Now, I'm up here, but you're
gonna have to give me a minute, because I didn't bring my notes out with
me. I don't know that I'll use them,
but just in case. Would you open your Bibles to
2 Thessalonians chapter 2? 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Brother Scott Richardson once
got up to preach, and he said, well, I got some notes. Hope
I don't need them. But if nothing else, preparing
notes is a way to study, so. We'll begin reading with verse
1, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 1, concerning the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him We
ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by
some prophecy, report, or letter supposed to have come from us
saying the day of the Lord has already come. Now, when the church
looks back in history, the focal point to her of all history is
the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All else is scenery. We may, for curiosity's sake, enjoy knowing
other things that happened in the past. And even as we read
the Bible, You know, we learn things like the history of what
went on in Israel from its birth. And there's other
events recorded, yet all of them are recorded to point us to a
single event. And so the focus of the church,
if she looks back through history, is Christ and Him crucified.
But when the church looks to the future, Her focus is still
on Christ, but it's on Christ's return. Now, we don't speak a
whole lot about it, and I hope that's not reactionary on my
part, because I grew up in a church, it seemed like that's all they
talked about. And they had their charts and their dispensations
and their, you know, signs of the times, you know, and when
I went to Bible school, learned there was more to the Bible than
the rapture, you know, I pretty much discarded all that I'd been
taught about prophecy. And it was in that state for
a long time because I didn't know what to make of most of
the prophetic scriptures. I did know this, the Lord's coming
back. That's very clear in the scriptures.
But so far as it's timing and the circumstances surrounding
it, It's not that clear. It's certainly not clear enough
for people to make any dogmatic statements about where we are,
you know, in God's timeline. The Lord Jesus Christ could return
today And quite frankly, he could take another million years if
he wanted to. There's nothing in the scriptures which would
tell us that it's soon or definitely far away. Now why is that? Well, because, at least this
is my opinion, the scriptures never say why God did not reveal
this with any clarity, but if he did, we would start to live our lives
according to that date. Instead of as the scriptures
teach us, always be ready. Like the parable of the 10 virgins. And some had oil in their lamps
and some didn't. And when the head of the house
came home, there were five that could go out to meeting. Because
he came at night. There were five who could go
out to meet him, and five who didn't have the means. And so
the point was, always be ready. So if he were to tell us, well,
I'll be coming in the year, suddenly I thought of a popular song when
I was a kid, in the year 2525. Those of you my age probably
remember that song. But anyway, if he said that,
then we probably just wouldn't do anything. We wouldn't be concerned
because that's our nature. Quite frankly, it's none of our
business when he's going to come back. That's his business. The Lord said, occupy till I
come. And so that's what we do. Nonetheless,
that event is put out there as the blessed hope to which the
law of the church looks. We look for that time when Jesus
Christ will return and he will raise everyone from the dead.
Sometimes it speaks specifically of raising believers from the
dead, but there's only one resurrection of the dead. We can conclude
that from scriptures. Jesus isn't going to come halfway
back once and then come all the way back seven years later. When
he comes, everything's over. The next time he shows up, everything's
over. And some will be raised to blessedness,
some will be raised to everlasting cursedness. But we who believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we look for that day with expectation and desire. I used to be terrified of it
because, like I mentioned, the church that I was raised in always
talked about return of the Lord. But generally speaking, they
talked about it in terms of how awful it's going to be. And,
you know, just any minute now, you know, a goodly portion of
the world could just disappear. And boy, if you're left behind.
And so, you know, you go around, you know, you get up in the mornings,
okay, is everybody home? You know, we're all here. So
I guess I'm okay for a little while longer. That's not how
we are to look at it. When our Lord returns, we will
receive everything that Christ purchased for us on the cross. Now, we've been given the Spirit
of God as an earnest, or one translation, I think it's Irish,
says a down payment. Boy, we've received some glorious
things already, haven't we? We've been made spiritually alive.
We've been given an understanding of the gospel, the kingdom of
God. We've been given a relationship
with the creator. Those are wonderful things. But
there's more to come. And I'm not going to try to unravel
the, you know, what's the condition of those who have departed, you
know, and our brethren which are asleep in Christ and all
that. I know this, it's not all done until then. We will be made like him, says
John, for we shall see him as he is. And that is our goal and
our longing. But whenever the scriptures are
obscure about something, there are always people who will rise
up and use that very obscurity as a way to become prominent
in the church because they'll begin to act like they have clarity
where no one else does. You know the book of Hebrews
talks about the Lord Jesus being a priest after the order of Melchizedek. All we know about Melchizedek
is contained in three or four verses of the scriptures. And
you'd be amazed how many people are fixated on Melchizedek. Who's
Melchizedek? I don't know. I know what I need
to know about him, as the book of Hebrews applies it as an illustration
of the priesthood of Christ. But Melchizedek is not a priest
for you and me. But there's one whole religion
devoted to the, quote, Melchizedekian priesthood. And that's something, where the
scriptures say little. False prophets say a lot, because
they are able to make good, shall we say, or make hay out of the
obscurity. Well, I hope I've learned by
now, if the scriptures aren't clear, don't try to be clear.
The scriptures need no clarification. We take what the Lord has revealed.
So here it says, concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here's the first thing. The
Lord Jesus Christ is coming. He will return. He did not leave here never to
appear again. He did not leave here with no
intention of coming back and taking possession of that which
he purchased. So he is coming again. And while the scriptures do not
give us any way to discern just when that's going to be, we know
it's going to be. And the fact that it's been 2,000
years since the promise of the Lord's return, and He still hasn't
come back, that shouldn't upset us any. Remember, there were
4,000 years before the first prophecy of His coming into the
world the first time and when He actually came. We don't live by what we see.
We live by what we believe. We believe he will come. Don't
know when, but he will. And then, look what it says about
this. And this is why we look forward
to it. Concerning the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him. Now, generally speaking, if they
said, well, tonight we're gonna preach on, my childhood, and
I will preach on the coming of the Lord and the beast. Or the coming of the Lord and
the great tribulation. The coming of the Lord and the
Antichrist. The coming of the Lord and our
being gathered to him. Now, if I were to ask you to
make a list of the top 10 things you would like to have happen. Would not it be on the top of
the list to be gathered to Him? I realize that we're very stuck
in this world. We're deeply rooted in this world,
but our spirits aspire to somewhere else. We love the fellowship of one
another, but our hearts look even higher than that. We look
to Him. Paul, for all his love of the
churches, said that his desire was to know Christ and to be
found in Him. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, he said,
I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those that
are asleep, so that you won't sorrow like people that have
no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so, those that Even so, those also who are asleep,
that was his euphemism for being dead, asleep in Jesus, will God
bring with him? And he goes on to give a kind
of bold outline of what that day will, you know, what will
happen on that day. And then it says at the end,
and so shall we, and most translations put it, so shall we ever be with
the Lord. But as usual, I look these things
up in the original language. I like to see the subtleties
of language. And it could be better translated, and so shall
we always be with the Lord. You say, what's the difference
between ever and always? Well, you could be ever with
the Lord in the sense that from now on, you have access to the
Lord at any time. You're up in heaven or wherever,
and you're here, and then you're there, and so forth, just like
I could say, I am ever with Bonnie. But that doesn't mean we're always
right together. But always with the Lord. That means continual, unbroken,
conscious connection in His presence. Now, I don't know how that's
gonna happen. But I know this, it'd be good There's a lot of
things I don't know how they happen, but I don't have to know
how God's going to do it. I only know that He is. And so when
we think about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we who
believe don't have to look at that day as a terrifying thing. It's the day when our Lord comes
back. It's the day when our husband
comes home. It's the day when our King rides
in glory and the whole world recognizes Him for who He is.
I can't think of anything better to happen on a single day. Can
you? But there had been some people
who took occasion by the obscurity of scriptures on these events,
and they had spread the message that there had been some prophecy
or a report, and maybe they'd even written up a letter and
said it was from Paul, saying that the day of the Lord had
already passed by. Now, that would be a horrible
thing to think on. Of course, we understand after
the day of the Lord there won't be anything. So never will we
be in a condition like this and we can say, well, the day of
the Lord was a year ago, you know. No, day of the Lord is the end
of this creation as we know it. But if they were being told the
day of the Lord had already come, what they were being told was
they were lost. That their faith in Christ had meant nothing.
That whatever it was they had, it had not connected them to
Christ because Christ had come and then left them behind. You can imagine how upset these
people were. And so Paul writes, he said,
now concerning the coming of the Lord, There's people writing
things that just aren't so. And you know, that's still going
on. There's people writing things that just aren't so about it.
It hasn't happened yet. We know that. But we don't know
when it's going to happen. And so he goes on to say this,
verse 3, don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day
will not come until the rebellion occurs, and the man of lawlessness
is revealed, the man doomed to destruction." Now, what Paul
is saying is this. We know that the day of the Lord
has not come because there's one more thing that has to happen
before the Lord will return, and that hasn't happened yet. But I've studied on this, and
you know what? When it happens, I don't think
I'm going to recognize it. I've looked at it. Who is this man
of lawlessness? I don't know. I know some things
he's going to do. I don't know whether he's already
come or gone yet. All I know is from the point
of Paul writing here in the 50s or 60s AD, the man of lawlessness
had not yet been revealed. Some say this is the same thing
that John was talking about when he talked about the Antichrist.
But John said this. You have heard it said that Antichrist
would come. There's already many Antichrists
in the world. So evidently there isn't the
Antichrist. There are hundreds and thousands
of Antichrists. Who is this man of lawlessness?
It does seem that the way it's described here, it's pointing
to a specific man, but it gives us no indication of who he is
or where he'll come from, except that he does have some connection
to the church. Now, this man is revealed that
his essential nature is lawlessness. He's called the man of lawlessness. Now this does not necessarily
mean that this person lives an immoral life. It simply means
that he is a law to himself. He cannot be bound by any other
law. He may present himself as a very
moral man. He may have many rules that you
won't even find in the Bible. But they're rules he made up.
That means he's lawless. He's rejecting what God said
is law and making up one for himself. And they just happen
to coincide sometimes. In interacting with atheists,
you know, they say, well, I don't need God to be good, you know,
and I don't try to wrestle with them over the word good. But,
you know, they say, you know, I don't have to be a Christian
to know it's wrong to murder. And they think that they, within
themselves, have the capacity to understand what's right and
wrong. And so they are a law unto themselves. What I actually tell them is
that, according to Paul, God has written his law on everybody's
heart and in their mind. Otherwise, we couldn't live civilized
lives. But the point is, these people,
sure, they think murder's wrong. But they think murder's wrong
because they think murder's wrong. They don't think murder's wrong
because God said it's wrong. You see, God can call anything
wrong that he wants to call it wrong, or he can call it right. Because he is the decider of
right and wrong. It's not like he just knows what's
right and wrong. He's the one who chooses what's
right and wrong. Now, this man, it wouldn't matter
what God said, he's going to do what he wants to do. He's
a lawless man. And then also calls him the man
doomed to destruction. There was only one other person
in the Bible called that, and that was Judas. And the King
James says son of perdition. Judas was a son of perdition.
So was this fellow. And for the same reason, they
are contrary to Christ. They stand opposed to everything
that is good, right, true, and godly. So here's this man. He's essentially
lawless. He's narcissistic, so much so
that he exalts himself above all gods. Look here in the next
verse. Verse four, he will oppose and
will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped
so that he sets himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself
to be God. Now, what temple is he talking
about? He's not talking about the temple
in Jerusalem. I don't know of anyone that ever
did set themselves a throne in that temple and call themselves
God. And that temple's gone. And some people say, well, they'll
rebuild it and then he'll go in that one. Well, there is no
temple of God made out of stone in this world anymore. The temple
of God Ever since Christ came, the temple of God is his people. Peter says, like living stones,
we are being built into a household of God. Paul says, you, meaning
the church, you are the temple of God. And Christ, through his
spirit, dwells among you. And so this man, whoever he is,
he's a part of the church, at least a part of the professed
church. And while he holds himself forward as a minister of righteousness,
he stands opposed to God so much so that it gets to the point
that he will demand and he will receive worship as God. You say, well, that hasn't happened
so far. Actually, it has. And I'm not here to pick on Roman
Catholics, but that's been done. And some of the old commentators
believe that the rise of the Catholic Church is what's being
spoken of here, because the Pope is called God, has been, and
in some of their documents, he's still referred to as God on Earth. And he sits right there in the
visible temple of God that is in the professed church And no matter how he puts on
of being humble, he is filled with pride. I guarantee
you, nobody who is humble would put on special robe like that,
let people kiss his ring, would allow them to, the word Pope
comes from the word Papa, meaning father. Our Lord says, call no
man father. And I always thought it was rather
interesting, that's the very word that the Roman church chose
to identify their leader and even all the ones that serve
under him. Yet, the Catholic church rose
during the fourth century. It's a long time ago. And still going on. So I don't
know if this was any reference to the Catholic Church, I know
this, when we read about this man of lawlessness and the son
of perdition, the son of destruction, we look at his characteristics
and even if we never see them fulfilled in the way that's described
here, we can see those principles at work. Because it says that
in verse seven, It says, for the secret power of lawlessness
is already at work. Whoever this guy is, he's not
operating under his own power. He wouldn't be able to do what
he does if there wasn't somebody behind the scenes pulling the
strings. And we know who that is. And so this secret power is always at
work. been an opposition ever since,
you know, Eve and the serpent in the garden there, there's
been opposition to God in this world. And it's continually at
work. At God's appointed time, this
man will rise up and I suppose that he will be the most successful
of all those who ever opposed God. So, He says in verse five, don't
you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you
these things, and now you know what is holding him back so that
he may be revealed at the proper time. So this fellow, the appearance
of this figure was being held back. These powers, spiritual powers, The
secret power of lawlessness, it was working. It was trying
to break out. It was trying to get someone
like this in place, but it's being restrained. And the apostle
says, now you know what's holding him back. The thing is, I don't
know what Paul meant by that. Evidently, they did. I was reading
John Gill on it. And since he believes that this
is a reference to the papacy, to setting up the Roman church
and the popes, he said it was the Roman government. Because the Roman government
kept the church from ever gaining any real significance in world
events. But over the course of about
300 years, the church did grow. And there came a point when Constantine,
the emperor of Rome, he made Christianity the chief, well,
the only acceptable religion in Rome. And shortly after that,
Rome The church took over. But to that point, the government
had held them back. And I don't know that that's
correct, but I do know this, and we should acknowledge God's
hand in this, God does use governments as frustrating as they can be.
He uses them to keep a great deal of evil in check. Even if the government You know,
and I imagine it doesn't matter what political persuasion you
are, you're frustrated at things right now. I have not met anybody
on either side of our political aisle that says, I like things
the way they are. But you know something? No matter what you
think of the outfit in Washington, right now, in this country, they
are being used by God to restrain the appearance of a fellow like
this. There's some small versions of him, but none of them have
been able to break out to the point that they just overwhelm
the people. And there's the general apostasy
spoken of here. And then it goes on to say, you
know, he'll be revealed at the proper time. Strictly, it says
he'll be revealed in his time. See, God's already got this date
down. It's in his calendar. And at
the appropriate time, he will come and do whatever it is God
intends for him to do to bring about his purpose. But the secret
power of lawlessness, verse seven, is already at work, but the one
who holds it back will continue to do so until he's taken out
of the way. Now, one thing that I like about
this story, you know, People will want to focus on this man,
lawlessness, who is he, and what's going to happen, you know, when
he gains power. You know what I like reading
about? He may call himself God, but he ain't God, because he
can't do everything he wants to do. He can be restrained.
You can't restrain God. He may fool people into worshiping
him as God, and God will let it go on as long as he wants
it to. It won't happen until God says,
all right, now's the time for that. And whatever God has put
in place to restrain the rise of such a person as this, God
will take it out of the way, take the restraints out of the
way. He'll give more leash to the devil, so to speak, and such
one will rise up. But notice this, and then the
lawless one will be revealed. whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow
with a breath of his mouth. No sooner does he rise than the
Lord blows him away. He is not to be feared, the man
of lawlessness. If you want to be afraid of somebody,
fear the Lord Jesus Christ. This man will rise up in power
People will worship him. He will have been deceived. The
ones that follow him are being deceived. He'll probably think
he is God. He'll probably think he can do
anything until Jesus Christ shows up and he'll find out what a
real God is. I like this, destroy him with
the breath of his mouth. Not a mighty sword, not even
a flick of his finger. Gone. There is nothing that comes even
close to matching the power and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. Men rise and fall, and they rise
as high as the Lord lets them, and then they fall when he's
done with them. And it'll be the same with this guy. He said
he will destroy him by the splendor of his coming. Now imagine that. Our Lord will be so great and
glorious, Him just showing up will destroy this guy. People talk, you know, think
in terms of, you know, some great cosmic battle. All the Lord Jesus
has to do, now that He is glorified in the presence of His Father,
if He just shows up, it's over. No one can stand in His presence. Certainly not those who have
tried to take his place. Now it says, the coming of the
lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan, displayed
in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every
sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. So when he
comes, he's going to be able to do some things that people
can't explain. Now I don't think that this means
that he's actually doing miracles because they're called counterfeit
miracles. But he's going to be able to deceive the people into
thinking he's really doing what it looks like he's doing. Signs and wonders. And in everything
that deceives those who are perishing. Isn't it interesting people look
for signs and wonders even in our day? They will follow men
who do counterfeit miracles even now. And they call them signs and
wonders. What does Paul associate signs and wonders with? Every
sort of evil that deceives men. Now our Lord did some signs and
wonders, but he did them so magnificently and so often could not be denied. I mean even his detractors knew
he was the real deal. But these fellows that want to
talk about their wonder working now, every once in a while. One thing will happen to them
in their life and they'll talk about it the rest of their life
and people will follow them because of one event that supposedly
happened at one time. They're being deceived. But notice
this, they're being deceived, but why? They perish because
they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. I've said this before and I'll
repeat it to you again. Every time you hear the gospel,
something happens. People cannot listen to the gospel
and be unaffected by it. And those who refuse to believe
it, they're given a little bit more leash and they're a little
further deceived. They hear it again, ah, I won't
have that. Their hearts are darkened a little
more. Now, the Lord can save them at any time if he wants
to. But I'm talking about the experience. And people that keep
rejecting the gospel, it eventually comes, they're easily deceived into
other things. Now, if they would receive the
love of the truth, if they had heard it and said, oh, that's
wonderful. That's the best thing I've ever
heard. You know what? You can't deceive people like
that. They have seen with the eyes
of faith. They have seen Him who is invisible. And there will be many trials
for them to face, many things which will try to convince them
not to believe. But because of the power of God's
grace within them, They cannot be moved from the hope that they
have in Christ Jesus. Even if they don't feel like
they believe, they really do. One of the strangest things,
at least I find it in my experience, and I assume that others have
similar experience. What do you do when you feel
overwhelmed with unbelief? Oh God, strengthen my faith.
Why would you call on him if you didn't believe on him? You
feel like you don't believe, but obviously you do, because
you call on Him for help with regard to your unbelief. Well, verse 11, for this reason, God
sends them a powerful delusion. What? God sends them a delusion? Yep. Now, He doesn't delude them,
but He'll send them one. He'll send them these fake miracle
workers. He'll say, you didn't want me?
Well, here, have this. And they get drawn away. One of the things that troubles
me about religion in the United States now is these celebrity
preachers. It's just not a good thing. So many of them have brought
such shame on the Lord Jesus Christ because they get these
nationwide and worldwide ministries and then fall into horrible scandal. And part of it is because they
get elevated so high they start to think they're something like
God and they can do what they want and nothing's gonna happen. And it brings such shame on the
cause of Christ. It would be better if all preachers
were known only to the ones they directly ministered to. I'm like everybody else. I keep
thinking, I wish there was more in the church. I look at the
statistics of who's watched us online. I wish there were more
people watching and this kind of thing. It's just that fleshly
desire to be powerful and influential in your world. And I think, you
know what? I don't want to be set up for a fall. I think that if I ever had, if
I ever filled this building, I'd probably, I say if I filled
it, you know what I mean. If this building ever got full,
I'd get so proud. Look at what I built. I'd be
like Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, looking at that big,
say, boy, look at this empire I built. The Lord said, you think
you built this? You think you're somebody? You're
going to go around like a beast and eat grass for, well, seven
years. No, he'll send them powerful
delusion and they'll believe the lie and they'll be condemned
because they didn't believe the truth but delighted in wickedness. And I like this now, but we ought
always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord. Isn't it wonderful that even
though there's a record of what's gonna happen and it can look
dark and, you know, time's gonna be tough, but having heard about it and
understanding this'll come someday, we can pretty much just forget
about it. It'll happen when it happens.
Here's what we can think about. We ought always to thank God
for you, brothers loved by the Lord. There's plenty out there
in the world to depress you if you want to look at it. But there's
something in this world that'll fill your heart with joy if you'll
look at that. And that's your brothers and sisters in the Lord
Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing we have
here. We're not very big, but there's enough of us to make
a little group and enjoy one another's fellowship in the same
gospel. Enjoy some friendship outside
the worship services whenever we can. I thank God for you all. This world would be a miserable
place to live in if there were not brothers and sisters to associate
with. Paul said, I thank God for you
all. I thank God for you because from
the beginning, God chose you. He said, I thank God for your
existence because I know where your existence came from. God
chose you. That's why you're here. That's
why you're part of a gospel preaching church. That's why you love the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's why not even this man
of lawlessness will ever be able to deceive you. God chose you.
He put his name on you. He sent his son to die for you.
He sent his spirit to call you. This man, no matter how powerful
he gets, will ever be able to draw you away. from God. People love free willism, you
know, God's a gentleman, he'll never make you do something you
don't want to do, well then we're all going to hell if that's the
way it is. I tell you, we would have to be constantly worried
about people falling away. Now don't get me wrong, when
people align themselves with this church and they worship
and then they disappear, that's heartbreaking. That is, if they
disappear and then go off into some other kind of religion or
no religion, you know, no gospel, that's sad. That hurts. But it
doesn't affect what I believe. Why? Because I know this. Those
whom God has chosen, he will preserve. He preserves them. He finds them
by the preaching of the gospel. He preserves them, keeps them
by the preaching of the gospel. He's the one in control of this.
I couldn't save you. I can't keep you. But He can. And so I'm thankful. He said,
he chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit
and through belief in the truth. He chose you from the beginning,
he chose that you'd be saved, and he chose the means by which
you'd be done through the Spirit of God calling you out and setting
you apart and birthing that spiritual life in you that comes out in
faith. He said that this is the work
of God, it can't be overcome. He called you to this through
our gospel that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It only gets better. We love
to think about election. I love to think about redemption.
But look at the end game here. to share in the glory of Christ. This means not only to be with
Him when He's glorified before the whole world and be with Him
as someone who's on His side, so to speak, it means to be made
like Him in all His human glory. It says, when we see Him, we
will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We're not just
heading to heaven. Our destiny is to be heavenly.
Our destiny is to be like the Son of God as pertains to his
humanity. So then, brothers, stand firm
and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by
word of mouth or by letter. Don't get distracted by what
the famous people are saying, the famous religious folks, the
ones that got the big following and seem to be able to do some
mighty and powerful things. Just ignore them. It's us, just
us simple apostles who are considered to be the off-scouring of the
world. We're the ones telling you the truth. And then he says, may the Lord
Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and by
his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your
hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." Oh, a wicked, wicked man is coming. He's going to be empowered by
the evil forces of the spiritual world. He's going to look like
he can do remarkable things and he's going to be able to get
multitudes to follow him and worship him as God. Oh well, don't worry about us.
God put him there, God will take him out. Just look unto our Lord
and be encouraged. Remember the love that he expressed
in his sacrifice and the grace that he gives us as an eternal
encouragement and be encouraged. It's easy for me to get, what's the opposite of optimistic?
Pessimistic, there you go. I'm losing words. Easy for me
to be pessimistic. Oh, it's all going to fall apart.
No, it's not. What we think is going to happen might fall apart.
but not what God has planned. And nothing of his work shall
ever be torn down. So I say with the Apostle John,
even so, come, Lord Jesus.