In Jason Dohm's sermon 'Walking to Please God', the focus is on 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3a, encouraging Christians to live in a manner pleasing to God by growing in sanctification. The sermon highlights a shift in 1 Thessalonians from reflecting on past events to focusing on future growth and holiness. It emphasizes that Christians should abound in love and holiness, living according to King Jesus' commands. The sermon discusses the need for consistent spiritual growth, aligning one's life with the teachings of Jesus, and the importance of the Holy Spirit in enabling this transformation. It also ties the Great Commission into the text, underscoring the role of teaching and living by Christ's commands as ambassadors of His message. The sermon concludes by urging believers to examine their lives for stagnation and to prioritize pleasing God over themselves or others.

Our section of scripture is going to be 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 1 through 3a Yes, we're parking at 3a, but for just to have the context. Let's read 1st Thessalonians 4 1 through 8 So join me Finally then brethren we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. That you should abstain from sexual immorality.

That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man but God, who has also given us his Holy Spirit." God, we thank you for these words and the fact that you would deliver them to a sinful people to allow us to know you and to learn from you and also as we learn today for our sanctification. God, I pray from my heart and all the hearts that are here that are gathered hearts that many of whom have been transformed by you many yet remained and continue to be untransformed. God I pray that you would open hearts today through the preaching of your words that Jason would come filled with your Holy Spirit and deliver these words to our souls today, God.

We're so thankful to be here. I thank you for our brother, now bless him in this time. In Christ's name. The title of the sermon this morning is Walking to Please God. I'm just lifting words right out of the text.

It's always safe to do that. The scope of our text this morning is 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 1 through 3a, or the first part of verse 3. I didn't want to go all the way through verse 8, and I think the halfway point of verse 3 is the natural break. So That almost never happens, but this week it did. This is a section of Scripture about how to have a pattern of life that pleases God.

This should be the target for every Christian. This is our objective. If you're a brother or sister in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the objective for our life, is that we would walk in such a way that we would have a pattern of life that God looks upon and it pleases Him. I want to begin by noting a transition that has just happened at the conclusion of verse 10 in chapter 3. So we're starting chapter 4 now, but if you back up just a little bit, at the end of verse 10, There is a major transition in the letter of 1 Thessalonians.

Everything leading up to and including chapter 3 verse 10 is either about the past or the present. Our authors Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have given thanksgiving for their time and the things that they observed in the Thessalonians. And they've defended their ministry, how they had conducted themselves among the Thessalonians. And They've talked about the report that Timothy has brought back and they've given thanks for that. So everything has been past or present up to this point.

It's been a reflection on things past. But now with the beginning of chapter 3 verse 11, all the way to the end of the book it's going to be future. We began that with the text that we looked at last time, which was the last three verses of chapter 3, verses 11, 12, and 13, where Paul and Silvanus and Timothy pray for the Thessalonians. They're praying for their future. They're praying that God would bless them and help them to grow.

In that prayer, they prayed for three things. They prayed that they would be reunited. They've been stopped from being reunited with the Thessalonians, which has been disturbing to them because they can't wait to get back and be among these people. And They prayed that these new converts would increase and abound in love. And they prayed that their hearts would be established blameless in holiness.

They prayed that they would grow and that they would be a holy people. They would be a people set apart for God's pleasure. So that is the text that we're coming out of. This prayer that our authors embed right in the middle of the letter. This week, having prayed, they're going to begin to give instruction.

And this begins a section that will go through the end of chapter 5, through the end of the letter, and they'll be giving instruction to these new converts the rest of the way. So here's the flow. They ask God, they pray, And then they give instructions to the new converts along the same lines as what they've asked God for. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. Father, I pray that you would give us hearts that long to please you.

We feel how inclined we are to please ourselves and to please other men and women. And we know that we should live only to please you. So God we are praying that you would use this text to bring change in our hearts. Give us a longing to please you that surpasses all of our other longings and subjugates all of our other longings so that our lives are filled with a consuming passion that you would be pleased with how we walk in this life. We feel the need for help.

We know we need help for this. I pray that you would give it to us in Jesus name. Amen. So I'd like to begin just by looking at verse 1 by itself in detail. So I'm going to read verse 1 again.

Please follow along as I read. This is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 1 where Paul and Silvanus and Timothy write, Finally then brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more. Just as you received from us how you should walk and to please God, how you ought to walk and to please God. If you're Taking notes on the handout, verse 1 is summarized by abounding more and more in order to please God. If you're filling in blanks, abounding and please.

Abounding more and more in order to please God. Notice that as they begin this long section of instruction that these are authoritative instructions, also known as commands. These are not suggestions. These are authoritative instructions or commands. But at the same time they're also affectionate.

Even though they're authoritative, they are affectionate instructions. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, as they begin this section of instruction, they're appealing to brethren. They say that right off the bat. They're appealing to brothers and sisters. They say, abound more and more.

They're not necessarily pointing out deficiencies. They're not saying you're devoid of these things. They're saying there's room for growth in these things. You need to abound in them. You need to increase in them.

In fact, What we've seen in the letter so far is that they have been full of praise for the good start that these new converts have. But it's one thing to start well and it's another thing entirely to finish well. Many start well who don't finish at all. And So the urgent appeal from Paul and Silvanus and Timothy is to abound more and more. They're giving affectionate but authoritative instructions.

So there are things that are going to be urged and exhorted from now to the end of the book. But these urgings and these exhortations that are given are done so in the Lord Jesus. Do you see that right in the text? We urge and exhort you, in the Lord Jesus. What does that phrase mean?

I think it means this. When you are born again, you are born into a kingdom with a king. It's not your kingdom, and you're not the king of it. You're pulled out of a kingdom of death and darkness, and you're born again. You're born into a very different kind of kingdom, and it's already got a king, and Jesus is the king.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy now are pressing on these new converts the king's ways, King Jesus' ways are being pressed on these new converts And it needs to happen with all new converts and old converts too. We need to have the ways of the King pressed on us. So what is being taught, these authoritative but affectionate instructions that are being given by our authors are things that have been commanded by the king. This is his kingdom. These are the things that have been taught by the king.

They are the things that have been demonstrated by the king. This is a very different kind of kingdom where the king has come and been a commoner among his subjects and demonstrated how the kingdom is supposed to work. This is what the incarnation means. God with us. God came and dwelt among us and lived a life that was completely pleasing to his father.

So not only has the king commanded these things, not only has the king taught these things, the king has demonstrated these things. He has given us a picture of what it ought to look like to walk pleasing to God in this kingdom. So the phrase points to Jesus as both the law giver and the example. Do you get that? When we see this phrase, in the Lord Jesus, it points to Him.

He is the giver of these laws. And He is the example. He is the demonstration of what it looks like to live according to these laws. Of course love is the fulfillment of the law. This is about love.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are simply acting as ambassadors. That's what we have In the Lord Jesus. In other words, we're not pressing on you our own words and our own inclinations about things. We're coming as ambassadors, ones who are sent with a message to deliver the message of the King. We don't have our own message here.

We're delivering the King's message. We come as ambassadors in the Lord Jesus. And this phrase, in the Lord Jesus, gives weight and authority to what they're saying. We shouldn't care about each other's opinions. Everybody's got an opinion.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have their opinions. They're not coming with their opinions. They're coming with authoritative instruction in the Lord Jesus, and it gives weight and authority to their words. So what are they urging and exhorting? You should abound more and more.

There is a theme that is developing here that started in the last text we were looking at. Look back to chapter 3 verse 12, right at the end of the chapter, chapter 3 verse 12. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love. That's almost exactly the same words that we're dealing with today. In fact, when you see in verse 12 the word abound, it's the exact same Greek word that is in our text today.

And it's the word that meant overflowing. It's the word that was a picture of a measuring tool and then the thing that had to be measured is more than fits there. So you get all the way to the top and then it just overflows. That's what the word means. So they're to increase and abound in love.

To overflow the measurement. That's what we saw in verse 12. Now we have this verse. You should abound more and more. And then in chapter 4 verse 10, we'll actually be there in two weeks, look in chapter 4 verse 10, we urge you brethren that you increase more and more in love, again as the subject of that.

So we see He's saying it over and over again. He's repeatedly exhorting these converts to growth. Again and again, it's repetition. What's he repeating? Grow.

Grow. The Christian life is not to be a stagnant life. Something's wrong in the life of a Christian who's not making progress. The Christian life is to be a life of perpetual growth. Sometimes more than at other times, but always growing.

That is God's intent for His people. It is not to be a stagnant life. It is to be a life of perpetual growth. And what should they abound more and more in? Well they point to something.

They point to what the Thessalonians had already received from them. So they're pointing back to their time at Thessalonica when they were teaching and instructing and they point them back to that body of doctrine, that body of teaching and they say You need to abound more and more in that. They say two things. How you ought to walk and how you ought to please God. These are the same things said in different ways.

How you ought to walk and how you ought to please God are one and the same thing, just spoken of in different ways. How you ought to walk is what pleases God. When you're walking in the way that you ought to walk, when the King's ways, the King's laws, the King's teachings have been pressed on you and then you begin to walk that way, that pleases God. So there is a way that we ought to walk and it's the King's way. Your walk is the pattern of your life.

Your life has a pattern. You have things that characterize you in your life. It doesn't mean that you are consistent with that pattern every minute of every day. I wish it did mean that. But that is not my experience and I don't think that is the testimony of the New Testament either.

And yet, Christians are to have a consistent pattern that matches the King's ways. And the King tells us how that should look. This has already been spoken of in 1 Thessalonians. Look back to chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy begin this teaching about how Christians ought to walk.

Here's what it says beginning in verse 11, As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children that you should walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. This is exactly what we're talking about, isn't it? How a Christian ought to walk. There's a way of walking that is worthy of God and the glory of his kingdom. So, the kingdom has a king, and he's a glorious king, and he has a glorious kingdom, and walking worthy of that is quite a challenge, but it's how we ought to walk.

We ought to walk in a way that is worthy of this King and his kingdom. Or consider 1 John chapter 2 verse 16. Listen to 1 John chapter 2 verse 16. He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. I'm going to read it again and I'm going to untangle all the pronouns.

There are a lot of pronouns in there. Make that harder to understand. So everywhere where a pronoun, Him, means Jesus Christ, I'm just going to replace it with Jesus Christ. So we have less pronouns. We're going to thin out the pronouns.

Listen to it again. He who says he abides in Jesus Christ. So here we have a person who says, I'm in Christ. He who says he abides in Jesus Christ ought himself also to walk just as Jesus Christ walked. Here's what 1 John chapter 2 verse 6 is saying.

If you say you're in Christ, you should walk like Christ walked. So how ought a Christian to walk? Like Jesus walked. It is growing in Christlikeness that is in view here. That's what 1 John 2 verse 6 is saying.

Or consider this, Romans chapter 8 verse 1. In Romans chapter 8 verse 1 Paul writes this, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. No Condemnation for who? Those who are in Christ. And then those people who are in Christ are described.

Who are they? Who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. People before they are in Christ walk according to the flesh. They serve it like a slave. And they can't do any different.

They are slaves to sin. They are slaves to their nature. They are slaves to their passion. Their God is their belly. We're going to talk a lot more about this next week.

The natural man can't receive the things of God, and the natural man is bound to live as a slave to sin. They're bound to. They don't have a choice in the matter. They are a slave to sin. They are bound to.

They don't have a choice in the matter. They are a slave to sin. But those who are in Christ, they are no longer under condemnation. They are in a different state and they walk by the Spirit. Does that mean everything they ever do is Spirit led?

No. The New Testament doesn't teach that. We wish it were so, but we don't find it to be so. Either in the text or in life. There are inconsistencies, there are departures from that, and yet there is a pattern of life of walking according to the King's ways.

God has given us His Spirit, and the Spirit works and produces a pattern of life in His people. It's a pattern of life that doesn't walk according to the flesh. It's not a pattern of life according to the flesh. It's a pattern of life according to the indwelling Spirit of God. So there is a way that we ought to walk and there is one that we ought to please.

That's the other thing that is said in our text. There is a way you ought to walk and there is one that we ought to please and you aren't the one. The time of life where we just live to please ourselves is behind us for those who are in Christ. Listen to what Paul says in Galatians chapter 1 verse 10. In Galatians 1-10 Paul writes, Do I seek to please men?

For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ." Paul says, if I was a man pleaser, I wouldn't be Christ's servant. I wouldn't be a bond servant of Christ. Christians are not their own. I'm not my own. You're not your own if you're in Christ.

We're not free to just please ourselves. We are not free to just please men. We have been bought with a price and if you have been transported out of a kingdom of death and darkness into a kingdom of life, we should walk worthy of God in His kingdom. Why? Because we have to?

Well, we do have to. But no, because we want to. Because we feel the sense of what we've been liberated from. You were a slave to sin. You were on a broad road that led to destruction.

You were dangling by a thread over the flames of eternal torment and punishment. God rescued you. And the heart that knows that, really knows that, is a heart that can never be the same again. It's impossible. This is a searching test.

Who am I really living to please? You've got to answer that question. You can fool everybody else in the room, but you cannot fool God. God always knows the answer to that question. Who am I living to please?

Who are you living to please? Even religious activity can be 100% about pleasing self. Even religious activity can be 100% about man pleasing. You can be religious and fool us. You can never be religious and fool God.

He always knows what is in the heart. And so there is a way that we ought to walk. And yet that can be very external. This goes to the heart. There is one you ought to please, and that is God.

And God knows whether you're living to please Him or whether all that is just to please yourself or to please man. Let's look at verse 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 2. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. So we have this connecting word again, for.

Because of verse 1, you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. It's the same subject, but he's just developing it by talking about the commands that they gave them through the Lord Jesus when they were there together. So I'm summarizing verse two this way, teaching them to observe all things commanded by Christ. If you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's teaching and commanded. Teaching them to observe all things commanded by Christ.

Now where am I pulling that language from? Teaching them to observe all things commanded by Christ. The Great Commission. I want you to turn to the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28 and see how close the language Jesus uses in the Great Commission is to what we actually see in our text. Turn to Matthew 28 and follow along as I read verses 18-20.

Matthew 28 beginning in verse 18. Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. That is exactly what Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have been doing.

Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth and so he has sent out ambassadors, in this case Paul and Silvanus and Timothy and they're going literally to a far corner the world where the gospel has never been and they're preaching and they're making disciples and they're baptizing and they're teaching them to observe all the things that were commanded by Jesus Christ. In verse one they said, you received from us how you ought to walk. And now in verse two, in verse two they are saying this, for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ. So they're pointing back to the instruction that they gave them when they were together. So what they're saying is do what you've been taught but do it more and more.

Okay, we taught you things. Now do those things and increasingly, there's what I know and there's what I do. There's what you know, and there's what you do. And the truth is, the doing is always catching up to the knowing. Isn't that true?

Anybody doing everything they know? In your discipleship and your growing in Christ-likeness, anybody doing everything you know? No, this is not how it works. God gives you some light. God gives you some knowledge.

He teaches you things. When you read your Bible, when you read good books, when you hear preaching, you're being taught, and that's light. And Then you learn to walk by that light. When you walk by that light, God gives you more light. And you're always trying to catch up with the light that God has given you.

That's very true in my life. I'm sure it's true in yours. So here, we have this light that God has given to His people. We have the example of Jesus. He who abides in Jesus ought to walk as Jesus walked.

So we have the example of Jesus. That's light. And we have the indwelling Spirit. Those who are in Christ aren't under condemnation, and they don't walk according to the flesh, they walk according to the Spirit. So we have the indwelling Spirit of God.

That is light. And now we have here the commandments of Christ. And so these three sources of light, you've got to catch up to the light you've been given. As you're faithful to walk according to the light that God gives you. What does God do?

He gives you more light. He teaches you more. Then you've got to catch up again. This is the walk of the Christian. Here's a note from the Reformation Heritage Bible.

This is the study Bible that Joel Beeke and his team recently put out. Good note. When we are saved by grace, we do not leave behind the commandments of God. On the contrary, we find the power to keep them in love. That's very true and I think that's a very good description of what is being taught in our text today.

When we're saved by grace, It is all grace, it's not working for it, but we don't leave the commandments behind just because we're saved by grace. The commandments are there, they still define the character of God, they reflect the character of God, and if we're to please God, we need to obey those commandments. But being saved by grace gives us the power to keep them in love, really keep them. There is an external keeping of the law that is not really a keeping of the law at all. Because there's no love, there's no thankfulness behind it.

It's an external putting on of a facade. It's hypocrisy. But the real keeping of the law is with the heart engaged and it's an overflow of the heart. And that's what you have the power to do when you get a new heart when you're born again. By the way, this doesn't make us red letter Christians.

When we see here the commandments we gave you through Jesus Christ, this isn't red letter Christianity. What is that? Red letter Christianity says, only interested in the words of Jesus in the gospels. Not interested in the Old Testament, and don't talk to me about the apostles. I just want the words of Jesus.

Why don't we want to be a red-letter Christian? Because Jesus isn't a red-letter Christian. He affirms every jot and tittle. He says, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will pass from all the things, the body of what God has said. That's in Matthew chapter 5.

So since Jesus isn't one, I wouldn't recommend that we be one either. It all hangs together, the word of God. Let's look at the first part of verse 3. First part of verse 3. For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

You're filling in blanks, will and sanctification. The will of God, your sanctification. You want to know what the will of God is? There you have it. This is the will of God, your sanctification.

It begins with this connecting word for, meaning what is said in this short part of verse 3, this is the will of God, your sanctification, rests on everything we've been studying today. It rests on verses one and two. The connecting word means that our sanctification is defined by one and two. So sanctification is a theological term that is only in use in theological purposes. In other words, when have you ever used the word sanctification in a conversation outside of talking about something related to the Bible.

Never. Me either. It's only in use there. So what does it mean? It means what is in verses 1 and 2.

It means Abounding more and more in how we ought to walk in order to please God. That's what sanctification is. Abounding more and more. It is a process of growth. Abounding more and more in how we ought to walk in order to please God.

There is a way that you walk that pleases God and we should grow in that. That's what sanctification is. Sanctification is growing in holiness. And holiness is simply being set aside for God's pleasure. These are the two words, these are the two key words.

Sanctification and holiness. Sanctification is growing in holiness. What is holiness? Holiness is being set apart for God's pleasure. In other words, you used to live to please men.

You used to live to please yourself. But now, you're pulled out of that. You're pulled out of the world of man-pleasing. You're pulled out of the world of self-pleasing and now you've been repurposed. You live to please God.

It means living for him, learning to live for him. We're supposed to abound in it, we're supposed to live for him a lot and more and more we're supposed to be growing in that. We always need to grow in that, right? We're never out of room for growth. Does anybody say, yeah, I completely live for God?

Anybody want to come up here and tell us how to do that? I completely live for God. Every minute, every second. No, we start when we're justified by faith. And then we learn how to live for him more and more and more, and then we die.

There's no arrival in sanctification until this side of heaven. There's no arrival. There's only growth. We should be perpetually growing, always growing. So this is the will of God that we grow in holiness, that we grow in being set apart for God's pleasure.

But it's also the work of God. So it's what he wants, it's the will of God, but it's also what he does, it is the work of God. I want to show you this in two places. One, we don't even have to probably turn the page for. Look at the very end of the letter, 1 Thessalonians 5, the end of chapter 5, or almost the end, look at verses 23 and 24, right at the end of the letter, 23 and 24.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are praying again for the Thessalonians. What are they praying for? For God to do this work of sanctification. 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.

He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it." Your sanctification and mine, if we're in Christ, rests on working hard. No, we should work hard. This is not knocking working hard. It rests on the faithfulness of God. You have no hope to grow in holiness unless God is a faithful God.

You have no hope to grow in holiness. You're not going to live more and more and more and more for the Lord unless He's faithful to you. Because you're dust. Psalm 103 says, he remembers our frame. He knows that we're dust.

If you've lived the Christian life long enough, you feel how much you're dust. You feel how much your sanctification depends, not on your own labors, but on the faithfulness of God. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. This is the other place that makes it so clear that sanctification is not just the will of God, which our text is teaching, but also the work of God.

In other words, it depends upon his faithfulness. Ephesians 5 is a chapter we always go to, to talk about marriage. All of our preaching out of this is typically being, well, you know, Jesus does this, so let's talk about marriage. But now we're just going to park on what Jesus is actually doing in this text. Let's set aside marriage and let's talk about what Christ is to His people and what Christ does for His people.

Ephesians chapter 5, I'll be reading verses 25 through 27, where Paul writes, Husbands, love your wives. Just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So from Ephesians chapter 5 verses 25 through 27, what is Jesus Christ to his people and what does Jesus Christ do for his people? Well, he's the savior of the body. He sacrificially gives himself for his bride.

You're not in the bride unless Jesus Christ gives himself for you. We're not in the bride unless Jesus Christ gives Himself for you. We are not in the bride unless Jesus Christ sheds His blood for us. He is the Savior of the body. So it begins with the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ.

He stands in the place of sinners and they deserve wrath and death and the anger of God to fall upon their shoulders for their sins, but God spares them and puts it on Jesus instead. We earn the wrath of God, but Jesus gets that. Jesus deserves the favor of God and we get that. It's the great exchange. So it begins with what Jesus is to His people but then it doesn't stop there.

It continues with what Jesus does for His people. Then he goes to work. If he shed his blood for you and you've been cleansed and you're justified, you've been declared righteous, not because you're righteous, but because Jesus is righteous and you switched places. What happens then? Is that the end?

No, he goes to work on you. He sanctifies you. He washes you with the water of the Word. He brings his Word to bear in your life, to help you grow in holiness, to make you grow in holiness. If God's not doing this in your life, then you're not in Christ.

He will do it to his bride. He will sanctify his bride. He is sanctifying his bride. He is washing her with the water of the word. He is causing her to grow in holiness.

He is. If that's not happening in your life, you're not part of the bride. You can't be. Because it depends upon the faithfulness of God, not our work. So does this mean that we have nothing to do and we can just sit back?

No, of course not. That's exactly the opposite of what our text in 1 Thessalonians is teaching. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are urging and exhorting for a reason. We are to engage in this work with all our might and yet the results do not depend on us. The results depend on God.

They rest upon the faithfulness of God. So it doesn't mean that we can just sit back, but it does mean that there's hope for us. If you've labored to make progress in your own strength, you know there is zero hope in that. How many times have you fallen flat on your face? The reason you're not still on your face is because God is faithful.

He doesn't leave us there. Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again. Why is that? Because God is faithful. That's why.

It is God's will that we be sanctified. And He is not just hoping, He is doing. He is working on the spots and wrinkles of his bride. And he will present her a glorious bride. And this will be developed over the next two weeks.

Next week we have a text that there's something to be abstained from. There's something to stay away from. It's sexual immorality. It's walking in the flesh. We've got to abstain from that.

And then the text after that will be there's something to pursue. There's something to run away from, sexual immorality, walking in the flesh. Then there's something to run towards, there's something to pursue, and that is love. Love is the fulfillment of the law. That's where we'll be in the next two weeks.

I have three applications. Number one, are you stagnant? Are you stagnant? Even with an unchanged routine of religious activity you can be stagnant. Did you get that?

Even with an unchanged routine, meaning it's the same old routine, you used to grow in the middle of that routine, but now you're not. You can be stagnant. The routine hasn't changed, but you're not growing anymore. All the same religious activities are in place, but you're not growing. We are to abound more and more.

This text, God might have you in this text, this week's text, to get you moving with renewed vigor. I pray that if you're stagnant, if you're not growing, if you're in Christ but not growing, right now that this will get you moving with renewed vigor. Two. Are you a self-pleaser and or a man-pleaser? If you're persistently ruled by one or the other or both of those, you are not in Christ.

I am choosing my words carefully here. If you're persistently ruled by man pleasing and or self pleasing, you're not in Christ. That says that you don't have a new heart, you're not born again. But if you persistently struggle with that, then you're just this side of heaven. Meaning, no Christian this side of heaven is going to be always free from man pleasing and self pleasing.

So you got to figure out which it is. Am I ruled by this or am I struggling with this? J.C. Ryle says this, the two great marks of Christians are the internal peace and the internal war. He said true Christians have both.

They have an internal peace. They are reconciled with God and there's a peace that passes understanding. They know that they don't stand condemned anymore. So they're marked by an internal peace that's beautiful and wonderful and at the same time they're marked by an internal warfare. Where in their inner man they delight in the law of God, but they find another law at work in their members.

This is Romans chapter 7. There's internal warfare. Their flesh is not cooperating. Your flesh is not going to cooperate this side of heaven. You're going to always have to be at war with it if there's going to be progress.

So if there's a mighty internal conflict about man pleasing and about self pleasing inside of you, you can't take that as a mark that you're outside of Christ. You cannot. J.C. Ryle lived to be an old man and he felt it throughout the course of his life. I've been in Christ for a long time.

Over three decades now, I feel it every day, don't you? Man pleasing and self pleasing likes to get up out of the grave. We need to be God pleasers like we never have been before. We need to live for the Lord more than we ever have before. We need to abound more and more.

Why? Because he's worthy. This is the root of it all. Why? So we can be better and better people?

What will that matter? Jesus died to cleanse us. That work is done. It matters because he is worthy of our devoting our lives to walking in a way that pleases him. He should be pleased.

If Anyone in this universe should be pleased it is God. He ought to be pleased. Number three, finally. How are we doing with regard to the great commission? It's on such beautiful display in this text.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy didn't stay comfortable. They went to Thessalonica, the pagan city with no gospel presence. And they paid a steep price for it, as they did in Philippi, and then as they did in Athens, and then as they did in Corinth, and on and on. All authority is Jesus Christ. It's all been given to Him.

And now he sends his church. And our lives together should be marked by that. Our lives together shouldn't stay the same. We should organize ourselves corporately more and more and more and more around the Great Commission. Our resources should be pooled more and more to fund the Great Commission.

Our calendars should more and more be given over to the Great Commission. To preaching, and baptizing, and discipling. We should be shaped by this. Let's pray. God, it's so true, you want to be pleased.

You are worthy of being pleased. Men are not worthy of being pleased. God, I pray that you would cause this to burn in our hearts, that We would long to please you. So full of self-love. We want to learn to walk in a different way, to have a different pattern of life than we've ever had.

Loving you more, living to your pleasure more. Oh, press upon our hearts the King's ways, that we might walk to please him. Pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.