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Speaker 3To see you. Hey. We've got some visitors. If you're a visitor, can you raise up? Raise it up.
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Good. Good to see you guys. Hey. Do do yourself a favor and meet some new folks this morning when we greet each other. It is good to see you.
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Let me read a verse here. Psalm one forty seven one. How good to sing praises to our God. How delightful and how fitting. Would you agree with that?
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I would. Let's stand up together and sing.
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Speaker 2Alright. All creatures, all creatures of our God in Jesus, lift up your voice and win the sea. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
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Praise rejoice. He lights the evening fine of voice. Oh, praise
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Speaker 1have a couple of announcements this morning. Yellow cards. Forensic. Yellow cards. If if y'all got a bulletin this morning, each of them has a yellow card in here.
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While I was gone, they did this for a couple of Sundays and we had about 50 of em back but there were 50 of y'all here at 09:00 this morning. So, there are more of the of that here now. If you would like to share your information with us and let us know what's the best way to receive information. We would really, really appreciate it. This is mainly for church folk.
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They're here all the time that want to know what's going on, okay? If that fits you, then, tell us whether it's the Sunday bulletin, Sunday announcements, website, Emails, text, that thing. How do you best want to be contacted? That's one. The next one is ten Monday night, so that's tomorrow night.
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Monday night at first b will actually not be at first b. Monday night at Field Box Park is where it's gonna be. We're gonna do meal music. Music?
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Speaker 3No music. We are going to eat fellowship together and it's Philbox Park is at Snow King.
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Speaker 1Just to clarify. It's this one right here. Couple blocks from here because Vacation Bible School is gonna take over this whole place this whole week. So starting tomorrow morning at if you are not registered, 08:45 in the morning. If your kids are not registered, 08:45 in the morning, but most mornings will be starting about nine.
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So from nine to twelve, Krista? Nine to twelve. Somewhere there about.
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Speaker 3Nine to twelve every day. By the way, isn't it colorful and fun in here?
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Speaker 1That's what all of these decorations are about. It's the workshop of wonders VBS. So 08:45 tomorrow if they're not registered and nine if they are registered, preregistered, and come on in and enjoy kids. We'll have a lot of kids, and we have about 45 or 50 volunteers too. So it'll be a barrel of monkeys in here all week long.
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And it is still open to all kids in the community, ages preschool through entering fifth grade. And if you're not coming, pray for us. This is a wild time. Pray for us. Watch for a text this week for meeting times from Renzi, Solid Rock Student Ministry, both middle school and high school.
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He will get in touch with you. And we're glad that you're here. Does anybody else have an announcement that I did not cover? Because it was not up there. No?
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Anything, Carl? I don't think so. Alright. In a, we're going to go ahead and announce the thing up there. I think.
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Two weeks? Yeah. The hoot. On Monday night, normally, it's at first b, but we've been stretching out. Y'all know how people leave the valley in the summer or they leave to go places in the summer.
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They're all over the place. Monday nights at first b is doing that. Two freight Friday nights ago, they went camping. So Monday night wasn't on Monday night and it wasn't here. So it was they all went camping together.
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We're gonna plan on going in two weeks up to the Hootenanny at Dorning's. So we're gonna take the meal, music, and the message slightly differently that day. We'll probably meet here ahead of time, but we're working on details on that right now. I wanted you to know, if you're a Monday nighter and you wanna go to the hoot, we're gonna do that in two weeks. And that's it.
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Would you stand up and greet one another warmly? And we'll bring you back together with a song.
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Speaker 2Glory to God forever. Creator God. Creator God. You gave forever. Me your.
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I got the leaders of my hand. I can't And when I soar to worlds unknown and see thee all thy judgment thronged, rock of ages left on me.
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Speaker 3Lord, we give you thanks for this morning and let that be not just our song, but our our prayer and our heart's desire that we would hide ourself and thee that that we would trust in your work alone for salvation that just as we sang, it's not the labors of our hands that can fill fulfill the laws and demands. It's it's you and you alone and your sacrifice and so this morning we cling to that. We thank you for your great love. Amen.
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Speaker 2Stronger than the power of the grave and constant in the trial and the change gives up, never runs out on me. Your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love. Your love.
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And there
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Speaker 3You can be seated and as you're seating, I like to invite the frontline team to come forward as we enter into the worship of giving here and just want to say again, if you are a, first time visitor, please don't feel obligated to to give at all. Just pray that you'd feel welcome here, and we're glad that you're here. But giving really is, it's a privilege, and it's just a part of of our worship. And we are encouraged to give cheerfully too, not not grudgingly, but rather to give out of a thankful and grateful heart. So can we pray together?
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God, we give you thanks. Everything that we have, God, we acknowledge that it it comes from you ultimately for you are our creator and our sustainer. You keep us going. And so for that, we we give you thanks and and we want it to be our privilege and our honor to be able to give to you. This just is just a small way.
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We can give in a lot of ways financially, but also Lord with our with our talents and gifts and abilities that you've given us. There's so many ways and I pray that this week we'd be thinking about those things and we'd say, God, you've given us so much. How is it that we can give back? How do we how can we show our gratefulness and thankfulness to you? So let that God continue to work in us this week.
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We pray in Christ's name.
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Speaker 1Be still my soul. Beautiful. I have I get to do this. This is great. We're in second Thessalonians two.
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Last week was one of the hardest messages that I've had to preach since I've been here because it was about hell and so for me, it was for me, it's just a hard one to deliver. Although, I believe it a 100%. Y'all know that. It'll come up again. When it comes up again.
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Second Thessalonians. This is interesting and important and the way I read it, it's interesting and important in that order. The interesting part, yes, is important. I'm sure it is and the important part may or may not be interesting to you. You hear it a lot, the important part but we're going to cover both.
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The interesting and the important. Second Thessalonians two one through 17. As I was going through this passage, it brought back lots and lots and lots of memories for me. Now, some people would say, oh, if they read the love chapter from Corinthians, they think of weddings or they think of different things. This one brought back a lot of memories.
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So, they will come up. The beginning part of this message will be interesting. I can say that pretty much across the board anywhere because this beginning part of this message is vague and ethereal and leads to various interpretations. So, it is going to be interesting but the end part will be important and I think that that's the main point that that Paul is trying to make to the Thessalonians. Y'all remember when he went through Thessalonica, he was only there about three weeks for three son, three Sabbath days and he had had a time to be with him probably nine or 10 times preaching but also answering questions before and after.
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He did work while he was there so he wasn't available 100% of the time but while he was there, he explained about all these different things about the Messiah. The end times being part of what he told about and when he got away from there, several weeks away, he had made his way down to Corinth. He writes them a letter because he hears reports of what's going on in Thessalonica. Almost everything he heard was really really good but one thing that he heard was not all that great because they were wondering when the day of the Lord was coming. When was the day of the Lord coming?
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Why had he delayed? The message was so urgent and we accepted it and he hasn't been here yet. Well, it's only been a few weeks for one thing but that's what they were concerned about. So, first Thessalonians is saying, calm down, calm down. Y'all are doing great.
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You are have accepted the message and you're spreading the message. Everywhere I go, I hear how well things are going for you there and beyond, where you go beyond. Y'all are sending out people that know this message. Y'all have accepted the gospel and you're doing it. It's great.
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Don't worry about that. When he appears, you'll know it, basically. Well, between that time of that letter and the time of this letter, it looks like somebody took it upon themselves to explain Paul further and tell him, oh no, no, no, no. He's already been. So, first of all, they're wondering why he's not there but second Thessalonians is to cover the fact that some people are teaching.
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He's already been here. So, second Thessalonians gets to be more specific on certain things. One of those last week was he he tightens up the doctrine of there are two paths you can go by. There is either heaven or there's hell. There's glorification or damnation.
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That's what he goes to. So, second Thessalonians two will be interesting and important. The interesting part first. In fact, I'm just going to read the whole section and then I'll come back and add in. Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he has been concerned with in all the chapters of first Corinthians and the first chapter of this book concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us whether by a prophecy or by word-of-mouth or by letter that is asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.
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So, he hits it right out. We know what they were facing because he tells us, okay, you're doing good on everything else but you need to know this. Don't be easily unsettled. Easily unsettled is shaken loose, shaken free. It's the idea of a boat can be shaken loose from the moorings during a storm because it's not held fast or because it doesn't have sufficient ropes, whatever.
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But not to become easily unsettled or alarmed. An alarmed is a continuing action thing to remain in a state of constant alarm. By the teaching that was allegedly from us, Paul saying that teaching was not from us and he's going to clarify it here. So two, one and two. Is that one and three and four?
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Don't let anyone deceive you in any way for that day will not come until the rebellion or apostasy. Apostasy is a walking away from one's faith, a falling away under persecution generally, a falling away from what they have believed, a leaving of the gospel. Something they said that they believe but walked away from it when the times got tough. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way for that day will not come until the rebellion or the apostasy occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed. The man doomed to destruction.
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He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped so that he sets himself up in God's temple proclaiming to be God. So you can see where I'm talking about. It's interesting. How many of you all are thinking of a movie or a book right now that has been written about this? The man of lawlessness, the man doomed to destruction, the rebellion, the apostasy.
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It sounds like pretty much every apocalyptic thing that we have seen, whether it be Christian or of the world, they borrow from this passage and several others. Don't you remember that when I was there, I used to tell you these things? Can you imagine being one of the Thessalonians that was like here in this and here in that and then Paul writing this letter to clarify and he says, don't you remember I was there? We talked about this. It's very personal.
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And now you know what is holding him back so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Paul says that at that day, do you all know the mystery of lawlessness is still at work? Do you see it?
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Yeah. The secret power or the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who hold now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. The what, the one, and the he historically have had so many different representations of what they are. Traditionally, what I was brought up with is that the he is the Holy Spirit and the one is the Holy Spirit.
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He is the one who restrains evil. I have been exposed to a lot of different kinds of teachings. One of them says that government is the restraining influence that holds back evil. That law is that. That the Roman government in particular and Caligula as the person because the what is a thing and the one is a he.
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This is one of those things where I'll I'll let somebody else describe it. Y'all know Saint Augustine. Forget he did not write all creatures of our God and king that was Saint Francis. I made that mistake yesterday. Theologian, philosopher, author, churchman, songwriter.
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This is Botticelli's painting of him in his travail, in his study. Saint Augustine lived from 354 to 04/30 and he said about this interesting passage, especially that verse, the he and the what and the who and the one. He said, I confess that I am entirely ignorant of what he means to say. I love honesty. Saint Augustine's Confessions, when you get to be 17 or 18 kids.
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Saint Augustine's Confessions is one of the best books out there. He is great, and he never lost the feeling that he could be wrong and he didn't want to say, for sure, this is what this means. So we'll go on to second Thessalonians two, eight, nine. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.
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He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie or false signs and wonders, and all the ways that wickedness all the all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing, they perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie. And so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. That gets back to what I was talking about last week. This is the interesting part of the message because it's this looming figure.
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Other respected commentators on this passage, and I think this is hilarious because I read a lot of these guys. Marvin Vincent said, and he did a seven volume set of the whole Bible commentary all throughout. And on this passage, he said, I attempt no interpretation of this passage as a whole, which I do not understand. Ain't that great? A t Robertson, good old Baptist theologian, it is in such vague form that we can hardly clear it up.
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Leon Morris, who's very well respected, I I pay attention to his commentary every week on whatever passage. Great care should be taken with this notoriously difficult passage. F f Bruce. There are few New Testament passages which can boast such a variety of interpretations as this. Now, if I have a point on a Sunday that's real strong, you'll hear me make it.
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This passage, at least thus far, is very, very interesting. But the important part of it is that it will happen. It will come to pass because it is biblical. It will happen. Do I know when?
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No. Do not do I know who? No. Am I sure who the one is? Nope.
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Now, there are people who will tell you and have really, really good sound cogent arguments that they do. Listen to them. It's reasonable. Dispensational line is really good on this. I think that it makes sense of a lot of scriptures if you go with that.
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The reformed view is absolutely fantastic on this. Pay attention to it. That's wonderful. There are others that are wacko. You bet you can see that on the face of it, usually.
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But, like f f Bruce says, there are very few New Testament passages which can boast such a variety of interpretations. That's because it's vague. Where the Bible is vague, I think that we can afford to be vague. Now, where it makes its point, I want y'all to make the point. So, yesterday in a waiting room, a lady got up, she grabbed two papers by accident, she looked at me and she said, you want a paper?
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Nothing but bad news in there. Sorry, Kevin. I think I'll just read my horoscope and be done with it. At least it's interesting, she said. This is Luca Signorelli's painting.
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Luca Signorelli is a in the fifteen hundreds, late fourteen hundreds, Italian Renaissance painter. If you look right here, you'll see what all of this is about. Somebody's being cast out of heaven, there are people fighting in the government building, there are these cardinals over here wearing black, there are people killing people, there's all kinds of stuff going on. But right here is really the center point of it. It is Satan and the Antichrist.
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This is the word, work, words, and deeds of the Antichrist by Lucas Senarelli 1500. Fifteen oh one zero one, I think. When Tanya and I lived in Italy, we lived in the town where Lucas Senurelli lived. It's been something that's been of interest for a long long time. I mentioned last week about hell that that's a hard doctrine to take and people have tried various ways to get around it.
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This guy used to sit in front of his dad's shop and write in chalk, Bible verses, primarily Bible verses that condemned people to hell. He would write them on in chalk right in front of his father's shop and he would, as they walked in, hound them about how their soul was going to hell. His name is Charles Taz Russell, Taze Russell, and he is founder of, they want, they won't say it this way because there have been four schisms since then but he's the guy who got the Jehovah's Witnesses movement started because someone asked him questions that he could not answer about how loving God could have a hell. The Bible says that he was proclaiming it for what it was but he was shaken to the core. He was alarmed by what he could not figure out and he started thinking, okay, there are problems here.
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Let's figure out what they are and he started studying unto himself. He threw out all Christian creeds that had come to pass before him and figured that we had had injected error into Christianity and so he wanted to go with nothing but the Bible alone and as he went through how it made sense to him, he started saying that was the only way. Well, the creeds were saying that was the way and he's denying them and now he's just unto himself. No formal training whatsoever. He had his ragged copy of the King James Bible and he went forward with just that and Jehovah's Witnesses got their start because he didn't want to face up to the doctrine of hell.
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He then, when he started dealing prophetic passages because it's so popular to do so, proclaimed that Christ would come back in 1874 and he didn't. So he said 1878 and he didn't. Maybe I I might have my years off probably one or two years and he didn't. And when it didn't happen the second time, he readjusted and said, he did actually come in 1874. He was just invisible.
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This this is still pretty grave. The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. This was written in 1970. This was around everywhere when I was a little kid. This was the copy that I remember at my house.
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This was the copy that I remember when I was this size. I would not let go of that hairbrush. When I let go of the hairbrush, I cried. I'm happy as long as I have the hairbrush. So they let me have the hairbrush.
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The late great planet Earth songbook. Do y'all remember the late great planet Earth songbook, anybody? There are a few of us that remember. I remember it well. Y'all can't see over here, but page three is I wish we'd all been ready.
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That is the scariest song I have ever heard in my life. It's much scarier than anything punk has ever come up with. It is Larry Norman. Google it this afternoon. Spotify.
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It is scary. It's pointing towards an end time that is to come where there will be a separation of sheep and goats. It's good and true, but it is scary. This is a little church that I went to church in in Shiloh, Georgia. In there, we watched this movie, A Thief in the Night, 1972.
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I watched it again yesterday just to make sure all of my recollection was clear. No wonder. No wonder I fear God. No wonder I fear a God who might just sneak up on us. It will come like a thief in the night.
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That is true. A thief in the night too. A distant thunder. The further story, that was 1978. The late great planet Earth, my whole church went.
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Instead of going to Wednesday night church, we went to Wednesday night at the La Grange movie theater in La Grange, Georgia and watched Hal Lindsey's one and a half hour exposition of how the world would be ending very soon. The late great planet Earth. I was this old. That's that's what I look like when I went to go see that movie for an hour and a half watching that. Then a thief in the night three, image of the beast.
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We had a lock in at my church where we locked in all of the students and we watched all three. A thief in the night, a distant thunder, image of the beast, and around breakfast the next morning gave an invitation. That that's what I looked like there. And I thought y'all would think this is funny. It was on the next page.
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This is the golf team from the Harris County High School, and she's the coach. In 1992, Harold Camping predicted that the rapture would take place in 1992. Tanya and I met 1992. This is our first date. 1994, Harold Camping predicted that the rapture would take place.
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Basing it on these verses that we just read. 1995, Left Behind. That was the start of Left Behind. This is just the kids edition of the Left Behind books. Is it interesting?
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Is this interesting? I think it's interesting. 1995 to 2007, that that was the Left Behind series, 30 something of them I think, or 16 of them for adults and then 30 for kids. Supernatural. Y'all ever watch it?
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It's alright to admit it if you do. Supernatural from 2005 to the present is a TV show. It primarily deals with end times prophecy type stuff. Free will, sovereignty of God, what you can change, what you can't, all of that. I would not recommend it.
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I definitely wouldn't recommend it for kids. But it it deals with these greater issues among all of its horrible use of alcohol and profanity and everything else. But it deals with end times type issues and it is very popular and getting to be more popular because it's on Netflix. 03/21/2011, I was in seminary. Harold Camping predicted the rapture would take place.
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This is not just some old man sitting around somewhere. He's a he's an old man that's been sitting in a radio booth since the thirties, since the late thirties. 03/21/2011. Oh, sorry. 10/21/2011.
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On 03/21/2012, he said, okay. It was wrong and sinful for me to say that. Praise God. I like that. I like when it can when anybody will admit when they have been wrong.
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More recently, the Harbinger. Have you all read the Harbinger? Y'all the only people in the world that hadn't read the Harbinger. The Harbinger, the ancient mystery that holds the secret of America's future. This is apocalyptic in in tone at least, and it points to prophecies and points them out in particular for America.
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Do you all understand what I'm saying? Circumstances tend to drive the way we think about vague passages of scripture. Fear has a way of controlling us. Fear I'm I kept my back to you all the whole time. Sorry about that.
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Fear has a way of kinda getting in and controlling us too. The harbinger. Ah, the four blood moons. Have you all read this one? I have received two copies in the mail and about 50 emails from around the country Because this one seems to be the closest one to the end time stuff for Matthew.
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Four blood moons this year on the feast, there are four blood moons. Something is about to change. That book sold how many? It's a best seller best seller immediately when it came out, just that quick. When I look at that and I think back to the late great planet Earth and I saw this notes page, this guy has his timeline and it's Armageddon, Rapture, the hundred and forty four thousand, the false prophet, Jesus's second coming.
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Second reading February March nineteen seventy seven. I read this in 1972. It's like keeping notes on everything that's happening. That's paying attention to the newspaper for sure. But what the Bible says, don't just stop with the difficult passage.
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See if there's something behind the difficult passage which explains it. Important. The interesting part was that. The important part, I pray is still interesting. Second Thessalonians two thirteen, but we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, loved by the Lord, beloved ones because God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth.
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Now, that first fruits there is one way of translating that. I think I added or from the beginning. NIV says first fruits but it has a marginal note down at the bottom from the beginning. So, we ought to always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, loved by the Lord because God chose you from the beginning to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit. So, Paul is laying out here rather than saying there's a man of lawless.
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I can't tell you who it is because that's basically what he's saying. If it was the government, there's no way he could say it was the government. I've never known Paul to shy away from saying something about the Holy Spirit. The one who now restrains. But it's still possible.
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It's a possible interpretation. So, God chose you from the beginning to be saved. So, I'm going to put up a timeline of events. God chose from the beginning. That's what it says.
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God chose an eternity past, eternity past for y'all. God chose from the beginning. And he chose what? According to that verse, he chose from the beginning for you to be saved. The saved part happens right here.
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We're going to call that the day of the Lord. When the actual ultimate salvation happens, okay? That's the day of the Lord. When you are completely saved, it's the day of the Lord. When Paul says to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, he's not saying work for it.
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He's just saying it from the time you believe forward up until the time you're ultimately saved. You're saved right here. Don't get me wrong but when you're here, you're ultimately saved and starting on glory. And this is the gospel God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth and I went back to that and say, what is the truth that saves? God chose from the beginning and he chose to save.
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This is the gospel. I told you Paul wrote this to the Thessalonians from Corinth. So, I'm going to use the shortest, little, succinct version of the gospel that we have in Paul's writings. For what I received, that is the gospel, the good news that Jesus is the Christ. I passed on that to you as of a matter of first importance.
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To to Paul, after he believed, it was a matter of first importance to pass it on to others. He knew what it was like to be in peril and he knew what it was like to be saved and so he wanted to share it. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance. What? That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.
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That is the truth that is to be believed in order to be saved. That's the gospel. So, back to our diagram. God chose from the beginning according to the scriptures we know that he chose for Christ to live a perfect life, die a perfect death according to the scriptures. God chose for Christ to do the work.
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So, God the father chooses, Christ does the work. For us to be saved, those are required. Now, go back to what Paul saying in verse 13. We ought always to thank God for you brothers and sisters, beloved of the Lord because God chose you as first fruits or from the beginning to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit. Sanctification.
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Sanctification, is it your work? No. Paul says, it is the work of the spirit. If I want to grow spiritually, can I go, I'm going to bust something if I do that? I cannot do that.
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You cannot grow spiritually on your own. It is through a yieldedness to the Holy Spirit. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, it might sound crazy and if you're looking at it in a works based mentality, you might think that that sanctification is all your business. Once I repent, I have to do it all to get there and that's just not true.
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That is not true. Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit but it is what you pass through on your way to ultimate salvation. Does that make sense? So, where are you actually saved? Where are you good?
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How do you know? Let's go back to what he says. We ought to thank God for you brothers and sisters, loved by the Lord. Just you hear him, I won't say it every time. You're beloved of the Lord.
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He's already clarified that they're Christians in the first letter that he sent him. He's clarifying it again right here because God chose you to be saved from the beginning through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth. Again, what's the truth? Christ's work is the truth. God chose from the beginning for Christ to do this so that you may be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit but it is through belief.
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When we study through John, what was the whole thing? The whole series we call John, the gospel of belief. It always comes back down to what you do with the truth about Christ atoning work on the cross. So, belief matters and that is the point at which in time on this side, you can say, that's where I believe. Put down a milepost.
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Remember the day if you can. I know whom I have believed in. He is able and he will continue through belief, through sanctification, to be saved. Unto salvation is actually what the Greek says but if that's what I'm saying, it's pointing that direction for ultimate salvation. Next verse, he called you to this through our gospel.
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So if you're having trouble with the sovereignty of God and saying that God chose you from the beginning, oh, if he chose me from the beginning, then there are some that he didn't choose from the beginning and that bothers me. How did he choose you? How did he choose to call you? He chose to call you through this, our gospel. What did Paul preach?
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Second Corinthians fifteen one to four says what he preached was Jesus Christ died, was buried, and was resurrected. That is God's idea for what to do with sin so that we may have right relationship with him and go with him to be glorified. He called you to this through our gospel which points up. I have to say it every time I see a missionary passage, I have to say it. He called you to this through our gospel.
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We spread the word to you. Romans, how are they going to know unless somebody tells them? And how are they going to tell them unless they've been sent? That you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, God chose from the beginning for Christ to do the work but Christ sent people out to tell the nations.
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The gospel witness needs to go forth. If the gospel witness doesn't go forth, then belief, it's going to be really, really hard for that to happen. It's possible to do it with Gideon Bible in a hotel room for sure. I know several people who have. There are some who might stumble into a Billy Graham crusade.
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I know some who have. There's some of y'all here who have. But he was expounding the gospel witness. Normally, it's person to person, family to family contact. Belief, sanctifying work of the spirit to be saved.
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That you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Glorification. So that is the timeline I think we should be concerned about. I watched Hal Lindsey in his denim blue late leisure suit with a collar out to here yesterday and I watched Hal Lindsey on, you know, something that happened last month about the four blood moons and he's saying exactly the same thing and people are still paying him to say exactly the same thing. I can't get over how you can be wrong this often and still, I I mean, it's weatherman, I guess.
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This is the bedrock of the Christian life. This is what it's about. The cross is what it's about. As far as God's work, he chose from the beginning. As far as Christ's work, he did what it was that he needed to do.
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The work of the Holy Spirit really begins right here with the gospel witness and belief. He will convict you of what is right or what is wrong in your life and convince you of what is right about God and through your belief, he will sanctify you on your way unto salvation and then there will be glorification forevermore, eternal heaven. So, we do have two more verses or three more verses left. So, we're going to that. So, then brothers and sisters, stand firm.
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What's he telling to stand firm on? This. You know this. You know this stuff. It's not vague.
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Stand firm. Remember in those earliest verses he said, you have become easily unsettled. You have become alarmed. You are being alarmed actually, progressively. Stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you whether by word-of-mouth or by letter.
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Hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you whether by word-of-mouth or by letter. I used to have a buddy who would he told me we were we were doing gospel ministry at the beach and he said, he always asked for a volunteer. Would you come up here? And he said, hold on to this. This is a Bible.
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He says, hold on to this Bible and he said, now, if the devil does not want for you to know that Bible. So, he will try his best to snatch it from you. So, hold fast to the teachings, okay? Alright. There you go.
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You're gonna hide them in your heart now? That's that was a little better. Alright. Now at this point, my buddy would go and he would kick me and I'm I I was ready for it so I would it was pretty bad though. He would kick me in the groin and take it from me anyway.
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The times, there you go. You got it. Now, that's good. Hold fast. I'm going to give you another thank you, Carl.
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Thank you. That's it. I'm not going to sneak up on you again. He would tell people at the end of his message that he was going to play the part of Satan now and it always scared people but snatching it out of your hand. Hold fast to the teachings that we passed on to you.
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The apostolic teaching, what the apostles taught. That's why we have the canon like we have it. That's why we have scripture like we have it. It's so we didn't keep on getting progressive revelation. You saw how wrong Harold Camping was.
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You saw how wrong Charles Tez Russell was. See how wrong? Joseph Smith was. Isaiah Shembe. Pick your place, pick your circumstance.
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If you go into a vague area of scripture and start saying you know what's going on, you're in dangerous trouble of saying something perilously wrong that will lead tons of others astray. Would you rather do that or just humbly accept the really clear teaching of scripture? Alright. Me too. So hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you whether by word-of-mouth.
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This is a newspaper story about a pilot who survived a very harrowing ride. He heard something in the back and he's the pilot and he heard something in the back, it sounded like an air leak and he didn't know what it was and so when he got up, he went back there and as he stepped towards the door to make sure that it was closed, it opened. He was 4,000 feet above the Atlantic. As he fell forward out of a plane, no shoot, no plan to do this, he grabbed hold of the cables like this. That's a little image of him right there and he was up there and the wind was whipping like crazy, snatched his hat off immediately of course and he's there going, I don't know how fast, 450, 500 miles an hour, maybe more.
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It's a 15 seat plane. Nobody's on it but him and the copilot. Copilot takes it over but the copilot thought he had been sucked out. He didn't know any better. He rerouted the plane and landed, you know, thirty minutes later at a different airport.
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So, this guy is hanging outside. Was he holding fast? He was holding fast to that which would give him life. When he landed, his face was 12 inches from the runway. And when they stopped the plane, props all off, Mayday, Mayday stuff was all over.
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They had to pry his hands off of those things. Sitting on Terra Firma. He was holding on to that which would give him life. The scriptures are not just something that when you wake up in the morning, you go to coffee and you go, you know what? I think I'll read the Bible today.
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Thank you, lord. They're there for our good especially when we're going through difficult, difficult times. I guarantee you God has written about it. If you keep your eyes on the details, it's gonna mess you up. If you keep your eyes on something that is fixed and does not change.
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Y'all saw how many different ways I looked. Our circumstances cannot be trusted. God can be trusted. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our father who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope. I know you're being persecuted but God has given us by his grace eternal encouragement and good hope.
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Encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. The only two things that we really can do anything about it all. It's all God's work. The only two things we can really do anything about are believe and that's a continuing thing and gospel witness. God has set it all up.
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Once you believe, nobody's going to pluck you out of his hand but the winnowing of sanctification. Our circumstances should not change our belief or our grasp or our love for the scriptures. Grace is what it's all about. God's grace, full and free, all throughout. And again, that's the Corinthians.
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I want to tell you that Paul's gospel never changed. This is a much later letter but he says, now brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to you which you received and on which you have taken your stand firmly. By this gospel, you are saved. If you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise, you believed in vain.
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For what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our sins according to scriptures that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. I think that that's it. Lindsey, is that it? Jesus firm foundation. Would you stand with me as we sing?
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If I've said something that has upset you, let me know. If I have said something that that makes you think maybe I'm not holding fast because I don't really believe. Would you please let me know?
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Speaker 3Let's sing about a firm foundation in Christ.
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Speaker 2How firm our foundation, you saints of the Lord, has laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can say that you he has said to give you for refuge. Jesus, away. Fear not, he's with us.
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Speaker 1Amen. And for the Benediction, I just want to take that last couple of verses there and pray this for you. Now, may our 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. In Jesus name, amen.
