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.