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Promises Of The Law - Part 5

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• 1 Kings chapter 8 and 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Kings chapter 8, verse 56, the verse we've been reading, and then we're going to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. So, in 1 Kings chapter 8 and verse 56, the Word of God says, Solomon is praying, "Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There did not fail one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant."

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• So, this is where we get the title, "The Promises of the Law." Today we are on the fifth message, the fifth in the series. And now if you look in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we're just going to read the first three verses. We will come back and deal with more. But Paul writes, "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor." Let me begin by reviewing just momentarily. I've pointed out the fact that the law has not been abrogated. I gave you in the first several messages four ways that you can explain every negative passage concerning the law in the New Testament when you consider it in its context.

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• There's absolutely no way that we can unhitch from the Old Testament. And there is certainly no way that we can unhitch from the law of God. As I pointed out in the second message, if you do away with the law of God, you've done away with the knowledge of sin. For the Bible says in Romans 3 and verse 20, "For by the law is the knowledge of sin." And in 1 John 3 and verse 4, "For sin is the transgression of the law." You can't sin without violating God's law. If you do away with the law, you do away with the knowledge of sin. Secondly, I pointed out if you do away with the law, you do away with salvation. Not that the law saves us, but I pointed out very clearly in Galatians chapter 4 the Bible says, "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that we might have redemption."

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• In other words, Jesus Christ came and He was made under the law, and He obeyed the law by giving to the law that personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience. And Jesus Christ earned a righteousness. I ask the question, if all that Jesus Christ did for you was forgive you of your sins, would that get you in the presence of God? And the answer is no. It might keep you out of judgment, but in order to get in the presence of God, you need an absolute positive righteousness. And that is what Jesus Christ did, and that is given to us according to 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21 through imputation. His righteousness is imputed to us as our sins were imputed to Him. And then last week I pointed out another aspect, how that without the law there is no salvation, because Galatians 3 and verse 24 the Bible tells us that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Jesus Christ. And I pointed out four things that the law teaches us very clearly. Number one, it teaches us that we are sinners.

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• Number two, it teaches us that we cannot save ourselves. Number three, it teaches us there is a vast chasm between a holy God and a wicked, depraved sinner. And number four, it teaches us that if we ever bridge that chasm and get to that holy God, it must be through the merits of another, it must be through a mediator. And Jesus Christ, of course, is that mediator. So, the law then teaches us these things, it brings us to Jesus Christ. As John Trapp said, Moses can bring us into Canaan land, to the border of Canaan land, but it's Joshua who must bring us in. And of course Joshua, the word Joshua, Yeshua, Jesus, Savior. So obviously the law then indeed brings us and points us to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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• Now today let me continue, because here's a third major point. That is, without the law there is no sanctification. So let me ask you, are you holy? Are you sanctified? Are you righteous? If you answered those questions, yes, my next question would be, how do you know? If you answered those questions, no, that you're not holy, that you're not sanctified, that you're not righteous, my next question would be, how do you know? Is there a standard that we can know whether or not we are holy or unholy, righteous or unrighteous? If there is a standard for righteous living and holy living, where is it found?

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• You see, the Apostle Paul prayed for the Colossians in the book of Colossians chapter 1 and verse 10. And I want you to listen to this prayer request. He prayed "that you might walk worthy unto the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." So note what he said, "that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." So obviously then there is a way that we can walk pleasing unto the Lord. And clearly there are ways that we can walk that are displeasing unto Him as well. So the question again is asked, how do we know that we're walking worthily and pleasing to the Lord? And how do we know whether or not we are walking unworthily and displeasing to the Lord?

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• Now, we could give a very general answer and say, yes, we have a standard, and that standard is the Word of God. And certainly that would be true. And I would say all of the Word of God, because His Word is our objective standard. But I believe that we can narrow it down a little bit and say that yes, we have a standard, and that standard is the law of God, because His law is an expression of His will for us. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Hosea chapter 4. Hosea chapter 4. Daniel, Hosea, right after you get to Ezekiel you'll get to Daniel and then Hosea. Look in Hosea chapter 4 and verse 6. Hosea 4 and verse 6. Watch this very closely. God says, Hosea 4 verse 6, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God."

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• "I will also forget thy children." Note what he said: "Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." This is an example of what is known as the Lex Talionis of Scripture. That is just simply Latin for the law of retribution. The law of retribution or the Lex Talionis is where God makes the punishment fit the crime. So, you have an example of this in Hosea 4 and verse 6. Look what he said. "Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." What is God's law? God's law is an expression of His will for us.

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• He's telling us how to walk, how to live, what to do, what not to do. What are our children? They're expressions of our will. We wanted them. We had them. So God says, look, my law is an expression of my will. Your children are an expression of your will. You forget my law. I forget your children. And you wonder, what's wrong with our young people today in this country? And the answer is, as a whole, most people have forgotten the law of God, and God, in righteous judgment, has forgotten our children as well. So, the point I want to emphasize today is this: Without the law, there is no sanctification. And let me begin by telling you, when you talk about sanctification, you have to distinguish between positional sanctification and what you and I would call a personal, practical sanctification. Our positional sanctification, let me explain that first. Our positional sanctification is because of the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. Our positional sanctification is what you and I would call objective.

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• And we call it objective because it is outside of us. We had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was the work of God alone. Incidentally, when you think about sanctification, sanctification, like creation, is ascribed to all three persons in the Godhead. It is ascribed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let me give you some scriptures. First of all, here it is ascribed to the Father in Jude 1 and verse 1. "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called." So the Bible says we're sanctified by God the Father. So in that verse, sanctification is the work of God the Father. Secondly, sanctification is also referred to as the work of God the Son, that is Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2 and verse 11, "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." So he is the sanctifier and we are the sanctified. In Hebrews 10 and verse 10, "By the which will"—that is the will of Jesus

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• Christ—"by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." And then there's another passage in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 10 in verse 14, "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." So sanctification is known as the work of God the Father. It's known as the work of God the Son. And thirdly, it is also known as the work of God the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Apostle Paul in Romans 15 in verse 16 said, "That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." When you get to 1 Corinthians 6, the Bible says this in verse 11, "And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." And Romans 15 and verse 16 we also read, as I said earlier, about being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

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• There is a third verse and that is 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2. In this verse you have the work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three are mentioned. Listen carefully. "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." So in that one verse, you have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all mentioned. Now, this is positional sanctification. It is the work of God alone. God the Father gave the Son, and God the Son was obedient, and God the Spirit of course was sanctified, or sanctified all of His work. Whatever our Lord did, He did in the fullness of the Spirit. He has worked out this perfect positional sanctification for us. Secondly, you have that personal and practical sanctification. This is still the work of God, the Holy Spirit in us, whereby he leads us and guides us to be obedient to God's word and especially God's law.

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• It is an aspect of the ministry where we teach the Word of God in order that God's people might live a sanctified life. For instance, in John 17 in verse 19, in that high priestly prayer of Jesus Christ, he said this, "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." So the truth is the means whereby we are sanctified. In Acts 20, in verse 32, Paul said, "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." So it is the Word of His grace, the truth, that is able to build us up and give us an inheritance among those who are sanctified. And then Paul spoke in Acts 26 and verse 18, he said, "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me."

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• So when you start talking about a personal and practical sanctification, it has to do with the truth, it has to do with the ministry, it has to do with the Word of God. There has to be a standard for you and I to know whether or not we are holy or unholy. I want to give you a quote, and I certainly want to, I hope, convince you otherwise. But this quote was made by Andy Stanley. I do not know Andy Stanley. I do know he's the son of Charles Stanley of Atlanta, Georgia.

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• He has a rather large congregation. He is the man who said it's time to unhitch from the Old Testament. But he also says this, here is an article out of Relevant Magazine, and Andy Stanley tells Christians that God's words from Mount Sinai do not apply to them anymore. Listen carefully to this quote. He says, "Participants in the New Covenant, that's Christians, are not required to obey any of the commandments found in the first part of their Bibles. Participants in the New Covenant are expected to obey the single command Jesus issued as part of the New Covenant: as I have loved you, so you must love one another." Now, he just said we don't have to obey anything in the Old Testament. The only thing we have to do is obey love.

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• Well, I can say it like this. When you talk about love and your definition of love, as Bill Clinton famously stated years ago, it all depends on what your definition of "is" is. You and I are not allowed to give our own definitions of love. If I looked at Steve and I said, "I love your wife," he would say, "What?" I said, "I love your wife, I'd like her to be my wife." No, he said, "What you mean is you're coveting my wife, you're lusting after my wife." No, I am saying I love, it's my definition. Really? So I could look at James and say, "Boy, I love your money."

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• He's laughing already, you see. But I could say, "I love your money." He says, "No, no, no. What you mean is you want to swindle me out of my money. You want to defraud me. You want to take my—" No, I just love your money. I'd like to have it. Say, "I love Francis's new car. I'd love to have that new car." What's that mean? Well, Francis will say, "What you're trying to tell me is you're going to sneak around and try to steal my car." Oh no, I just love it. I just want to take it and use it for myself. You see how stupid it is if you say, "Well, all you've got to do is obey love." Now, here's my question. Is there a definition of love in the Bible?

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• And the answer is yes. We are not left to decide for ourselves what is love and what is not love. I can't put my definition upon that word. If you look in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13 and look if you would beginning there with verse 8. Romans 13 and verse 8. Romans 13, look if you would please at verse 8. I want you to watch carefully what is being said now. Romans 13 verse 8, God says, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Wow. For this, verse 9, "Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Now what is love? Love is the fulfilling of the law.

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• And would you notice he just quoted in verse 9, the 7th, the 6th, the 8th, the 9th, and the 10th commandments. And of course, the 1st is involved as well, because you cannot violate any commandment without violating the 1st commandment. So what is love? Jesus Christ requires us to love one another. So love is the fulfilling of the law. It's not an emotion. It's not a feeling. It's obedience to God's law. If you would turn over in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 5, 1 John chapter 5, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. 1 John 5 and verse 1, and watch very closely at what 1 John 5 and verse 1 through 3 states. Watch carefully. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments." Now wait a minute. We know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. So, how do I know that I love Steve?

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• Because I honor him and his wife and his relationship with her, and I don't covet her and I don't desire her. I honor her as his wife. How do I know that I love James? I don't try to steal his money. I don't try to cheat him. I don't try to defraud him. I act biblically toward him. How do I know that I'm acting biblically toward Francis and a new car? I'm not lusting after it. I'm not trying to steal it. I'm not trying to get it from him. I'm obeying and I'm helping him protect that car. Now watch verse 3. You want to know what love is? Here it is, black and white. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." So, what is the love of God? The love of God is the fulfilling of the law of God. It is keeping God's commandments.

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• Now, let me come back to my point. I want you to listen to it. Where there is no law, there is no sanctification. If Jesus Christ had not kept the law of God perfectly, there would have been no positional sanctification. And if you and I do not keep God's law, there is not going to be any personal or practical sanctification. Jesus Christ worked out a perfect righteousness for us by His obedience to the law of God. In fact, the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 1 verses 30 and 31 that God has made Jesus Christ these things to us. Bible says, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." So Jesus Christ has made all these things unto us.

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• Now when we talk about sanctification, or we talk about being sanctified, we're talking about being holy. The Greek word is hagiasmos, which literally means to sanctify, to hallow, to make holy, to be separate, to set apart for God and to be dedicated to God. Now, let me mention something about sanctification. Sanctification involves the totality of our being. It involves our body. It involves our mind, our emotions, our will. Everything that we are is involved in sanctification.

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• Here's a verse, I want you to listen. If you want to look it up, that's wonderful. But it's 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 23. Paul is praying for the Thessalonians and he says this, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly." W-H-O-L-L-Y. That's totally, completely, absolutely. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." So, if God is to sanctify us wholly, totally, completely, that means every aspect of our being is involved in sanctification.

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• Now, just as a reminder, I've pointed out in the previous messages, if you nullify the law, then you've nullified sin. If you nullify the law, then you've nullified salvation. If you nullify the law, then you've nullified sanctification as well, because sanctification is by the law. R.J. Rushdoony in his Institutes of Biblical Law said this, listen carefully, "To separate the law from the gospel is to separate oneself from the law and the gospel and from Jesus Christ."

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• "When God the Father regarded the law as so binding on man that the death of God's incarnate Son was necessary to redeem man, He could not regard that law as something now trifling, null and void for man. Man is saved that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in him." Romans 8:4.

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• Now listen, "To say that man is no longer under the law and yet obliged to avoid murder, adultery, theft, false witness and other sins is to play with words. Either a law is a law and is binding or it is no law and man is not bound but is free to admit those acts." So, and that is stating it very clearly. So a law is either a law and it is binding or it is not binding. If the law is not binding, what's wrong with adultery? What's wrong with fornication? What's wrong with theft? What's wrong with murder?

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• Now, the problem is we, like the Pharisees, want to limit God's law to that which is external. But if you look in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5, you're going to see how our Lord makes an application. Shows us the spirituality of the law. So if you look at Matthew chapter 5, first of all, we'll look at verses 21 and 22. Here he's actually dealing with the sixth commandment. And the way to understand Matthew chapter 5 is to see how our Lord is correcting the misinterpretations and the misapplications of God's law by the Pharisees. The Pharisees always limited the law to that which is external. So he says in Matthew 5, notice if you would please verse 21, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time," that is the rabbis, those who claim to be teachers, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment."

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• In other words, don't do this physically. Don't kill someone. Don't murder someone. That's what they said. Avoid the physical act. Verse 22, our Lord says, "But I say unto you," in other words, here's the proper application of the law, "that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca," that is you worthless, stupid individual, "shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." So our Lord is saying, look, murder is more than just a physical act.

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• It involves the spirit, it involves the disposition, it involves the attitude. It's not just physical, it is spiritual.

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• Now, remember what I've told you in time past. When God forbids any act, when God forbids any sin, at the same time He forbids any and everything that would lead up to that sin. So if I'm sitting here thinking about murdering Ron, what am I doing? I've got to be angry with him. I've got to be bitter with him. I've got to be upset with him. I mean something.

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• So in order for me not to kill him, I have to control my mind. I have to control my emotions. I have to control my disposition, my feelings. You see what I'm saying? So our Lord is saying all this is involved in the Sixth Commandment.

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• Now, let me show you another one. Skip down to verses 27-28. He said, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." So here our Lord is dealing with the seventh commandment. And what is He saying? There is more to adultery than simply the physical act. He said there does not necessarily need to be a physical act. It can be in the heart. It can be mental. It can be emotional. Our Lord just dealt with the sixth commandment and the seventh commandment, and really and truly the tenth commandment as well, for the tenth commandment is "Thou shalt not covet," and you can't commit the seventh commandment without committing and violating the tenth commandment, because if you commit adultery, you've already coveted someone else's spouse. So obviously, our Lord here is talking about sanctification. Sanctification is going to include every aspect of our being.

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• Let me just put it very plainly. There is more to sanctification than just going to the church building once or twice or three times a week and listening to a sermon. There's more to sanctification than just reading a chapter out of your Bible every day. There's more to sanctification than just praying every now and then or even saying a daily prayer, but just not really praying. We've not understood that sanctification involves the totality of our being. Let me show you. I want you to go back in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, because I want to show you that sanctification is based upon obedience to God's law. Look in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. In fact, these first eight verses deal with the personal and practical side of sanctification. It shows us the essence of sanctification.

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• You have to understand that there is a responsibility and accountability on our part. Let me show you. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 1, the Apostle writes, "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more."

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• Now let me just stop right there. It is possible to walk and to please God. And Paul said, we taught you that. We told you how. You are to walk and to please God. And he said, if you're walking and pleasing God, there's something else. You have to abound more and more. Your walk is to become more holy. It's become more obedient. And he said, we've taught you this and we're beseeching you, we're exhorting you that you walk and to please God, because we've taught you how to do this.

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• Now, if you will understand, holiness or sanctification and obedience are intimately connected. You cannot have one without the other. And that's exactly what the Apostle Paul is saying right here. We've taught you.

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• Now you have to be obedient and you have to walk pleasing to the Lord yourself. That is your responsibility. God is not going to fulfill our responsibilities for us. God is not going to walk for us. He is not going to be holy for us. That is our responsibility, that we are to walk and please Him and abound more and more.

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• Now look at verse 2. Verse 2 is just emphasizing the fact of what the Apostle Paul has taught these Thessalonians. He said, "For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus." And by the way, the word commandments is plural. We didn't just tell you to love each other. We gave you commandments, because love is the fulfilling of the law. Now I want to begin on verse 3. Look what he says: "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication." If you want to know if you're a believer, if you're not a believer, what the will of God for your life is, it's very plain: that you should abstain from fornication. That's one aspect of the will of God. If you are sanctified, it means that you are holy. A holy person is a sanctified person, and part and parcel of being holy, of being sanctified, is abstaining from fornication, because fornication is a violation of God's law. Now, fornication is a very, very broad word.

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• Many have wrongly stated, well, fornication is a sex act outside of marriage and adultery is a sex act inside of marriage. Now, fornication is an exceedingly broad word. The Greek word is porneia. In fact, we get an English word from two Greek words, porneia and graphe. Graphe, or graphics, just simply means writing. Graphe is writing. Porneia, pornography is what? Fornication writing. That's what pornography is. Pornography comes from these two Greek words. Fornication is very broad.

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• It includes all illicit sexual intercourse of all kinds. It would include adultery, sodomy, lesbianism, bestiality, incest, and even the worship of idols. It's interesting if you study the word fornication in the Old Testament, and it's oftentimes in the New Testament as well, it's usually connected with idolatry, the worship of idols.

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• Now, I want you to see what verse 3 does. Look at verse 3 again. He says, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication." So verse 3 then sets the stage for the violations of the 1st, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 10th Commandments. Now I included the 5th, because all such activity is dishonoring to parents.

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• Now, let me go back. He says in verse 3, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication." Matthew Poole stated it like this, and he is talking about fornication. Listen carefully. He says, "And by it is meant all unchasteness, either of persons married or unmarried, either in the heart or in the speech or in the eye or lascivious gesture as well as in the very act itself." So what are you saying? The same thing that our Lord said in Matthew chapter 7. It's more than just simply a physical act. Now he says, "This is the will of God for you, that you abstain from fornication. It's the will of God that you be sanctified." Now look if you would, verse 4, because he continues. Tie it together. Verse 4 and verse 5, he says, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel," that is his body, "in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know

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• not God." Now, he tells us, you need to know how to possess your own vessel, your own body, in sanctification and honor. You're not to live in the lust of concupiscence, that is, the brazen, wicked desires and awfulness of those who are unsaved, who know not God. You're not to live like them, no. You're to know how to possess your vessel, your body, in sanctification and honor.

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• Now, we're not to be lusting and coveting and desiring those things which God has forbidden, as the lost people do. No, he says, we are to possess our vessel in sanctification and honor. We know what pleases Him. We know how to walk worthy. We know how to possess our vessels in sanctification and honor because He gave us His law.

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• Now, I want you to hold 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, but go back in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, and I want you to look there in verses 15 through 20. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning there with verse 15. Watch it carefully. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 15. The Apostle says, "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid." That is, perish the thought, don't even think about it. Now if your body is a member of Jesus Christ, the question is, shall I then take the member of Jesus Christ and make them members of an harlot? That is, should I commit fornication, adultery? God forbid. Now look what he says. "What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." In other words, what we do in our body reflects upon Jesus Christ, for we are one spirit in Jesus Christ.

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• He goes on, verse 18, "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." Ah, here we are. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

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• So our bodies do not belong to ourselves. And when someone comes along and says, "Well it's my body, I'll do with it as I please." No, it's not your body if you're a Christian. It's really not even your body if you're not a Christian, for God created your body. It belongs to Him. So go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I want you to understand that he is talking about sanctification. He says, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not living like the ungodly."

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• Now, look in verse 6, watch this carefully, "That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter," or in the matter, because he is talking about fornication, "because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified."

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• Now, I want you to stop and think about this. When I was mentioning the violations of the commandments earlier as I talked about this passage, let's suppose that I did endeavor to seduce a man's wife and I succeeded. I've not only violated the first commandment, I've not only violated the fifth commandment, I've also violated the seventh commandment, I've also violated the tenth commandment, but I've also now violated the eighth commandment because I have stolen that which does not belong to me.

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• If you defraud someone, you steal from them. You take that which is not yours. So he says that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in the matter. I hope you are beginning to see the truth of James chapter 2. If you violate the law in one part, you are guilty of all. So here are all these commandments that you break just by committing what most people would think would be one sin.

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• No, it is far more than that. Now, I want you to note verse 7. He says, "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." Holiness and sanctification are interchangeable. They're the same. If you're sanctified, you're holy. If you're holy, you're sanctified. Okay, so now he tells us that is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication. That everyone know how to possess his vessel, his body, in sanctification and honor, not acting like the lost.

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• "That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in the matter." And he said, you have been warned that God is the avenger of all such. And then he said, here is the reason, "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." Now, if God has called us unto holiness, how do we answer that calling? And the answer is by obeying His law, by bringing our lives in conformity to His law. Because God has not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness.

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• So let me ask you a question. In fact, I'll ask you several. Since we're talking about sanctification in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, what is the alternative to sanctification? What is the alternative to holiness? What is the alternative to obedience to God's law? What actually happens when we refuse to obey God's law? Well, let's look in verse 8. After he talks about being holy, and possessing your vessel in sanctification and honor, and abstaining from fornication, he says, "He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit."

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• Ah, so here's what he's saying. If we are not sanctified, if we're not abstaining from fornication, if we're not possessing our vessel in sanctification and honor, if we're not walking in holiness, then we are despising God. Hmm. Let me give you an illustration. Hold 1 Thessalonians 4. But turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Samuel, chapter 12. 2 Samuel, chapter 12. We're going to be looking at verses 9 and 10. 2 Samuel chapter 12, as you turn there. Everyone knows the story of David committing adultery with Bathsheba. Okay. He not only violated the 7th Commandment, he violated the 6th Commandment because he had Uriah the Hittite killed with the sword of the children of Ammon. He also violated the 10th Commandment. He also violated the 5th Commandment. He also violated the 1st Commandment as well. But I want you to see what God says concerning David's act.

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• This is when Nathan has come and told him the story about the man who took the one little ewe lamb and killed it and fed his visitor when he had plenty. And David was greatly upset. He said, "The man that hath done this thing shall surely die." Well anyhow, look if you would please beginning there with verse 9. Here is what Nathan tells David, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife," that's theft, "and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon." Now look what God says. "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me." In verse 9, he despised the commandment of the Lord. In verse 10, he despised God, "and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife." What does he mean he despised God? Well what he said was this, in essence, "I don't care what God says. I want her. I'm going to take her."

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• "I want her. I'm going to have her." It was not only a despising of God's commandment, it was a despising of God Himself. When you go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the word "despiseth" there is the word atheteo in the Greek, and it literally means to despise or to reject, to disregard, to refuse, to treat lightly and contemptibly, and to bring to nothing. In other words, you count God as nothing, you count His Word as nothing. You actually despise God. In other words, you do to the Father what men did to the Son.

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• You remember that passage in Isaiah 53 in verse 3 concerning Jesus Christ? "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." What does that mean? He was despised and we esteemed him not. We didn't even think anything of it. We didn't think He deserved respect. It never bothered us. It never concerned us that the sinless Son of God was despised. And now what God is saying is, if you disobey my law, you are despising me.

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• Here's what John Gill said, listen carefully. And he's talking about this despising God in verse 8. He says, "despiseth not man, not men only, the apostles of Christ and ministers of the gospel, for despising these exhortations they themselves were despised, though not alone, but God the Father, Son, and Spirit, God the Father, whose will was their sanctification, even to abstain from fornication and every act of uncleanness, which, if not attended to, was a despising of Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and for whose sake they were entreated and exhorted, and whose name and by whose authority the apostles gave these commandments, wherefore to slight them was to slight Jesus Christ Himself." And by the way, this is a proof of the true and proper deity of Christ. But if you will notice in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 8, "He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit." So it would be a despising not only of the Father and the Son but of the Holy Spirit as well.

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• So we have on this side of the coin a personal and practical holiness, and that personal and practical holiness is found in obedience to God's law. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, turn over just a few pages, 2 Timothy chapter 2, and look at verses 20-22. Look what he says, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 20, "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these," that is those dishonorable vessels, "he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." And then he says, "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." So he says it is our duty. It is our obligation. It is our responsibility to purge ourselves from all of these dishonorable things in our house, that is in our body.

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• Now, let me make a couple of applications and try to tie this together. First of all, sanctification is found in obedience to the law of God. And please do not try to tell me that you know someone who is holy, but he does not obey God's law. I want to point this out later. That is an impossibility. Why is it an impossibility? Because when God saves us, He changes us.

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• In 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 through 11, I read some of it earlier, but listen to this. Paul wrote, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived."

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• Now listen, he's going to name a lot of violations of God's law. He says, "Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you:" past tense, "but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." So when God saves us, He changes us. All of those were violations of God's law. Moreover, when God saves us, according to Hebrews 8 in verse 10 and Hebrews 10 in verse 16, what does God do? He writes His law in our hearts. That's what the Bible says, "For this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them." Thus, it is absolutely impossible to be sanctified while living a life of rebellion and disobedience to God and His law.

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• Let me just explain it to you like this. A drunkard is not a sanctified person. A murderer is not a sanctified person. A whoremonger is not a sanctified person. A thief is not a sanctified person. A child that is rebellious and disobedient is not a sanctified person. You cannot be sanctified and violate God's law. And when someone says all we have to do is love, and they do not explain what love is—love is the fulfilling of the law—obviously, that leaves everyone up to do their own thing and say, "Well, I'm just loving the way I determine and define love." No, no. You cannot violate God's law and be a sanctified individual.

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• Lastly, it is the Holy Spirit who leads us, who guides us, who directs us into obedience. He's the one that convicts us. He's the one that shows us our responsibility to obey. He is the agent in sanctification, but the law is the direction in sanctification. Love may be our motive, but the law is our direction. We obey God's law in order to walk pleasing unto him and walk worthy of him.

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• Now, I want to close with this. Some of you are old enough to have seen, like Alice and I did many, many years ago, Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. Yul Brynner, you remember, played Pharaoh, and Charlton Heston played Moses. That film came out in 1956. What many people do not know is when the film premiered, Cecil B. DeMille came out on stage before the showing of it and spoke for a few minutes.

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• Here is what he said, or at least part of what he said. I'm quoting. "The Ten Commandments are not the laws. They are the law. Man has made 32 million laws since the commandments were handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai more than 3,000 years ago, but he has never improved on God's law. The Ten Commandments are the principles by which man may live with God and man may live with man. They are the expressions of the mind of God for his creatures. They are the charter and guide of human liberty, for there can be no liberty without law. What I hope for our production of the Ten Commandments is that those who see it shall come forth from the theater not only entertained and filled with the sight of a big spectacle, but filled with the spirit of truth, that it will bring to its audience a better understanding of the real meaning of this pattern of life that God has set down for us to follow." Isn't that amazing? Don't make Hollywood producers like that anymore. He says this is God's law. It is the expression of God's will and God expects us to obey. Without the law, there is no sin. Without the law,

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• there is no salvation. Without the law, there is no sanctification. If we're going to walk pleasing unto him, we must walk in obedience to His law. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We thank You for Your law. We know that it is indeed an expression of Your will of how we are to live and walk and please Thee.

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• Help us to do so, Lord, by Your power, by Your Spirit, by Your grace and mercy. And may we honor Thee in all that we say and do. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray. Amen.

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• you

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T20:27:35Z