Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, cleanse us from the filth of an unclean spirit, and sanctify us; You alone can do it. Amen.
Text: First Thessalonians 4:1–7
Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
Devotion
Your sanctification is God’s will. It could hardly be otherwise, for God is holy. But it is necessary for us to hear and consider that we have God’s will with us in the work and struggle of sanctification. Then we can be sure of victory even if it is difficult to go on and it often seems that we are going backward. Be zealous for your purification. Fight for it with zeal and seriousness! The Apostle urges and exhorts us concerning this in the Lord Jesus. He urges us; shouldn’t we listen to him? He exhorts us, should we disregard it? He urges us and exhorts us in the Lord Jesus, in Jesus’ service and Spirit and power, in His love, for Jesus’ name’s sake, for the sake of His atoning obedience and death; shouldn’t we obey Him? You advanced so quickly in sanctification in the first days of your Christianity. How eager you were to wash away all sin and to please God! What a change was seen in you in a short time, what growth in a few days! Shouldn’t the blossom put forth a bud, or shall the bud die without maturing to fruit? You have learned how we ought to walk. Doesn’t this blaze and burn within you when the Apostle here speaks about “pleasing God” and “abounding more and more”? “Pleasing God,” “walking in delight for Jesus,” O how it touches the innermost chords of the Christian heart!
“Not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles.” No, far from it! Jesus’ holy Bride in the impurity of the Gentiles! The thought alone sickens our emotions. – So out then with impure lusts, out of the heart with them! Into the soul with Jesus’ holiness, completely in His purity, so you “hate even the garment defiled by the flesh” (Jude 1:23)!
But it is a great shame that you do not believe He will help you in this, for then you are overcome by the devil. As surely as God is holy, in Christ He has given you grace for sanctification, and when you neglect it, you grieve God’s Spirit. We also urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus: take seriously the mortification of the lusts of the flesh. You are not called to uncleanness, which unfortunately so many so-called Christians seem to think. You are called in holiness. Note it well: God has called you in holiness. Therefore strive now with eagerness and perseverance of faith. God’s command and promise to you in Jesus Christ is true and faithful.
Closing Prayer
Most holy Lord Jesus, give us Your pure mind. Help us to mortify the impure lusts of the flesh and to live in holiness that we may perfectly please You and the Father together with the Holy Spirit. Lord, grant us this great grace: daily to grow in holiness. Amen.
Hymn
Lord Jesus! Sun of Graces,
Orig’nal Life and Light!
Cheer up our dimsight faces,
With Thy most heav’nly sight;
Revive our sinking spirits,
Renew us by Thy merits,
And chase our sinful night.
Forgive our sore transgressions,
And cast them in the sea
Of Thy divine compassions,
That we may live to Thee:
Thy peace past our conception,
Complete our soul’s perfection:
Lord, hear us graciously!
Th’ old Adam’s inclination
From all our hearts remove;
Our humble dedication
Thy constant grace improve:
That henceforth all our actions
Be led by the directions
Of Thy redeeming love.
Promote Thy saving knowledge
In us, Almighty Lord!
And make us in Thy college
Apt scholars of Thy Word:
That foll’wing Thine example,
Our heart be made Thy temple
In spite of hell’s effort.
Thy bloody wounds relieve us
In our emergent thirst,
And kill our lusts that grieve us,
Whene’er they rise at first;
Let all our sinful passions
Be crucified oblations,
And e’er abhorred as cursed.
Inflame our heart and center
With Thy seraphic love,
That nothing there may enter,
But what Thy smiles approve;
And living without ceasing,
O Lord! to Thy well pleasing,
Ne’er from Thy path remove.
Endow our faith with vigor,
Our minds with cheerfulness,
For all our best endeavor
Is but the work of grace;
But formal deeds of senses,
Alas! are mere offenses,
Before Thy holy Face.
Gotter: Herr Jesu Gnaden Sonne L 280:3-6 tr. A supplement to German Psalmody, 1765;
tune: Herr Christ der einig Gotts Sohn (ELH 224); alternate hymn: All mankind fell in Adam’s fall ELH 491