11/10/13 A Prayer for Completeness!
Text: 1
Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NKJV)
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you
completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also
will do it.
Intro: Sanctification for the believer gives completeness! BUT it
takes work! The Prayer the Christian should have is a prayer for completeness,
this means – Wholeness, Fullness, Totality, its Entirety. When your sanctified
your set apart, you have been paid for. You are the property of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ will complete you. At the closing of this book Paul is praying for
complete sanctification in the hearts of the believer’s. There are several
essential elements of this sanctification: Its nature, source, its human
components; its goal and result; and its final security.
Application: Results
of proper behavior, completeness.
1. Sanctification’s Nature and Source: vs. 23a
“Now
may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely.”
It is God’s desire, His
nature to complete you. Sanctification is the ongoing spiritual process by
which God increasingly sets believers apart from sin and moves them toward
holiness. “Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
direct our way to you. 12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love
to one another and to all, just as we do to you, 13 so that He may
establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13
God rescued all believers from the dominion of sin and spiritual darkness and
placed them into the dominion of His righteousness and spiritual light.
Believers also receive a new nature at salvation: “Therefore if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things
have come.”
The indwelling Holy Spirit signifies the believer’s new nature. God
is the source for this completeness and offers us a guarantee of a citizenship
in heaven. With God as our source and His nature to complete us we must move in
a direction that is pleasing to Him. It seems many Christians get off the
course that God had originally placed them on. “I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and
gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Christians are to live out in their daily
lives the salvation God has produced in them. The reminder of the results of
the cross and the need for the believer to take up their cross daily will keep
you complete.
2. Sanctification’s Human Components: vs. 23b
“May your whole
spirit, soul, and body.”
The sanctifying work of God includes not only the
immaterial part of the believer but also the body. If sanctification is to be
complete, it will extend to every part of the believer, especially the body,
which thinks, feels, and acts in response to the holiness of the inner person.
Spirit
and soul are familiar and common substitutes that Paul used to emphasize the
depth and scope of sanctification. Some suggest that an acceptable translation
of this portion of Paul’s prayer could be, “May your spirit, even soul and
body,” in which case “spirit” would refer to the whole person, and “soul and
body” to the person’s nonmaterial and material parts.
“From now on let no one
trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” Galatians 6:17-18
“The
word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and
piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” “May your whole
spirit, soul, and body.” Be sanctified and really let it be complete!
3. Sanctification’s
Goal and Result: vs. 23c
“Be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ.” Complete also means total the prayer presents a desire for the
church to be holy, without blemish or defect! Our goal should be: “I press on
to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God,
through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:14 (NLT)
The prize of being
called up to heaven is eternal holiness and Christlikeness. It’s completeness
that’s a great goal. Imagine believers in the end at the finale trumpet: “In a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will
sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
At
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, God will make all believers sinless
forever. The result is “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Paul prayed that
when the Lord Jesus Christ comes for believers He will find them faithfully
pursuing the goal of being as holy as their Lord and longing to receive the
promised heavenly perfection.
4. Sanctification’s Final Security: vs. 24
“He who
calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
Faithful is He who calls you, and
He also will bring it to pass. God who calls is also faithful to complete and
bring … to pass His sanctifying purpose.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly
equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Conclusion: Sanctification
occurs chiefly in the heart, the mind, the inner being. It is not concerned
with Finally, Christians must remember that sanctification is God’s priority
for their lives. It is His will for them, and the result of Christ’s death on
their behalf - “who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed,
and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good
deeds”. All believers are to live for sanctification. They have no other goal
in life than to be like Jesus Christ. “And we know that all things work
together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according
to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
brethren.” THAT’S COMPLETENESS!
In : Sermon
Tags: "don't be confused series"
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