So we made it to chapter five of 1 Thessalonians. And we're going to get back into the subject of the day of the Lord. It's a common theme in the letters to the Thessalonican church. We're going to cover it again in 2 Thessalonians. So that's where we're going to start. But let me pray. Our Father and our God, we pause before we read your Word to ask you to bless it. Lord, your Word is mighty, it's powerful, it's strong to take down strongholds. And Lord, we know that you can use your Word in our lives to change us for the better. So Lord, we're asking you to do that very thing, but Lord, we need to have ears that can hear your word, and we need to have hearts that can receive your word, and Lord, minds that can understand your word. So I pray that you do that work in us, and I thank you for that, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. So let me read 1 to 11. So 1 to 11, and we'll unpack it a little bit. But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. So let me unpack that a little bit. So he begins there, obviously bringing up the subject again, the day of the Lord. And he talks about times and seasons concerning the times and seasons. and seasons. Those are two different original words in the Greek, two different understandings of what those words mean. One, the root would be like chronos, where we get like chronology. So chronological calendar or clock. It's the movement of time. It's the ticking of minute after minute, hour after hour, day, year after year. It's a chronological time word. The second word that's translated in my Bible to seasons is pronounced ka-ee-rahs, ka-ee-rahs. Some people say ka-rahs. But that word isn't really the movement of chronological time, the passage of time. It's a momentous moment. So something that's in the fullness of time, Jesus was born of the Virgin, born under the law to save those that are under law. But it's at that pregnant time, that perfect time, that momentous time. That's the idea that's being conveyed there. Matter of fact, that word's used in Ephesians 1.10, where it says that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him. We call that, many times, the consummation of the kingdom. And that's that momentous time. So he's not just talking chronological, but he is talking chronological, but he's also talking about that grand moment of the coming of Christ, is what he means. And then, regarding that, he says, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you about that. And he doesn't go into any detail. And you're going to see that a lot in this chapter. He throws out a lot of pithy truths and commandments and admonitions, but he doesn't go into great detail. So I hope I can unpack some of this a little bit. But there really should be no need that he would have to write about the times and the seasons, because the Bible tells us over and over again, we're not going to know the times and the seasons. That's not given to us to know. Let me read a couple of passages. And by the way, if you look in your Bible at verse 1, mine reads like this, but concerning the times and the seasons. And that's the same language you see in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, where Paul writes, now concerning the things of which you wrote to me. And the idea is, probably when Timothy came back, he said, hey, there's some things you're going to have to deal with with that church. They're not walking as purely as they really should be. That's chapter 4. And then I think Timothy probably said, but they have some questions. And they're really curious about the coming of the Lord, about the day of the Lord. Because Paul's dealing with that a lot in these two letters, right? So why are they concerned with this issue? They see the solution to the issue of Jesus' return as they want to know when. That's what we need to know. When's he coming? And we ask ourselves that too, right? But it's an inescapable truth. And I think Paul, when he was there, he was only there for a matter of weeks, maybe at the most a month, month and a half, something like that. He wasn't there very long. But he would have been teaching from the Old Testament. If you read the book of Acts, that's what the apostles do. They're teaching out of the Old Testament. And I can't tell you for sure that these passages were taught, but when you read something like Amos, the Old Testament prophet Amos, chapter 5, beginning in verse 18, Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord, for what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness and not light. It'll be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or as though he went into a house and leaned his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light? Is it not very dark with no brightness at all?" And that message is to people that have no faith, right? Faithless people. And he says it's going to be destruction and really Amos is saying, you know, you run from the danger, you finally get in your house, you think, I'm safe, and then a serpent bites you. What he's saying is it's inevitable. The day of God's judgment is inevitable, is what Amos is saying. Also, the prophets describe it as dreadfully, a dreadfully awesome day of destruction in the Old Testament. And let me read you a couple of passages. Joel 2.31 says, "...the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord." Malachi 4.5, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And Isaiah 13.6, Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. So to the believer, we are always thrilled of heart to think that the Lord's returning. He's our savior. He's coming to gather his church to himself. We'll meet him in the clouds. We'll meet him in the air. And so we look forward to it. But to those that don't know God savingly, that haven't come in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ, it's a dreadful day. It's a dreadful day. And they think the solution to some of this is we want to know when. Well, the Bible says over and over again that we will not know when. And I'm going to read you four passages, and this is all Jesus talking. So this is our Lord Jesus. So Mark 13, 32. But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Acts 1.7, Jesus says, it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the father has put in his own authority. And Luke 21.8, Jesus warns and says, take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in my name saying, I am he. And this is the other thing they're going to say, the time has drawn near. Therefore, do not go after them. Right? And don't we have date setters throughout the centuries that really instill error into their church. And everybody says, oh, it's going to be next Tuesday. And they all sell their houses. And you've heard the story. It's happened in our lifetime several times, right? In the 1800s, quite a bit, 1900s. So he says here in 1 Thessalonians, he describes the day of the Lord's coming like a thief coming in the night. or like a pregnant woman who begins to travail in her pregnancy and begins to get birth pangs and is going into labor. That's the two similes that the apostle uses. I remember years ago when I first started going to church, they were a very Advent-focused church, very much always talking about the return of Christ. And I remember we were going through this book and Charles Schmidt, who's now with the Lord, great Bible teacher, And he read the passage I read to you, and he goes, now how many of you is the Lord coming as a thief in the night? And like half the hands of the congregation went up. And he's like, that's not what the text says. It says, it's not so to you. Because you're ready for it, right? So now, people couldn't get their mind wrapped around it. It's to those that don't know the Lord that are saying, peace and tranquility and prosperity and everything's going great. And the Lord will suddenly come like a thief in the night. Completely unaware that the Lord didn't probably ever pray to God, never really had a care about anything spiritual. And there He is, suddenly in their midst. Whenever He decides to come, it's like a thief in the night. The simile of the example of a pregnant woman, now she knows that she's going to eventually break water and go into birth pangs. She knows it, but she doesn't know when. And I think the idea there is not only is it going to be sort of a sudden event that's going to catch an unbelieving world unawares, but it's also inevitable. Even though the pregnant woman doesn't know exactly when she's going to go into labor. Nowadays we force labor, so maybe they do know exactly when. But in antiquity, they certainly didn't know. But they knew eventually it would happen. It was coming. It's a given. I'm going to go into these labor pains and give birth. I think that's the idea that Paul and the Spirit is trying to convey to us. So if the wrong solution is for us to be date guessers and try to guess what day is coming, right? Read the newspapers, we see some things that may be aligned with some prophecies and then say, oh, it must be next Thursday. Instead of that, what the Bible says to do is to be always alert, always at the ready. There's another parable that Jesus teaches and I always liken it to like, The labors and the master is gone and you're looking at the doorknob waiting for it to turn. Is the master coming home? You know, we're always looking at the doorknob. We're always looking to the sky. Is it today, Lord? And you know, to live with that constant expectancy that it could be at any moment. At any moment that we'll be caught up with the Lord in the air, right? Like the Bible teaches. So the right solution is really to stay alert. Now when you look at verses 4 to 8, let me reread them, and I just put down some notes, because you can see in those verses what he's saying about the believer, but some of these things when he says that's true of the believer, that's also quite the opposite of the unbeliever. So we can see a little bit what he's saying about both groups, those that have faith and those that are faithless. So let me read it again. It's 4 to 8. It says, But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. I won't do the test and see if you raise your hand. But yeah, so it shouldn't overtake you like a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do. But let us watch, there's the key word, let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, they sleep at night, and those who get drunk, they get drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. Doesn't that make us remember, like, Ephesians 6, the armor of God? Now I'm going to read you a passage where Paul... Paul didn't just say that to the Ephesian church. There's a passage in Romans where he says basically the same thing in different words. So I just jotted down in my notes, you know, the lost, those that are unregenerate, those that don't know the Lord savingly in Christ. It says that they're the sons of night. They're the sons of darkness. And I'm going to read a little bit of a quote in a minute by John Stott that really helps to unpack that even more. But they're the sons of night and darkness. They're asleep. We could almost go to Ephesians and say that they're walking dead because they're dead in sins and trespasses. They're dead spiritually to the things of God. Unless somebody comes to them with a gospel and God awakens them and gives them new life and a spirit. I wrote down there, debauched. He mentions drunkenness a couple times. I think what he has in mind there, and a lot of times in the epistles, It's more than just sober with the absence of alcohol. He's talking about being clear-minded. We want to be clear-minded, thinking spiritually, wise as serpents, harmless as doves, but we want to be sober-minded. A lot of times you'll see it used that way. They're unequipped, because it's going to talk about how the Christian's been equipped with the Holy Spirit. They're unequipped, the lost are. And they're separated from God, and they're appointed to wrath. Because we're going to see the opposite of the believer, but they're appointed to wrath. If they don't come to the Lord, there is a day on the calendar and God's calendar, I don't know when that day is, when wrath will pour out on them. That's their appointment. Just like I've got appointments on my calendar, they're appointed to wrath. Now the Christian is spoken of in a different light here, and it says that we who are Christians are sons of the light. We're sons of the day. We're awake, we're vigilant, we're at our station, so to speak, looking for the Lord, doing the Lord's work until he comes. We're sober and sober-minded, equipped, and he mentions that triad that he mentions so often of faith and love and hope. You see that over and over again in different order, but he teaches that a lot, that triad of the equipping. All that comes to us by the gifting of the Holy Ghost. That's part of the fruit of the Spirit. So we, who are in Christ Jesus, who are not appointed to wrath, you could say, well, we're appointed to salvation, to the completion of the redemption. that the Lord paid the price, we're redeemed in that sense, He's atoned for us, we're redeemed in that sense, but He's coming to take home the possession that He paid for with His blood. So the admonition in this text, 4 to 8, is to stay awake, be watchful, be sober, and put on the armor of God. And you see that theme over and over again in the epistles. Robertson says, the idea of watchfulness brings the figure of a sentry on guard and armed. And that's probably why he goes to that language of the armament. I told you I was going to read you a Romans passage about that same armament. You can also read it in depth in Ephesians chapter 6. But Romans 13, 12, he puts it like this. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. It's the same armor he's talking about over and over again. But here he calls it the armor of light. Why? Because we're not of the darkness. We put on the armor of light. With that thought, I did want to read you a quote from John Stott. And it's a little lengthy because it has some scripture I want to read. Because he mentioned scripture, and I just threw him in there. But listen up to this. It's not terribly long, but it's a really good quote. But listen to this. The Bible divides history into two ages or eons. From the Old Testament perspective, they were called the present age, which was evil, and the age to come, which would be the time of the Messiah. Moreover, the two ages were sometimes described in terms of the night and the day. The present age was like a long, dark night, but when the Messiah came, the sun would rise, the day would break, and the world would be flooded with light. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is that long-awaited Messiah, and that the new age therefore began when he came. He was the dawn of the new era. He ushered in the new day. He proclaimed the breaking in of the kingdom of God. Mark 1 14. Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Start again. At the same time, the old age has not yet come to an end, as John put it, 1 John 2, 8. But darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Now start again. So for the time being, the two ages overlap. Unbelievers belong to the old age and are still in the darkness, but those who belong to Jesus Christ have been transferred into the new age, into the light. Already in Christ we have tasted the powers of the coming age." Hebrews 6, 5. Already God has brought us out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2, 9. Only when Christ comes in glory will the present overlap then end. The transition period will be over. The old age will finally vanish, and those who belong to it will be destroyed. The new age will be consummated, and those who belong to it will be fully and finally redeemed. The only little difference I have in theology with Stott is he's an annihilationist. So he doesn't believe in eternal hell, where I think the Bible teaches of an eternal hell. So when he uses that language of those of the old age will be destroyed, he means something different than what I mean when I read it. I'm thinking more like, well, yeah, they'll be cast into eternal hell. So beyond that, we're going to move on here, and there's various urgings and appeals. And I'll tell you, when they get this letter about the Day of the Lord, they're still confused. When you read through 2 Thessalonians, just to get ready for our next journey into the next book, read that and get ready for that study, because you'll see that They were confused about it still. They had to ask more questions. Paul basically sends the second letter to correct their misunderstanding about the coming of the Day of the Lord again, which I think is to our advantage because he's clarifying a lot of things that we would not know if he hadn't written these letters to the church of Thessalonica. So we learn a lot from it. So turning the corner from the talk and the teaching about the Day of the Lord, He's going to get into the section 12 to 22 of all these urgings and appeals. I know J. Vernon McGee calls it laws. He's giving commandments, basically. One command, two commands. There's a lot here. And when you just sit down and read it, I am going to read it. Just listen to how quick he's just tossing these ideas out. But I want to come back and labor them a little bit so we can understand what he's conveying to the church. So first, let me just read it. 12 to 22. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, test all things, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil. You probably picked up on that. There's a lot going on there that he's just kind of running right down the line with these commands, if you will, these urgings, these appeals to the church. He begins with telling the church to esteem their leaders. And he has in mind there that the church leaders, to esteem your church leaders. He says that they labor among you. And that's an old, I was reading Robertson, he has word pictures in the New Testament. He's a Greek scholar. And he said that that word for labor here is an old word for toil, even if you're weary. I like that. Toil away even if you're weary, you do the work of an evangelist, or work of a pastor, or work of a team, whatever you're calling it. But it's toiling even when you're weary. And he says that these leaders, they're over you in the Lord. Robertson again says, literally, those who stand in front of you as leaders in the Lord. And that's the idea. Actually, in the Greek, it could just be that they're the ones that are standing in the pulpit or whatever they used to do in the old house churches. But they're the ones that are leading you, laboring for you. But they're in the Lord doing these things. And he says that they admonish you. That's the job of the leaders. It literally in the Greek means to put in your mind. That's the job of the preacher, the pastor, the teacher, is that the congregants come and the preacher is preaching the word and putting that into your mind. That's the job of the leader of the church. A couple passages here that are similar. Hebrews 13.17 says, Obey those who rule over you and be submissive. for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable to you. Why give them a hard time? It's not gonna do any good for you. 1 Timothy 5.17 says, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. And so we're to esteem people that are laboring in the word and doctrine. I remember years ago, I was not called to pastor, and we called a pastor here, and I was on the search committee. And I always saw the coming of a pastor to a church is not so much, let's go out and find somebody. No, it's let's go find who's God's man for this church. Because God knows who he is. We're just trying to discern who he is. The Lord already knows. And so when somebody would come as pastor, I was always of the opinion that God sent you here to preach. We had a pastor who used to call me, he had very little confidence. He used to call me almost every Sunday and say, did you get anything out of that sermon at all? And that's how, if you didn't know that, that's what pastors think. We go home, we tell our wives, we're like, oh, that was horrible. That was a horrible message. We have no confidence, right? And I used to tell him, brother, I was like, the Lord sent you. I mean, there's always something that I get. I mean, I may not get a hundred points, but the Lord always has usually one thing. And I was like, you know what? I needed to hear that. There's always something because God sent you. You're his gift to the church to bring and proclaim the word, you know? And that's what he's talking about there. So what do we do? It says, what do you do with these leaders? One, you recognize them. Literally, in the Greek, it means to know. So some of your translations might say something along the lines of, like, appreciate them, acknowledge them, you know? You know, it's just, it was one of the weirdest things when I first got into ministry, was it 25 years ago now? When people started calling me pastor, and that's a sign of respect, somebody respecting when they say that, especially people that already knew me before I was a pastor. It's just, it's just, it's really fulfilling when it says here, recognize them. esteem them, to think highly of them. And also, the last thing he says, and I think it's in line with this section, is he tells the church, be at peace. One commentator said, stop criticizing the pastor. I mean, there's times I need to hear something, but the church overall should be supporting the ministry of the pastor, right, I think. So next in this long list of admonitions and whatnot, he's talking about life together, life in the congregation, right? We're a family. So he says in verse 14, now we exhort you brethren, and he's going to list three kinds of people in the church. He says, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted. That's number two. And then thirdly, uphold the weak. And then to everybody, be patient with everyone. That's, I guess, the fourth category there is just be patient with everybody. And he's specifically talking about the church congregation. But we should have patience with people outside the church, too. So the unruly, that word in the Greek is a military word for being out of formation. You're out of step with the troops, right? And in the Greek, that's what the word unruly means. So it helps me because I can think, OK, you've got a church that's all swimming in the same direction. But you've got this one man or this one woman, seems to be always swimming in the opposite direction. They're just not in formation with the Christian soldiers in the church. And I've experienced that. And there's some people, the Christians should not be cantankerous, right? One of the disqualifiers of leadership is that you're sort of like an argumentative, cantankerous type person. That's not who you want as your church leader. But they get into churches, and that's what I was talking about. It says, well, what do you do if you've got somebody that's not in rank? They're unruly. It says in my translations that you warn them, but the definition of that Greek word is more like, I pulled this off the internet, it means instruction, gentle correction, guidance. It should not suggest a harshness or an anger, but rather the serious and loving act of putting a thought into somebody's mind for their benefit. We're trying to have influence on them to sort of get in step with what God's doing in the church. And when I read that, I thought immediately of this passage in 2 Timothy, because I always thought it's helped me in the ministry through the years. And Paul is writing to Timothy, who's a young leader in the church. And Timothy's training up people and whatnot. And he gives this instruction to leaders. He says that this is 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 25 and following. That's the first thing, is to be humble. In humility, correcting those who are in opposition. If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. That's strong language. And I look at that and I think, when you have somebody or a couple, and it's a church that has the peace of Christ, you can sense the peace of God, they love each other, but you have individuals who are unruly, that are stirring up strife within the body. Isn't Satan behind that? That's what Paul's saying. And he said what a leader needs to do is gently bring correction, praying, basically, that God will grant them to have a change of mind. To repent of that attitude and to get in step with the rest of the church. That's what's being taught there. So that's the unruly. The second here is the faint-hearted. Literally, it says, the weak-souled, the faint-hearted. These are those who have maybe a weak faith. They don't lack faith altogether. The illustration I give here, because it says that they're to be comforted. And that really has the idea of being strengthened. And I saw an illustration I thought was good to illustrate this Greek language here, is if you could imagine a sailboat on a windless day, and there's nothing wrong with the sail, it's strong, it's maybe canvas, but it's lying limpless. Because there's no wind to carry it along. The idea is that if you have a Christian who's fainthearted, who's kind of limpless in their faith and their activities for God, the church is to come alongside to encourage them, to put the wind back in their sail. Sails were meant to be filled with wind and to carry boats. And every Christian has a purpose. And sometimes people lose their way a little bit. And the idea there is that if you have those people in your congregation that are down and out, then the church needs to come alongside and comfort them and encourage them. That's the idea. And the third group are the weak. And the weak in the church are to be upheld, right? Upheld. And there's probably times where all of us have been one of these three, and maybe, hopefully not all three at once. But, you know, we've gone through different, you know, everybody goes through different times in their life. but the weaker to be upheld. Somebody wrote, this understanding is a steadfast, unwavering adherence or devotion to something or someone, implying a firm, protective grip. That's the idea in the Greek, that the weak are to be upheld. And when I read that, I thought, that's almost like telling somebody, like, I got you, buddy. I got you, brother. You know, I know you're going through a tough time. I got you. I'm going to be praying for you. I want to meet with you. I want to take you out to lunch, whatever it is. But that's the idea, is that we're going to help to uphold these people. Then he says to everybody, you know, be patient with all, right? We're not to be tinderboxes. The language there in the Bible is long, long-angered, right? And the idea is having a long fuse, right? It's one of the attributes of God. God is long-suffering towards us, right? And we're to be long-suffering towards other people. That's the idea. And then he says in verse 15 that we're not to be delving out retribution, but rather, instead of delving out retribution, we're to delve out kindness to people. And he says that in verse 15, but let me read you, because this is just the teaching of Jesus, right? It's our Lord's teaching. In Matthew 5.43, Jesus says this. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. And now he's going to say, well, the reason why is because your Father's like this. You'll be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His Son rise on the evil as well as the good, and He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Now obviously Jesus didn't say we could reach perfection in this life. He was saying you should really walk and step and really have the attributes of the Father, really, those that are communicable. The theologians say there's incommunicable attributes, that God alone has those attributes, and there's others that we actually derive from God, and one of them is that we wouldn't pay back with retribution. We know vengeance is God's. So then the Christian life, and he goes into his triad here in verse 16, 17, 18. He says, rejoice always, right? We're always to be a people known as people that rejoice in the Lord, no matter what's going on. Pray without ceasing. And I don't think he means that we're to be on our knees eternally, never doing anything, but we're to be a people of prayer. Prayer should be a part of our daily living. And third, in everything, give thanks. And he says here, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And he teaches us so often that we are to be rejoicing people. There's always something to rejoice in. Philippians 4.4, rejoice in the Lord always. And he's writing that from jail. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Thankful. A.W. Tozer writes, the heart that is constantly overflowing with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness and gloom that bother so many religious persons. A thankful heart cannot be cynical. So we want to have thankful hearts. Discerning the true and the good, he says. And that's down in verses 19, 20, 21, 22, where he says, do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form, every appearance of evil, I think some of the translations put. So in the first century, the Bible was not together yet. Some of it had not even been written at this time. And as the epistles go out, and later the Gospels come forth and are given to the church, there were people that prophesied. Agabus. Remember, he prophesied that there was going to be a famine in Rome and warned the church. It was also Agabus that prophesied to Paul. And remember, he put a belt around his hands and was telling Paul that the Spirit says, you're going to be led away if you go off to Jerusalem. And Paul said, I know that. I know. I'm going anyway, because this is the Lord's will for my life. So they had these prophetic utterances in the early church. I think he's dealing with that here. Don't despise it. Open prophecy is concluded. We have the canon of Scripture. God's not speaking through Brother Tony up the street some unique word that's not in the Bible. God has spoken. Hebrews 1.1, right? That He's spoken to us finally in His Son. So that teaching here could really be laid over in our life that we don't despise Bible study. that we don't withdraw ourselves from the preaching of the word, that we don't let our Bibles collect dust. We just despise the prophecies that God's given us his word to the church, and we don't take time to read it. I think that could be really laid over to us in that way. And then the final section is prayer and admonition. And that's verses 23 to 28. And I just want to pull a couple of things out from this section real quick. But let me read it. 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. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. Paul here asked for prayer. It's okay for us to ask people, can you be praying for me? And I wouldn't pray for Paul now, he's with the Lord, the Apostle. But we can pray for people that are getting the gospel out. That's why we pray for the Bars family in Mexico. That's why we pray for Nate and his family every Sunday. They're getting the gospel out. And we want to pray for people that are getting the God. They need our prayers. God works through our prayers. So I love that he introduces here God as the God of peace. To the Corinthian church in 2nd Corinthians, he's the father of mercy and comfort. I love those descriptors. The God of all mercy, the God of all comfort, the God of peace. And we call him the God of peace For us as believers, because He made peace with us when we were His enemies. That's what the Bible says, that Jesus came on a seek-and-save mission to make people at peace with the Father. That's what it means when He says He's our mediator. In the atonement, He took away the sin that was keeping us from God, the cross. He saved us. He died, rose the third day. So He is the God of peace to us. May God sanctify you completely. In other words, what he's saying is, it's Paul's prayer that those in Thessalonica, and we could say, and us, is that we would be completely, holistically set apart unto God. right, set apart from the world and unto God, right? That's the idea there. He says, this kind of a puzzling verse, he probably didn't pick up on it, but the commentators really spend pages and pages on it, is that he describes the human, you know, as a three-part human being, right? He mentions the spirit, the soul, and the body, and that sends commentators all over the place. I'm not going to get into that too deeply. Everywhere else, Paul talks about soul and body, and now he's talking about soul, spirit, body. If you want more information on that, I can get you some. I just don't want to go down that path too far. But I will say, I think Charles Masson tried to do his own translation, getting the idea of what's being conveyed here. And I think it's pretty good. I'm not sure he's dead on got it, but it's pretty good. One of my commentators has a whole separate section. He must have like 19 possibilities of what's going on here. But let me just read this and we'll move on. This translation by Charles Masson. And may the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and may your entire person, your soul and your body, be kept irreproachable for the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It could convey that kind of an idea, so I'll leave it at that. So God is at work in our sanctification and our preservation. It's God Almighty who brought us salvation when we heard that gospel and responded to it. And it's God who works in us to sanctify us and He's preserving us till He returns for us. That's a work of God. And I love that. Look at your verse 24. where Paul tells the church, speaking of God, he who calls you is faithful who also will do it. Right? I have no confidence in me, none whatsoever, but I have confidence in the God on whom I fell to ask for mercy. And God says, all that come to me on my terms, through my son, I will by no means cast out. He'll preserve us, that's God's work. And I'll wrap up by saying, I have now fulfilled the command of Paul in verse 27, where he commanded, I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren. And we have now done so. So let me close in prayer. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. And Lord, we thank you for the clear instruction here, contained here. Lord, I thank you that Paul reveals you as the God of peace and the God who's active in our lives, the God who will do it. Lord, we just pray that you'd be at work in us. Lord, that we would follow the wisdom of the commands contained in your word And we thank you for that, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.