle’s reference to sanctification points back to one of the requests he had just prayed for the Thessalonians:  ‘that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father’ (1 Thess. 3:13).” 

            Paul now gets more specific by saying that part of this sanctification process is to be sexually pure before the Lord that is we abstain from sexual immorality.  We mentioned in our last SD that these people lived in a very sexual perverse society, something like we live in today in the United States, and I suppose other countries as well.  Paul uses the word abstain and this word means complete abstinence, and in this case , staying completely away from any though or behavior that violates the principles of God’s Word and results in any sexual sin.  MacArthur writes “sexual immorality (porneias) is a term used to describe any form of illicit sexual behavior.  Any sexual activity that deviates from the monogamous relationship between a husband and a wife is immoral by God’s standard.  The Lord does bless the sexual relationship in matrimony:  ‘Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled’ (Heb. 13:4b; cf. Rom 1:24-32; 2:2).”

            Let us look at a couple of verses that Paul wrote on this subject:  “But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; (Eph. 5:3)”

            “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God…. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.  (Col. 3:3, 5).”  As we look at these three verses we can see the word impurity in two of them and this word is the same Greek Word with the  meaning not only speaks of acts, but also thoughts, which is the beginning of problem of sin.  Jesus said in “Mt 5:28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” 

            We can conclude that people who habitually commit sexual sins are not true believers in Jesus Christ.  However Paul does write in 1 Corinthians about a man who was a believer who committed a sexual sin and I think that he writes later on in his second letter that this man had confessed this sin to the Lord and to those in that church. 

            I have tried to describe what God’s standard are for abstaining from sexual sin, and we have to understand that God created sex and therefore knows what the best way is for having a sexual relationship, and that way is with one’s own spouse.  There are some people today who think that this is way too rigid, however God’s ways for us are perfect, and are given to us to protect us not to hinder us. 

I would say that I believe that the most problematic idol we face today is the idol of sex.  Sex is used on TV commercials to sell almost everything and we are inundated with sex almost everywhere we go and this causes believers to be beaten down and to not understand how God feels about this as we can see from His Word.  It is the old story about the frog in the kettle and sexual sin in our country and world has the frog in the kettle getting burned up and not even knowing it.

Spiritual meaning for my life today: I want to be committed to overcoming and abstaining from any form of sexual sin.  It is something that is truly difficult to do in this society, but God is bigger than our society.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Fight the good fight against sexual sins.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 2:5-8

5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Legion” (Luke 8:30).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God?’”

Answer in our next SD.

6/6/2014 8:31 AM   

Intro to "Abstaining from Sexual Sins" (1 Thess. 4:3-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/5/2014 9:45 AM

My Worship                                                Focus:  Introduction to “Abstaining from Sexual Sins

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

            Message of the verses:  3 God’s plan is to make you holy, and that means a clean cut with sexual immorality. 4 Every one of you should learn to control his body, keeping it pure and treating it with respect, 5 and never allowing it to fall victim to lust, as do pagans with no knowledge of God. 6 You cannot break this rule without cheating and exploiting your fellow-men. Indeed God will punish all who do offend in this matter, as we have plainly told you and warned you. 7 The calling of God is not to impurity but to the most thorough purity, 8 and anyone who makes light of the matter is not making light of a man’s ruling but of God’s command. It is not for nothing that the Spirit God gives us is called the Holy Spirit.” (Philips)

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

 

            I want to begin by saying that this introduction to this subject is difficult for me to write about, but because it is in the Word of God we have to deal with it.  As I was listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on this section, or at least part of this section he mentioned that he was told that those young couples who came for pre-marital counseling, that there were 75% of them who had already engaged in sexual intercourse.  This is an alarming statistic indeed, and it shows the kind of society that we live in today. 

            When we looked at the beginning of chapter four we stated that Paul was going to use much of the rest of his letter to show the Thessalonians how they were to excel still more in their walk with the Lord.  He writes in verse three “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.”  We have mentioned this word in past SD’s and said that there were three parts to this process, first when a person receives Christ as their Savior and Lord they are sanctified, and then as they walk with the Lord their walk is the process of continuingly being sanctified and then the final sanctification comes when the person enters heaven.  John MacArthur writes “But before mentioning specifics, Paul defined the will of God under the broad governing principle of sanctification (hagiosmos), which is the process of being separated from sin and set apart to God’s holiness.  God wants believers to separate from all that is evil, fleshly, and impure.  The sanctification process is the direct result of salvation, as Paul instructed the Corinthians: ‘Such [sexually immoral] were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God’”

             We have to ask ourselves a question at this point and that question is why did Paul begin his “list” on how to excel still more with abstain from sexual sins.  The answer to that question is that the city of Thessalonica had all of the vices of sexual sins there and it was a part of their culture.  There was a temple there to a god which had many prostitutes and the way that you worshiped that god was to have sex with one of them in order to draw closer to that god. The culture was actually worse off than what we live in today in some ways.  They certainly did not have the technology that we have today but they did have a society that was driven by sexual relationships outside the commands of God.  Can you imagine how Paul felt when he had to leave this very young church and why he was concerned for them and why he prayed for them so much?  As we looked at chapter two we found out that it was not possible for Paul to return to them to see them in person so the best thing that he could do was to write to them and encourage them not to fall prey to the culture that they lived in.  It broke the heart of Paul not to be able to return to them, but God has His own purposes for Paul not to return to them, and I believe one of them is that we could read the letter that Paul sent to them and learn from what he wrote.

            John MacArthur entitles his ninth chapter of his commentary on 1 Thessalonians “Abstaining from Sexual Sin,” and it covers verses 3-8 and we will begin to look at those verses in our next SD but I want to quote what he writes at the end of introduction in order to share what we will be looking at:  “That this general, preventive exhortation to sexual morality began his list of practical instructions in the final two chapters of 1 Thessalonians highlights Paul’s major concern for sexual  fidelity in Thessalonica.  With this background in mind, one can examine this passage by asking three questions:  What kind of sexual conduct does God require?  How can a believer be sexually moral? Why should a believer be sexual moral?”  These are three questions that all believers need to have answers too and we will try to do that in our next three SD’s.  For now we need to know that God does have a plan for believers lives and we know that our God is completely Holy, and desires us to be that way, and that He is completely good and wants His children to be that way, and that He has given to His children His Holy Spirit and His Word in order to help us to live a holy life before Him.  We also know that we worship a God who forgives and will lift us up when we fall and that is another thing we need to remember.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Trust the Lord to give me the answers to these three questions and to give me the power to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember that I can have a wonderful relationship with my Lord, and that He will help me to do this as I study His Word and pray that this will come about.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 2:5-8.

5 Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  8 Being found in appearance of man, He humbled Himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Always” (Philippians 4:4).

Today’s Bible question:  “Name the man out of whom Jesus cast many demons?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/5/2014 10:52 AM    

           

More on Excellig

Spiritual Diary (Used on 01-21-2021)

 

I promised to find a portion in John MacArthur’s sermon that speaks of some grammar questions in it.  The following is that excerpt from his sermon.

 

“The priority of excelling still more compelled by a longing after God, that's our priority. Let me give you a second thought that rises from this text. The power for excelling...the power for excelling.  Notice verse 1, ‘Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus.’  Now the question comes up, to what does this phrase "in the Lord Jesus" apply or to whom? Does it modify the verb or verbs, request and exhort in the Lord Jesus? Or does it modify the pronoun you?

Without taking you through all of the hoops in the process, suffice it to say that I think it best to see this as modifying the pronoun you. ‘Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus.’ We're speaking to those of you who are in the Lord Jesus. It is you we are requesting and exhorting to excel. Why? Because you are the only ones who have the power to do that.

“By virtue of being in the Lord Jesus, that wonderful concept of having your life hid with Christ in God, being united in solidarity with Christ, in Christ, by virtue of that union with Him is the resource and the power to excel. That, I believe, is what is on his heart.

“Back in verse 12 of chapter 3, he wanted their love to excel, their love to abound and he said, "May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love." And there he recognizes the same thing. The only way that love can excel, the only way that you can excel still more and more in your spiritual progress is when the Lord causes it to happen. And the Lord only works in those in whom He dwells.

The point here is the power of excelling is the power of the indwelling Christ. He's calling then to a level of spiritual excellence, possibly only to those who are in Christ.”

 

          Now one more thing that I want to add to this and that is that as believers we have a choice of whether or not we want to “excel still more” and an example of a church that did not want to excel still more is the church from Corinth.  When we look through the books of 1^st and 2^nd Corinthians we see that Paul had to settle many things that were not right with this church.  It seems they were more interested in caring for things about themselves than to grow in the Lord, but this was not the case with the Thessalonian church.  We have a choice as to which of these churches we want to be like. 

The Progress and Pressure of Excelling (1 Thess. 4:1c, 2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/4/2014 8:31 AM (Used again on 01-20-21)

My Worship Time                                                 Focus:  The Progress and Pressure of Excelling

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  1Thess. 4:1c, 2

            Message of the verses:  “(just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.  2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.”

            I have been going over the actual sermon that John MacArthur gave on these two verses back in 1990 looking for a grammatical part that he spoke about, and to be perfectly honest I could not find it and also it was something that I had a difficulty in understanding.  It was suppose to go in yesterday’s SD, but because I did not understand it I did not include it.  I will continue to look for the section in the sermon and perhaps get some help from my Pastor so that I can better understand it and then comment on it in a latter SD.

            As we begin today’s SD we will be discussing the fact that our walk with the Lord, and we call this walk with the Lord part of our sanctification process as we continue to grow in the Lord.  It does not happen overnight and I can give two examples of this, one from the title of a book by Chuck Swindoll which is called “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back,” and the other is more familiar to us and that is “The successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”  If we were looking at a graph on our Spiritual growth it probably will have peaks and valleys, but looking at the overall progress it should be going upward.  Paul calls our relationship with the Lord a “walk” and that is surely a good way to describe it.  When we are first saved we then begin to go on a walk with the Lord.  The book of Genesis has a good description of this when we read “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him (Genesis 5:24).”  When I was a new believer I was listening to a sermon by my pastor who spoke on the subject of Enoch and he said that every day he would walk with God and one day God said that we are closer to my home than yours so just come home with me.  That is the goal of our walk with the Lord, to get closer to knowing the Lord, not just to know about His Word, but use His Word to know about Him.  This is what Paul is telling the Thessalonians when he tells them “to excel still more.”  They were surely a model church, not like the church at Galatia where he stated you began really well, but what happened to you.  Paul wrote to the Corinthian church “24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26  Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27  but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

            John MacArthur writes:  “The pressure for the Thessalonians to stay on the path of righteousness and excel more and more in their walk with Christ derived from the fact that they knew what commandments Paul gave them by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Christ Himself authorized Paul’s exhortation to the church in Thessalonica.  Commandments (parangelias) refers to strong, authoritative directives delivered by a commanding officer to his subordinates.  That meant the church could not take the apostle’s admonition lightly.  He not only reminded them of the various commandments he gave them, as he implicitly did concerning his earlier instructions to them, but he also reminded them of the divine authority by which he ministered.  Paul’s directions did not originate from some arbitrary human sanction or some remote ecclesiastical authority.  Instead, they came from the authority of the Lord Jesus, and obedience to them was mandatory.” 

            Basically what we are saying here is that if you want to grow you have to know.  If you want to grow up in the Lord you have to know His Word so that you can know Him better, after all what is more important.

            My Steps of Faith for Today:  As I am studying this section of 1 Thessalonians the Lord seems to be impressing to me to get to know Him better.  I have had somewhat of a difficult time in making relationships that are good and lasting, and so I began to think about this today while having my prayer time.  I spoke to the Lord in my prayer time that He is the author of relationships and that the best way to know how to have good relationships is to study from His Word on how to do that.  As I look at the three Persons of the Trinity I see a perfect relationship there and this is a pattern to follow.  

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Work on my relationship with the Lord and also with my wife and friends.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 2:5-8

5 Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  8 Being found in appearance of man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Lice” (Exodus 7:12).

Today’s Bible question:  “When should Christians rejoice?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/4/2014 9:12 AM

The Power and Principle for Excelling (1 Thess. 4:1b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/3/2014 6:28 AM

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  The Power and Principle for Excelling

Bible Reading & Meditation                         Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:1b

            Message of the verses:  “in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God”

            We are talking about excelling still more from verses one and two of the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians.  In order to excel still more we first have to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is done by realizing that when we were born into this world that we were born as sinners.  When we are born into this world we do not desire to please God, for we cannot because of the sin nature we were born with.  We realize that we need a relationship with the Lord, for that is born into all of us.  In order to have a true relationship with God we actually need to stand before Him perfectly, but then we remember that we have sinned many times and cannot do this.  Jesus Christ did this for us as a substitute, as He took our place on the cross and died for our sins, and not only our sins, but also our sin nature.  By accepting this fact we become born again as Jesus said to Nicodemus, in the third chapter of John’s gospel.  Paul and his fellow missionaries told this truth to the people of Thessalonica and many of them believed this truth and thus a local church was born there.  Now Paul is writing to them to encourage them to excel still more in the faith and he will go into how this is done as we continue in this forth chapter of 1 Thessalonians.  MacArthur writes “The only way love or any other Christian virtue can increase is when the Lord causes it to happen.  The power to excel comes from the power of the indwelling Christ.”  Let us look at a couple of verses that reinforce this truth:  “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me (John 17:23).”  “"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Gal. 2:20).”

            Paul refers to the things that he had taught them when he writes “as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God.”  The following is a list that John MacArthur has compiled to help us better understand how we can please God, and we can be sure that Paul had taught these things to those in the Thessalonian church.  Now when we talk about pleasing God we are actually talking about striving to please God and glorifying Him in everything:  “they needed to confess their sins regularly; to pray continually and trust Him; to pursue humility; to be content with God’s will as it is revealed in His Word; to be willing to suffer for His name; to celebrate the Lord’s Table; to care for one another; to honor God in their marriages and families; and to be diligent and fruitful in all avenues of service.”  That is a very tall order to fulfill, however we must remember that it is Christ who has to do this work in us, we have to be available to Him so He can work through us.  Paul wrote to the Philippians in Philippians 2:12-13  “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  We are to work it out, but it is God who is at work in us to accomplish the things He desires for us to accomplish for His name.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to go back to what I was reminded of yesterday and that is that the purpose of all of the Bible study I am doing is not just to understand the Bible better, but to know God better and this is a part of excelling still more.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I again have to do some stressful things today, and I desire to trust the Lord to see me through this day and that it will bring honor to His name.

Memory verse for the week:  Philippians 2:5-8

5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “1 Samuel.”

Today’s Bible question:  “What was the third plague that God placed on Eypt?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/3/2014 7:27 AM

The Priority of Excelling (1 Thess. 4:1a, d)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/2/2014 8:30 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Priority of Excelling

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:1a, d

            Message of the verse:  “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you…that you excel still more.”

            As we look through the letters that Paul wrote to different churches and also to different men we can see that usually the first part of his letters he teaches, and then in the second part he exhorts the readers to follow what he has taught them in practical ways.  We are now in the second part of his first letter to the Thessalonicans.

            Paul says that he requests the Thessalonians, and this word is used as one talking to an equal, not as like a person in the military talking to someone under their command.  It is interesting that this word was used by the apostle John in his gospel when our Lord was talking to His Father, showing that they are equal, which shows the deity of our Lord.  We see the humility of Paul in using this word as he writes to these believers.

            John MacArthur writes “The word excel (perisseuete) means ‘to abound, to be abundantly supplied, to overflow, to exist in full quantity, to be over and above and around, to be advanced.’  A closely related form of the word can mean ‘extraordinary,’ or ‘surpassing.’  Paul used perisseuete here in a comparative way (cf. 1 Cor. 8:8) to tell the Thessalonians he was intent that they become spiritually extraordinary, that they excel to a higher degree (cf. 1 Cor. 14:12; Phil. 1:9; 1 Thess. 3:12; 4:10).” 

            The following verses from Psalm 42 captures Paul’s priority for the believers he is writing to, a spiritual progress motivated by a desire to know God:  “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”  I want to insert a quote from Warren Wiersbe here which gives us a caution:  “Pleasing God means much more than simply doing God’s will.  It is possible to obey God and yet not please Him.  Jonah is a case in point.  He obeyed God and did what he was commanded, but his heart was not in it.  God blessed His Word but He could not bless His servant.  So Jonah sat outside the city of Nineveh angry with everybody, including the Lord!  Our obedience should be ‘not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart’ (Eph. 6:6).”

            John MacArthur writes “The objective of knowing God should supersede even the desire to know His Word; that desire is simply the means of knowing the God of the Word.  If gaining more information about the Bible and participating in additional spiritual activities—praying, witnessing, and serving—are not linked to the desire to know God better, they will not bring spiritual growth to those who profess faith in Christ.” 

            “12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one (1 John 2:12-14).”  These verses capture what we are discussing here.  MacArthur writes “In that text (1 John 2:12-14), John identifies three steps in a believers growth: (1) ‘little children’ who know their sins are forgiven, (2) ‘young men’ who know doctrine and are strong against Satan’s lies (unlike children, cf. Eph. 4:14), and (3) ‘fathers’ who know not just doctrine but the eternal God.  That is the final goal of every believer.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The question for today is which step in my spiritual life am I in?  I love the study of God’s Word, but perhaps I need to focus on loving the God of the Word more which is a better goal, but one I cannot get to, without the study of His Word.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Begin to love the God of the Word more as I study the Word of God each day.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 2:5-8

5 Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Answer to our last Bible question:  “Abraham” (Genesis 13:8-9).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which Bible book tells of Israel asking for a king?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/2/2014 9:35 AM 

Intro to 1 Thess. Four

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/1/2014 10:37 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus: Introduction to 1 Thess. Four

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:1-2

            Message of the verses:  As we begin the month of June I have a decision to make, and that decision has to do with the direction of study that I want to go to.  Chapter four of 1 Thessalonians is a very important chapter in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians.  He begins the fourth chapter with these words “Finally then,” and this means that his letter is as far as what he is saying is moving into the last subject he wants to write to them.  This will take until the end of the letter.  We will see in chapter four two main themes with the first one being Paul exhorting the Thessalonians to excel more and more and this has to do with their sanctification.  He then moves into what is called the “Rapture” of the Church, explaining what this is all about.  There are sub-points to these two main points, but these are the two things he wants to drive home to this very young church.

            John MacArthur takes a whole chapter in his book to explain the first two verses in this fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians.  Warren Wiersbe has only two chapters in his commentary on 1 Thessalonians to explain this entire 4^th chapter.

            We have talked about sanctification in earlier SD’s and said that there were three parts to Sanctification.  The first is that we are sanctified when we first come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  Next there is a process of sanctification that we go through while here on planet earth.  Finally we will be completely sanctified when we get to heaven.  Paul is writing about the second part of sanctification in the first section of chapter four.  As we grow in the Lord we are being sanctified more and more, and what this is in a nutshell is living a holy life before the Lord, becoming more and more like Christ.  Now we know that we will never arrive while in our bodies, but we are to strive as Peter writes at the end of his second letter:  “but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”  Peter must have know the great importance of growing up in the Lord for this is the last thing that he states to his readers, and he will soon be joining the Lord in heaven for he was martyred shortly after that letter he wrote.

            As I was driving to church this morning I was listening to John MacArthur’s message on these first two verses on the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians, he mentions Jonathan Edwards, and then when I was listing to our Pastor’s message, which was actually for the high school graduates he also mentioned Jonathan Edwards.  Edwards is credited with being the main person that the Holy Spirit used to begin the “Great Awakening” which was the first great revival in the United States.  Jonathan Edwards was saved at age seventeen and was truly a godly man, a man who loved the Lord and loved to please the Lord every day.  Warren Wiersbe writes the following on how to please God:  “How do we know what pleases God?  How do we know what pleases an earthly father?  By listening to him and living with him.  As we read the Word, and as we fellowship in worship and service, we get to know the heart of God; and this opens us up to the will of God.

            Now back to the dilemma that I have as far as how much of the 4^th chapter of 1 Thessalonians I want to cover this month.  I believe if I cover this entire chapter that I will not be able to get back to Jeremiah, which is the main book that I am studying at this time.  I see two possibilities here.  The first is that I just try and get through the first twelve verses of chapter four, and the second is that I try to do two SD’s a day for a while, but I probably will have to do that even if I only look at the first twelve verses.  This will be a matter of prayer.

6/1/2014 11:04 PM