2 Thessalonians 2. Please turn if you would to 2 Thessalonians 2 in your Bible. We're going to continue our trek through Paul's letter to a distressed church this morning. The text before us this morning offers hope and words of encouragement and assurance. These are words that Paul gave to a church in his day that needed assurance. And here we read them almost 2,000 years later, still waiting in anticipation for their fulfillment. And so I invite you this morning to prepare to believe. And follow along with me, if you would, as we read the entirety of chapter 2 here in 2 Thessalonians. Paul writes, Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was with you, I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan and all power and false signs and wonders with all wicked deception. for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord. Because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Have you ever come so close to a desired opportunity that seemed like it was going to happen only for disappointment to set in? I know perhaps things come to your mind like they do in my mind of our past experiences that end up being lost opportunities. History itself testifies of scoreless counts of lost opportunities. And I want to read to you a section of one such opportunity that perhaps some of you are familiar with. In her biographical masterpiece entitled Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand recounts such an episode fleeting opportunity that seems to draw God into question for renowned World War II veteran Louis Zamperini, whose aircraft crashed into the Pacific, leaving he and only two others from his surviving crew members at the mercy of the ocean. Laura writes this in part three of her book. It was sometime early the next morning, May 30th, when Louis, Mack, and Phil heard a broad, deep rumble of B-24 engines, the sound of home. Then there it was, low and right overhead, a blunt-faced wail of a plane heading southeast, plowing through the clouds, disappearing and reappearing. It was a search plane. It was so near the rafts that Louis thought he recognized the insignia of their squadron, the 42nd on the plane's tail. Louis grabbed the flare gun, loaded it, and fired. The flare shot straight at the bomber, and for a moment, the men thought it would hit the plane. But the flare missed, passing alongside the plane, making a fountain of red that looked huge from the raft. Louis reloaded and fired again. The plane turned sharply right. Louis fired two more flares past the tail. The plane was Daisy Mae. Its crewmen were straining their eyes at the ocean, passing a pair of binoculars between them. Searching was difficult that day, with loaves of clouds closing and parting, offering the men only brief glimpses at the sea. Everyone felt a particular urgency. The missing men were their squadron mates and friends. If we ever looked for something on a mission, remembered Scarce, one of these men, that day we were looking. The flares spent themselves, and Daisy Mae flew on. No one aboard saw anything. The plane's pivot had only been a routine turn, and Louis, Phil, and Mac watched as Daisy Mae's twin tails grew smaller in the distance, then disappear. For a moment, Louis felt furious with the airmen who had just passed so close to them and yet had not seen them. But his anger soon cooled. From his days searching for missing planes, he knew how hard it was to see a raft, especially among clouds. And for all he knew, he too had overlooked rafts and raft-bound men below him. They were so close and yet so far away. It seemed so real, only for dismay to set in for these men. In the context here, of this passage in 2 Thessalonians reveals that Paul's audience were feeling similar heartache of a seemingly so sure opportunity that just seems to have just passed them by. Somehow these recipients of Paul's letters, they had some great misconceptions about the return of King Jesus, an event referred to as the day of the Lord. And these brothers and sisters Thought that they had missed it somehow. Now Paul doesn't go about really re-orchestrating the business, or go about the business of amending their understanding about what the Day of the Lord really meant. Rather, he gave them assurances so that he might recognize events that were going to happen beforehand. To assure them that this is not the case. Paul says to this persecuted church, as we saw last week, there's no need for despair, and this week, He tells this worried church that there's no need for alarm. Paul is writing to a group of believers who are seeking a reason for their persecutions. Don't we all seek reasons for our persecutions? And somewhere along the way, someone happened to suggest the idea, the deceitful idea, that perhaps their persecutions that they were facing happened to be the result of the aftereffects of the day of the Lord. Now for these believers to be experiencing the effects of the day of the Lord would mean a few things. And I'm just going to note two of those here. First of all, the day of the Lord would mean that Jesus Christ had appeared. And He was coming. And that He would have gathered those who believe in Him unto Himself. This is plainly what everyone reading this letter from Paul had in mind. And that's exactly what Paul says. Look at verse 1 again. He says, now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus and our being gathered together with Him. Everybody's thinking the same thing here. Jesus was going to come and gather His church. But secondly, the general testimony of Scripture indicates that the day of the Lord to be a day of great wrath and judgment in which God directs His just anger towards a sin-filled earth. A time filled with great hardship and trial. Hence, all the reason for alarm during their persecution, right? Or so these believers have been deceived into thinking. Those who had placed this thought into the hearts and the minds of these church members had taken a perfect opportunity to give an explanation for their persecution. And perhaps to justify some idleness that had crept into the church, which Paul addresses in chapter 3, and we'll look at next week. Everything seemed to match up with these lies that these people had given, except for one glaring issue. Where is Jesus? Where is Jesus? If the day of the Lord really has come, then either we've missed him or he's missed us. Talk about a cause for alarm, folks. Paul is very clear in how he addresses these lies. These lies that evidently had gone deep enough to where he felt like he needed to address them a second time. Paul says, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't believe these lies. Because first, as we read, the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, has to come on the scene. Has to even be born. And that has yet to be. Now there is much that could be said concerning this man of lawlessness. Paul takes several verses here that really is a big portion of this chapter. to give details concerning him and describing him and his influence that even we feel today. And I invite you, if you're interested, to consider Gabriel's words to Daniel, the prophet, in Daniel chapter 9, if you're interested in seeing how Paul's understanding of this man is rooted in the prophets of the Old Testament. But this much is clear. These Thessalonians were alarmed by news that they were experiencing persecution following the apparent return of Christ. This isn't what they had gathered from Paul's teaching in the past. And Paul says that. We've had this figured out before. Really, for these believers to hold any other view of Christ's return than that He would gather them away from wrath doesn't seem to warrant any alarm, because if Christ had come, and gathered his believers and truly returned to the earth. And they don't need to worry. They just need to find out where he is on the earth. No, I truly believe these believers were truly anticipating the grace of God's deliverance. And they thought that they had somehow been overlooked. And that caused great alarm. Now, I know that any talk of eschatology brings with it many questions, justify disagreements and different opinions. And I want to say that many good theologians and pastors sit with differing opinions on this matter. But what we do see here, and what the focus of this message this morning is for us, is the same alarm that we have in our hearts when we feel like we've missed Jesus or He's missed us. Because nothing worries a believer like the thought that maybe, just maybe, God tried and God failed. And so we look to the challenge Paul gives in light of this alarm and we see a call to stand firm. There is no greater flaw within us than that which causes us to doubt God's character. And so we look then to verses really 13 through 17 this morning. where Paul seeks to fortify our hearts with words of encouragement. And there are, I believe, two thrusts really to Paul's words here in the remaining verses. The first is this, that God has chosen you to stand firm in the salvation of Jesus Christ. And why is this so important to remember? Because the salvation that we have in Christ is our guarantee that God never fails. That He didn't miss the mark with us. That He doesn't overlook us. Look with me if you would at verse 13 again. Paul says, But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved. We see here that we are saved through the sanctification of the Spirit, the remaining words of the verse says. It says, through the sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. And this sanctification, this process of change, takes us from where we are to where we ought to be. When we're tempted to think that God has failed, we must remember that it is He who in His divine foreknowledge chose us. as His first fruits. A common translation of this phrase says that He chose us from the beginning. Perhaps some of your Bible translations have that there. This carries the same idea. It credits God with really being the only character in the situation who has the resume to look back and weigh in on who really is faithful here. See, God chose us, not the other way around. There is nothing within us that would have produced these first fruit kind of material things in our lives. We would not have ever chosen God because we were slaves to sin. Helpless. Do we really believe that we are this bad? This side of redemption, and those of you who are believers, we like to look back on this and say, oh well, I would have chosen the right way. You know how often we deceive ourselves into thinking that We wouldn't have made the same mistake as Adam and Eve. It's a shame I wasn't the first one made. What a great deception. What a great deception. God, in His marvelous grace, picks us out and He picks us up from where we started and He carries us along to where we ought to go. When we're tempted to doubt God's character, Paul calls us back to faith. Hold to this. It is God who has chosen us, and in so doing, it would seem He's putting His character on the line, right? To dabble with the likes of us. And perhaps that's why we doubt Him so often. But God has proven Himself over and over and over again. He does not miss the mark. He does not fail. And that's what this transformation is all about in God choosing us, this sanctification. This term here in verse 13, perhaps it's new to some of you. This is the process where the Spirit of God takes the Word of God to change us into the image of the Son of God, all for the glory of God. I think it's a helpful understanding of what this is talking about here when Paul says, you've been saved through sanctification by the Spirit. Again, this is where the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and changes us into the image of the Son of God for the glory of God. And so we also see the sanctification imparts the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Often discredited or misunderstood or misrepresented, the Holy Spirit is the person of the Godhead that actually carries this transformation process out in our lives. Ministering comfort through the power of the Word and He gives us strength through the equipping of spiritual gifts to the believers. It's really fitting for Paul to remind these believers of the Holy Spirit's work. Not just because it seems like a good theological argument. But from these words, Paul is speaking to a group who, what? They were discouraged about the coming of the Lord. And what Paul says here, he points them back to words of Jesus, when Jesus gave words concerning his departure. If you want, you can turn with me, but I'll read the words here from John chapter 16, where Jesus says these words, verses 7 through 11 of chapter 16 in John. He says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, this is Jesus, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. But if I go, Jesus says, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. How fitting. Paul reminds us of the vital role of the Holy Spirit in this age for us. I just come to wonder, have we forgotten the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Jesus says the Holy Spirit will bring conviction here. What an important ministry! Conviction! Conviction is the awareness of one's position compared to the standard. And that's why he says he's going to convict us of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will not see me any longer." Well, what does that mean, Jesus? Jesus is the true picture of righteousness. And when He's gone, we need someone else to point us to Him. So God imparts the Holy Spirit to us. So the Holy Spirit, hopefully daily in the believer's life, if you're walking in the Spirit, He's bringing to what in front of you every day? A picture of Jesus. the righteousness of Jesus that we have been robed in. It's also the Holy Spirit who gets the credit for our self-assessment of sin and depravity. Right? It is the Holy Spirit who regenerates us. And apart from His regenerating work, we would have never confessed our sin. We never would have confessed our sin. We never would have tasted the new life that we now have in Jesus. It's also the Spirit who now indwells us This is the great distinction that we hopefully recognize from what we were before we were believers. What a difference there should be. Do you understand? We're different fundamentally in our being, in our outlook on life, because of the Holy Spirit's indwelling us. It's almost a shame, I think, when we say, when we talk even to kids, we really hurt their theology when we say, you need to accept Jesus into your heart. Why don't we ask them to accept the Holy Spirit into their lives? Jesus doesn't enter our hearts. Jesus would say, no, no, no, look at John 16. It's right there. We discredit the Holy Spirit. And that's the one who Jesus refers to as the helper. Also that term there is the idea of being the comforter who comforts our hearts. And that's who Paul was directing these Thessalonian believers to, is the comforter. look to the Holy Spirit. And I believe also, along with... We could spend all day, all week here thinking of all the things the Holy Spirit has done in our lives that we often discredit. But I think it's also the work of the Holy Spirit that Paul was referring to in verses 6 and 7 where he's describing the man of lawlessness and all this. Where he says there's this restraining of the mystery of lawlessness. And though we feel the attacks of Antichrist today, Paul says here, this lawlessness is already at work. We see it's being held back by someone. I believe this is to be the Holy Spirit. And we've felt this throughout the ages in many ways, our brothers and sisters in Christ. There's always been figures, and we'll allude to this later on when we see even some current examples of this. And I'm not going around labeling people, but I see here And generally, just as Paul is saying, this mystery of lawlessness is held packed by the preserving work of the Holy Spirit. And it's a blessed ministry that he has. It's a comforting ministry that the Holy Spirit has. And I think we far too often disregard it. And secondly, we also see this salvation. Paul reminds us that we're saved through belief in truth. We're saved through belief in truth. Look at the last part there, verse 13 again with me. It says, to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. First thing I want to note here is, from what we see in Paul's words and the testimony of Scripture, is that those who God has chosen will encounter and will embrace the truth. There's no room to get lost in between. There's no reason to be alarmed here. To be afraid that somehow you believe, but you can't be saved because, I don't think I'm part of the elect. Paul says, there's no reason to be alarmed. There's no falling in between the cracks. Those who encounter and embrace the truth are God's chosen people. You haven't missed Jesus. He hasn't missed you. If you truly believe, you testify to God's gracious choosing. And this is where we also see just, there is a wonderful interaction between both the divine and the human elements within this salvation. It's a gracious work of God in us. Scripture emphasizes the importance of both these elements and recognizing them both. The divine grace of election is revealed through the active faith of the believer. Man never would have willed to choose God because we were sinners. We were captivated in sin. We were prisoners to sin. We were helpless in choosing our own way over and over and over and over again. Making us responsible for all the choices that we make and exposing us to the just anger of God's law. That's not a good place to be, but God chose us. And so saving us through the atonement of Jesus and the regeneration of the spirit. And he grants us faith to practice faith. He grants us faith to practice faith. Paul says, don't you forget it. Cling to this. Stand firm in this. There is no need for alarm. Jesus never misses the mark. And there's a beautiful portrait really here in these verses that we see. In verse 13, we see this painting here of the Godhead. All in its full interaction of the three in one here at the work of salvation. God graciously choosing assures us that He never fails. But next, we move on to verse 14, where we recognize, secondly, this morning, that God has called you to stand firm in the glory of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 14 with me, if you would. That is, this salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in its truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So why is this point here so important to remember? Because what Jesus Christ has done is nothing less than glorious. There is no more beautiful picture. There is no greater story out there. This is most glorious, assuring us that He is, as we saw last week, mighty to save. What a beautiful thought. Jesus Christ is mighty to save. He will not disappoint us. He will not miss the mark. This glory impacts us in two huge ways. This glory points us back to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We find ourselves in light of this glory looking back constantly. Because the gospel is the power of God into salvation. So there is no other way to be reconciled to God but through Jesus Christ. That's what Paul says here. To this salvation, he called you through our gospel. He didn't say, he called you through many different ways. It's through the gospel of Jesus Christ we have any hope of glory. There is no other way to be reconciled to God but through Jesus Christ. It says, to this He called you through our Gospel. Paul is preaching of no other Gospel than of Jesus' atonement. And if Paul is saying the word, are there, our Gospel, if it concerns you, take a look at what Paul means when he says that in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says these words, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the Gospel I preach to you. He's talking to other believers, other brothers and sisters, in Corinth. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believe in vain. For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received. Here is the gospel, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me." This is the gospel Paul priest wherever he went, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. May we make this gospel our own, as Paul calls it, our gospel. Have you ever told someone the gospel to be able to say, hey, you remember that gospel that I told you? Paul here is speaking of a great wealth of a life in which he invested all his being into the preaching and the teaching, the dispatching and the living out of this gospel. There's nothing else that anybody else would have gathered from Paul's life in the transformation of this gospel. In verse 15, Paul also associates the gospel with another term. Look at verse 15. It says, So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us. Either by our spoken word or by our letter. Paul companions the Gospel with teachings that should be traditional. That is, things passed on. We even see that in that 1 Corinthians passage. Hold fast to the word I preach to you. He preached all these things. Wherever he says that Christ died for our sins in accordance With the Scriptures, he's talking about all doctrine that's been passed down to us. And so we see here the Gospel is the most sacred thing among traditions. The Gospel is the most sacred among traditions. It seems anymore that the word tradition gets a bad rep in our churches. And here we see Paul committing this church with traditions. And He's compelling them to not let them slip. The Gospel and the teachings that Paul had received were to be passed on. And so we should contend for traditions today that have their origin in God. We should be dogmatic concerning the doctrines of the faith. The things that have been passed down to us. Just thinking of Paul's use of this term, tradition, brings to my mind what we celebrate this year, even in 500 years, living in light of the Reformation. The things that these, as we heard Sunday night, we were reminded by Josh, of these men and these women who have shed their blood so that they could literally pass us on these things. Don't let them slip. Don't let them slip. And it's funny because in a message that's entitled, No Need for Alarm, we do see here a place for alarm. For as much as a bad rep as tradition gets, and there are many accusations that are justified against certain traditions, traditions certainly do provide what I call spiritual guardrails. Spiritual guardrails. that any gospel-loving believer should greatly enjoy and appreciate. You ever think of those two words when you think about traditions? It's funny because we do, actually. If it's about society traditions or things. Until we talk about church traditions. Then all of a sudden we get this sour look upon our faces. These are things that are meant to guard. When their origin is of God, they are not things to be discarded. We are to enjoy and appreciate them. Paul says, stand firm, cling tightly to these things. We also see something else about this glory that we're granted in Christ through this sanctification. This glory keeps us reaching forward. Just as much as we always need to look back on the gospel and remember where our foundation is, it causes us to reach forward and press on. The push of verse 14 is that we may obtain the glory of Jesus. This is something still far out. This gospel is something recognized, but not fully gained. Not fully experienced. And the reason for the great alarm in this church stems from what? These believers had thought they missed out on that glory. Their hearts were in the right place, but their understanding was, it had been distorted by deceit. And they were afraid that they were missing out on the thing that had captivated them to move forward in life. The thing that Paul, as we saw last week, he gives thanks in chapter one. He does that even here in chapter two, verse 13. We ought to always give thanks for what God's doing. They were pressing forward. So this glory of Jesus should always press us onward. And I wonder, do we do this in America today? We ascribe the word glory to so many other things, it seems, that just cheapens what Jesus has accomplished and where Jesus is today. And while we certainly do possess the Spirit's answer to the blood, as the hymn says, of Jesus, I hope that we all have a growing desire to be with Jesus. Is there anything more in life that you ever want but to be with Jesus? This we have been assured of, but we have yet to enjoy it. So can you not wait to be with Jesus? It's a fitting question for us this morning. Do we live with an anticipation for Christ's return just as these believers and Thessalonians We also see that this glory that keeps us reaching forward, it reminds us of the resurrection and how it serves as the guarantee of the gospel. What keeps us going on is we have a guarantee. And our guarantee is that God doesn't forget. Remember, these believers, just as we often today, we think God tried, God failed. God said He was going to do this. Where is He? God doesn't forget. And we connect this to the gospel. Because He didn't leave Christ's body to corruption, it says. Christ didn't finish the work on the cross. God said, OK, got that done. Oh, His body! God doesn't forget. And so Christ's resurrection is the guarantee of the good news. Listen again to the words of verse 14. He says, To this He called you through our gospel, that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This glory is only attainable because Christ is resurrected. He's defeated the grave. You cannot get to Jesus apart from the Gospel. And how do we know that it's true? For all eternity, how do we know that that's really what happened after lifetimes have gone by? It's because we will look upon one for all eternity, from our resurrected bodies, we'll look on one who still has scars. We'll always look to our Lord and remember the wonderful story of the Gospel. and we will live continuously with gratitude and thankfulness. You see, the gospel will never be forgotten because we have a resurrected Lord. There's no chance of this story getting out of sorts or mixed up, for we will be with Jesus. And there are many today, as we come to an application before we close, There are many today who preach another Jesus, and this does call for alarm. There are people today who preach that there is no need for Jesus, and this is a reason for alarm as well. So one application, I think, for us is in light of the world around us that says, you can just let this all pass. Religion is just a hindrance in society, is that we must not let these things that have been passed on to us slip away. We must contend for the faith. Just a few days ago, many of us were horrified to see the religious testing that we saw given by the infamous Bernie Sanders to a Christian office man seeking a public position. Condemning him because he believes that apart from faith in Christ, we stand condemned. And again, I look to verse 7 of this chapter, which we didn't really look too much at, but we see the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. And it's not just in people like him. It was in people like Nero and Caesar. It's people like Hitler, the Saddam Husseins of the world. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work, it says in verse 7. But thanks be to God for His Holy Spirit who suppresses this. I think we catch glimpses of this work of lawlessness when we think of those things, but if there's anything that in this passage should prompt us to do, it should, in light of all these things, it should prompt us to be thankful for the restraining, comforting, sealing, enabling, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. If you walk out of here today with nothing else, please walk out thankful for the Holy Spirit. And in closing, I think it's worth noting even Paul's remarks in verse 13, which we didn't really touch on too much, where he says, but we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God shows you, here's a simple challenge, not given by Paul to these people, but Paul says, you guys are a challenge to me, that he would be thankful to God for his work in their lives. And what a way for us to live in light of the Gospel that we would live so as to prompt other people to be grateful. So often we focus on how we should be grateful. But our lives should just simply be radiating that so much so that other people are thankful for that influence that you've had on their life. For the glory of God. And what glory there is in putting Jesus on display. And the final application here I want to note is that we must continue to live with the Gospel at the forefront of our hearts and minds. We must preach the Gospel to ourselves every single day. For when we're tempted to think that God tried and He didn't show up, or that God said He would do this and it didn't happen, we need to believe enough about ourselves that we don't see the full picture. We need to be pointed again to faith, the faith that God has given us, the faith He calls us to practice, and that's the same echo Paul gives us here as he calls us to stand firm in who our God is. Let's pray and ask God to help us do that this week. Lord, we thank You for the assurances that we have in Christ Jesus. We thank You that we can be assured of Your coming. Lord, what a beautiful picture, a tender picture, I'm sure, in your eyes as you look down, and you see these believers who are eager for your return, and their great anticipation got the best of them. They caved into deceit. They swallowed the lies of those around them, and it prompted within them doubts about you, Lord. It is the same story from the first fall in which your character came under attack. God, give us faith to embrace that you are a God who keeps our soul. What a theme this morning. You keep us. You don't let us slip away. You don't miss the mark. You don't fail us. God, help us. Lord, with these things you've entrusted to us, may we be people who don't let them slip. We don't let the times and society erode away Your priceless truth, but Lord, we've been entrusted with these things to pass them on, that they would be the true traditions of the faith. Lord, we thank You this morning for the restraining work of the Holy Spirit in this world that is so polluted with lies and deceit, and what it says here, lawlessness. Lord, Your time for the day of the Lord is yet to come, and we thank You for the work of the Holy Spirit. How He brings comfort in our lives. How He enables us. He empowers us. And He comforts us and helps us. He groans for us in ways that we are unable to groan. We don't know what to say to you. We need you. He's interceding for us. Lord, we thank You for His regenerating work. And so we must live, Lord, in light of the Gospel. Lord, bring this picture before our hearts and our minds every single day. Lord, these men and women These boys and girls in this room here, they're going to walk out today and they're going to be bombarded with things that draw them away from the Gospel. They're going to be drawn away by things that cause them to doubt You. Lord, we don't even have to try to do that. And so, Father, I pray in Your grace that You would grant them faith. That You would, Lord, bring the Gospel to bear in our lives every single day. We pray, Lord, as we go out And as even we come back tonight to hear of Your work, this same work in other parts of the world, how the Holy Spirit is at work in regenerating hearts, Lord, it gives those people we've never met the same hope that we're looking to in Christ, and they are our brothers and sisters. And so we pray for them even now, that You'd encourage their hearts with these same words of Paul, that we would stand firm to the things that You've entrusted to us. We pray in Jesus' name.