The Reformed view of God’s sovereignty says that everything comes from God’s will—everything centers on God’s will. So here is the question: What then is this will of God—of him who is sovereign? The answer is given in 1 Thessalonians 4:3:
For this is the will of God: your sanctification.That is a great pastoral verse. People will come to me and say,Pastor, I want to know God’s will for my life.And they mean,What profession should I take up? Who should I marry? Nancy or Susan? Jim or Bob?—those sorts of things. And I like to reply, “Friends, I have good news for you, because I can declare to you authoritatively what is God’s will for your life—1 Thessalonians 4:3:This is the will of God: your sanctification.That is what is really important. Frankly, I suppose it does matter whether you marry Jim or Bob, Nancy or Susan, but what is far more important is that whichever one you marry—if they are both biblically eligible and whatnot—is that you are holy in it, that you pursue godliness. That is what really matters.That is what God’s will is for your life: that you should be holy. And you see, a high view of the sovereignty of God increases our zeal for holiness. Why? Because we learn that the sovereign God has willed our holiness. Reformed theology rightly emphasizes what really matters, folks—it is God’s decree. That is what causes things to happen. Things will be because God has willed them. And Paul says in Ephesians 1:11 that he not only planned it out, he not only ordained it, but he is actually sovereignly working it in history—on the big scale and on the small scale. And here we find that the thing that God is working in our lives is that we should be holy.1
Richard D. Phillips
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;