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On October the 3rd, 2010, we
began a study here at Grace out of the book of Acts with a message
entitled, And we have been since that time,
for the most part, studying verse by verse this narrative account
of the history of the early church. In March of this year, on March
the 18th, that study sprang us into a study of prophecy and
prophets, which consumed some weeks all the way to the end
of May. Then in June we did a series speaking to our young men and
women entitled Making the Most of Our Time. And in July, you
have heard referenced already, we benefited from the teaching
of the elders here. And now we want to head back
to Acts. But we won't get there this morning.
In fact, I want to build a bridge, as it were, from where we left
off concerning prophecy and prophets to where we will begin next week
back in the book of Acts. We live in a time that expresses
great contradiction. On the one hand, we live in an
outward world that is absolutely filled with brilliance and great
achievement. Technology abounds everywhere. It moves at a pace that is almost
blinding. Commerce now spreads across all
cultural and geographical borders, and increasingly, everyone has
access to everything. and we have access to it now. That's the world we live in.
But on the other hand, the contradiction is that we live in a world that
is so busy, so busy with us making way for ourselves, so busy with
us consumed by all of those opportunities and all of those possible accomplishments.
We live in a culture that is abusive to human spirit. We want
all of the abundance. We want all of the affluence. We want all of the choices. But
the cost to our spirits is heavy. And sometimes it is unbearable. Never have we lived in a time
where the outward world just keeps moving on and on and pressing
in and in to the destruction and the despair of so many millions
of people. In so many ways, our world seems
artificial. And the effect on our psyche
is measurably destructive. Distress and despair increasing
at alarming rates. There is a sense in which people,
I think most people, feel lost in the mass of it all. What I
mean by that, the mass marketing, the mass media, the mass distribution
of everything mass. And all of it's designed and
is very effective in reaching the masses. but it has very little
interest in you. It has very little interest in
me. It's not really designed to meet the needs of any individual.
We have become in this period psychological vagrants. We've
become so isolated, so fiercely independent. There is a sense
in which we could say we are homeless in greater and greater
numbers. But something quite remarkable
has been happening in this same period of time, in this same
context. It's spreading much like, well,
the rest of the mass-dominated cultural things are spreading.
It too is happening across all cultural borders, across all
geographical lines. What is that thing that is spreading
at such a rapid pace? It's the explosion of all things
spiritual. Suddenly everyone is spiritual.
There is, I think it can be fairly said, a mass spirituality that's
going on with all the other mass that's going on. But something
needs to be said. A clarity has to be urged because
this mass spirituality is, for the most part, very, very dangerous. I want to help you to see that.
There are two types of spirituality in life. There always have been.
This is not a new thing. These two types are different.
They are distinct. Whereas they can both, I guess,
fairly be called spiritual, the reality is they are enemies of
one another. They are not to be considered
the same thing. The differences can really be
simply stated. It's not so confusing that the youngest here can't
understand it. You see, one starts from above and moves down. The other begins below and tries
to move up, or sometimes, increasingly, just to move in. One starts with
God and reaches into sinful creatures and fallen creation. The other
starts in the human mind, in the human consciousness, and
it tries to reach up to God, to make a connection with something
divine. By now, most of you could say
with me, very simply then, that one of them is Christian, And
the other one is pagan. These are the two types of spirituality
today. They've always been the two types of spirituality. They
are distinctly different. And if I put it up in front of
you this way, one being Christian and one being pagan, you do understand
they are enemies. They are not co-patriots. Throughout
the Old Testament, and we saw this a little in our study of
the prophets, throughout the Old Testament, this earthly, creaturely,
pagan worship and its influence is evidenced. And the fact that
it is an enemy against God's people is also evident. It's
always there. It's always courting the people
of God. It was luring Israel to follow
its path. It was paganism and it had a
huge attraction and it crossed all borders and all boundaries
and all cultures and it found very little resistance even among
the people of God. Most of us as Christians, as
we study our Old Testament, we relate to that paganism when
we read the sacrifices of children to Molech or the battle of the
priests against Elijah there on the mountain. We relate to
those extreme expressions of that kind of paganism. But there's
something underneath all of that extreme expression, and what's
underneath it is this undergirding assumption that is the foundation
of all paganism, and that is that human beings are required
to reach out to God. That somehow we have to appease
Him, lure Him, attract Him, or make ourselves attractive to
Him. And you've heard already this morning of the vainness
of that. But it's there and it's a part
of all forms of paganism. And it's not just there in the
Old Testament, it was also there in the New Testament. There was
always the presence in every city where the gospel spread,
in every place where the message began to expand, there was always
the battle against paganism. It could be dressed in Jewish
clothes sometimes. It could be dressed in Greek
clothes or Roman clothes. It didn't matter what clothes
it was wearing. It was always the same thing. It was the culture.
It was paganism. And it was opposing the spread
of the gospel. And it would move, if necessary,
in violent reaction to the people of the gospel. It was man. And it was man trying to get
to God. and it's happening still today. And today it doesn't matter
the clothes either. It doesn't matter the priest
that's peddling it. It doesn't matter if it's Deepak
or Oprah or Phil. It doesn't matter if he's dressed
up like Osteen. It's paganism. It's demonic. It is men and women trying to
lead fallen men and women to God, to the divine, to otherness. Men who stood to declare the
truth of God, the truth about man, Men who establish what genuine
spirituality looks like, which is a God above and beyond all
fallenness, a God who is entirely other than a God who is holy,
who motivated only by his love chooses to reach into sinful
man and draw him to himself and provide a relationship with that
man through the sacrifice of his son. Men who stand and declare
that truth. Those men have always been rare.
Those people have always been opposed. The apostles told that
story. They stood in the midst of confrontation
and paganism. And they said, wait a minute.
This isn't true. You cannot reach God, but praise
be to God. He has reached man. He has come
even in the form of man. And as soon as the apostles died,
the church would be embattled, fighting to defend that faith,
that truth, genuine spirituality against all other forms, all
of which are paganism. Questions began to expose themselves. Would the church Would the church
think of its faith as a grace of God coming from above, being
incarnated in the Son of God? Would the church see Christ conquering
sin and death on the cross? Would the church insist against
all the cultural and the profound, powerful pressures of the culture
that there was absolutely nothing that sinners could do to reach
God? Would the church, after the apostles died, defend that
faith, the faith that says you cannot reach Him, you cannot
appeal to Him, you cannot appease Him, you cannot lure Him? Would
the church defend the timeless and eternal spirituality the
only genuine spirituality that insists that God must reach down
to us through His Son. Because if He does not, we have
no hope. We have no hope and we are in reality homeless, empty,
and despairing. And in the 21st century, the
church is engaged in no less stark a struggle. Or is she? It seems that though it looks
a little different today, it's still there. And what I want
you to understand, church, is that the stakes are very high. You see, today the world speaks
less of reaching up to God and much more of reaching in, right?
That's the word today. You reach in to find God. There
we are told by the world. There we are told the lie. that
we'll find the answers to the sacred. It's there in us, we
are told, that we'll find the peace that we so desperately
need. And sadly, listen to me, sadly, the church increasingly
today uses the very same language. You see, the apostles fought
for the church, and they fought for the faith. And in doing so,
they established, by God's divine inspiration, doctrines that were
fit to defend that faith. And they use language to express
those truths. Language like election and predestination
and atonement and propitiation. This list of words that you see
in front of you, not new words I hope to you, but foreign words
to very many who call themselves Christians. Words like the effectual
call and regeneration and justification and repentance. These were important
words. These are important truths. These
are the bastions that the church has always used to defend herself.
and to defend the truth that she believes. But now in their
place in so many churches are far less, well, dogmatic terms,
much more sensitive words, much more loving ideas. We fill our
pulpits today with self-talk, with therapeutic ideas, with
comforting phrases that might make you, it is espoused, to
be a better husband, It might improve your sex life. It'll
advance your career positions. Anything you want or need, go
ahead, it can be that. You see it everywhere. It's on
the cover of every magazine. It's on all the TV chatter, those
of you that spend time in front of the TV. You hear it from your
coaches of your kids. You hear it from their teachers.
You hear it at the water fountain. And again, so sad, you can probably
hear some of it here this morning. As we share doughnuts together
later. Oh, we don't have doughnuts this week, but whatever we share
together. You see, you need to understand
that the biggest enabler of all this has become the church. This
is the message she's peddling now. You can have it all. You can have it now. And worship
and song and music is all designed to be self-talk. There's no text
in it. I was told a few weeks ago by
a by a very discerning brother of Christ. And you know what?
He's right. There's no text in it anymore. There's no truth
in it anymore. But the crowds come and they
bring with them their money, and so fewer and fewer are standing
and sounding the alarm. Fewer and fewer are standing
up and saying, wait a minute, that's paganism. That's not Christianity. But we must warn, mustn't we?
And we must be warned, and a part of that is, well, my task. Because this plausible and compelling
and innocent and even commendable version of Christianity is winning
today. And we're losing. You knew that,
right? We're losing. In the end, we will win. But
in the meantime, we seem to be celebrating a Christianity that
is entirely disconnected from the truth. And when that happens,
you need to understand what is left is not Christian, and it
is not spiritual. The modern church wants a version
of Christianity that allows for man to take the center, for man
to be the reason for it all. And you need to understand that
doesn't happen immediately. It happens in progression. And
though it remains offensive to some of you, we will continue
to declare to you that the gray areas that are masqueraded, sometimes
called Arminianism, are steps in the wrong direction. It makes
man center in the eternal consequences of life. So we will continue
to pull you to a God who is above all of that and sovereign over
all of that. and whose energy and effect is
our only hope. Turn with me in your Bibles to
2 Thessalonians. Perhaps you were wondering if
I forgot how to tell you to do that in the last six weeks, but I
didn't. Find 2 Thessalonians if you would
with me. And I want us to go through this
text fairly quickly in the time that I have left so that we can
get a perspective. I want you to see the overarching principle
that's in view in this text. So 2 Thessalonians chapter 2,
if your Bible's open, look with me at verse 1. Now we request
you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly
shaken. from your composure or be disturbed
either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to
the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let me interrupt
here. Paul says he doesn't want you
to be shaken. He doesn't want me to be shaken.
In this case, he doesn't want the church at Thessalonica to
be shaken. And the area where he is concerned most is that
they would be shaken, the Thessalonians, around this idea of the day of
the Lord. I don't want you to be shaken about that. And Paul
says there are some out there who might actually be shaking
you about the day of the Lord. In other words, there are some
out there who will lie to you and deceive you and distort this
whole idea of the day of the Lord, of the coming of Christ.
This idea that the church, in the church, there are some who
would twist and pervert, and in this case, who would say that
it's happened already, that you just missed it. And so you may
assemble yourselves as Christians, and you may call yourself the
church at Thessalonica, but you know, this whole day of the Lord
thing that is your hope, that moves you forward, it happened
already. And Paul is telling them, it hasn't happened already.
I don't want you to be shaken in that way. I don't want you
to be deceived. So Paul's talking about the future. Do you understand
that? He's talking about the future. He's talking about a
time that all Christians have always looked forward to, and
that is the day of the Lord. That is when He will come and
we will all be assembled together at the marriage supper of the
Lamb. And he says, I don't want you to be shaken when people
try to rob you of that hope. And they will do that. They will
try to confuse you. I want you to long for it. I
want you to be anxious for it. So that's what Paul's talking
about. Now look what he says, verse 3. Let no one deceive you
in any way. Let no one in any way deceive
you. Because it, the day of the Lord, that day, that idea of
the coming back of Christ to assemble the saints together,
it will not come unless the apostasy comes first. And the man of lawlessness
is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself
above every so-called God or object of worship so that he
takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as
being God, Do you remember that while I was still with you, I
was telling you these things? Paul says, you shouldn't be deceived. Why? Because we talked about
this. You shouldn't let this thing happen where you get confused
about your hope and about your future because we covered this
already. That's what he's saying. I spent like a week in that,
maybe he would say, or get a copy of the CDs. You can re-remember
what we talked about. This isn't new news. told you
that it will not happen until some things happen. And he gives
bullet points and we read them. Let's let me give them to you
real quickly. First of all, there has to be a falling away. There
has to be an apostasy. Secondly, this man of lawlessness
has to be revealed. He's going to have to be recognized
and noticed. And he gives the characteristics
of that man. He's the son of destruction. He opposes all things
God. But more than that, he exalts
himself above every other so-called God and will pretend that he
is God and seat himself in the very temple of God. That has
to happen, he says, before all of this is going to be done and
we will sit together and celebrate together with our Lord. In other
words, the day of the Lord can't come until the end of Christ
comes. That's what Paul is teaching. Now, it's not my task to give
you an eschatological reminder today or a primer. That's not
where I'm going. Let's just keep going here, okay?
What Paul says here is, I've talked about this. By the way,
he talked about it a lot. If you would, just keep your
mark there, but go right and find 1 Timothy chapter 4. Do
this real quickly, 1 Timothy chapter 4. Just go right in your
Bible and you'll run into it. Look at verse 1. Listen to the
familiar language from the same pen and, more importantly, from
the same heart, which is the heart of God. God says, the Spirit
explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from
the faith. They will pay attention to this
deceitful spirit and the doctrines of demons. There will be all
kinds of hypocrisy, He says in verse 2, and their consciences
will be seared, and so they'll lead people into religion, verse
3. You can't marry this, you got to marry that. You can't
eat this, you got to eat that. Right? He's going to do that.
And we, look at the end of verse 3, the ones who know the truth
will know better. But that's not how it looks.
We'll recognize that that's got a name and it's called paganism.
And we won't go there. Go over to 2 Timothy real quickly.
Find chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and look
at verse 16. 2 Timothy 2.16, Paul says you
need to avoid some things, and one of those things he says you
need to avoid is worldly and empty chatter, because it'll
just lead to further ungodliness. Chatter like what? Well, before
that, chatter like this, the chatter that spreads like gangrene.
How many of you want gangrene this morning? No hands go up.
Smart people. So you need to avoid gangrene. How do you do that? Well, spiritually
speaking, you don't listen to this empty chatter. Men like
Hymenaeus and Philetus. He named names. What kind of
guy would do that? The apostles would do that. That's
who would do that. Men of the truth would do that. And they
would say, there are people out there lying. Notice what they're
lying about, verse 18. They've gone astray from the
truth and they're lying about the day of the Lord. They're
telling you that it's happened already, that the resurrection
has already taken place. And guess what they're doing?
They're upsetting the faith of lots of people. So you see, when
Paul says to the Thessalonians, we talked about this, what he
means is, we talked about this. I talk about it all the time,
Paul says. Just one more reference, go to
chapter 3 there in 2 Timothy verse 1. Realize in the last
days difficult times will come. Well, what will it look like?
We're going to have these boastful, arrogant pagans who are going
to come and peddle their lies, verse 4, because they love their
pleasures more than they love the true and living God. They
will be holding, verse 5 says, to a form of godliness, but they're
denying the power of the godliness. And you need to avoid those people.
And he says, there are those kind of people who actually will
come into your house. and they will captivate you by
their lies. And they will lead you into sin,
especially, he says, women. And that's another sermon for
another time, but there's an especially. vulnerable position in humankind
among believers, and they're called women, which is why they
need peculiar protection against these things. But here they are,
and they're leading women away. And they're leading women away
because they cannot ever come, verse 7, to the knowledge of
the truth. You see, there's a corrective
for this. There's a wall for this. There's
a bastion for this. And it's the truth. That's your
protection. There are men like Janice and
Jambres, and they oppose Moses. And there are these same kind
of men who oppose the truth today, he says in verse 8. They're depraved
in their mind. They're rejects. And what they're
rejects for is because they rejected the faith. Look at verse 9, though,
please. You should have this underlined
in your Bible. But they will make no further progress. In other words, listen, they're
there, they've always been there, but they can't go very far. They will run into something,
a wall that they cannot penetrate. Do you understand what that wall
is that they will run into, which will stop their progress, though
they will always be there and always be trying to influence
you and me and the church? Do you understand the wall that
they'll run into? We'll go back over to our text, back to 2 Thessalonians,
and let's see the wall. 2 Thessalonians 2 is where we were,
look at verse 5. Do you not remember that while
I was with you, I was telling you these things? And I always
told you these things, verse 6. And you know what restrains
him now. So that in his time, or we could
better say in God's time for him, he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness
is already at work, only he who now restrains, there it is a
second time, will do so until he's taken out of the way. Now
listen, church, what's Paul teaching us here? He's teaching us of
this pervasive nature of the corruption of truth. And it comes
on lying lips that are dressed up like churchmen in order to
deceive you and to deceive me. And the song they're singing
is pure and simple paganism. Here's how man can get to God.
But the defense against that, the restraint, notice, what's
holding it back, literally holding back the Antichrist, but restraining
the spirit of the Antichrist, which is already evident, the
spirit of lawlessness, what holds it back is, look what it says,
he, he now restrains it. Verse 6, what restrains him?
Verse 7, he now restrains him. Well, what's restraining this?
What's holding it back from just taking over? Well, some would
say nothing because it looks like it's taking over. Well,
something's holding it back. Some have said an angel's holding
it back. Now understand, this is a supernatural, demonic force
that we have in view, and the question is, maybe an angel could
hold it back. I don't think it's an angel holding
it back, because in the book of Jude, the archangel, most
would say the almighty, powerful angel, Michael, says, I ain't
holding him back. I don't contend with Satan. I'm not able to do
that. Well, some would say, well, it
was the Jews that held it back. That doesn't work well. Just
read your Bible, basically. So what's holding them back?
What's holding this thing at bay, this cultural pressure that
seems to be pressing in and is leading to so much despair and
so much difficulty in the human condition today? What's holding
it back? He is, it says there. It's not
enough for me. Is it capital H, little h? Let's
talk about it. Some have said it's the people
of the church. Which one of you wants to put that uniform on?
Bill, you want to hold it back? No. You wanna hold it back, Richard? No way! No, it's not the people
of the church, but there is a force powerful enough to hold it back.
You know what it is? It's THE church. Not the people of the
church, but the power of the people of the church. And you
can see that. You can see it in the pronouns
even. I want you to see that. Notice verse 7 says, He now restrains
him. There's personality in it. We
see that. Look at verse 8, then the lawless
one will be revealed whom the Lord, that's the Lord, maybe
he's the he, and when he finally does come, well, he'll be destroyed.
The Lord will slay him. But how will the Lord slay him?
Look at it, verse 8, with the breath of his mouth. And then
it says that this guy had to come because he's satanic and
all this deception has to happen. And then verse 10, all of that
will perish. Why? Because they did not receive,
underline this, the love of the truth. Now, put it all together. Let me tell you what holds it
back. Christ holds it back. He's the only one with the power
to hold it back. Well, how does He do that? He does that through
His church. How is that possible? Well, it's
easy. He sends His Spirit to abide in the people of the church,
and the Spirit, living in the people of the church, now alive
and manifest in the church, reaches back for the restraining tool,
which is the Word of God, and says, Stop! No farther can you
go. It's the truth. It's the Spirit of truth. You
don't have to grapple over, well, is it Jesus or is it the word?
Is it Jesus or is it the word? What is it? Yes, Jesus, the word. Revealed and manifested in scripture
is the only hope to hold this thing back. It's the only way
to restrain it. And the only way he can possibly
come with all his force and all his power is that you get the
church out of the way, which is why we teach and preach a
rapture, but we're not doing that this morning. But the church
has got to get out of the way. So he can come and have his way.
So God can destroy him. That's what this text teaches.
A Christian friend, you need to see this. You need to understand
this morning that we have in our possession an incredible,
powerful force that is stronger than the mightiest, powerful,
darkest, demonic, evil forces ever known to mankind. Do you
know that as a Christian this morning? It's the word of God,
and it's more powerful, more powerful than any evil force. even the father of evil, Satan
himself. And it was deposited, this power
was deposited, 1 Timothy 3.15, it was deposited into the pillar
and ground of that truth, which is his church. So friend, in
a day like we live today, it's a day where we need to see something,
don't we? What do we need to see? Well, we need to see this
Christian out there, he's reading his Bible. No! I need to see
the church! And I hope the Christians in
the church are reading their Bible. But this idea of independent
Christianity is of no effect against this kind of power. It's
of no effect against this kind of force, against this kind of
darkness, against this kind of evil. The only way we're effective
is as a church. Standing up and saying forward
no more, not here. But is it any wonder then why
the enemy today and in all days attacks the church by attacking
the truth. No. All he's got to do is undermine
the truth. All he's got to do is distort
it a little. All he's got to do is twist it. All he's got
to do is what paganism has always done. Read the Bible in such
a way that man becomes the sinner. And he wins. And today, the church says, hey,
that'll work. That's the message. Yeah. And the church increasingly today
says, this is important, but it's not really that important.
At least that's what Christians say in alarming numbers. It's
interesting and I think frightening at the same time that a recent
Barna survey would find that among those who consider themselves
to be born again... I didn't say they were born again.
That's important. But they consider themselves to be born again.
Among those who consider themselves to be born again, only 32% believe
in absolute truth or absolute morals. In other words, two-thirds
of professing born-again believers do not believe in absolute truth. It seems that truth has fallen
on hard times. Among Americans, 54% of Americans
surveyed say the only way you can find truth is through your
experience, not through some book. You say, well, the other
46% are in pretty good shape. No, they're not. Because this
book loses in that list. Oh, it can be any book. The Koran,
the Book of Mormon. Just pick your book. But the
huge preponderance together then would agree, you cannot know
truth from this book. Today's spin is in, right? The
view is in. Say, that sounds like he's smacking
that program. I was. Smack. That's all that matters
today. It's not what really happened
in the war. It's what the spin on the war was. It's not what
really happens in the halls of Congress. It's how we view what
happens. But as Christians, listen, as
Christians we believe that there is truth and that there is a
direct correlation between this truth and the God who is true. We believe that. We believe as
Christians that the Holy Spirit inspired men to write down these
words and that these words are whose words? God's words, God's
words. We believe as Christians that
he reveals himself to us in this book. Listen to me. And nowhere
else. Oh, you can get glimpses, glimpses
of him elsewhere. And that's no less true. But
you cannot learn of him and your condition and the Savior's solution
for your condition and the hope that is yours. If you are saved
by Christ, you can't learn that anywhere. But in this book, it's
the truth. But I'm told nearly every week
by, I guess, the same people Barna's talking to, the born-agains,
who say, well, that's your interpretation. You know what? Let me just tell
you. Some of you are here this morning. I'm sick of hearing
that. Do you understand if you profess to be a Christian and
you take foundational truths expounded from the Word of God
that can be simply understood, that if you make that a matter
of interpretation, then you're left with nothing? Do you understand
that? Then it can just be anything,
right? Yeah. That's not how one defends
the faith. That's not a wall that is fit
to protect us. And if we don't build that wall
back and strong and stop asking silly questions about the few
minute things that we don't understand about God and dwell on what we
do clearly understand about God, that He is above us all and that
our only hope is that He reaches into us all, through the atoning
sacrifice of his son and calls us to himself in such a powerful
and effective way that our own stubborn wills cannot resist
it. That unless we teach that truth, we have no protection. None. The emperor's clothes are
gone. Paul understood that. He understood
it in the first century. And he says there's truth. and
the ones that have it are protected, and the ones that haven't will
perish along with the Satan that led them there. You understand, Christian, that
your Bible says again and again things like this, two very important
words, we know. We know. Take your Bible study
software out and search it this afternoon. Guess how many times
it shows up? A bunch in all of its various forms. We know. You say, well, what do we know?
Well, the Apostle John says in 1 John 2, 2 John 1 and John 8
that we know the truth. The Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy
2, 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 4 that we, the church, have the knowledge
of the truth. And Peter says in 1 Peter 1.22
that we must obey what we know to be the truth. And the writer
of Hebrews says there is a knowledge of the truth whereby one can
be saved. Chapter 10, verse 26. Well, friend, if truth is so
elusive and so open to interpretation, then what are they talking about? It's not that elusive and it
is not that open to interpretation. It is true and it is clear. And you can know it. You can
know it. The Bible says so. Well, what
is it you're supposed to know if you can't know it? Right? Get you another book for spirituality.
Because this one says you can know. But the constant cry from
the church when it gets too close to their heart or too close to
their tradition says, well, I don't know if you know or not. It's
your idea. It's fine for you to have that
view. It's fine for you to take that spin. But don't imagine
it's true. Well, the postmodern absence
of truth is closer than we thought, isn't it? That's right here this
morning. I've got some of it. You've got some of it. Because
we're all influenced by it. But what's at stake? Well, that's
in our text. Verse 13, we should always give
thanks to God. You should always give thanks
to God, church. We should always give thanks to God for you, church,
for the brethren who are beloved by the Lord. Why should we give
thanks in these difficult times wherein the battle seems to be
lost and the bastions are torn down and truth is, well, on such
hard times? Well, look what he says. You
should be thankful because God chose you. Hmm. Can I get an amen? We should
be thankful because God chose you. And he did that from the
beginning. Do you see that, friend? He did
that from the beginning. And he did it with salvation
in view. You see it? And he did it with your sanctification
in view. Do you see it? And he did it by his spirit.
And he did it by faith. And that faith has to be grounded
in something. Do you see it? The truth. Away with a God who loves me
enough to choose me and doesn't love me enough to give me the
truth that will draw me to Him. Away with such a God. I want
a God that will reveal that truth to me so that I might find myself
among His chosen and elect. Amen? That's this God. Verse 14, for it was for this
He called you. It's a good place to put another
amen. With a little coaching, you guys
will get this. What do you have to be thankful
for? Because He chose you and He called you. And He provided
a truth whereby that might be effective, administered by the
Spirit Himself. Paid for by Christ on the cross.
What a plan. What a plan. And He did it through
the gospel. And He did it so you could gain
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the truth. The
truth we can know. This is the truth about truth.
That you can know it. It's the truth about God. And
his character. It's the truth about ourselves.
It's the truth about the world we live in, the problems we face.
It's the truth about the flesh and your pride and your lusts. It's the truth about a savior
named Christ. It's the truth about his perfect
life. It's the truth about that sacrificial death on the cross.
It's the truth that declares grace and mercy as your only
hope. It is a truth that is rich with promise and hope for eternal
life everlasting. It's the truth about that life
everlasting. It's not the heaven you imagine. but it's the heaven
He's created. It's the truth about glory and
eternity. Grace Community Church, it's
this truth we declare. And though in our culture it
is increasingly unacceptable, and though among the emergent
Christians it is increasingly implausible, and though among
the seekers sensitive it is considered to be unloving, we will continue
to insist on this truth. because it alone can save us. We will continue to insist on
not just believing that truth, but seeking to be obedient to
that truth. And in doing so, we'll be rightly responding to
the truth. We'll be doing what we were called to do. We'll be
the church. We'll be about the very charge
that Paul gives us in the end of this text. Look at verse 15.
So then, brethren, in light of all these things, stand firm and hold on to the
traditions which you were taught. Whether you heard them from the
mouth of your mother or through a letter from us in
Scripture, you hold on to those truths. You don't let them go. You hold on to that church. Traditions
fallen on bad times too, right? Is it interesting to you that
he chose that word there? It's interesting to me God's not nearly
as ashamed of tradition as you are Because it's in the traditions
of the church that he has deposited these truths and shown them to
be real and alive More than just on the pages of the text He put
those truths in the hymns we sing Yeah, that's why an emergent
church doesn't want to sing those hymns because got truth in it
He put that truth in the ordinances that we observe. He put that
truth and entrusted it to godly men who he calls to lead his
church. You can see it here in this body
and in your life. You hold on to that, Paul says.
You don't let go of that. Because church, if you lose it,
if you lose it, you're done. You're done. Let's pray. Father, you inspired the Apostle
Paul and his inspiration now offers us a benediction from
verse 16 of this text. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ
himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal
comfort and good hope by grace. May he comfort and strengthen
our hearts in every good work and word. And all God's people
said, Amen. You have been listening to Pastor
and Bible Teacher Steve Wilson of Grace Community Church in
Bowling Green, Kentucky. We trust you have been encouraged
and challenged by this message. If you would like to listen to
more of Pastor Wilson's messages or obtain more information on
the ministry of Grace Community Church, you can go to our website
at www.gccbg.com, that's gccbg.com, or call 270-781-2595.
The Truth
Series Commissioned: Change the World
| Sermon ID | 8912939492 |
| Duration | 43:43 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | 2 Thessalonians 2 |
| Language | English |
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