1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

March 28, 2013


 *OCT 5 - 1 THESSALONIANS 5:12-28 - A LIFE OF CONCORD AND CONSTANCY*


 *1. 5:12-13 (NNT) THOSE WHO LABOR: ATTITUDE TOWARD THEM. “But we ask you,
brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord,
and admonish you; 13 and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their
:work. Be at peace among yourselves.” *We bless You Father for the
ministries, leaders and laborers You have given the church of Christ. We
receive them as from Christ. We receive one another as fellow members of
Christ’s body. *Hallowed be your name.*


 *2. 5:14-15. GENERAL EXHORTATIONS. “And we exhort you, brethren, admonish
the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be
longsuffering toward all. 15 See that none render unto any one evil for
evil; but always follow after what is good, one toward another, and toward
all.” *We are *established* and *confirmed* when we walk in Your Words,
Father! Apostolic words are Christ’s words. Christ’s words are Your words.
We receive Your “nouthetic” admonishments. *Your :kingdom come!*


 *3. 5:16-18 (5:16-21) JOY, PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING WITH PRECEPTS. “Rejoice
always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks: for this is
God’s will in Christ Jesus toward you.” *Hosanna! We receive this, Father.
We thank You for Your Kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy
Spirit. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.*


 *4. 5:22-24. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION: UNTO THE “PAROUSIA”. “Abstain from
every form of evil. 23 And the God of :peace himself sanctify you wholly;
and may your :spirit and :soul and :body be preserved entire, without blame
at the presence of our :Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful he that calls you,
who will also do it.” **Holiness* becomes Your Name, Father! And You say to
us, You too be holy, for “I” am holy! Spirit, soul and body: all holy for
You - till Jesus returns. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!*


 *5. 5:25. A REQUEST: PRAY FOR APOSTOLIC MINISTRIES. “Brethren, pray for us
also.” *We are humbled by the humility of Paul! What a privilege we have -
to pray for our leaders! Father, give us a revelation of the importance of
this! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.*


 *6. 5:26-27. COMMAND: AFFECTION, WITH HEED TO THIS LETTER. “Salute all the
brethren with a holy kiss. 26 I adjure you by the Lord that the letter be
read to all the brethren.” *Sanctification - holiness for us: body, soul
and spirit; this is a high priority in Your heart for us, Father. May we
not betray Your hope and trust in us. May our relationship with one another
be holy and pure. *And bring us not into temptation.*


 *7. 5:28. BENEDICTION OF GRACE. “The grace of our :Lord Jesus Christ
bewith you.”
*Joy! This is Your basic nature, Father! Out of Your heart of joy flows *
forgiveness*. Thank God! This forgiveness is expressed in Your Grace! This
in turn is manifested through Charismatic* gifts*. Our response is *
thanksgiving*! *But deliver us from the evil one!*


 *NOTE: 5:19-21 (5:16-21) FOUR POWERFUL EXHORTATIONS. “Quench not the
Spirit; 20 despise not prophesyings; 21 but prove all things; hold fast
what is good.” *We will not throw the baby out with the water. We will hold
fast that which is good. We will not quench the Spirit by despising
prophecy. We honor Your way of doing things Father, even if some abuse it.


 *Our Psalm for the Day: 95:6-7 (95, ESV) LET US SING SONGS OF PRAISE. “Oh
come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of
his hand.” *Father, David knew You and worshiped you* as a man after Your
own heart. We would have a united heart like David. Hallowed be your :name!*


 This Psalm has no title, and all we know of its authorship is that Paul
quotes it as “in David” (Hebrews 4:7). It is true that this may merely
signify that it is to be found in the collection known as David’s Psalms;
but if such were the Apostle’s meaning, it would have been more natural for
him to have written, “saying in the Psalms”; we therefore incline to the
belief that David was the actual author of this poem. We will call it “The
Psalm of the Provocation.”


 95:1. *O come, let us sing unto the Lord. *Other nations sing unto their
gods; let us sing unto Jehovah. We love Him, we admire Him, we reverence
Him; let us express our feelings with the choicest sounds, using our
noblest faculty for its noblest end.


 95:2. *Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. *Here is
probably a reference to the peculiar presence of God in the Holy of Holies
above the mercy-seat, and also to the glory which shone forth out of the
cloud which rested above the tabernacle. Everywhere God is present, but
there is a peculiar presence of grace and glory into which men should never
come without the profoundest reverence. Our worship should have reference
to the past as well as to the future; if we do not bless the Lord for what
we have already received, how can we reasonably look for more? *And make a
joyful noise unto Him with Psalms.* We should shout as exultingly as those
do who triumph in war and as solemnly as those whose utterance is a Psalm.
It is not always easy to unite enthusiasm with reverence, and it is a
frequent fault to destroy one of these qualities while straining after the
other. It is to be feared that this is too much overlooked in ordinary
services. People are so impressed with the idea that they ought to be
serious that they put on the aspect of misery and quite forget that joy is
as much a characteristic of true worship as solemnity itself.


 95:6. *O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord
our Maker. *As suppliants must we come; joyful, but not presumptuous;
familiar as children before a father, yet reverential as creatures before
their Maker. Posture is not everything, yet is it something; prayer is
heard when knees cannot bend, but it is seemly that an adoring heart should
show its awe by prostrating the body and bending the knee.


 95:8. *Harden not your heart*. If you will hear, learn to fear also. The
sea and the land obey Him; do not prove more obstinate than they! We cannot
soften our hearts, but we can harden them, and the consequences will be
fatal. Today is too good a day to be profaned by the hardening of our
hearts against our own mercies. While mercy reigns, let not obduracy rebel.


 95:9. *Proved me.* If we were for ever testing the love of our wife or
husband, and remained unconvinced after years of faithfulness, we should
wear out the utmost human patience. Friendship only flourishes in the
atmosphere of confidence; suspicion is deadly to it: shall the Lord God,
true and immutable, be day after day suspected by His own people? Will not
this provoke Him to anger?

 *And saw My work. *They test Him again and again, throughout forty years,
though each time His work was conclusive evidence of His faithfulness.
Nothing could convince them for long. Fickleness is bound up in the heart
of man, unbelief is our besetting sin; we must for ever be seeing or we
waver in our believing. This is no mean offense and will bring it no small
punishment.


 95:10. *Forty years long was I grieved with this generation. *The
impression upon the divine Mind is most vivid. He sees them before Him now
and calls them “this generation.” He does not leave His prophets to upbraid
the sin, but Himself utters the complaint and declares that He was grieved,
nauseated, and disgusted. *And said, It is a people that do err in their
heart, and they have not known My ways.** *The heart is the mainspring of
the man, and if it be not in order, the entire nature is thrown out of
gear. If sin were only skin deep, it might be a slight matter; but since it
had defiled the soul, the case is bad* *indeed. Forty years of providential
wisdom, yes, and even a longer period of experience, have failed to teach
them serenity of assurance and firmness of reliance. * *There is ground for
much searching of heart concerning this. Many treat unbelief as a minor
fault; they even regard it rather as an infirmity than a crime. But the
Lord thinks not so. Faith is Jehovah’s due, especially from those who claim
to be the people of His pasture and yet more emphatically from those whose
long life has been crowded with evidences of His goodness: unbelief insults
one of the dearest attributes of Deity. It does so needlessly and without
the slightest ground and in defiance of all-sufficient arguments, weighty
with the eloquence of love. Let us, in reading this Psalm, examine
ourselves and lay these things to heart.


 95:11. *Unto whom I swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My
rest. *There can be no rest to an unbelieving heart. If manna and miracles
could not satisfy Israel, neither would they have been content with the
land which flowed with milk and honey. Solemn warning this to all who leave
the way of faith for paths of petulant murmuring and mistrust. The rebels
of old could not enter in because of unbelief. “Let us therefore fear,
lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of us should
even seem to come short of it.” *(From “The Treasury of David” by C.H.
Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)*



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