So we are going to continue our study in 2 Thessalonians. We are in the heart of the book. There's only three chapters and we are in the middle of chapter two. And so the overall theme of the book of 2 Thessalonians is living in the last days. And today we're going to look at Paul reviews eschatology, and we'll explain that here in a moment after we read our passage. But of course, before we do that, we want to spend some time in prayer, getting in fellowship with the Lord. So go ahead and take a moment, and then I will open us with a word of prayer to gather us together. Father, once again, we just give thanks to you. And we thank you that despite what we're going through personally, what we're going through in our community, our state, our nation, and our world, you are in control. And the things that we read about you from scripture is true. And it'll always be true because you never change. And Lord, that's something to rejoice in because you have, as the kids song goes, the whole world in your hands and you are working out your plan. And we thank you that you have appointed us to be with you and to save us before your wrath falls. And we just pray we'd rejoice in that. We pray you'd bless the reading and the exposition of your word this morning. In Jesus name, amen. So I mentioned this last week, but if you have your Bibles open to 2 Thessalonians 2, turn to verse 5 where it says, where Paul says, do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And so what I mentioned last week is this is a review. In other words, the Thessalonians already knew what Paul was talking about. So this is kind of a Cliff's Note version of eschatology. And so that's why the title of today's message is Paul Reviews Eschatology. Now, for those who maybe don't know that word, eschatology, eschat is the Greek word that means end times or last things. Ology is the study. So eschatology is the study of last things or the study of end times. And so Paul Paul is giving a review for the Thessalonians. So what that means is this is not a review for us because we weren't there when Paul, you know, when he says in verse five, do you not remember when I was with you, I told you these things. We weren't there. We weren't present in the room. So there's two things that we have to go off of. Number one, his first letter to the Thessalonians, which we've already studied, first Thessalonians, And then the scripture that was available to Paul at the time that he wrote this letter, because I obviously that scripture. And so Paul was using that knowledge to teach and educate the Thessalonians concerning end times prophecy. And so the way I want to approach this is think of a puzzle when you're working through a puzzle. What's the first thing you want to do? you kind of give the framework, right? You look for the corner pieces, the edge pieces, and then you're able to kind of have a frame that you're able to put pieces together. Today with part one, we're gonna look at this passage where we're gonna just see the sequence of events that Paul lists out. Because what we need to remember is that this is a review of end times prophecy. Paul had already given them the details. He's just going through and highlighting those things. So we want to go through what Paul presents first. And then what I'd like to do next week is to kind of go into a little bit more detail. Now, I don't want that to scare you. I want, that's why I wanted to do this first because I hope, I think what you'll see is that it's pretty straightforward and pretty simple what Paul is saying. Now the details is where it can get a little bit fuzzy. In fact, Paul even, I hope it encourages you that Paul says, you know, do you not remember these things? So it's reasonable that, that, there's gonna be some things that we don't quite grasp and we'll need to hear again. So we're gonna do a review of what Paul says. So we're gonna give kind of the sequence here. So we wanna start by reading our passage in its entirety. So we are in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, starting in verse three. And Paul says, let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first. And the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Verse 5, Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Verse 11, And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie. that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. So this is a lengthy passage. That's partly why we wanted to break this into part one and part two so that we can kind of digest the material. And so today we're gonna just go through the sequence of events and hopefully it'll be fairly easy to break down. But before we do that, we wanna take again a step back and look at the book as a whole. This is what we've been showing before each message. This is kind of the general outline of the book of 2 Thessalonians. So where we're at in chapter 2 verses 1 through 12, what you can see up there is that Paul is correcting error in the church. So what Paul is saying is immediately addressing the error that the Thessalonians had where they believed they were in the day of the Lord. And that's what he says in verse one and two, don't be deceived for that day in verse three will not come unless this, this, this, and this. And so he gives them signs that will occur during that day. And since we're not seeing those things, guess what that means? We're not in that day. And I also think he he's implying that you won't be in that day, but he's giving that evidence that this is what that day is. And because you don't see those things, what you're experiencing now is not that day. It's not the day of the Lord. It's just general persecution and general tribulation. So let's go through the sequence of events. Number one, Paul says the departure comes first. Now, does anyone's Bible say departure? Uh-oh. There we go. The departure comes first. Does anyone's Bible in verse three say departure? No, I don't think so. It says falling away or apostasy or rebellion. I think maybe some other translations. And so we see in verse three, let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first. Now, I want to spend a little bit more time on this point. The other ones, we'll just kind of give a rough summary because we're going to look at the details closer next week. But the word, the Greek word there behind falling away. So two English words are used to translate the Greek word. The Greek word is apostasia. Now, if you saw it, I should have put it on the screen. It's A-P-O-S-T-A-S-I-A. Looks like apostasy, right? So apostasy, that would make sense. There's similarity there, but not necessarily. So the Greek word apostasy, or apostasia, I mean, is a noun. And so it simply means it's a departure, it's a revolt, or it's a rebellion. It's only used two times in the New Testament. The other occurrence, so our passage in 2nd Thessalonians 2.3, the other occurrence is in Acts 21.21, which says, but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children. nor to walk according to the customs. So the line of thinking goes that the Greek word apostasia here is translated forsake. And the context that it's used speaks of a spiritual departure, like apostasy. When you think of the word apostasy, that's what it is. An apostate is someone who departs doctrinally from Orthodox teaching. And so the line of thinking is that, well, the other uses is used here to mean this, well, then that must be the same usage there. Well, that's problematic because they're two separate contexts. And we'll look at that more in a little bit. So there's only two uses of the word apostasia, the noun, I should say. But apostasia in its verb form is a fistomy. A-P-H-I-S-T-M-I. Now that's the transliterated because obviously they have different alphabet. But the verb form of apostasia is ephistomy. And there's a couple of uses that I think are interesting. Luke 2.37 says, and this woman was a widow of about 84 years who did not depart, that's that word ephistomy, from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. So think about, is this spiritual departure or physical departure? This woman was a widow of about 84 years old who did not depart from the temple. That's physical, right? It's simply saying she didn't leave the temple. She didn't start at one place and go to another. Luke 4.13, now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until in an opportune time. Now is this physical departure or spiritual departure? He's leaving, right? There's a spatial movement from one place to another. Acts 12.10, when they were past the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord. And they went out and went down one street and immediately the angel departed from him. Is this physical or spiritual? It appears physical, right? There's a spatial movement from one place to another. 2 Corinthians 12, 8, concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And this is the passage where he's talking about that thorn in the flesh. And he's asking God that that would leave him. There's physical departure. Now look at these last two, though. 1 Timothy 4.1. Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrine of demons. Is this physical or spiritual? Well, this one's spiritual, right? Hebrews 3.12. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Is that physical or spiritual? Spiritual, right? So what am I getting at? My point is that it can be physical departure or spiritual departure. And so I think what's problematic is the English translation kind of when it says falling away or apostasy, what is it doing? It's automatically assuming one over the other, right? So the other issue is look at the historical translation of this. You'll notice on the screen in 1384, the Wycliffe Bible has departing first. The Tyndale Bible, 1526, departing first. 1535, the Coverdale Bible, departing first. 1539, the Cranmer Bible, departing first. That's when they kind of fix the spelling. 1576, the Breaches Bible, departing first. 1583, the Biza Bible, departing first. 1608, the Geneva Bible, departing first. 1576, the Reims Bible, revolt. They translated that word revolt. Now, do you know what was happening in the 1500s? The Protestant Reformation. And so what happened is the Catholic church saw that and they kind of used it as an opportunity to, cause there's this war going on, right? Between Protestant and Catholic. And so they kind of use it as an opportunity. They said, wow, that's a great word. Let's use it to kind of oust the Protestants. Well, 1611, the King James Bible did the same thing, but the other way, the falling away. So they both use that idea of apostasy spiritual departure, but they used it to kind of point fingers at the other side. And so since then, because the 1611 King James in particular kind of set the standard for English translations, all subsequent translations follow that same model of either falling away, apostasy, and the such. But the reason I wanna show you this is that I think the better translation is simply departure, because then that tells us that we then need to interpret whether this is physical or spiritual, because it can be both. But if we say just general apostasy or falling away, well, it can't be physical. So, There's two, in my estimation, there's two possible views to what this is talking about. Number one, a spiritual departure. This would be talking about apostasy, the departure of sound doctrine. Now this is biblical. There's Bible passages that talk about this. So the question is, is this another one that talks about it or is it maybe talking about something else? View number two talks about something else. And that is a physical departure. I showed you the verb form of the word apostasia can mean physical departure. And so if this was the interpretation, basically what he'd be saying is what physical departure might he be talking about? The rapture, right? The catching away. So the departure would be the same as us saying the rapture. It's kind of a review term that you can kind of mention and your audience already knows because remember they do, right? So in passing, he says, you know, do not be deceived for that day will not come unless the departure comes first. So, My professor, Dr. Andy Woods, he wrote a book on this passage. It's about 40 pages, I believe, but it's called The Falling Away, Spiritual Departure or Physical Rapture. And he gives 10 reasons. I wanna just go over this with you. This happens to be my view, but I want to preface this by saying that no matter which view, whether it's number one or number two, you're in good hands. You know, you're not gonna get stoned to death. You're not a heretic because there's very credible scholars in both camps that view it differently. And I'd also say that the doctrine of either one, whether it's the apostasy of the church or the rapture of the church doesn't live or die based on this. Now, if this does talk about the rapture, I think it pretty clearly tells us the rough timing of it, but that's a separate thing. So Andy Woods gives 10 reasons. I wanna present this because you've probably not heard this view before because it's not the popularized view ever since the King James translation. So Andy Woods, 10 reasons is number one, there has always been doctrinal departures. So we can't say like that's a pretty general statement when Paul says that day won't happen unless the departure or the apostasy happens first. Well, there's throughout church history always been apostasy. So that doesn't quite fit squarely. Number two, 2 Thessalonians was an early letter. So what that means is that there would need to be some time to fall into apostasy. right when you're born. You know, as a church just starts, they need some time before they can fall into apostasy. Number three, the definite article before apostasy. Now in Greek, there's only one definite article, the. So it's the departure, which provides emphasis on what Paul is talking about. So that day will not happen unless the departure. So it's talking about a particular moment in time. Number four that he gives is the noun apostasia can refer to physical departure. Again, notice can. It doesn't mean it does, but it can. Number five, similar, the verb ephistomy can refer to physical departure. Number six, the extended context favors physical departure. Number seven, the immediate context favors physical departure. Notice what he says in verse one. brethren concerning the coming of our Lord and our gathering together to him." Now in 1 Thessalonians, what did he say that gathering together to him was? That catching up, right? So contextually, I think that's allowable to say physical departure. Number eight that he gives is 2 Thessalonians is a review. And when he elaborates on this point, he's simply saying that Paul's not gonna go into details on this because they already know. So he's giving them a term that they would have been familiar with. Number nine, early Bible translations favor physical departure. That's that list I gave you of all those English, early English translations had departing, departing, departing, departing, and then all of a sudden. So the reason I shared that is because I don't want you to think that I'm just kind of tinfoil hat coming up with this. I'm trying to show you that it's at least viable. I'm not necessarily trying to convince you, but I'm simply showing that it's permittable. It can go either way, whether it's spiritual or physical departure. And then number 10, physical departure is held by credible scholars. And so again, that one's kind of important because it's not like, you know, there's two or three guys that came up with this and this is a legitimate historical interpretation and it's been held by many credible scholars. And so that's why I prefaced by saying, no matter which interpretation you agree with, you're in good hands because able, credible scholars have done some good work on this. And again, I wanna say that no matter your interpretation, both are true. There will be spiritual apostasy, but there will also be a rapture. It's just, what is this verse saying? And that's where we have to study it for ourselves and go from there. So I hope that that kind of gives you some maybe things to think about and to chew on. I don't know if you've ever heard this interpretation before, but I simply want you to see that it is possible. It doesn't mean it's the case because I do agree that both have some strong arguments. And that's what happens when you come to a hard passage where there's a bunch of possible interpretations. What you have to do at that point is to narrow it down, sometimes to the point to the view that has the least holes. And that's kind of what you're left with. And so you kind of have to be humble and loose gripped. You're not gonna say, if you don't believe this is talking about the rapture, well, then I can't have fellowship with you. That would be a little bit ridiculous. And so we kind of have to observe and study the passage to the best of our abilities and to find the view that has the least amount of holes. Number two, so the sequence of events, Paul says, that day will not occur until the departure comes first. And number two, the man of sin is revealed. Verse three, let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. Now, again, we're gonna look at this closer next week, but to give you kind of a summary, I believe this is talking about the future antichrist, the man of sin. Again, that definite article. It's not just a man of sin, it's the man of sin. And then specifically the son of perdition. You'll also notice down in verse... I have to go way back. Verse nine, the coming of the lawless one is according to the work of Satan. So I think this is the future antichrist. The other thing that's interesting here is notice the way he frames this. He says that day will not come unless number one, the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed. They're bunched together. So this has led some scholars, and I'm inclined to agree, that this is gonna be a synonymous event. In other words, the falling away happens, and at that same time, the man of sin is revealed. Now, I think that fits no matter what your interpretation is of the falling away. If you see it as a spiritual departure, well then it's saying that at the time of that spiritual departure is going to be when the man of sin is revealed. Now, the way that would probably work out is this man of sin is revealed and people fall away after him. They are enamored by him and pursue him. If it is the rapture, well that would make sense that we're out of the world and the man of sin is revealed. And God's plan in the final seven years of the earth before establishing his kingdom is resumed and commences. So the sequence of events thus far is the departure comes first and the man of sin is revealed. The Antichrist is revealed. And again, keep in mind, this is an encouragement. What Paul is doing here is he's talking to people who thought they were in the day of the Lord. And Paul's saying that's impossible because number one, the departure has to come first. And number two, the man of sin has to be revealed. He hasn't been revealed, so what does that tell you? We're not there yet. We're not in the day of the Lord. And so this is, we'll get into this more next week, but this is why we need to be careful. This is something evangelicals in particular have been kind of infamous for and saying, oh, so-and-so is the antichrist. so-and-so, this person, this presidential candidate, this world leader, this religious leader, they're the Antichrist. Well, the problem is, I don't think we'll know who the Antichrist is, partly because I don't think we'll be here when he's revealed. But nonetheless, he has to be revealed in order for us to know who he is. And until he's revealed, we won't know who he is. It's all speculation. Number three, this man of sin, the future antichrist is going to exalt himself as God. Now what we're gonna do next week is we're gonna show the passage that talks about this. The Bible term is called the abomination of desolation. And so literally what will happen if we read verse four, the man of sin who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. And so what's going to happen is this future antichrist is going to sit in the temple and he's going to sacrifice a pig on the altar. Now, if you know anything about the Jewish law, pig or pork a kosher animal? Absolutely not, right? And so this would have defiled the temple. And so this is an extreme blasphemous act that the future antichrist is gonna do. And look what he's gonna do. He's gonna sit as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Because what did God do in the Old Testament? Where did he dwell? In the temple. So this future man is going to present himself as God. Now, what we're gonna look at next week a little bit more closer is where is he gonna sit? In the temple. Is there a temple today? No, there's not, right? In fact, not only is there not a temple, what is there? Dome of the Rock, a mosque. And if you touch that, you're starting World War III. So, A lot of scholars have some theories on what's gonna happen, but ultimately we're not told. But we are told that there's gonna be a temple there, right? And so, however it happens, and there's, mind you, there's plans for a temple. There's blueprints. In fact, the last, I've been keeping track, the last two or three years, they've been building all of the temple artifacts, all of the temple vessels and the utensils, they've rebuilt them. They've been conducting mock sacrificial ceremonies where they're seeing how much I think it was how much wood is needed to consume a sacrificed animal. And so they're, they're going through all these things. The plans are in place. What they need is the temple to be built and the, the sacrificial system to be, and they also have priests that are, that they found are part of the Levitical line and, uh, They're going to function in that capacity. So all the pieces are there. It's just simply waiting for that temple. Now, there's some possibilities there. Now, I think, number one, the Antichrist is going to want this temple built. And it's going to appear that, look, the Jews, look what I'm doing for you. You know, I'm going to let you build your temple. But what is in his mind? Build that temple so I can sit in it and you can all worship me. And so that's the end game for the future antichrist. Now we'll look at that more closely next week in some of the passages in Daniel. Number four, the man of sin displays power. Now, well, first of all, I'll read the text. Verse nine, the coming of the lawless one is according to the work of... Satan with all power signs and lying wonders. So what I want to mention here is you need to be careful attributing any sign or wonder or miracle to God. And here's why. Satan is capable of doing those things too. That's exactly what happened with Moses and Pharaoh's magicians. Moses would do a wonder, they would imitate it. Moses would do a wonder, they would imitate it. Now what's interesting there, if you look closely at what's happening, there's certain things that Moses does that they are not able to replicate. So what does that mean? There's power that God has that Satan doesn't have. I also might add that Satan can't do anything without God's permission. So God's gonna permit this signs and wonders in order for people to be deceived. In fact, look what Jesus says. This is on the last public sermon that Jesus gives on the Mount of Olives, chapter 24, verse 23. He says, then, he's talking about this seven year period of time, the day of the Lord or the tribulation. He says, then, if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ or there, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders for what purpose? To deceive. If possible, even the elect. In other words, even the saved individuals during the tribulation. Verse 25, see, I have told you beforehand. Therefore, if they say to you, look, he is in the desert, do not go out. Or look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it. And so I think the application for us is clear. If anyone's saying that today, it's not true. Because what did the angels say to the disciples when Jesus ascended into heaven? What did they say? Why do you gaze into heaven? Basically, you know what to do, get busy. But what did they say also? In the same manner he left, he's going to return. They saw him ascend into heaven. And in the same way, we're going to see him descend from where? Heaven. So where does that mean he's not going to be? The desert or the inner rooms. And so anyone who's saying that is deceiving. And they will deceive during that future period of time. And so Jesus says beforehand, don't believe it. So the man of sin displays power. Unbelievers will receive a great delusion. Again, we're gonna elaborate on this next week, but notice verse nine and then verse 10. And with all unrighteous deception, so those power signs and miracles, with all unrighteous deception among those who perish. Now, who's that? Because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. They're unbelievers. Verse 11, and for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. Now, just to briefly summarize, again, we're gonna elaborate. I think what this is talking about, the strong delusion, the individuals that receive this strong delusion will reach the point to where they will not be able to be saved. And that's gonna be a unique period of time during the tribulation. And what I think that is connected to is the mark of the beast. Because the antichrist is going to have individuals in order to buy and sell, receive a mark either on their forehead or their hand. And they can't do anything without that. And so the significance there is anyone who has the mark of the beast, if you've studied the book of Revelation, will be condemned. And next week, I want to hopefully encourage you because there's a lot of misconceptions about the Mark of the Beast for Christians today. You will not get it unknowingly. In other words, you can't be deceived into receiving the mark of the beast. So you shouldn't be as a Christian afraid that you might accidentally get the mark of the beast. Because the mark of the beast will be clearly the mark of the beast. You will know exactly what it is and you getting it will be saying, I worship the beast and his image. So I wanna mention that again, we'll look at it closer next week. But I wanna mention that because You can't be tricked into condemnation. If you're saved, you're saved. But the problem is God's going to, for the unbelievers, up until that point, He's going to give them strong delusion and they're going to believe. And at that point, basically it's done for them. They have chosen whom they will follow and they will be condemned with Him. Up until that point, there's hope. And that's why even in the tribulation, there's going to be people who believe. but those who received the mark of the beast in that future period of time will not be saved. Number six, the man of sin is destroyed. And we see this in verse eight, then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. Is there any effort involved there? With the breath of his mouth, and the sheer brightness of his coming. In other words, the glory of God alone is gonna be what defeats Satan. So we have to also get it out of our head, the misconception of, maybe you've seen it on Facebook, the image, the silly image of God wrestling the devil, arm wrestling, and oh, who's gonna win? It's a big tug-of-war match, it's neck and neck. What's the outcome? That's not it. God wins. And not only does he win, it's not even in question. And the only reason why it seems that Satan is prevailing is because God permits it. You know, there's another interesting thing that is revealed in the text where it says that the man of sin is restrained. Now, we're going to look at the restrainer next week. But if the man of sin is restrained, what does that mean about the person who's restraining him? He's greater than him, right? Satan can't overcome the restrainer. And so that's important. So the man of sin is destroyed. And then lastly, unbelievers are destroyed with him. So that's those who worship the beast and his image. They receive the mark of the beast. they will be destroyed along with Satan. And that's where, you know, there's passages in Revelation that talks about the great armies gathered against Israel to destroy them. And that's the scenario when Christ returns. Now, why Israel? Why are they destroying Israel? Because if they destroy Israel, they beat God. If you see scripture as a whole, what you see happen is God binds himself to Israel. And in fact, I love the passage in Jeremiah 31. He says, basically, who fixed the seasons? Who fixed the stars above, the foundation of the earth? The Lord of hosts is his name. And then he says, if you can destroy those things, then you can essentially destroy the nation of Israel from being a nation before me. What's the implication? They're not going to be destroyed as a nation before me. And so what does Satan need to do in order to beat God? Destroy Israel. What does he try to do? Destroy Israel. What is he not going to be able to do? Destroy Israel. And so they're going to wage war. It's an all out attack. They're going to seek to destroy Israel. And guess what? There's going to be the appearance of how can we beat this army? There's no way. Numerically, there's hundreds of millions of them. It's gonna be the biggest and greatest army that's ever been assembled. Who can win? Oh, I know. And that's the whole point because the whole point of the tribulation is number one, to judge the wicked. And number two, to discipline and prepare Israel for their king that they missed the first time he came. Because what did Jesus say? In Matthew chapter 23, he said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, those who kill the prophets, how often I wanted to gather you like a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. He came to them and he offered himself as king and they rejected him. So does that mean that he's done with Israel? No, because God covenanted himself to them. And so in response, the church age was born. And that's when we, what we're doing now is we're in the body of Christ. Well, there's gonna come that future period in time. And when the wrath of God is poured out and the disciplined hand of God is poured out, and it's going to cause Israel to finally look up Some scholars have said, you know, when all those armies are gathered against them, they're gonna look to their left, they're gonna look to their right, they're gonna look forward, they're gonna look back, seeking allies, anyone. America, you've been there for us. They won't be there. No one will come to their aid. Where do you finally go when you're at your last resort? We look up. You know, they call it foxhole Christianity. Well, they're gonna finally look up. And as Zachariah says, they will look on whom, the one whom they have pierced. and they will weep as if they lost their own children. And they're gonna look upon the Savior, they're gonna believe, and they're gonna be rescued by simply the breath of His mouth and the brightness of His coming. And that innumerable army is gonna be destroyed. I share that because, is that directly talking about us? Are we gonna be there during that time? No. But the same God doing that is your God. No matter what you're facing, no matter what innumerable army is before you, who's your God? Who is he? He's the creator. And he's good. He's infinitely good. And he protects those who are his. There's times where, yeah, you're permitted to stand in the oven, but guess who's with you? Himself. The unbelievers are destroyed, verse 10, and with all the unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned. Why? Why are they condemned? Because they didn't go to church. They didn't pay tithes. They didn't, they had foul language. did not believe the truth. What's the truth? That Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and he's the only way. The only way. They may, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in Unrighteousness. So the simple sequence, I hope it's simple. Paul is listing these things as simple examples that none of these things are happening, which means that the day of the Lord is not upon us because that's the big issue. He's correcting the error that the Thessalonians had that we're in the tribulation. We're in the day of the Lord. And this is why I wanted to preach through these two books, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, is because at the start of this year, when there was a novel coronavirus making its way, there were earthquakes here, there were wars there. What were people saying? It's the end of the world. Some of them were joking, but you know what? There's always a little bit of truth, right? I know from my family in Utah and friends in Utah, they were saying it and they were serious about it. In fact, I still see stuff that talks about the end of the world. But guess what? I know it's not the end quite yet because none of these things are happening. So by way of application, are you a believer? The application here is pretty straightforward because I think the implication that Paul is giving is if you're a believer, you're not gonna see any of those things. So therefore be encouraged because God has not appointed us to wrath and that future period of time is going to be his wrath. Number two, are you evangelizing? Because the time is short, I do believe so. In fact, some of the things we're gonna look at next week is gonna show that there are pieces in place. Now, does that mean it's immediate and we know exactly when it's gonna happen? No, because no one knows. But when you see a chess board with all the pieces laid out, the chair is there, the timer's set up, what does that tell you? That the game could start at any moment. And that's what we see. Lastly, are you living like Christ's return is any moment? This is something Amanda and I were talking about on the drive. What do you want to be found doing when Christ comes? Because it mentions a trumpet, it mentions the call of the archangel, but I think those are all synonymous. What does 1 Corinthians say about the transformation? We will be changed in a twinkling of an eye. That's pretty quick, right? So we were talking about that. What do you want to be found doing? Because we were talking about, you know, we're driving down the road, and what if, in a twinkling of an eye, I'm seeing the road before me, and then the next moment I see my Savior. And I'm in the clouds, in the air. And I see all of you, if you believed, up there with me. What do you want to be doing, though, in that moment? Because there's passages that talk about, we don't want to be ashamed before Him at our coming. And there's some things that we could be doing, dear Christians, that would bring shame. So this is motivation to always be walking in the Spirit, to be walking in the light as He is in the light, so that when He returns, we could be excited and it won't be doused by shame. We'll still be there, mind you, but we don't want to deal with shame. So this passage, Paul reviews eschatology next week. We're gonna look at each of those highlights that he mentions and try to elaborate because that's the initial presentation he would have given to them. It's important for us to know those things too. So we're gonna look at a little bit of Daniel, a little bit of Jesus's message on the Mount of Olives. Look at some of those passages and put the pieces together. And I pray that God will help that to to come together well and understandable. So let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the blessed hope of your imminent return. We pray, Lord, we'd be found faithful. And particularly, Lord, that we'd share the gospel with those who don't know you, our friends and family. You put us in their lives to share with them. And so give us bravery, give us courage, give us clarity. to communicate the simple good news that Your Son died on the cross for our sins, and that simply trusting in Him and Him alone, You give us eternal life. We thank You, Lord. We praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.