And to Please God

Connecting Chapter 4 to Chapter 3: The Call to Perfection

0:02 First Thessalonians, as we continue our studies in this letter of the Apostle to the Infant Church of the Thessalonians. First Thessalonians, Chapter 4, and we will be focusing our attention again this morning upon verses 1 and 2. Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, that ye abound more and more, for ye know what charge or commandment we gave you through the Lord Jesus. Just briefly to review, last time we studied this portion, two Lord's Days ago, I tried to point out to you the very vital connection between Chapter 4 and the last three verses of Chapter 3. For remember when the Apostle wrote, he did not write in chapters, he didn't even write in paragraphs. It was just one continuous thing, and these divisions have been made to help us in our understanding,

1:28 understanding, and in our location of the Bible. And so though we may criticize the artificial divisions, if you've ever read a New Testament where they've done away with all divisions, you're thankful that somebody divided it up into chapters and verses, even though at times I think the fellow who did it was getting kind of sleepy, and his thinking wasn't too clear when he ends a chapter a sentence too soon or a sentence too late. But with all the problems, it still is helpful that when we read, let's remember, that these divisions were not there, and so often we forget. And when we forget, we miss a blessing that comes through seeing the connection.

2:09 And the connection is basically this. He had recorded his prayer in verses 9 and 10, his prayer that the Thessalonians might be perfected in their faith, and then in verses 11 to 13, he records his desire, having prayed that this would be so, he now longs that it would be so. And if you pray for something and long for it, the proof that your prayer was genuine and your longing is valid is that you will set out to do something to accomplish your longing and to answer your prayer if it's within your power to do so. So if he prays that they be perfected in the faith, if he longs that they be perfected in the faith, it's only natural then that in chapter 4, he should begin to lay out some of the ways in which they may be perfected in their faith, both as to knowledge and to experience. For you will find in this 4th and 5th chapter, Paul addresses certain things primarily to the mind for the understanding, and other things are directed to the feet and to the hands for their conduct. Now the theme of the 4th and 5th chapters, the latter part of the epistle, beginning with the word furthermore, or finally, is this matter of abounding in a walk of practical godliness.

3:36 Furthermore then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you that as you received of us how to walk, that ye abound. That's the theme. How to abound in a walk that pleases God. So whatever we touch in chapters 4 and 5, it is related to this theme of abounding, in a, in a god-pleasing walk.

Review of Key Words: Obligation, Instruction, and Specificity

4:00 He brings this exhortation, assuming that they are Christians, furthermore, brethren, this is not telling you how to enter life, but how to conduct yourself in life. He takes the place of one who pleads with them in the authority of Christ. Now, if we're to understand and apply rightly the instructions of chapters 4 and 5, there are six key words, in these first two verses, that we should understand and know something of how they apply to us. We studied three of them last time.

4:36 The word ought. He says, we instructed you how you ought to walk. And the word ought is a word of obligation. In other words, walking in a manner that pleases God is not optional.

4:54 It is obligatory. It is the obligation. And that we have, not only because God is our Creator, but even more so because He is our Redeemer in Jesus Christ. And then the next key word is how you ought to walk.

5:12 Paul was not giving them directions as to how to get some coat-of-many-colors experience that would solve all their problems. He never does this. One of the greatest arguments against those who teach that if we could only get all Christians to have some glorious kind of experience, no matter what you call it, a second work of grace or an unusual baptism of power, is that if this is the answer to the needs of believers somewhere, when Paul writes to churches which have all kinds of needs, we would expect him to be telling people this. But he doesn't do it.

5:49 Instead, he gives detailed instruction as to how to walk, the framing of the entire life, according to the mind and will of God. And then the third key word, and with this we closed our study two weeks ago, the word how. You know that as you received of us how ye ought to walk, not that ye ought to walk, but how. He gave them a directory of godliness.

6:18 He gave them, we might say, rules for a godly life. And there needs to be specific direction. Therefore, there is no simple formula for a life that abounds in godliness. There is no one chapter that is the open sesame into spiritual victory.

6:40 And so we concluded with the exhortation, beware of any Christian life teaching that has just one note on its piano. Whether that note is Ephesians 5, or whether it's Romans 6, or whether it's Acts 2, the Pentecostals, for the most part, they've got one note on their piano, Acts 2. And certain deeper life movements, they've got one note, Romans 6. And others, they've got another note.

7:09 Maybe some of the folks who feel that the answer to everything is if you understand divine sovereignty, and so Romans 9 is the one note in their piano. Well, just as that piano has 88 keys in order to bring out the beauty and the harmonious relationship of the chords, so we have these detailed instructions given by the Apostle as to how to walk and to please God. All right, so much for review. Now let's consider the next key word.

The Highest Motivation: To Please God

7:38 And it's this combination of words. As you received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God. And in those words, to please God, we have the motive for, holy living. Paul's going to give instruction as to holy living, practical godliness, how to walk.

8:06 And at the very outset, he sets before his readers this principle, that the highest motivation is to please God. Now think of all the things he could have said. He could have said, Finally, brethren, we beseech you and exhort you, that as you received of us, how ye ought to walk and be happy, or and be successful, and be useful, and be full of rewards. Many times, these are the motives held forth for believers for exhorting them to godly living.

8:42 You want to have a happy, full life with a capital L? Then here's how. You want to have a real big bag of rewards when you go clunking down the streets of heaven? Here's how you can get a shopping bag full.

8:57 No, no. The motivation that he sets before these believers, the incentive for godly living, is this, that they might bring pleasure to God. For that's precisely what this word means. It's the same word used in Matthew 14, 6, when it says that the dancing of Salome pleased Herod.

9:20 Now granted, that which brought him pleasure, and the heart to which it brought pleasure, was sinful. But you get the idea of the meaning, of the word. Her dancing pleased Herod. It brought pleasure to his depraved heart.

9:35 Acts 6, 5, when they made the suggestion as to how to solve that problem of the widows that were having a bit of friction in the administration of their daily food, it says when they suggested that they elect some deacons, this saying pleased the whole multitude. They looked at one another and stroked their beards and said, you know, that sounds good, and this pleases us well. It brought pleasure to them. In 1 Corinthians 7, 33, it says the married man is careful how he may please his wife.

10:04 He wants to do the things that bring her big 32-toothed grin and smile. He doesn't want to do the things that bring her frowns. Well, you see, in all those cases where this word is used, the meaning, I think, is clear. It means to bring delight and pleasure to someone, pleasure which is commensurate with their character and with their disposition.

10:28 The fact that Herod was pleased with a licentious dance was the revelation that he had a licentious heart and a corrupt nature. The fact that the multitude of disciples were pleased at the solving of this problem is an indication that they were believers who loved peace and they loved equity and righteousness, so this pleased them. A fish is pleased when it's turned loose. In a stream or in an ocean or a lake, it's not pleased if you turn it loose on a superhighway because it's contrary to its nature to be on a highway. Conversely, a bird is pleased when you turn it loose to the open heavens, not if you turn it loose out in the field somewhere or at the bottom of a lake or the bottom of an ocean. So when we read that, we must recognize that the reason why holy living pleases God is that it is something like Himself. And that is precisely what Peter tells us, quoting from the Old Testament in 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16, but as he which hath called you is holy,

11:51 so be ye holy in all manner of things. And that is precisely what Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of things. And that is precisely what Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of things. Why does holiness please God?

12:14 Because it's suitable to His nature. He is holy, and being holy, He delights in holiness. And being holy, He delights in holiness. Oh, if we study this section in chapters 4 and 5 and come to some very practical issues, the first practical issue Paul hits it head on and tells believers what their attitude to this thing should be.

12:37 And we're going to consider this matter just as plainly as Paul does. We're going to come later on to the matter of work and our attitude to work. Look at the mess we're in in New York, other parts of the country. Every day turns up three or four new major strikes.

12:56 What's the problem? People aren't thinking right about work. God has something to say about work, about the second coming, about the practical matter of what to do with gossipers in the church. But in all of these things, as we study them, may we keep before us that our obedience to these howls of a holy war should not be rendered with a thought of bringing pleasure to the spiritual leadership of the church, not bringing pleasure to, quote, the church and its staff, standards, or not even because it is personally desirable.

13:36 There is no more powerful motive to act as a lever to the true Christian than this. If you will do this, you will bring pleasure to the heart of your God. And if that motive won't move you, you're not a Christian. I say again, if that lever won't move you, you're not Christian.

14:04 You're not a Christian. So in dealing with the highest motivation, Paul is setting before us this tremendous fact that a Christian is one who by the grace of God has been brought into such a relationship to this God that bringing delight to the heart of that God is his highest ambition. That's what Paul said about his own service. You remember in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, it's the same word used, verse, for that even as we were approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak not as looking for the pleasure of men, no, no, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God, pleasing God, who trieth our hearts.

15:01 Now suppose I were to say, at the outset of our study of chapters 4 and 5, if you will follow the how of godly walking, in chapters 4 and 5, it will secure for you good health until 80 years of age. Would you sit there on the edge of your seat and really listen and say, boy, if here's a formula how I can go through the next 20, 30, 40 years without being sick, man, I'm interested. I really love having good health. And I love it enough to listen to the directions of these two chapters and to set myself to follow them no matter how much I must inconvenience myself, I'm going to follow them, I want good health, bad enough.

15:43 There's some of you that would follow for that motivation. If I were to say, if you follow and have as your end that studying these two chapters and obeying them, I guarantee that you'll learn how to live well on a limited income and have no debts for the next 20 or 30 years. Oh, there'd be some of you right on the edge of your seat and say, man, I'd just love to be able to get out of debt. And stay out of debt, and if these chapters can tell me how, boy, I'll listen.

16:11 Not only will I listen, I'll do what they say.

16:16 Oh, listen. The child of God passes by all of those motivations of health or wealth or prosperity. And the only motivation I hold before you this morning is this, and it's the only thing I promise you. If you follow the directives of these two chapters, you will live a life that brings delight to the heart of God.

16:41 That's all I promise. But if you're a Christian, you say, what more could I want? Let sickness come if I bring delight to my God. Hallelujah.

16:53 Let poverty come if I bring delight to my God. Hallelujah.

17:01 Is that the response of your heart? That's the motivation for godliness. Some of you can't have that motivation because the fear of God is not before your eyes. As we read in Romans 3.18, there is no fear of God. It's before their eyes.

17:19 And what is this but the fear of God? What is the fear of God? It's walking with the dominant motive of your life being, I want to please God. If in so doing I've got to displease some people, I'm sorry.

17:37 In so doing, if I've got to bring displeasure to what my flesh likes, I'm sorry. Other people, my own flesh, my own disposition, my own likes and wants, all of this, all of this, all of this, all of this, all of these things are irrelevant. This is the burning issue. Can I please God?

17:56 Isn't that, practically speaking, what it means to walk in the fear of God?

18:02 Isn't that the fear of God?

The Directive for Godly Living: God's Commands

18:04 So Paul holds up as the motive for godliness to please him. Now the second word that we want to study this morning, the fifth in this passage, notice what he says. Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you received of us how ye ought to be, ought to walk and to please God even as ye do walk, that ye abound more and more, for ye know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. If pleasing God is the motive for godly living, then commandments given are the directive for godly living.

18:45 Now this word, command, translated in some of the newer translations as a charge, is a charge, is used by Paul one other time in this letter, but four times in the second letter, chapter 3. Let's look at this one use here, chapter 4, verse 11. And that ye study to be quiet and do your own business and to work with your hands even as we commanded you. Now turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 4.

19:19 And we have confidence in the Lord, the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command. Verse 6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. Then verses 10 and 12.

19:47 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you. Verse 12. Now then, that are such, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus. Now what does the word command mean?

20:02 Well, will you think with me for a minute? It has at least three elements involved in it. It means in the first place that there is a word of specific direction.

20:14 When you give a command, there is specific direction. In each of these instances, there was specific directive. But it's specific direction. Directive which comes with valid authority.

20:27 Notice how he says again and again, we command you by the Lord Jesus. We command you in the Lord Jesus.

20:37 You're on your way home today. Some guy may walk out in the middle of the street dressed in his Sunday cities and hold his hand up and command you to stop. Well, you won't stop unless you have to run him over and out of general kindness. But you won't stop on the basis of his command unless you recognize proper authority with that command.

20:58 He goes like this and shows his badge. All right. Now his word of command coming with valid authority will do what? This is the third element in a command.

21:09 A specific direction coming with valid authority binding the receiver to implicit obedience.

21:20 In other words, once a command is given, the one to whom it is given can only do one of two things. Rise up in disobedience. Or bow in subjection.

21:33 An exhortation, a plea, need not involve this matter. A challenge need not involve this. But a command binds its receiver to implicit obedience. And where we find this word used elsewhere in Scripture, it says in Matthew 10, 5, that Jesus commanded his apostles to do such and such.

21:57 In Acts 17, 30, God commanded, God commanded, God commanded, all men everywhere to repent. Now why have I spent this time dealing with the meaning of the word command? Well, for the simple reason that it is my deep conviction that there are not,

22:17 what could I say, 25% of professing Christians who regard the commands of God in this light.

22:28 And the proof of this is that there are areas after area where God is clearly spoken and they know that God is clearly spoken. And they know that God is clearly spoken. And they know that God is clearly spoken. And they know that God is clearly spoken.

22:37 And they know that God is clearly spoken. But they just plain don't care to do what he says.

22:45 Area after area. I'm not talking about areas where the will of God is not clear. I sweat through those areas. Lord, it seems like certain passages would say, ought to do this and so on.

22:56 And you cry to God for life. I'm talking about those clear areas that say, children, honor your father in the light. That's pretty clear. That means you don't need to know Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish.

23:11 You don't even know anything but plain old butchered-up Americanese. And you know exactly what that means. When it says, Wives, be subjects to your husbands in everything, you don't need an old Greek to know what that means. When it says, Husbands, love your wives, you say, Pastor, why are you always harping on that?

23:32 Because I see so few homes that seem to take seriously what that says.

23:40 Farmers can keep on plunking away. But does God be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one another? All of these clear directives. Now as we come to the directives of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and 5, we are simply applying the commission of Christ given in Matthew 28, where he said, Make disciples, baptizing them, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you.

Obedience as Proof of Love and the Example of Christ

24:11 That's the task of the servant. To teach, profess disciples who have confessed him openly in baptism and have been gathered together in local churches. We are to instruct them, not in some nice little suggestions that Christ may have made, but in the commandments which he has explicitly given to us. And we're to instruct them to keep teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded.

24:44 So if the motivation is to please God, the motivation of love, then there must be directive, how do I please him? You see, God does not leave it up to me to choose what pleases him.

25:04 The motivation of love and pleasing God is absolutely essential. Without it you can have all the directives in the world and they'll be there unobeyed and unfulfilled. But if the heart beats with love and says, Oh God, I do want to please you. Paul says, All right, I'm going to tell you how.

25:26 God doesn't leave it up to us to decide how to please him. And this brings us into this whole relationship between the law and love. The fact that we need to have directive for our feet as well as motivation within our hearts. Scripture tells us, Scripture tells us, Scripture tells us, Scripture tells us, Scripture tells us that our obedience to the explicit commands of Christ is the proof of our love.

25:52 Jesus said in John 14, 23 and 24, A man that loves me will keep my words. He that keeps not my words loves me not. John 15, 14, Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Now what is the study of chapters 4 and 5 going to do for us?

26:13 It's going to tell us whether or not we love Jesus. Oh, you say, I don't need to say, I know I love him. I can feel it right here.

26:23 Oh, I just feel so nice and warm when we sing about Jesus. I just know I love him.

26:30 Do you? All right, here will be the proof that you love him. You'll do whatever he commands you. Now, his commands are found in chapters 4 and 5.

26:40 He's going to have some commands in the whole area. We mentioned the first thing he deals with is the problem of moral purity, the whole problem of the place of sex, in the life of a believer. He's going to deal with the matter of working with our own hands. He's going to deal with the matter of how to treat and react to people in the assembly who won't be obedient to the commands of God.

27:02 Now, the proof that we love him is going to be, what do we do with these commands?

27:08 He said, You are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. He that loveth me keepeth my words. Because it's going to mean, if we're going to obey many of these clear directives, we're going to have to run. We're going to run the risk of having some people get upset with us.

27:24 Maybe our wives, our husbands, our children, one another. Do we want to please him above all else? Here's the proof. We are his friends if we do whatever he commands, whatever the implications may be, whatever the consequences may be.

27:42 Our obedience is the proof of our love. Our obedience is the proof of life. 1 John 2, 3 and 4, Hereby do we know that we know him. If we keep his commandments, he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

28:01 Obedience is not only the proof of our love and the evidence of life, but it's the way to extended additional blessing from him. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, Jesus said in John 14, 21, I will love him and manifest myself to him. Acts 5, 32, We are witnesses, Peter said, and so also is the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. But some would object, Pastor, that's legalistic.

28:31 If you love the Lord, you don't need commands. I don't like the word command. That's legalism, is it? Listen to Jesus.

28:42 Was Jesus a legalist?

28:45 Did Jesus know what it was to obey the Father out of pure love and with real delight? Did he? Why, of course, he did. Of course, he did.

28:54 Listen to his words. He says in John 10, 18, This commandment have I received of my Father. John 12, 49, he says similar words. John 15, 10, he said, Even as I have kept my Father's commandments and I abide in his love.

29:15 You see, Jesus, the Son of God, he did not regard himself as being set loose to fall, to follow the dictates of his God-loving heart. No, no. Wanting to please the Father. Remember, he said, I do always the things that please my Father.

29:34 How did he please him? By knowing the Father's commandments and obeying them as commandments.

Addressing Objections to Commands: Carnal Mind vs. Delight

29:45 And so if we have any idea that love and command are irreconcilable, this is not the teaching of Scripture. This is not the teaching of Scripture. There is no legalism when a man loves his God any more than when my children love me and I say to them, calling them by name, Joel or Heidi or Beth, do this, please. Sure, Daddy, be glad to.

30:11 There's no legalism if their relationship to me is what it ought to be.

30:18 Now, if down underneath they hate my rule, any expression of it, just, rises up, and I'm a little bit sneaky of these people that say they want to preserve the pureness of grace so they don't like the word commandment. I've got a sneaking suspicion they've got rebel hearts that have never been subdued by the grace of God.

30:43 So the Scripture says the carnal mind is what? Enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. What reveals more quickly the unregenerate heart?

30:53 Set before him some clear commandments of God as commands to be obeyed on no other basis than that God is God and he's the creature. And then watch it, person. David said, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Well, how do you know God's will?

31:13 Yea, thy laws were in my heart. He knew it by the directive of the law of God. Someone else might object, say, but listen, if we love the Lord and want to please him, we don't need any directive. And again, that's not true.

31:27 Adam, before he even fell, he loved God. He wanted to please God. No sin had entered, but God gave him directive as to how he could please him. Dress the garden, keep it, be fruitful and multiply.

31:40 Leave that tree alone. Eat of all the other trees. Bring the animals. Give them names.

31:46 Subdue the earth. Clear commands even to an unfallen creature. How much more in a state of sin and darkness. An imperfect sanctification.

The Measure of Holy Living: Abound More and More

31:58 As one has said, law is love's eyes and without it love is blind. Law is love's eyes and without it love is blind. And then the third phrase I want us to look at this morning is this, abound more and more. Notice, he said, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive, receive of us how ye ought to walk and to please God even as you do, that ye abound more and more.

32:38 This is what we might call the measure of holy living. Is the motive to please God? The directive? The commandments of God?

32:47 Well, what should be the measure? Here it is, abounding more and more. Now, what was the condition of this crowd when he wrote to them? Well, you read chapter one and you say, man, if we could just reach that after twenty years, we'd make it.

33:01 Remember all those wonderful things he said about them? The word of God was sounding abroad. He says later on in this fourth chapter they're taught of God to love one another.

33:12 They had some pretty good signs of grace. Some pretty good evidences that they were alive. They were vibrant. They were living to the hilt the will of God for the present moment.

33:23 And Paul commends them for that. He says, you do walk, this is in the better manuscript, I don't think it's in the King James, but the little phrase, even as you do walk. But now the essence of what he's saying is this. You did receive some rules for holy living.

33:39 You are living by them and that to a large degree, but I beg you and encourage you in truth more and more. In terms of Mr. Sterritt's message last Sunday morning, don't let the flowing stream become a stagnant pool. Let its banks get wider and its channel deeper and its influence greater.

34:06 Thank God, he says, you are walking, but I want you to abound more and more. You see, Paul is teaching that wherever there's spiritual life, there'll be some godly walking. He's not saying, now you people are saved and now that you got that taken care of and you're on your way to heaven, you're sure living like the devil and making a mess of things. So now you ought to realize that you ought to start getting yourself cleaned up and start living the way you ought to live.

34:34 No, no. No, no. Wherever God grants the grace of justification, there is always some evidence of regeneration and a holy life and a holy walk. And there had been a good beginning.

34:48 We studied that in detail in chapter one. But now he says, don't accept the status quo. Don't compare yourselves with others. Sure, your faith is spoken about.

35:00 Broad throughout the whole earth. He said, wherever I go and I open up my mouth and I start to tell people, hey, have you heard what's happened at Thessalonica? They say, you don't need to tell us, Paul. The report's already preceded you.

35:10 We hear. They themselves reported us what manner of entering in we had unto you. Well, they could pretty well sit back. Suppose everywhere I went to preach and I start to open my mouth and I said, you know, the Lord's been good to us there at the Trinity.

35:25 They say, don't tell me a thing. Heard all about it.

35:30 Suppose I came back and told you that. Be tempted to say, boy, we've been pretty good.

35:37 Now, see, Paul was going to nip that temptation in the butt. Having told them very honestly and commended them for their godly living and their zeal in the gospel, he said, oh, my exhortation is abound more and more. Don't accept the status quo. And in doing this, Paul, I think, pulled a masterful, not pulled a masterful thing, actually, I shouldn't say that, but indicated a tremendous principle for these young Christians that every one of us needs to acknowledge and recognize.

36:13 First of all, by telling them in these words, look, I exhorted you in the past how to walk and you do it. He was keeping them from discouragement. When you see all there is to know and to learn, when I think of all the instruction in the epistles concerning faith, how to live a holy life in the family, in the interpersonal relationship with other people in the church, when you read all of those detailed instructions, chapter after chapter after chapter, at times I get discouraged. I say, Lord, I can't keep it all up in my head, let alone keep it all in my life.

36:54 Do you ever get discouraged that way?

36:57 Oh, wait a minute. Don't be discouraged. Has the Lord helped you in certain areas in the past? Are you walking?

37:05 According to the how of godly living? Then don't be discouraged. The same God who has begun that work and manifested something of His work will be patient in unfolding further the path of duty. Philippians 3.16 is an excellent commentary on this where Paul says, nevertheless, by the same rule that we have attained, let's walk by that rule. That's a poor quotation. Let me read it. Only where unto, we have attained by the same rule, let us walk.

37:38 In other words, he says, as you've applied yourself to know the will of God and to do it, by that rule, let's continue to walk. And then the next verse says, and if in anything, or the verse preceding, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal this unto you. So it keeps from discouragement. The apostle commends them that they have been walking in the light of previous directions, but on the other hand, he keeps them from contentment.

38:09 He said, ah, yes, you have been walking, but there is more to come I want you to abound. For never forget that your absolute standard is Jesus Christ Himself. He that saith He abideth in Him ought Himself so to walk even as He walked. So no matter what attainments in grace and in knowledge we have made, there is always room to abound more and more.

38:36 And listen, we'll even be abounding and increasing in heaven.

38:42 This idea that when the Lord comes and gives us glorified bodies and, as it were, scours out the last bit of sin, we all of a sudden immediately reach the maturity we'll have for all eternity, I believe is absolutely missing the point. There'll be growth and development in heaven for all eternity. We'll abound more and more. More and more.

39:06 In knowledge. If God is infinite, even in heaven, we're finite creatures. Are you going to know all there is to know about God the minute you look upon the face of Jesus when He comes?

39:19 No, no. God's going to be unfolding something new of Himself through all eternity and then increasing your capacity more and more. But you'll always be a little finite creature and He will be forever the infinite God. So He can keep pouring in for all eternity and never exhaust it.

39:39 So at any point where you feel, well, I guess maybe I've reached it. No, Paul says, abound more and more. When you begin to be discouraged and say, oh, there's so much ground to cover, look back and thank God that the God who's got you over the first mile will get you over the miles to come. Kept from discouragement, kept from sinful complacency.

The Danger of Stagnancy and Lack of Motivation

40:04 But oh, what of you who are right where you were six years ago when I came here. No more evidence of love to God, love to the Word, love to His ordinances. No more sensitivity to sin. In fact, there's been regression instead of progress.

40:22 No more time in prayer. No more hunger to read the Word in good books. No more discipline of your time, of your television, of your tongue, of your telephone. Just the same pattern.

40:40 It's a sad state. And at best, one can hope that maybe it's a period of stagnancy contrary to the general drift of growth.

40:52 Perhaps the more accurate thing to say would be it may be the evidence that there was never any life at all.

41:00 Because it certainly has not been that you've not been exposed to a ministry that tells you how to walk and to please God. For while you have stood still, there are others who have improved more and more and who can, look back and say, thank God with all my sin and failure, I do have a greater hunger for the Word. I am reading more in the Scriptures. I am abounding more in the standard of God applied to my life as a husband, a father, a wife, a son, a daughter.

41:37 Why is it that the ministry that has caused them to grow has found you standing still?

41:44 Could it be that this motivation is just not there? Pleasing, God has never become the most important thing in all the world. And if it isn't, all I can do is cry to God and plead with you that there be such a revelation of God's grace in Jesus Christ that will break your heart and show you nothing else matters but pleasing this great and gracious God. Could it be that you look upon the commands as something other than commands?

42:16 You look upon them as suggestions that you can use to make your life better. But you don't look upon them as specific directions coming with valid authority binding you to absolute obedience.

Application to Family Headship and Child Discipline

42:29 You see, when you look upon it that way then you set yourself to perform it and nothing, nothing, nothing is too painful to be experienced if I must experience it to obey my Lord. It means if as a parent you don't have the headship over your children if they're little budding brats you'll endure any kind of pain. Any kind of reaction from them until you have those children in a place of biblical subjection. It means if you're a husband you will endure any kind of pains until your wife is brought into a place of biblical subjection.

43:10 And you as a husband are reflecting something of the tender condescending, patient love of Christ to your wife. You don't say, oh well, we've gone on for 15 years and she got accustomed to wearing the pants the first three years. I don't want to cause a ruckus. I don't want to cause a ruckus.

43:26 Listen men, God says it. You rule at home.

43:33 It's standard.

43:36 Say what comes over the TV and what doesn't.

43:40 Where the kids go, wherever they go that's your responsibility under God. Lord, God doesn't give us a body of men in this assembly who rule their homes. We have no witness to the world.

43:59 We fairly well live in a matriarchal system. We have no witness to society. The curses that are on us in every area are a reflection of this.

44:09 This is what I'm talking about. So am I communicating or am I just letting off steam?

44:18 Hmm?

44:22 So that's there in the Bible. It'd be nice, but no buts. You're to be the head of that home. Wife, you're to be subject in that home.

44:32 Yes, but no buts. That's God speaking.

44:40 That's God speaking. And in every area I thought, focus on this particularly because this is the area of breakdown which if this is not resolved no other area will be resolved. And so I focus upon it because it is strategic to so much of the rest of practical godliness.

45:02 Even this week as I've been in the home of preachers we couldn't carry on a decent conversation at the table because of kids who haven't been made to discipline their mouths.

45:19 It just cuts me all up inside. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it.

45:20 I can't do it. I've come way sick.

45:25 Oh, they're not frats, cursing, swearing.

45:30 They're not taking their place as children. Why? Because their parents are not convinced God means what he says.

45:37 Once they're convinced he does, then they set themselves.

45:42 Don't say that sounds so simple. But once you set your face, it is rather simple. It may not be easy.

Concluding Exhortation: Embrace Motivation, Directive, and Measure

45:54 May God help us if the motivation to please him is not there to cry for such a revelation of his love. It is grace and goodness until it is. If we don't recognize that these are his commands, let's pray and study the scriptures until this grips us when we read the directives of the apostle. This is almighty God, our creator and redeemer speaking.

46:18 And if we've sort of rested on the oars, let's remember that he tells us to abound more and more. And then we will have the motivation for godly walking, the direction, the directive for godly walking and the measure. And as we come to the details starting next week, God willing, in chapter 4, verse 3, we'll look upon these not so much as suggestions to be entertained, but as commands and directives to be obeyed. Let us pray.