1 Thessalonians 4

2. The bodies of believers are united to Christ in the grave, and shall rest there till the resurrection. They are said to sleep in Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:14). The dust of believers is part of Christ's body mystical.

A voice came from heaven, saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. It is the will of God that we should be holy (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Now when we are bespangled with holiness, our lives are walking Bibles: this is according to God's will, and it pleases him.

(2.) Christ prays for nothing but what his Father has a mind to grant. There is but one will between Christ and his Father: Christ prays, Sanctify them through your truth; and this is the will of God, even your sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3). So then, if Christ prays for n…

Quest. To what does God call men? Resp. 1. He calls them to holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7). God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.

The highest elevation of a reasonable soul, is to enjoy God for ever. It is the enjoying God, makes heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Then shall we ever be with the Lord.

I saw the dead small and great stand before God. This citing of men will be by the sound of a trumpet (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and this trumpet will sound so loud, that it will raise men out of their graves (Matthew 24:31). Such as will not hear the trumpet of the Gospel sound in…

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is the highest strain in the Apostle's rhetoric (1 Thessalonians 4:17): ever with the Lord. There is peace without trouble, ease without pain, glory without end — ever with the Lord.

All that are of God, as they have Christ for their captain (Hebrews 2:10), so holiness is the white color they wear. 5. Holiness is our honor, holiness and honor put together (1 Thessalonians 4:4), dignity goes along with sanctity (Revelation 1:6). He has washed us from our sins…

Isaiah 25:8. He will swallow up death in victory. That is, by delivering our bodies from the captivity of the grave, wherein death for a time had power over them (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

The more violently the wind beats against the sails of a ship, the sooner the ship is brought to the haven; and the more fiercely God's children are assaulted, the sooner they come to their Father's house. Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:18). Us…

1 Thessalonians 4:3 — For this is the will of God, even your Sanctification. The notion of the word Sanctification signifies to consecrate and set apart to a holy use.

1. It is against the law of God. (Leviticus 25:14) If you sell anything to your neighbor, you shall not oppress one another. And, 2. Against gospel. (1 Thessalonians 4:6) Let no man go beyond, or defraud his brother. It is stealing.

When we pray for outward things, for riches or children, perhaps God sees these things are not good for us; our prayers must comport with God's will. We may pray absolutely for grace; for this is the will of God, our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3). There might be no strang…

6. A heart without guile is just in his dealings: as he is upright in his words, so he is upright in his weights. He makes conscience of the second table as well as the first: he is for equity as well as piety (1 Thessalonians 4:6). That no man go beyond and defraud his brother…

1. To believe in Christ (John 6:40): This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes in him, should have everlasting life. 2. Sanctification of body and soul (1 Thessalonians 4:3): This is the will of God, even your sanctification, etc. 3. T…

And sensible experience shall manifest the force of it. For it shall cause all the dead even from the beginning of the world to rise again, though they have lain rotten in the earth many thousand years: and all unclean spirits shall be forced and compelled, will they, nill they,…

This use is threefold: in respect of God, of man, and of ourselves. Works are to be done in respect of God: that his commandments may be obeyed — 1 John 5:12; that his will may be done — 1 Thessalonians 4:3; that we may show ourselves to be obedient children to God our Father —…

And for their relations, though it be some comfort to receive them again from the dead; yet the consideration, that they are returned to them into the stormy sea, to partake of new sorrows and troubles, from which they were lately free; and in a short time they must part with th…

The farmer does not mourn when he casts his seed-corn into the earth, because he sows in hope and commits it to the ground with an expectation to receive it again with increase. And just so the apostle states it in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14: But I would not have you to be ignorant…

4. But as every fullness is not all fullness, so every fullness is not the fullness of the Godhead; therefore, to me it's as much as the elect are drawn to Christ as the choicest, the rarest among all. 2. So among all choice things and all relations, he is the first and most emi…

Every one that loves him that begat, loves him also that is begotten of him. The new nature inclines to both, there is an inward propensity and inclination, needing no outward provocation and allurements (1 Thessalonians 4:9). As touching brotherly love you need not that I write…

We have higher things to mind; it is not for eagles to catch flies, or princes to embrace the dunghill. 4. Since this glory is for the body, do not debase the body, to make it an instrument of sin (1 Thessalonians 4:4). Possess your vessels in sanctification and honor, do not of…

Of this creation we have amply spoken heretofore; to wit, that it pertains to the renewing of the inward man. Now the Scripture is often accustomed to use this argument, to wit, You are called to holiness, and not to uncleanness: (1 Thessalonians 4:7). Also (Philippians 2:15), W…

We must meditate on such declarations as these: “God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness,” (1 Thessalonians 4:7.) We are “redeemed with a great price,” (1 Corinthians 6:20,) “the precious blood of Christ,” (1 Peter 1:18-19,) not that we may serve “the lusts of…

also came. The publicans are not only exhorted, in general terms, to repent, but the duties peculiar to their calling are demanded: for we know that, besides the general rule of the law, each person ought to consider what is required by the nature of the employment to which he h…

Now therefore in like sort be prone and ready to be ruled of God: and let not your courage be less now in doing of good, than it was before in doing of evil. He does not observe the order of the Antithesis, to apply the parts on both sides: as to the Thessalonians he opposes unc…

Now Holiness wherever it is pleases God, and therefore without Faith it is impossible we should have any interest in it. This is the Will of God even our Sanctification, 1 Thess. 4. 3. and walking therein we please God, v. 7. All that pleases God in us, is our Holiness, or some…

The necessity of holiness is proved from the commands of God in the law and the gospel. Section 1. Having established the necessity of holiness from the nature and decrees of God, the next argument is taken from his word, or commands, as the nature and order of these things requ…

Now the Providence of God with respect to our civil Callings, may be displayed very takingly in the following particulars. In directing you to a Calling in your Youth, and not suffering you to live an idle, useless and sinful life, as many do, who are but burthens to the Earth,…

So you find it often in the Scripture; Our friend Lazarus sleeps, says Christ, when he was dead (John 11). And the Apostle (1 Thessalonians 4:13): I would not have you ignorant concerning those which sleep, that is, concerning those who are dead. Lighten my eyes (says David) [re…

The soul in its faculties will then be perfected, capacitated and expanded to conceive, take up and delight in God; and the body perfected, made glorious and spiritual, like the glorious body of our Lord Jesus (Philippians 3, last verse). 4. The hope of that day, and of the flee…

False and counterfeited wares, over-commending, or undervaluing of goods for advantage; and many other unjust contrivances, which men's consciences can better suggest to them, than any discourse. The Apostle has sufficiently cautioned and threatened such men (1 Thessalonians 4:6…

Indeed the whole apparatus of this day seems to be typical of the last; but as it is the condition of all types, it shall be far outdone and exceeded by its antitype. Here were voices, and fire, and smoke, and the noise of a trumpet; and these struck terror into the hearts of th…

To defraud another in dealing, is but a more covert way of stealing, and it is as lawful to take a purse upon the highway, as to take a shilling by fraud in the shop; the difference lies only in the degree, the nature of the sin which is theft, is the same in both. And the Lord,…

Mercy is his delight (Micah 7:18). We pray to God for a holy heart, and this prayer is according to his will (1 Thessalonians 4:3). This is the will of God, your sanctification.

But now the great trumpet is blown in a more literal sense, with a mighty sound, which shakes the earth. There will be a great signal given by a mighty sound made, which is called the voice of the archangel, as being the angel of greatest strength, 1 Thessalonians 4:16. "For the…

Colossians 1:4. We heard of your Faith in Christ Jesus, and of the LOVE which ye have to all Saints. 1 Thessalonians 4:9. As touching BROTHERLY-LOVE, ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. So, Philemon 5. Hearing of thy Love,…

Were there not a resurrection of it expected, the husbandman would never be willing to cast away his corn. The bodies of saints are also committed to the grave in hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren, concerning those which are asleep,…

Children may be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, without being provoked to wrath. 5. We must study to be quiet (1 Thessalonians 4:11), that is, study not to disturb others, nor to be yourselves disturbed by others; those are quiet that are not apt either to…

Now certainly, God would never borrow the name of this sin to set out the evil of other sins, if it were not most vile and abominable. It's call'd the sin of the Gentiles, or heathen, 1 Thessalonians 4:5. And oh that we could say, it were only among them that know not God! Now t…

In fact, God will not only hear their Cry, but avenge their Quarrel. That is a remarkable Text, 1 Thessalonians 4:6. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, because that the Lord is the [Avenger] of all such. This word Avenger, is but once more used in the N…

First, our universal obedience and good works are indispensably necessary from the sovereign appointment and will of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In general: this is the will of God, even our sanctification and holiness, 1 Thessalonians 4:3. This is what God wills — that…

Answer: Though in the general thing itself, which is a preservation of the substance of the body, the same thing befalls the Saints and the wicked: yet the means whereby both are preserved, and the end why they are preserved is far different. 1. The Saints are preserved by a sec…

Chastity in a large extent is taken for all manner of purity in soul or body: in which respect the Apostle calls the Church of God a chaste virgin (1 Corinthians 11:2). But in the sense wherein we here use it, it especially pertains to the body: which is that virtue whereby we p…

He has severed you from the mass of the profane world, and picked you out to be jewels for himself — he has set you apart for this end, that you may be holy to him, as the Hebrew word that signifies holiness is from setting apart, or fitting for a peculiar use. Be not then untru…

This is the task of a Christian to understand his Lord's will, and with a practical understanding, that he may walk in all well pleasing to God. Thus the Apostle likewise exhorts the Thessalonians earnestly (1 Thessalonians 4:1) and adds verse 3: This is the will of God, even ou…

And the Apostles seem by divers expressions to have apprehended it in their days not far off. So Saint Paul (1 Thessalonians 4:17): We which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. As not impossible, that it might come in their time, which put…

It seems it was their fashion when they gave alms to sound a trumpet; and their pretense was to call all the poor within hearing: or to give notice that such a rabbi gives alms today. Now our Lord shows, that though this were the fair pretense to call the poor, yet their heart w…

The first is spoken of, Romans 9:19: "Who has resisted his Will?" — that is, his decree, and his purpose. And the second, his revealed pleasure concerning our duty, is spoken of, 1 Thessalonians 4:3: "This is the Will of God, even your sanctification" — the Will not of his purpo…

5. Obedience is never right but when it is done out of a conscience of God's authority, intuitu voluntatis; the bare sight of God's will should be reason enough to a gracious heart, it is the will of God, it is his command. So it is often urged (1 Thessalonians 4:3): the Apostle…