Wednesday Night Bible Study | 02.09.2022
Video
Notes
FPC Starkville Wednesday Bible Study
Growing in the Holy Spirit:
Sanctification and Sex for the Saints
February 9, 2022
Martin Lifer
Sanctification/Holiness – God’s Will for You.
Per the NT letters, arguably THE supreme goal and daily focus & prayer of elect & saved Christians:
Our sanctification by God’s grace, in preparation for Jesus’ Return so that
(b) we – as his holy ones – will be blameless to see Him & to be one with Him.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Heb. 12:14
Cf. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matt. 5:8
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Turning to 1 Thessalonians Sanctification/Holiness – God’s Will for You.
General Context of Letter and of Paul’s & his team’s relationship to the church:
Confirmation of the Thessalonian Christians’ salvation: “… how you
turned to God from idols (i) to serve the living and true God and (ii) to wait for his Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the dead, Jesus – Who delivers us from the wrath to come. 1 Thess. 1:9b-10
THE supreme goal and daily focus & prayer of elect & saved Christians:
Our sanctification by God’s grace, in preparation for Jesus’ Return so that
(b) we – as his holy ones – will be blameless to see Him & to be one with Him.
Prayer of Paul, Silvanus & Timothy for the Thessalonian Christians: “… and may
the Lord make you increase & abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that
He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
For this is the will of God: your sanctification. 1 Thess. 4:3a
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness (sanctification). 1 Thess. 4:7
Now may the God of Peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you; He will surely do it! 1 Thess. 5:23-24
The context of 1 Thessalonians and, specifically, 3:9-10 & 4:1-2 4:3-9, as well as 4:9-12, 4:13-18 & 5:1-11.
Sanctification and Sex for the Saints
1 Thess. 4:3-8
For this is the will of God: your sanctification –
that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality (Gk. porneias)
4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel/instrument [Gk. Skeuos] [ESV – “how to control his own body”] in sanctification (Gk. hagiasmos - holiness) and honor,
5 not in passion of lust/longing, like the Gentiles who do not know God,
6 not to go beyond/transgress and take advantage of his brother [brother or sister] in the action, because the Lord is avenging in all this, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
8 So, he who [ESV whoever] rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
Sermon on the Mount, and, specifically, e.g., 5:27-32
Jesus’ Related Teaching on What Defiles a Person, Matt. 15:10ff. and, specifically, 15:19-21.
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” Matt. 15:19
James’ Judgment at Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) re Standards for Gentile Christians – Acts 15:19-21.
1 Corinthians 5-7
1 Cor. 6:9-11 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators/sexually immoral (Gk. pornoi), nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.