Welcome to the Beacon Broadcast from Beacon Baptist Church in Burlington, North Carolina, featuring expositional Bible teaching by Pastor Greg Barkman. If you'd like to correspond with The Beacon Broadcast, or if you wish to support this radio ministry, write to The Beacon Broadcast, Post Office Box 159, Alamance, NC 27201, or find us on the web at BeaconBaptist.com. BeaconBaptist.com. The Beacon Broadcast is supported in part by the gifts of faithful listeners. Now with today's message from God's Word, here is Greg Barkman. Well, we are trying to get back to a discussion of a Christian work ethic. It is found in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, in verses 11 and 12. But I have been, what should I say, reviewing ground that leads up to that particular statement, and that has occupied us over the last two or three broadcasts. As we have been reminded, that Paul launches chapter four of First Thessalonians with a general reminder, a general command for God's people to live like Christians are commanded to live. It's as simple as that. If you are a Christian, live like a Christian. If you claim to be a Christian, demonstrate it by your obedience to the commands of God. And after that general reminder, then he lists five different areas where God does give instructions for how we ought to live, starting with the area of sexual morality. We are to conduct ourselves according to the commands of God's Word in regard to our sexual activity. And it's very simple. The Bible is clear. Sex is not something that God has, what should I say, that God frowns on in every situation because, after all, God is the one who thought of it. God is the one who created it. God is the one who made human beings male and female. God is the one who told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that they were to procreate, they were to have children. In fact, several times, but there and other places in Scripture, God told his people to have children, to replenish the earth, or to fill the earth with human beings. And of course, God is the one who's designed the process by which that takes place. And that is what we generally refer to as sexual relationships. And God defined them. God designed them and God defined them. God designed male and female and the sexual relationship that produces children. And God commands us as to how we are to exercise this capacity that he has given to us. And it's very simple. There's a statement in Hebrews, I think, that summarizes it very nicely, where it tells us that marriage is honorable. in everything, in every aspect of marriage, including the physical relationship between husband and wife, marriage is honorable, not dishonorable, not unwelcome, not reluctant, but actually it honors God, it pleases God to see a husband and wife engaging in this relationship that he created, he designed, he created, and he commands Husbands and wives to be involved in that activity. And if you if you think I'm Stretching that statement then just make a careful study of 1st Corinthians chapter 7 Which I don't have time to get into today and you will find out that's exactly so God commands husbands and wives to involve themselves in sexual relations, but the verse goes on to say but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. And so the standard is very clear. It is that marriage is the place and the only place where sexual relationships are to be conducted. So within marriage, it is good. It is God-honoring. It is pleasing to the Lord. It is something that God has given us for bonding, for enjoyment for procreation. There are a number of reasons for it. But God is the one who's given this to us, but it is to be exercised within marriage. And outside of marriage, sexual relationships are to be resisted. They are to be controlled. They are to be refrained from. Only to be exercised within the bond of marriage now I need to pause and welcome you to this Friday October 4 edition of the beacon broadcast to thank you for Listening in today to thank those of you whose financial gifts keep us teaching God's Word on the station So that is the first command that Paul details in this chapter remember the general General admonition verses 1 and 2 finally then brethren we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ that you should abound more and more as you have received from us how you ought to walk and to please God For you know what commandments? We gave you through the Lord Jesus That's the general command, the general instruction, that Christians are to walk in a certain way, that Christians are to obey the commandments that Paul delivered to them as an apostle of Jesus Christ, which are actually found in the book we call the Bible, God's instructions for how we ought to live. And then, after that, he spells out several areas. Number one, the area of sexual relationships. Number two, the exercise of brotherly love. Number three, we have, let's see, I'm looking now down through my text here. Number three is to live a quiet life, to aspire to lead a quiet life, a quiet disposition, that's a command. That's an instruction. That's one of the things that Paul told the Thessalonians to do because it is a command of God. Number four, to mind your own business. Don't be a busybody. This is the way Christians are to live. And then number five, to engage yourself in a wholesome work ethic, to work with your own hands. And that brings us up to verses 11 and 12. Let me back up to verse 9. that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, we've already covered those things, one, two, three, four, and now we come to number five, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing. There's the Christian work ethic. It is, number one, that every Christian is to be busy working. We might say he is to be gainfully employed. He says work with your own hands. That would suggest manual labor, though of course there are other ways to work as well, as we know. But manual labor is particularly mentioned here because that was considered dishonorable in Greek and Roman society, unless you were a slave. That's what slaves were for. They do the manual labor so that the rest of us don't have to. Paul said to the Thessalonian believers, some of whom probably were slaves, but most of whom were probably not slaves, he said to the Thessalonian believers that you are to work with your own hands, not with your slaves' hands. I'm sure they weren't all slave owners, only the wealthy were. But to work with your own hands. And so he was He was striking a blow against that wrong attitude that work is something to be avoided, work is something to pass on to somebody else, work is something that you have others do for you if you're able to do that. Not everybody is, of course, but work is something to be avoided. We should spend our time in pleasure and leisure and what? friendships and conversations and recreation but not in work. Paul said no, no, no, no, no, back to it again, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. And I remind you that in the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments In that commandment that has to do with keeping the Sabbath day holy, the first part of that commandment is, six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh, you set aside for spiritual matters. You lay down your physical pursuits, your material pursuits, your work-a-day pursuits, you lay those aside and you give yourself to rest and to spiritual pursuits. That's the time when you are you, what should I say, engage in leisure, but again, it's a God-prescribed leisure. And I just simply remind you that the Lord's Day is, yoo-hoo, the Lord's Day. It's not my day. It's not a vacation day. It's not a holiday. It's not a go fishing, go to the lake day. It is the Lord's Day. It is to be, to assemble together with God's people. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves as the manner of some is. It is to assemble together with the people of God for what? To worship God. to praise God, to petition God, to hear God's Word, to fellowship with other believers and to encourage and instruct them. That's what it's for. But the other days are for our labor. That's what the Bible says. And the Bible tells us that there are two results of our doing this, being faithful and diligent to work. And it will result in two things. Number one, community respect. And number two, financial independence. Community respect. Yes, that's mentioned. Even in a day when people tended to shirk work and to think that that was something beneath them. This will actually gain the respect of others if you are willing to work, to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that, and here's the first result, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside. Outside of what? Outside of Christ, outside of the church. That's Pauline language. We find it in other passages where he uses that very phrase, those who are outside. He's talking about unbelievers. He's talking about the general community as contrasted with the community of the church, of God's people. And so if Christians ought to be known for their hard-working diligence, that's what I'm talking about when I talk about the Christian work ethic. It is something that should be a mark of Christianity so that it'll be one of the things that let other people know that you're a Christian. Obviously, Most people who are not Christians work as well, so simply working isn't going to tell anybody you are a Christian. But it is something that the Christian community should be known for. Christians are those who are hardworking, diligent people. But there is another result, and we'll have to talk about that, Lord willing, next week. And so please return on Monday and we'll take it up then. Until then, this is Greg Barkman, Bible Teacher on the Beacon Broadcast saying, good day, may God give you His eternal peace.