06-08-2025 - UNBLAMEABLE - 1 Thess 3:11 -4:12

MESSAGE BY PASTOR ROB INRIG

FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.

With my heart broken with pain, sadness, and helplessness in the face of the inevitable, without words to express this feeling of having lost a battle, I cannot continue writing because the tears that do not fall on my face, this lump in my throat, prevent me from letting out the cry of “Why?” Why do things change in a minute, and why do they happen? The battle against this devastating disease takes its toll, and we who are left behind are shattered by the pain that consumes us as we realize that it is all over. My beloved friend Gaby is gone; cancer won the battle. My faith has been shattered, and this loss has hit me hard because she was very dear to me. I have not been able to shake off that pain, which is still there, stuck like a dagger in my heart. I feel spiritually weak, and my muffled cries call out to a Merciful Father. I ask Him to give me the strength to continue with this task, which may help someone read the scriptures discerned by Pastor Inrig, because I know that someone will be feeling the same way I am. I ask Our Lord Jesus to give me the strength also to regain my faith that everything will be all right, that Gaby is in that final sleep waiting for Him to wake her with a cry of triumph to enjoy His glory with Him, and that someday I will see her again and be able to hug her and tell her that she always had the love of a sister, that she was very dear to all of us who loved her, and then be able to enjoy, and hoping, if I am worthy of being in that glory with a loving Father, laughing with her, hearing her laughter, see her beautiful hair, and that special smile. Rest, dear friend, sleep and wait in the Lord's time, which is like a minute of His time, to enjoy that glory you deserve for all the suffering you endured during your time on this earth. For my part, I will continue to pray for you, dear friend, until I see you again in the time of Our Lord Jesus and God the Father.

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I invite you to pray together: O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need: We humbly beseech thee to behold, visit, and relieve thy sick servants for whom our prayers are desired. Look upon them with the eyes of thy mercy (Gaby P+, Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G, Liz N, Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara's mom H, Margarita G, Fega G,  Rosy Ch, Patricia L. Lina J. Manuel D. C, Yuya N. Mercedes L, Magda-)   Comfort them with a sense of thy goodness; preserve them from the temptations of the enemy; and give them patience under his affliction. In thy good time, restore them to health, and enable them to lead the residue of their life in thy fear, and to thy glory; and grant that finally they may dwell with thee in life everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

You can add names from family and friends who need prayer.

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In stories of Australia’s past, Ned Kelly is spoken of with Robin Hood like admiration. Fearless and charismatic, he represented those who thumbed their noses at the establishment  But his Robin Hood stature is hardly justified - his first stint in prison for armed robbery and horse theft; his crimes escalating into the attempted murder of a police officer.  The murder of 3 policemen soon followed, sending Kelly into hiding in the Australian bush.  

During this time, Kelly and associates committed numerous armed robberies and fatally shot a police informant.  Kelly may have kept himself in hiding but he didn’t hide his views.  In a manifesto, Kelly denounced the police, the Government and the British Empire.  As he saw it, they, not he, were the architects of his life of crime. 

His crime spree ended in a violent confrontation after the failed ambush of a police train. A wounded Kelly, dressed in homemade metal armour, was captured and later convicted. 

Prior to being hung, Kelly said: I do not pretend that I’ve led a blameless life or that one fault justified another but the public judging a case like mine should remember that the darkest life may have a bright side ... For my own part, I do not care one straw about my life now or the result of the trial. I know very well how I am spoken of …The newspapers cannot speak of me with the toleration generally extended to men awaiting trial. (Men) are assumed, according to the boast of British justice, to be innocent until they are proven guilty; but I don’t mind, for I have outlived care that curries public favour or dreads public frown.

While Kelly’s life deserves to be forgettable, to the end he does his best to minimize his blame.  People have done this to him. Systems and laws that have done this to him.  Despite the severity of his crimes, the blame in some  way, not his but theirs.

His efforts to justify his actions not much different than what I often do, downplaying my guilt. His guilt obvious, mine not so much. But the Bible tells me before God, I am just as  guilty as he, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom 3:23 which is why Jesus died – to pay for our guilt.  It’s with this awareness of having our guilt removed and being able to stand forgiven before God that we look at Scripture this morning, it centering around Paul’s desire to, Present us UN-BLAMEABLE in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints

Read 1 Thess 3:11 – 4:12

What a contrast - we un-blameable before God while Satan, the accuser of the brethren, stands there accusing us day and night Rev 12:10. Yet Jesus giving answer, Forgiven, paid for, no debt, no charge.  Not perfect, but blameless.

Yet I think Paul has more in mind than we as Christians being positionally blameless before God - justified, our sin paid for – he wanting us as disciples to LIVE practically blameless – sanctified people as we do life.  Not perfect because we still sin  Not living with blind adherence to rules where we measure our good by what we do but living with freedom and joy, living to please Christ.

How? - as Paul promotes that He may establish your hearts 3:13, the Christian life primarily not a head issue -

what we believe, or a body issue - what we do, but  a heart issue - what we love, more accurately, Who we love.

As a head issue – we can point to a time when we became a Christian – we made a decision to accept Christ, where we acknowledged our sin and accepted Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross as the only answer for our sin. No decision is more important than that, where we repent, turning from our sin and turning to a new life in Jesus.  

The problem though with viewing our faith simply as a decision once made, it’s easy to put down roots in that place as a point in time where our eternal destiny was settled.  But if that’s all we understand, we can settle into being a Christ accepter not a Christ follower.  We’re grateful just not GRACE full – not living in and from the grace we’ve been given.  

As a body issue – we settle for behaviours that are true of us.  But too often we get these backwards.  We do to earn.  Things done that allow us a feeling of righteousness and those things not done to avoid a ‘bad conduct’ designation.  That’s often played out in a mentality of how close to the line can we walk and still think of ourselves as believers whose lives are in keeping with our faith. In so doing we substitute grace that’s been given for actions to get.  

Paul would say that this approach to living as a Christian is incredibly flawed.  It is based on a mindset that uses behaviour checklists to define a Christ honouring life.  It is measured by the behaviours we avoid, the doctrines we hold or the Scriptures we recite.  Lists and measurable.  We’re faithful just not fruitful.

But Jesus’ call is greater than this.  His call is to be a disciple, a Christ follower not a Christ accepter. It’s a call to our HEART and what’s important to remember about our heart, is that it’s not designed to function at half flow.  When the Bible speaks of our heart, it’s our total self.  Fully in, fully committed – because of LOVE.  That renders the question, WHO OWNS OUR HEART?  As Jesus tells us, Where your treasure is, is where your heart is also  Mtth 6:21.

The object of our heart determines everything.  It determines why we do, what we do. It determines the energy and the passion we expend.  It determines the things we pursue and the things from which we run.  So I ask again, WHO OWNS YOUR HEART?   

Living to please God is a common theme in Paul’s letters, As a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. We pray that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God  Eph 4:1, Phil 1:27, Col 1:10.

How do you and I walk worthy of Jesus?  As we’ve considered, Paul says we do it with an established heart but established in what?  

ESTABLISHED IN A CROSS SUFFERING CHRIST that reveals the knowledge of God - love FOR Christ.  There is no understanding of God’s love apart from the Cross and the further we distance ourselves from the Cross, the less we love. At the Cross where we see our sin for what it is, understanding where our sin has led.  My sin that took Jesus to the Cross.  My sin that brought the whip across His back.  My sin that drove the nails.  My sin that caused His blood to flow.   

‘But God’ - remembering – it was the blood of love, Christ CHOSE to give.  The blood of forgiveness, Christ CHOSE to pour out.  His blood of forgiving love for any who believe.  

ESTABLISHED IN A REACHING OUT CHRIST - love for one another  love FROM Christ.

Christ’s love wasn’t intended to dwell at the Cross.  It was to be lived out.  Love for one another and for all men 3:12  For some this sounds rather lofty, like some nice placard for those who don’t live in the real world.  Yet, Love for one another is to be in evidence for those closest to us; those with whom we do life and yes, those different from us.  Loving in ways that doesn’t tear down, doesn’t focus on things that divide.  Instead we are to, Do this for all [men].  That means how we talk when we get together with others, in the verbal jousting, in the conversations that slag others.  What this means is to guard our attitudes and tongues where we share the good rather than getting mired in the bad; where we disengage or correct when conversations go awry.  Will this at times put us at odds with others?  - yes but this is what Christ calls us to do.

ESTABLISHED IN A COMING CHRIST – love WITH Christ.

At the coming of our Lord Jesus  with all His saints  Rom 6:13.  

With that in mind, let me ask you a question, How many of you want to know the will of God for your life?  

So often what we mean by that is: what school to attend, what job to pursue, what place to live, what person to marry.  These are right things to want in order to determine God’s will for our lives but here we are told what truly is God’s will is to live to please to Him now.  Holiness before God – a different way of living that is aligned with the heart and will of God, A workman that needs not to be ashamed 2 Tim 2:15.  Live in that way, That you might strengthen your hearts blameless.  Again not perfect but forgiven and made clean in Jesus.

With the firm foundation of an established heart and a transforming awareness of love: FOR Christ, FROM Christ and WITH Christ 3:11, Paul sharpens his focus on some issues that so often cause shipwreck: our morality – sexual; our ethics – work; our attitudes – our response to life’s storms.  Nowhere is God’s will made more clear to us than in these areas.

But it’s no accident that before Paul confronts these, he centers us in real love, Having your hearts established in LOVE wanting us to be so soaked in the authentic, that surrounding fires can’t touch and sparks can’t ignite.  God wanting us anchored in His love.

So walk and please God just as you are doing  4:1 but don’t let down your guard, don’t get complacent – you’re doing well but that doesn’t mean you can go off duty.

Read 4:3 - 8

Understand they and we have been called to live a sanctified life out from among a culture that wanted to pull them back in, back to the lifestyle they had known and back to the people they had been. And  who had they been and in what world had these Thessalonians been raised?  For that listen to what Demosthenes had to say, We keep prostitutes for pleasure; mistresses for the day to day needs of the body; we keep wives for the begetting of children and for the faithful guardianship of our homes.  

So long as a man supported his wife and family, there was no shame whatsoever in extra-marital affairs.  But as Paul makes clear, As Christians, your life is to be very different.  You are to live as one who in Jesus has been sanctified - set apart - to please God.  To live holy not separate ‘from’ in some monastic escape but separate ‘in’.

Specifically Paul states,  Abstain from sexual immorality :3.  Paul doesn’t suggest they just put their heads down and ignore what’s happening around them. Sexuality immorality surrounds in day by day life.  It’s in the marketplace, in their temples, in their places of power, in their play areas. But though it surrounds, you don’t have to fall victim to its call.  

Abstain - that requires an uncompromising and unshakable decision.  That requires putting myself as far as I can from harm’s way. That could require new paths and new relationships. The idea here is don’t dabble.  Don’t entertain.  Don’t linger and don’t watch.  Don’t see how close you can come and not get burned.  And when you fail, repent and turn around.

The word used for sexual immorality here is porneia, which is to say, all forms of sexual immorality.  This isn’t speaking just to the physical affair, that last act of violation.  It’s also speaking to the things that lead to that place.  That so called ‘innocent’ excursion into pornography.  That coffee meeting that lingers too long or the emotional safe place you run to because he or she understands you in a way that no one else does.   

Abstain and instead run to the place where you are rooted and established in REAL love.

In that place understand you have been established to: Live in sanctification and honor 4:4    Possess his own vessel - this vessel likely referring both to one’s spouse but also to one’s own body – the Greek word used for both.  We are to possess - not give away.

The idea of sanctification is this – you have been designed to live set apart as a child of the King.  You don’t live for yourself, you live for another. Your HEART won and claimed by another

To live in honor is to live in and from the value you have been given.  You’ve been bought with a price – the very precious blood of the Lamb  1 Cor 6:20. By the blood of Christ you have been declared worthy, of great value.

Possess it – don’t cast is aside.  Don’t hold onto it lightly or loosely.  Specifically – your body – don’t treat it as something valueless. In the same way, treat others in the same way - don’t possess or take possession of a treasure that is not yours to have. Instead be a honor giver.   

Paul elaborates on this in verse 6.  In that place understand that you have been established to not transgress / violate the value of another.  Transgress is to step into areas that are not yours - huperbaino  hupér - beyond  baíno - to go to step over or go beyond.

Defrauding – has about it taking something by deceit; stealing by trickery; taking treasure

Sexual sins always make a victim of somebody. Somebody is going to get hurt.

In Leviticus 18 - God instructed Israel about sexual morality - the idea that one may not uncover the nakedness of another. The idea is that the nakedness of an individual belongs to his/her spouse and no one else, and it is a violation of God's law to give that nakedness to anyone else, or for anyone else to take.  The Bible is intensely practical and realistic, not covering people’s sin. Judah defrauded his daughter-in-law when he slept with her. King David defrauded Uriah by committing adultery with his wife Bathsheba. Amnon defrauded his sister when he raped her.

Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goes in to his neighbour’s wife: whoever touches her shall not be innocent  Prov 6:27-28. 

And God’s response to actions like these? the Lord will avenge.  Paul in strong language stating God will act; that He will not ignore sin because He knows the pain sin brings.  And in case that isn’t clear he says, He who rejects this doesn’t reject man, he rejects God :7,8.   Paul making it clear :8, these aren’t the words of a man whose values are too tight, his restrictions too strong, his beliefs too narrow rather these words are from the Lord Himself – the Holy Spirit who dwells within.

Perhaps the bigger question behind what Paul is asking is, What is the passion that governs my life?  Will it be a passion for Christ to please Him, to be fulfilled in Him or will I be distracted by lesser things?  

:10   Love  which indeed you are doing but excel even more

A life of not looking for elevation but marked by quiet life - free from being predatory where you take what is not yours to take, free from being passion driven and passion deceived where you wound others and damage yourself.   

A place where we are called to live sanctified lives.  Set apart lives.  Honouring lives.

Blameless.  Lives that are presentation ready for our coming King.

www.bethanybaptist.bc.ca