All right, go with me to 2 Thessalonians,
the book of 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians. Do you remember many months ago, we looked at
1 Thessalonians, the whole book. We just read it. Do you remember
that? And that was a great blessing because the Apostle, the Lord
tells us, He charged us to read that epistle. And tonight, we're
going to just browse through the second letter. I began thinking
about this after Sunday night's message when we turned and looked
at chapter 2 on the coming of our Lord. So I began reading
it, and it blessed me. Chapter 1, verse 1, Paul... Now,
let me give you a little bit of history here. Paul and Silas,
Timothy, They were at Athens, Greece right now. They had left
the church of Thessalonica where Paul preached, and the Lord saved
and revealed Himself to quite a few people, as many Greeks
believe. But there was a great persecution
that arose while Paul was there, and the brethren had to get him
out of town to keep him from being harmed, him and Silas. So there was a great persecution
arose because of the Gospel, because of the truth from the
Jews mostly. And so Paul and Silas had to
leave town. Timothy I think stayed around
or somewhere, but went back and began to preach to them. So this
is all about the troubles that that church went through. The
title of this and the subject Actually, the whole book is comfort
for those with troubles. And that's really all of God's
Word and comfort for God's people that are troubled. Alright? Paul
and Silvanus or Silas and Timotheus or Timothy, under the church
of Thessalonians, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, whatever is written to one church is written to all of us.
Grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ." And he said, "'We're bound to thank God always for
you, brethren, as it is fitting, because that your faith groweth
exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward
each other aboundeth.'" He said, "'We're bound to thank God always
for you, brethren.'" Does that sound familiar? That's what he
said in 1 Thessalonians 2. He said, we always thank God
without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God,
you heard of us, you received it not as the words of men, but
as it is in truth, the Word of God. We thank God for that. You
didn't just decide to believe. No, no. Faith is not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God. So we thank God if anybody believes
the Gospel. We thank God. And he's the one
that must give faith. And in chapter 2, verse 13, he
says, we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren.
Always thank God. You'll never catch a true preacher
standing up thanking people for accepting Jesus or coming to
the house of worship. I've never thanked you for coming
here. I thank you for what you do for me. I thank you for what
you do for the cause of Christ. Paul did that. Yes, he did. But
we thank God that he brought us here. Always thank Him. We don't thank men for doing
things for God. We thank God for doing things
for us. But he says, your faith grows
exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all toward each
other aboundeth. So that we ourselves, verse 4,
glory in you and the churches of God for your patience, your
faith, and all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure.
So we glory in you. That is, we give God the glory for you
and glory in what He has done in you. And He says wherever
we go in the churches of God, we talk about you. That's what
He's saying. And so do I about you, and so do other men that
come here. Whoever it is, John Chapman or
Don Bell, those men love to come here and preach to you. They
just love it. And they go away glorying in
you and the faith that God has given you and the love you have
toward the gospel, toward them and toward each other. And for
your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations
that you endure. Persecution. As I said, the church
here at Thessalonica, they went through great trouble
and persecution because of the gospel. Because of the gospel. Because of the truth. Because
all men and women don't love the truth. They hate the truth.
No one does love the truth. No one does love or know God
until God gives them that love, sheds abroad His love in their
heart, until they receive the love of the truth. We're going
to see that in the second chapter. If you love the truth, you received
that love of the truth, because the natural man doesn't receive
this. The truth is offensive to the
natural man. The truth of God reigning and
ruling offends man's sense of his own sovereignty. The truth
of God's absolute holiness and our absolute depravity offends
man's sense of his own goodness and worth and righteousness.
The truth of sovereign revelation that God has to reveal it to
you, that wisdom comes from above, that you can't figure it out
on your own, spiritual thing. A natural man can't figure it
out. It offends man's wisdom. and
figure out anything, and do anything. The truth offends. It's offensive. The truth of how Jesus Christ
must die as a substitute because we're such rotten sinners. That
the only way we'll be accepted by God is Jesus Christ dying
as a substitute for our sin and imputing to us His righteousness.
That offends man's sense of his own worth. And if you believed
all that, and even love it, That's a miracle. It's a miracle of
God's grace. And you will be persecuted yourself
for believing that. You'll go around telling others.
You'll go back and tell your family. You'll go and tell your
family what God did for you, what God revealed to you, thinking,
hoping that they'll be rejoiced with you. It doesn't work that
way, does it? And they get mad at you. And
Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said, it's given unto you
on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but to suffer. To suffer. Having the same conflict,
Paul said, that you see in me. Paul was in prison when he wrote
that, for just telling the truth. And our Lord said it, O blessed
are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say
all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, for my sake,
for the truth's sake, for Christ's sake. He said, Rejoice. Now we
don't rejoice that people don't love the gospel and don't believe
the gospel. We want people to believe. But if you are persecuted,
it's a sign. It's a manifest token, he says
here. It's proof, it's evidence that
you believe the truth. Because every single true believer
throughout history has suffered persecution for the truth. Our
Lord said, they persecuted the prophets before you, the apostles,
and all of them. And we'll give you some stories
here in a little bit. Alright, look at it. Five, it's a manifest token,
an evident token of the righteous judgment of God. Remember, we
looked at, in Isaiah 43, God's judgments concerning His people. That doesn't mean He's condemning
and judging them. It means His righteous dealings
with His people, with the poor and needy. This is a token, this
persecution and tribulations you endure, It's a token of God's
working in you and for you, separating you from this world. If you're
of the world, our Lord said, the world would love its own.
But you're not. He said. That's John 15. That
chapter 15, I read it today. That's something. John 15. Can't
wait to get to that. The gospel of John is powerful.
But he said, If you're of the world, the world would love its
own. But you're not of the world. You say, know this, they hated
me. They hated the kindness, the most gentle, loving, truthful,
meek. If anybody ever preached the
truth in love, it was the Lord Jesus Christ. They hated Him. It's just a fact. A sad fact. But true. So, he said in verse 5, that
you may be counted, it's a token, that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. If you look
at the Revelation, if you read in the Revelation, it talks about
all the martyrs. It talks about all the saints
who were persecuted for the truth. All of them. All of them. In verse 6, He said, it's a righteous
thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble
you. God will. To those that do things to His
children, oh my. Verse 7, you know all of the
judgment upon this world is coming down upon this world because
of what they did to His Son. That's it. Why do the Jews go
through so much trouble? Why have the Jews gone through
all that they've gone through? They rejected His Son. They said,
let His blood be on us and our children. So it is. But God is
so merciful. He still saves many, many Jews. In fact, when He rose from the
grave, He told His disciples, you go in all the world and preach
the gospel and start with the Jews. Go first to the Jews, the ones
that I came to, my own, that received me, not go to them first.
Isn't that gracious? So verse 7, he says, so to you
who are troubled, going through persecution, tribulations,
troubles in this world, rest with us. Rest with us. Listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians
4. Listen to this. You know what
all Paul went through? You need to read it over and
over again, lest we think we've got troubles. Oh my. He said, and I read it
for myself too, oh my, 2 Corinthians 11, and all that he went through,
and all the apostles. He said, we're troubled on every
side, but not distressed. He said, we're perplexed. Perplexed. Why? Paul wasn't infallible. He didn't know everything. He
said, we know in part. He wondered why things happened
to him, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Oh, no one has ever been persecuted
like Paul. Nobody. More so. But not forsaken. The Lord never
forsook him. Cast down. Do you ever get downcast? Cast down, not destroyed. Always
bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord. Oh my. You see, we live and we're delivered
unto death for Christ's sake. So he says, you who are troubled,
rest with us. Another place Paul said, we comfort
you with the same comfort with which we are comforted. I need the same comfort you need.
And what is it? The Gospel. The Gospel. Rest
with us. When the Lord Jesus, read on,
shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. How can He take vengeance on
those that know not God? Doesn't he have to reveal himself
to it? Yes, but the heavens declare his glory and the firmament showeth
his handiwork. Day unto day, all things clearly. And men aren't thankful, neither
give him the glory. That's what Romans 1 says. So
they're without excuse. Isn't that what it said? So he says in verse 8 that he'll
take vengeance on them that know him not, that obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is a command, it's
not an invitation. Right? That's what the scripture
says. God commanded all men everywhere to repent, believe the gospel.
It's not an invitation. And not believing the gospel
is not just ignorance, it's rebellion. Somebody doesn't believe, bow
to Christ, it's rebellion, it's treason against the King, son. In flaming fire, he said, my,
my, our God is a consuming fire. Unlike the God men believe in
today, our God is a dreadful God. Loving, kind, merciful,
but dreadful to be feared. Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory
of His power. But He will come to be glorified
in His saints, to be admired in all them that believe. Oh my, Christ is the one we glory
in and glorify, isn't He? Isn't He? He's the one that we
talk about. I stand up here, and any man
stands up, true preacher, he stands up to glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because He's the one we admire.
We're not talking about men. We're sure not preaching ourselves,
Paul said, but Christ Jesus the Lord. And we're just His servants.
He's the one we admire, so He's the one extol and honor. And he says he's going to be
admired in all them that believe, and our testimony among you was
belief. I believe everything Paul wrote,
don't you? I believe everything that the
apostles wrote, don't you? In fact, I believe all things
the way they call heresies, believing all things written in the law
and the prophets and the apostles. Verse 11, so we pray always for
you, going through these troubles, going through this world, through
persecution, affliction, and tribulation, that our God would
count you worthy of this calling, and keep you, is what He's saying. Worthy. This is our calling. As I read to you from Philippians,
it's given unto us not only to believe, but to suffer, to witness
for our Lord, to live. for Him to be a faithful steward
of His grace where He's put it. That's our calling as a member
of the body, members one of another, and that He would make us worthy
of this calling, the vocation wherein we're called, and fulfill,
verse 11, the good pleasure of His goodness. That's the work
of the gospel. Fulfill it. Support it. and be a part of it, laborers
together in the work of faith with power, with unction, with
diligence, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified
in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, now, it starts in chapter
2. Now, we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together
unto Him. That is, when He comes, oh, I
love... Do you remember when, Peter,
we looked Sunday night, we looked at 2 Peter 3, and Peter was talking
about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, wasn't he? The
whole chapter. And he said in all of Paul's epistles, that's
what he talks about. Well, it's true. That's what
made me go over here. Well, it's all his epistles.
Because listen to Ephesians. He says, in the dispensation
of the fullness of times, he's going to gather together in one
all things in Christ, in heaven and in earth, even in him. Gather
them together to the praise of his glory. And on and on again.
Every epistle. And so this is no exception.
He talks about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how
He's coming to get His people. He's coming to gather us together
to Himself forever. And He's going to come in 1 Thessalonians. He says He'll come with all the
saints. With all the saints that are
coming with Him. Hooker and Ellen and, you know, Joe. It's going
to be amazing, isn't it? Wonderful. Indescribably wonderful. We're going to know him too.
There he is. Who? The Lord. And Moses and
Joe and Joseph. It says, The Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel.
Michael the archangel. Behold, the bridegroom cometh. The trump of God and the dead
in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds and meet the
Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the
Lord." He said, comfort one another with these words. Always be talking
about it. That's what Peter said. Always
be talking about it. It hastens the coming, makes
it more real, and gets your mind off this stuff and off your troubles. Because He's coming soon. Alright?
But, but, but, verse 2. He said, don't be soon shaken
in mind or troubled by spirit, or that is a preacher, or by
word, or by something you've heard, nor by letter as from
us, or some epistle someone said is an apostolic epistle, as that
the day of Christ is at hand, or soon. Now remember, when was
this written? 2,000 years ago, nearly. Nearly 2,000
years ago. And they didn't know when Christ
was coming like no one does exactly. They didn't have all the scriptures
like we did. They didn't have this letter.
They do now. Paul was writing it to them.
But they thought that Christ would come any time. And he said,
don't be troubled by that. Now, why would they be troubled if Christ is coming? Have you
ever thought about that? He said, don't be troubled if
you hear that Christ is coming real soon. Why would they be troubled about
that? Well, would you be? Be honest. If you knew Christ was coming
tomorrow morning, come on now, would there not be a little bit
of fear and trouble? For several reasons. Number one,
you'd start examining. Boy, would you ever examine your
faith then, would you? Oh, boy. You wouldn't sleep tonight.
You'd be looking through this book, wouldn't you? Give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. You'd examine yourself,
see if you're of the faith. You'd try to find out if Christ
was in you, except you'd be reprobate, wouldn't you? Oh, my, my, my. Well, people, He just might. He just might. It's going to
come one day. But if you're honest, to think
about it, it's both wonderful and terrible. It's people we love. It's people
we want to know the Lord. Children, parents, brothers and
sisters, spouses, right? Grandchildren. It's both a wonderful
thing, Christ's coming, but terrible. It's going to be a thing full
of glory and full of horror. So if we're honest, we'd say it gives us some trouble.
But as we said Sunday night, when He does come, I promise
you this from this Word, when He does come, there won't be
one second of horror. Not one. Not one. It says in a moment, in a twinkling
of an eye, doesn't it? How quick does that take? That's
not time enough to worry. It will be changed. It's like
waking up. It's going to be like waking
up in glory. It's got to be like being asleep
and then wake up in glory and all is well and everything's
forgotten. What's wrong with that? Nothing,
but just the thought of it though gives us some consternation,
gives us a little trouble. To them back then, He's not coming
anytime soon. Now read on with me. Stay with
me now, this is so profitable. Let no man deceive you by any
means. That day shall not come except there come a falling away
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God,
or that is worshiped. He opposes God. He exalts himself
above God. He sits as God. He sitteth in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. That man is going
to have to be revealed first, clearly seen first, and a great
falling away. Now, that's falling away from
the truth. Paul wrote about this, 1 Timothy
and 2 Timothy, but listen to this. In 1 Timothy 4, the Spirit
speaketh expressly, or very plainly, that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith. You don't fall away from error.
You fall away or apostatize or leave the truth. All right? That's what he said. They'll
fall away. It'll be a falling away from the truth. Now listen to this. He told young
Timothy, And by the way, that letter was written from Laodicea.
He told the Thessalonians always be reading the first letter that
he wrote them and the letter from Laodicea. As far as I know,
that's 1 Timothy. Where am I? So, Paul said this. He said, the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine. They'll turn away their ears
from the truth. They turned unto fables. And he told young Timothy,
preach the Word. Preach the Word, because the
time is coming when men will not endure sound doctrine. Turn away their ears from the
truth. That's what he says here. There will be a falling away,
and the man of sin, the antichrist. Do we need to know
who that is? Absolutely. Lest we be led away
with the error of that wicked one. That's how Peter ended his
letter. Lest you be led away with the
error Alright, who is the Antichrist? Is it one man? No. Look at 1 John with me. 1 John
chapter 2. I could read so much. It talks about overcoming the
wicked one. But verse 18, 1 John 2.18, little
children, it's the last time. And as you've heard, that Antichrist
shall come. That's what Paul said, the man
of perdition. Even now. There are many anti-Christ. You see that? The world's looking
for one fella with something to do with 666.
Boy, it would be easy to spot, wouldn't
it? If you could figure that out. Satan's a whole lot more crafty
than that. And this thing's a mystery. Look back at our text, 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 7, says the mystery of iniquity. The mystery of iniquity. You've got all these so-called
churches, the Mormons and the Seventh-day Adventists and all
that. They've got all the answers to the Antichrist. People, they're
under the dominion of the Antichrist. That's fact. If you're not preaching
the gospel, this gospel, it's Antichrist. Antichrist. You understand that? If the gospel of Christ and Him
crucified is not being preached exclusively, Paul said, I'm determined
not to know anything among you, anything, anything, but Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That all our salvation is 1,000%
in Christ. by Christ, for Christ, through
Christ, to Christ, because of Christ, in Him, His righteousness
imputed, His blood shed for the remission of our sin, the Holy
Spirit given by Him, repentance and faith, all of it comes from
Him. A gift by grace, you say, through
faith, and that's not even of yourself. It's the gift of God.
It's all in Christ. Of God are you in Christ. Who
of God is made unto us everything. Now, men aren't preaching that.
I'm talking about the slightest deviation from that. It's subtle. It's crafty. Paul said, I fear lest Satan,
through his guile, should beguile you from the simplicity that
is in Christ, meaning that it's all Christ. It's not you and
Christ. You've got a bunch of people
saying, oh, we believe in Jesus, we believe in Christ, You put
a bud on that, and it's Antichrist. That's a fact. Preacher, you're
too narrow. Straight is the gate, and narrow
is the way that leadeth unto eternal life, and few there be
that find it. Many are called, but few are
chosen. That's Jesus Christ. Christ said, I am the way, I
am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. He said, no man can come unto
the Father, can come unto me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. Any, any deviation from that,
the slightest, is anti-Christ. Meaning, you're stealing Christ's
glory. You're putting something of salvation
in man's hands. That's antichrist. Salvation
is in Christ. Antichrist. So everybody's looking
for one fellow. Brother Joe Terrell is a clever,
smart, wise. He said, the antichrist is leading
the search for the antichrist. Well, that's deception, isn't
it? That's like a thief. You know, you heard the stories
of a thief who robbed a place and he comes right back to that
place. And the thief says, he went that way. And the police,
everybody runs. The thief's standing there. The thieves are standing in the
pulpit preaching another Jesus, preaching
man's work, preaching the law, preaching this, preaching that,
preaching everything but Christ and Him crucified. And it's a mystery. You see,
it's hidden from the wise and the prudent, hidden from the
religious, revealed unto his people. And he says, I told you
this thing, verse 5, in all his epistles, I told you. I've been
telling you. Why? Because he's a faithful
minister of the gospel. And now you know what withholdeth
that he might be revealed in his time, in his time. The mystery
of iniquity doth already work. Only He, that is God, who now
letteth or alloweth, who's working all things, He's allowing all
this to go on until it's time. In verse 8, then shall that wicked,
a wicked one or man or head, people who he's talking about
is a system, a principality, a power, a system of false religion
that is led by one man. And I'm going to tell you who
that is if you don't already know. Well, I'll go ahead and
tell you. It's Roman Catholicism. But every
other religion is no different. They're all in bed with the great
whore. That's Bible. I'm not being vulgar or anything. That's the Revelation. They're
all in bed with the great harlot called Roman Catholicism. Alright,
we just read how it says that man will show himself sitting
in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Does
that sound familiar? Let me read you something. And I've got an article going
in the Bulletin Sunday. about the martyrs, about Roman
Catholicism, exposing it for what it is. It needs to be exposed
because it's masking itself, it's covering itself, it's hiding
itself today. It's trying to get people to
think it's really like every other Christian religion. That's
what they're doing. I was in somebody's house one
time, a young lady, and on her wall was a certificate. And I couldn't help but notice
it said the Vatican. And I said, what's that? And
it had her name on it. And I read it. I couldn't believe
it. And I said, I've got to write that down. By the way, I started
talking to this young lady. And she had crucifixes everywhere.
And I started talking to her The gospel and the truth. But
anyway, here's what it said on that certificate to her. The Holy Father, John Paul. Holy Father. That name belongs to one person. Our Lord Jesus Christ even said,
don't you call any man father. One is your father in heaven.
He's the Holy Father. This is antichrist. Sitting in
the temple as God, opposing God. The Holy Father, John Paul, paternally,
that means as a father, imparts his apostolic blessing to, and
it gave her name, on the occasion of her birthday, as a pledge
of heavenly favors, sitting at a temple as God."
Now that's a head, that's a principality, that's a power, that's a son
of perdition, that's a man of perdition that was put in about
the third century. earlier than that, in Rome. The
church at Rome, well, it was the church at Rome that this book was written to. And
Paul said, the Antichrist came out from us. They put this title on Peter's
successor, the head of the church. It's Antichrist. It's clear to
you that you know these things already. Everybody in here knows
these things, pretty much, I guess, I hope. It's been going on for
years now, for millenniums. And that man of sin sits as God,
and look at verses, read on with me. It says in verse... And eight, the wicked shall be
revealed and the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose
coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs
and lie and wonder. Paul wrote in another epistle,
Satan has transformed himself into an angel of light and his
ministers, ministers of righteousness, sweet and kind and peaceful fellows. They're devils. And I'm telling
you, free will Baptist preachers are no better. They're the same. Antichrist. With all deceivableness,
verse 10, of unrighteousness and them that perish, because
they receive not the love of the truth, oh my, that they might
be saved. The love of the truth, the truth.
And for this God, for this reason, this cause, God sends them strong
delusion. Deuteronomy 13, read it for yourself
sometime. Deuteronomy 13. It says there
will come some false prophets, and what they do will be real.
If the signs and the miracles that they perform come to pass,
they will. And it goes on to say, but they
will talk about other gods and lead you away to other gods that
you don't know. And it goes on to say, God did
this to test His people. God did it to test His people,
to see if they believe the truth, not miracles and signs and wonders.
Remember that? Does that sound familiar? See
if they believe these miracles and signs and some of it? Charismatic. You know, some of this. There's
other spirits at work, you know. But here's how you know the spirit
of truth. That's right. Preach the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. So, God sends strong delusions. They won't
believe the truth. If Christ is not enough, He'll
send them what they're looking for, but damn them in the process. Oh, my. But look at verse 13. That's why we're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren. There's some people
sitting in here right now that were Roman Catholics, aren't
there? Who made you to differ? Huh? Why aren't you still there? Why
aren't you confessing your sins to a little man in a booth behind
you, a vile man, a vile fellow? No, tell him what he's guilty
of. Why aren't you confessing your sins to Him? But rather,
right now, you confess your sins to one person, don't you? Jesus
Christ. And I give you a promise from
Him, He forgives them all. I mean, they're gone. Why? We're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren. Mike, Catherine, anybody else
Catholic, used to be? Well, you were worse. You were
worse, you were close, free will Baptist. Oh God, from the beginning chose
you to save you to salvation. Verse 13, through sanctification
of the Spirit, He sent His Holy Spirit to take the things of
Christ and show them to you. Belief of the truth you received
as a gift from God. Love of the truth. There was
a time you didn't love it. You hated it. But God, just one
day, He'll love it. Like Paul, like Saul of Tarsus,
he hated this way. Next thing he knows, he loves
this way. And he'll lay down his life with
this way. And he says, every other way is false. Oh, we're bound to give thanks
to God for you, brethren. He called you, verse 14, by our
gospel. Only one way God calls His people,
out of darkness into light, out of death into life. There's only
one way. One way. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. That's why that's all we do.
That's all we do. Preach the gospel, hoping, praying
that the Lord will call us to the obtaining. I'll never quote
that again, John, without quoting all of it. to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said it in John 17. He prayed that they might behold
my glory. That's why we preach Christ.
We don't admire glory in anything or anybody else. Don't waste
our time preaching anything. So brethren, stand fast. Hold
your traditions. It's been taught whether by word
or our epistle. He's talking about what the apostles
handed down to the churches. He's not talking about old Jewish
traditions. Oh, no, no, no. Paul said that's
all dung. That's what he's saying. It's all dung. He said the traditions
that they handed down to the churches. There were lots of
letters already written to the churches. And go through there
and read them all, what the apostles handed down for the churches
to follow. by word, or by preaching, or
by our epistle. See that? Verse 16, Now our Lord
Jesus Christ, here's his closing prayer, and I close with it.
Now, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, our Father, our Holy
Father, which hath loved us, and given us an everlasting consolation. Oh my, the consolation for all
the troubles, tribulations, Far exceeding in eternal weight of
glory. Far exceeding all our trouble. And a good hope. We've got a
good hope. What is our hope? Grace. Christ. If you believe and trust
the Lord Jesus Christ, you've got a good hope. A sure hope.
Because He's our surety. Verse 17. So comfort your hearts. Don't worry. When Christ comes,
oh, it's going to be wonderful. It's going to be wonderful. And
until then, don't let the world trouble you. Rest with us. Comfort your hearts. And may
He establish you, or as Peter wrote, establish, strengthen,
and settle you in every good word Every good word, God's Word,
and work, the work of the gospel. All right, stand with me. Our Heavenly Father, O Holy Father,
how we thank you. We're bound to give thanks always
to Thee, our God. for everything, for all things,
especially for this blessed truth that You've given us through
Your Word, through the Word of Truth, the Gospel of our salvation.
How we thank You for it. O Lord, the entrance of Thy Word
giveth light. Christ, the light. The light
of the knowledge. of the glory of our God in the
person, the face, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord,
flesh and blood did not reveal this unto us, but You did, our
Heavenly Father. No man knows the Son but the
Father. And we thank You for revealing
Him to us, sending the Holy Spirit and taking the Gospel and revealing
Christ to us, and we hope in us in us a love for Him, a need
for Him, a desire toward Him, a communion with Him, a complete
union with Him. O Lord, put Christ in us. Take
the world out of us. O Lord, thank You for Your Word.
Thank You for Your people. Thank You for this church. Hedge
us about. Keep us. We pray. Keep us. May we be worthy of this calling. Vouchsafe us worthy according
to your grace and power. In Christ's name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.