Untitled Sermon

look at verses 13 through 17 in chapter 2 as we finish this section of second thessalonians chapter 2 second thessalonians 2 beginning with verse 13 paul says but we ought always to thank god for you brothers loved by the lord because from the beginning god chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth he called you to this through our gospel that you might share in the glory of our lord jesus christ so then brothers stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you whether by word of mouth or by letter 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 it's amazing how the old saying is so true that a picture is worth a thousand words jesus when he taught taught in word pictures he spoke of the lily of the fields and he told the crowd to consider those lilies and so obviously there were they were somewhere where there were some lilies growing on the field right there and and he referenced that consider the lilies of the field and and the people would turn and look at that they neither toil nor spin and yet your father in heaven has clothed them with a radiant beauty more wondrous than the splendor of Solomon and all of his glory he told them about the parable of the sower who went out to sow some seed and

Ann and I have been on the hill that many scholars believe is possibly the area where Jesus would have shared that parable because there are the four types of ground right there there's a path moving down through this this field there are rocks on the side of the path and then there's areas of thorn bushes pretty good size thorn bushes and then there's a pretty good section of ground where they plant and you can see all four types of soil right there where Jesus would have referred to each in the parable of the sower so Jesus spoke in word pictures because a picture drives home more solidly that that you're trying to impart to someone rather than just the words themselves. If you have a picture to hang on to,

it makes the message more personal, more real. Advertisers use pictures to sell, to make a product more aware to people. We learned that if you're using words themselves, you want to limit the words to seven, seven words. People forget what you're trying to share if you have a product on a printed page and you use more than seven words. Most bulletin boards or billboards will

have seven words or less if they're using words to describe a product. They're trying to let the picture have the impact on you. That's true. Pictures tend to impact you with the message more so than just words. Just a couple of pictures in just a Time magazine. Here's an interesting picture of an automobile. It's a Volvo. It looks like just a plain picture from

and probably from where you're sitting back there. It looks like a blur on a page. But it's a car that's facing you and it's kind of in the shadows and out of the shadows. Darkness kind of around it, but then there's this light and they try and make it look like either kind of a smoky thing with light behind it or maybe a fire. And the car looks a little, the wheels are cocked a little bit and it's kind of facing you with, you know, kind of like a face.

And the phrasing below it talks about after years of building cages, we're about to let the animal out. You know, so you know this thing is some kind of sporty car, some kind of a peppy product that you can use to build a car. And it's kind of a car that you can use to build a car. And it's kind of a car that you can use to build a car. And it's kind of a car that you can use to build a car. And

just waiting for you to take control of it and drive the daylights out of it. All that's communicated in just that picture with just a few little words. Another one in here. I can find it. Had it marked. There it is. That's what I thought was interesting. It's for a car. And it just so happens it's for a wind star, a Ford wind star. Not that I'm selling these things. I want you to

see the picture. It's on two pages. It's on this page is the car itself. And that's really insignificant as far as they're concerned. The biggest picture is this little kid peeking over this the seat in a car and in baby blocks across the top and across the bottom. It says wind star. And it says keeping them safe and sound is a full time job. And so just that picture

tells you that that they're concerned with the safety of your children. And you ought to have one of these, because if you don't, your child may be unsafe at any speed. You know, pictures communicate. Pictures communicate. Paul tells the Corinthians that they, in essence, are his word pictures. They are his epistles, the epistles of God. Literally, 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3

says, Paul talking to the Corinthian church says, you show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. You are a picture of Jesus Christ. So I want you, as we're sitting here today, to see yourself with a little frame around yourself, because you, you are a picture of Jesus to the world. Now, what picture of Jesus do people see when they look at you? You see, we've been talking in this section of the lie and the truth in verses 10

through 12. The lie and the truth are not end times phenomena. They're not something that's just happening here in these last days. They've been around forever. And you and I are exposed to the effects of both every single day. Now, they'll come to a head in the great tribulation, but the lie and the truth have been constantly with us. The lie really began in our concern, in our consideration back in Genesis chapter 3, and we touched on this

last week. The lie is, in essence, God does not love you as much as he probably should. He doesn't love you, and he's withholding from you things that will really make you more than what you're that you are. God doesn't love you, and so you need to take control of your own destiny. You need to make choices. You need to reach out and take the things that will be a blessing to you, that

will give you wisdom, that will give you this knowledge of the things of good and evil, he told Eve. And it all stemmed from the lie that God doesn't love you. Now, it originated with Satan, and it will climax in the Antichrist during the great tribulation, which is what the lie manifested as referring to, where the Antichrist seats himself in the temple of God and proclaims himself to be God and demands that the people worship him. That's the ultimate manifestation of the lie, but the lie is around us all the time. God doesn't love you. You need to take care of yourself. You need to get

what makes you feel good, what seems to be what you think you need. The truth, then, on the other hand, the truth has been around from before the beginning of time, from before the beginning of the creation of the world. The truth has been around from before the beginning of time, from before the beginning of the world, and has been manifested to us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. John chapter 3, Jesus tells us that God loves you, and God loves you so much that he gave, that he demonstrated that love. The truth tells you and I that we are so loved that God gave us

his son. God made an action out of love. It was more than just a feeling. He made an action out of his love. He gave us his son, that if we believe that truth, we can be a better person. We will not be perishing, but be having everlasting life. And to believe that truth involves our surrender to it. I have to surrender my life to the control of God's spirit to believe

that. And in believing the truth, I learned the two definitions of the word no. And we talked about this last time. As you really submit yourself to the truth of God and say you believe the truth of God, you learn the two definitions of the word no. God says no when you pray for a certain thing. God says no when you pray for a certain thing. God says no when you pray for a

certain thing. You ask him, Lord, I want this. I need this now. And God says no. And you learn if you love the Lord, if you love the truth, that no means I don't need that because God loves me enough not to give that to me because he knows that if he does, it can hurt me in some way. And so no becomes a loving word when I don't get what I want. By the same token, there's the other

side or the other definition of the word no, where God's word says no good thing will he withhold. From those who walk with him. So when God doesn't give me something that I think that I need, that I think that I want, it doesn't mean he doesn't love me. That's the lie. The truth is that no means I don't need it because no good thing will he withhold from those who walk with him. The lie

and the truth. You know that. But salvation involves more than knowing that. Salvation involves more than just affirming that in your own knowledge that the truth is right. Look back up at verse 10 for just a minute. Verse 10 says, they, these who are perishing, are perishing because they refuse to do something. They refused to love the truth and so be saved. People perish

not because they don't know the truth, but because they refuse to love the truth. There are a lot of people already in hell awaiting judgment, awaiting the great white throne judgment, who know the truth, who knew better, who heard the truth, who knew the truth, but they didn't love the truth. Down in verse 12, it says, and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth, but have done something else, have delighted in wickedness. You see, there's only two sides. There's no middle. Either

we love the truth and believe it, or we delight in wickedness. Either we know the truth and believe the truth and love the truth, or we believe the lie and end up submitting our lives to the wickedness that results. So how do I love the truth? What's involved in loving the truth? Well, as we look at verse 10, we see that we love the truth. We love the truth. We love the truth. We love the truth.

Verse 13 through 17, finish this chapter. I want you to see three things, three things that I believe God lays out here as far as a definition of what examples loving the truth. First of all, personalizing it. You love the truth when you personalize it, when you make it yours. Secondly, as you protect it, as you protect it, as you don't just take it for granted, but it's something that

you protect as a part of your very own life. It's a necessity of life, and you protect it more than anything else in life. And thirdly, as you practice it, because it doesn't matter if you don't make any difference what you know, if you don't do what you know. Doesn't make any difference who you know. You don't call on it. There's no benefit. So we need to see this area of personalizing the

truth, protecting the truth, and practicing the truth. Look at verse 13. But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers, loved by the Lord, because from the beginning, God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. Again, if you're like me, you read these things at the end of chapters and at the end of the book, itself, and you go, that's a closing. You know, he's dealt with the meaty stuff back in chapter

two, the first part, the coming of the lawless one, and our being removed. I mean, we look at all of that stuff, but now Paul's just kind of closing out with some other stuff, and it's not as important. Hey, this is the meat. This is exciting. Verse 13, we could spend a week on. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, loved by the Lord. Personalizing the truth.

What's involved in personalizing the truth? Well, let me ask you a question. What has Jesus done for you? What has Jesus done for you? Well, Paul tells us right there. We ought to always thank God for you, brothers, loved by the Lord. Loved by the Lord. Do you realize that? No, I mean, realize that. Not just know that. You've heard that God so loved the world that he gave his own. No. Do you realize that personally? Do you personally believe that?

Or do you just believe it so long as things are going okay? I don't. Or when you don't get something that you've asked God for, he must have stopped loving you. You feel that way? Do you know how much God loves you? You see, Paul understood. I don't think that was just a typical greeting. I don't think people wrote in their letters, brothers, greatly loved by God. I don't think that was just a standard greeting for the day. I think that was

something Paul was introducing to the church because he knew that the persecution they were going through, they needed to hear that over and over because they would at times not feel it. You know, there wouldn't be that feeling, that sensational feeling of love. And that's how our world is operating today is on the feeling of love. If the sensation's not there, it must not really still be love. And so Paul's reminding them, brothers, loved by God. What has Jesus done for

you? There's a t-shirt. I have one that I really like. And it has a kind of a profile, an artist profile of Christ. And he's there with his head kind of bent. And there's a crown of thorns around his head. And it's kind of all done in dark, dark shades. But you can still see the ruggedness of his face where his face has been kind of pummeled and stuff. And next to it, the writing just says, what has God ever done for you? To consider that

as a part of the evidence that God has loved you is a beginning to personalize what you know. To consider that, that God loved you so much that he gave his son for you. He gave his son in exchange for you. Now, I want you to just kind of picture something. I'm not having you visualize. The thing you visualize will not start speaking to you. I want you to picture this in

your mind. You've seen the prisoner exchanges that have been going on with the conflicts in the world with between the Israelis and the Palestinians, between the Bosnians and the Serbs. They get a bunch of prisoners together and they bring them out to a certain place and they exchange them. Well, I want you to see yourself as on one side of a bridge. And you're on this side of the bridge

and you're in handcuffs because you're a prisoner. And you've been beaten and you've been brutalized. And you look across. This bridge and there's the Lord. And he's standing there glorious because he's the king of creation. And he's got these beautiful robes on and he just shines. The whole other side of the bridge just shines, just glows. It's so wonderful. And on somebody's command,

you both begin to walk towards one another. And the closer you get, you see that there's a smile on his face. And as he keeps coming closer to you, he drops his robes on the ground and the glow's just kind of gone. I mean, he's just there. He's just a man like you. And you get to the point where you pass one another and he keeps looking ahead. You keep going as well. But as you pass, your handcuffs are broken loose and they're not there anymore.

And you walk to the other side and you're in the midst of this glow now and it's radiant and it's wonderful. And as you turn around and look on his back, you see the stripes, you see the scars, and you see the blood running down and you see the crown of thorns in his head and you see his hands bound. You see, that's what happened. That's what it means where it says, God loved you so much that he gave his own son. He exchanged

his son for you. Boy, did he lose, it seems like, huh, on the deal. When I consider me, I think, God, boy, you lost such a deal in the radiance and the beauty and the holiness and the perfectness of your son. And you exchanged that for me. He didn't think it was a bad deal. He knew what he was doing because he loved you. You see, that's what love says. Love says, I give. I'll do this

to demonstrate that love in a deeper way. I shared first service and I've shared it before about how much I, when Ann and I were going together, I loved her so much at that time, I had to done anything to see her. And I had to park in the fire lane every night when I went up to her apartment after work to go see her because there was no place to park for blocks. She was in a downtown section in Denver and it was just all kinds of long blocks of no parking. And so I go

park in the fire lane in the alley and there's a whole line of us that did that. And every night we'd get tickets. We were talking about that yesterday. One night I left my ticket that I got the day before out under the windshield wiper thinking, well, he'll come along and think I've already gotten a ticket and not give me one. And I came out and there was another one sitting there with a little smiley face on the upper part of the

ticket stub, you know, like nice try. But I loved her so much that it didn't make any difference what I had to do to demonstrate that I was going to do that. And the only thing I, and I shared this first service as I keep thinking, do I still do that? You know, or do I, do I take things so much for granted? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't

so often that I don't show that kind of love that I don't demonstrate that kind of love. Am I not personalizing it as much as I used to feel it, but do I not demonstrate it? You see, if we're personalizing the love of God, if we realize how much he loves us and we really take that in, it comes out, it'll flow through. We'll be loving as a result of his love for us. So know that you're

loved by the Lord. Go on in verse 13, because from the beginning, God chose you to be saved. God has chosen you to be saved. You are not only loved, but you're chosen. This sounds like 1 Thessalonians 1, the same things that Paul said to them in the first letter. He's saying to them again, they are chosen. You've been chosen to be saved. God chose you. And here we go again, a matter of control.

Well, don't I have the right to choose? Don't I have a free will? Can't I choose whether or not I'm going to accept God or not? Absolutely. Is that outside of God's sovereignty? God had no control over. However, then you'd be choosing something outside of God's domain of sovereignty, and you can't do that because he's sovereign. He knows everything. He's omniscient.

He knows everything there is. Does that mean he knew that I would choose him or not? Absolutely. He based his everything on whether or not I'd choose him. Absolutely. Then do I not have a free choice? No, you have free choice in the midst of God's sovereign will. Well, that's not fair. I'm, you know, well, then choose him. Well, if I'm not saved, then it's not my fault.

He didn't choose me. No, he gives you the choice. Well, it's not fair. Because then choose him, and you'll find out he chose you already. You are chosen. God picked you out to be saved. He didn't pick you out in a bunch either, you know? There wasn't a bunch of y'all that came in all of a sudden, and God said, okay, I'll pick this group. And you happen to be in it, and you're going, wow, praise God,

because if he'd have known me really as I really am, he wouldn't have picked me. I'm one of those little squishy grapes in the midst of these nice, hard, firm grapes. No, God chose you because he loves you. Do you understand that? Do you know that? Have you personalized that? That God? God chose me. When did he do that? Well, verse 13 says, from the beginning, or from before the beginning,

or from the creation of the world, God chose you. So that means that there isn't anything that you've done in your past or anything that you can do in your future to make God un-choose you. He chose you to be saved. If you're saved. If you're sitting here and you don't know if you're saved, then choose him, and you'll know that you're saved and that he chose you from the time from before the foundations of the earth.

He loves you. He's chosen you. There's still, even still in the same verse, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, and through believing, belief in the truth. He's loved you. He's chosen you. And now it says he's sanctified you. Well, what does that mean? Well, he chose you. You are like the unspiritual cattle on the earth. Moo. God is the great cattle baron.

God says, I want that one. The Holy Spirit comes riding in on his cutting horse, and you go, moo, and move over here. And the Holy Spirit moves over here. You ever see a cutting horse work? And you go, moo, and the Holy Spirit goes, moo. And all of a sudden, you're cut out from the earth. And you're set aside for the cattle baron, for the Lord, because God chose you,

because God loves you, because God wants you, and he's set you apart for himself. He has sanctified you, prepared you. How? Through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. Now, that's exciting to me, because he's already separated you. The Spirit's preparing you to deliver you to the bridegroom, which, again, precludes your being here during the Great Tribulation,

because he's already separated you. Because the Great Tribulation is for the outpouring of God's wrath on a disbelieving world. The Great Tribulation is for God's dealing again with the nation of Israel, not purifying his bride. Several people believe that, that the Great Tribulation is for God's purifying of his bride. Let me give you an example, if you carry that thought to its extreme,

what is being said. Here's your bride, Lord. Beautiful bride. Come stand over here, bride. There you are. Now we're going through the Great Tribulation. Whack! Bam! Boom! Crash! Thump! Pound! Here you go, Lord. The Great Tribulation is not for purifying the church. It's for pouring God's wrath out on an unbelieving world and drawing Israel back to himself. You have already been loved, chosen,

sanctified by the Holy Spirit, set apart unto him by belief in the truth. And not only that, verse 14, he called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are loved and chosen and sanctified by the Holy Spirit through belief in the truth to share in the glory of Christ, to share in his glory. I don't know how you see that.

But again, we talked last time about God being a consuming fire and the beautiful perfection of God. When that is fully demonstrated, it is going to roast the universe. I mean, it's going to cook the planets and everything else are going to dissolve before his glory. The angels are going to praise, the church is going to praise him. But in the midst of that,

we get to share in this, in his glory. We get to be partakers of that. I watched some of the basketball yesterday. I didn't get to watch KUK State, but I watched the Iowa and Missouri. And I noticed at the end of the game, there were some of the Missouri players that didn't get to, or some of the Iowa players didn't get to play. They were on the bench. But when that last buzzer sounded,

they were up with the team and they were over together rejoicing in the victory, sharing in the glory of the victory. That's you and me, you know. Jesus is already with us. We won the game. Jesus has already done everything that's necessary, but he lets us share in the glory. He lets us rejoice in the victory with him. Have you personalized that? Have you drawn?

Have you really believed that? Do you love that? That's the truth. That's what God's revealed, that you who believe in him have. Do you know that in here more than just up here? How do you personalize that? You believe the truth. You heard the gospel and now you believe it and that affects your lifestyle. This picture. This picture of you representing Christ to the world.

What's your picture like? Have you personalized that truth? If you have, it will show up in your picture. Your picture will be worth a thousand words. Does your picture declare the truth of Christ, his love and his compassion and his forbearance and his forgiveness and the fact that he's a jealous God and he will not strive long with man and he hates sin? Or does your picture reflect the lie that,

well, I know these things about God, but, you know, God really doesn't love me that much and there's these things in my life that I want and that I need and I've reached out to get those things and I know about God. I know the truth, but I'm really not living it. What does your picture reflect? Have you personalized the truth? Well, what about protecting the truth?

Protecting the truth. Look at verse 15. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or letter. Stand firm and hold. Hold to the truth. Stand firm in the truth that's been passed on to you. Now, this is not only referring to the apostasy that's coming, but the present danger now. I mean, we're not waiting for things to get bad.

Things are bad and getting worse. And so this is an admonition to us who believe. If you believe and are personalizing the truth, it's become part of your life, then God calls you to protect it, to stand firm in it, to hold on to it. Hold your finger here and go with me to 1 John 2. It's to your right, almost to the book of Revelation. 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2.

I'm going to begin reading at verse 18. So if you're turning, just listen and look for us around verse 18 of 1 John 2. Dear children, this is the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they went out from us,

they did not belong to us. They did not belong to us. They did not belong to us. They did not belong to us. They did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their going showed that none of them belonged to us. What's he talking about? There were members of their fellowship that looked like Christians, that talked like Christians,

that acted like believers. And then all of a sudden, it just seemed like they were tripping out and they were going off back after the things of the world. John says, hey, they've succumbed to the spirit of Antichrist that's in the world. They've succumbed to the lie. That's all sin. Whenever we sin, we don't just make a mistake. When we sin, we say, God, you don't love me.

You don't love me. You're giving me what I want. Because you don't, I have to determine my own destiny and reach out into the world and grab what I want because you don't love me. That's what each of us says each time we sin. Makes no difference the degree of sin. Makes no difference what it is. When we sin, that's what we, in essence, are saying, and we have believed the lie.

And if we do that as a practice, then it will reflect in our picture that we're communicating to people about who Jesus is. And if it becomes part of our daily practice, then what John is saying here is they've gone out from us. They're no longer walking in the fellowship of believers after the things of the word of God. They've gone off into the world. Demas has forsaken me,

Paul said in an earlier letter, loving the things of this life, more than the things of God. Demas must have been with Paul for some time. But he was one of these who Paul, who John writes about, who really wasn't a part. They spoke the part and acted the part and they did some of the things that were a part for a while. But when the lure of the world got too much

out into the world, they went. And John says it just shows by their practice that they never really were a part of us. Verse 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One and all of you know the truth. I don't write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ.

Such a man is the Antichrist. He denies the Father and the Son. What does that mean? Do I have to just say Jesus is the Christ? I believe that Jesus is the Christ. Your manner of conversation, if you're reading King James, your conversation, the word conversation is written a lot. Let your conversation be among men as that that acknowledges your love for God.

It doesn't mean just your speaking. It involves your lifestyle. It doesn't mean just saying that I believe that Jesus is the Christ. My lifestyle is affected by that. If I believe that Jesus came, that he is the Son of God incarnate in the flesh, that he lived and died for me, then I believe that by showing it, by living it. Any man who says that he isn't doesn't just have to say,

no, I don't believe I'm an atheist. He declares that by the life that he lives. Any man who says that he's not come in the flesh, denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Verse 24. See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. Guard it, the truth. Guard the word that's come to you

where this is concerned. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised. Even. In eternal life. You're in chapter 2. Look over in chapter 4. Verse 1. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God.

Every spirit that acknowledges that what? Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. I've had been places where in confronting demons, they ask the demon, do you confess that Jesus has come in the flesh? And they do. He's the Son of God. When Jesus was there with the Gadarene, they brought the Gadarene came running up to him and they said, Son of God, what have you to do with us?

The demon-possessed boy, when they brought him to Jesus, the demon said, Son of God, what have you to do with us? They knew who he was. It doesn't just, they don't just speak it. That doesn't confirm that they love the Lord. It affects their life, the manner of life. Test the spirits, the spirit of an individual. Does he believe that Jesus came in the flesh

as the incarnate Son of God? How? Just telling you, no, the lifestyle is dedicated to the Lord. That's what your picture will say. That's the epistle that you are to the people around you. Go back towards 2 Thessalonians. And as you go, you'll come through 2 Peter. Stop in chapter two, 2 Peter chapter two. Quickly, 2 Peter chapter two, begin with verse one.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies. What are those? Well, here's one. Even denying the sovereign, Lord, who bought them. What does that mean? The lie you don't love me. I'm going off to satisfy my own flesh. I'm going to choose these things. That's denying the sovereign Lord

who bought them. Peter says that's a destructive heresy that comes from the false prophets. Listen, we can't excuse our sin. We can't wallow in our sin and wallow in the excuses and go, well, that's what was me. That's just the way it is. It is a destructive heresy. heresy to do that it's a destructive heresy to presume upon the grace of god that says my grace is sufficient for you that doesn't mean my grace is sufficient for you go ahead and go on

about your sin my grace is sufficient for you to trust me in the midst of this to forsake those things that are that are either a hindrance to you or that are a distraction to you paul's thorn was a distraction to him it distracted him from from seeing the things of god the way he wanted to see him it was a distraction to him and he prayed that god would take it and god says no my grace is sufficient for you not that you wallow in that not that you wallow in the fact that you have this messenger from satan whatever it is but my grace is sufficient for you to not let that be a distraction so that you can continue to worship me god's grace is sufficient for us not to excuse

sin but to forsake it peter says this will bring swift destruction on themselves verse 2 many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth to them and will bring the way of truth to them and will bring the way of truth to them into disrepute are we seeing that a lot now in our day and age where the way of truth you call yourself a christian and speak with forked tongue you know say one thing do another in their greed verse 3 these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up and how do they exploit the people because the people don't know the word of god they have not protected the truth they have not held fast to the truth they have not learned how to stand firm in the truth satan does his best work

through people in Christian institutions, through people in the church and in Christian schools who don't believe God's truth. They have a form of godliness, but they've really never experienced the power, the power of God's saving truth. Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20 that that was going to happen, that from their midst, from those who looked like them, talked like them, acted like them, there would rise up wolves who would seek to scatter the flock, taking after themselves those as they could. And it happened.

Hold firm, hold the truth, stand firm. The word hold there is a word that's related in the Greek to a Greek word that means strength and power. And it has the idea of a death grip, of a death grip. And he's saying, don't treat this word carelessly, but hold fast to it, like a death grip. A few weeks ago, I shared about a Chinese missionary lady or a lady who a missionary was given a Bible to.

And this lady was a Chinese lady. And she talked about how the communists came in and they took all of the stuff in her house and she didn't really mind that, but they... They were mocking her Christianity and she was holding her Bible and they spit on her and they wanted her to give them her Bible and she wouldn't. And they finally had to... They crushed her hands and took the Bible away.

That's the kind of grip we need to hang on to the word of God with. Not just carry your Bible around, but hang on to the truths of it and stand firm in your daily life with that kind of a grip on the word of God. Protecting the truth also involves passing it on. Look at the end of verse 15. Hold to the teachings we passed on to you. Hold to those teachings that we passed on to you.

You see, Paul knew that he was going to die. He knew that he was going to jail and would eventually be killed. And so he knew that he needed to pass that truth on just as Jesus passed the truth on to his disciples. So protecting the truth involves passing on the truth. 2 Timothy 2, verse 2, Paul says, The things that you have heard me say, Timothy, in the presence of many witnesses,

entrust these things to reliable men who will also be able and qualified to teach others. Are you doing that? Does your picture reflect that? Are you seeking to impart these truths into the lives of those around you, maybe family members or a friend or someone? Have you prayed and asked God to give you somebody to impart those truths to? If you do, he will.

And don't be afraid to do it because you'll have a ball doing it and he'll increase your own understanding as you do it. God, give me somebody that I can just impart these things to. The little bit that I... I don't care if you're a day old in the Lord or 50 years old in the Lord. These things that I know, Lord, I don't know a whole lot, but just give me somebody

else that I can share these things with, that I can begin to take what I've learned and begin to talk to them about it. And maybe it's somebody at work or maybe somebody at school. And you begin to just share with them about that, passing it on. Each generation of Christians, one commentator wrote, each generation of Christians is responsible for receiving the truth from others, protecting it, and making sure it's kept intact for the next generation.

You know, we look at the generation of 20-somethings and the generation of the under 20-somethings, the kids of today, and we have a generation, a generation that doesn't know the Lord. And whose responsibility is that? Whose fault is it that we have gangs and that we have the problems in school that we have? Well, the government will tell you that we need more money.

We need more money to fund more educational programs. We need more money to fund the SRS adventures and making sure that we teach kids how to use condoms correctly. Because, boy, that's sure been the problem, I know, with sex, right? We've got so much sex because we haven't taught them how to use a condom. No, we haven't taught them about the things of the Lord.

We haven't passed the truths of God onto them. And there's a whole... There's a whole generation that's missed that and the byproduct is growing up now. And it's our fault because we haven't held firmly to the truth and our picture is not communicating that we love God with all of our hearts, that we know about His love for us, His choosing us, His sanctifying us, that we get to share in His glory and that we love His truth enough to protect it and hold fast to it and stand firm on it and pass it on to somebody else.

We've lost that. And there's nobody to blame but us. And we'll stand before God and answer for that one. We can't excuse it. We can't wallow around in the supposed grace of God where that's concerned. Each one of us is responsible for that. But not only do we have to personalize the truth and protect it, we're called on to practice it. Verse 16, 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. We're called on to practice the truth. And you say, well, wait a minute. It says here that it's God who encourages and strengthens us. Yes, it is. And let me give you a little aside here. It says,

May the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father indicates two individuals who loved us and encourages and strengthens. Those verbs are all singular in the Greek. If Jesus were less than God, the Father, their verbs would be plural. If Jesus indeed were not God, those would be plural verbs, but they're not. They're singular verbs indicating that Jesus and the Father are one.

Two in personalities. One in essence. Jesus is not lesser than God, the Father. In essence, they're both God. And yes, it is. God is the one who encourages and God is the one who strengthens us. But God uses people to accomplish that. And all you have to do is spend time in His word to know that. If I say right now, May God strengthen and encourage you. Do you expect some mysterious zap of the Spirit?

May God strengthen and encourage you. And you go, Boy, do I feel strengthened and encouraged. Boy, I do. I tell you, I really do. Feel that zap. How's He most apt to do that? The Holy Spirit will tell you. He will take the word of God more often than not and through an individual who lives it, touch your life. Somebody who is living before the Lord and loving God

and you're in the midst of this circumstance and God will encourage you because He brings them into your life and they show you Jesus Christ and you are strengthened and encouraged as a result of that. As you are in the presence of someone who lives their faith and practices the truth, who's personalized the truth of God, who's protecting it and who is practicing it in your midst. Listen, if you want to be encouraged in the faith, pray about going with us to Mexico on the missions trip. You want to see encouragement, you go on a missions trip.

You want to see the hand of God working mightily, go on a short-term mission. You want to be encouraged in the faith, man. We'll go down there with the intent of helping them out. If they're working fields, we'll work fields. If they need to build something, we'll help them build it. We'll do some drama and maybe some things for the community, but mainly we're going to go down there

to encourage them, to build them up. And you know what? We're the ones going to get blessed. Seeing the life and the love of God working through them to encourage us as we go. Finally, Paul says, encourage you in every good deed and word. Paul's concerned with their and our deeds and words, with our works and with our words, with what we say and with what we do.

Because you see, if our words and our work don't mix, we lose our testimony. If we don't do what we say, our testimony is worthless. I had this information, emphasized this week. I had a brother contact me and he said he was talking to this guy and this guy was saying, he had called him and said, man, give me everything, you know, give me the, share with me again about the last days and all the scriptures in Daniel and Revelation again about how we know we're in the last days.

And he was excited about it. And he said, why, what happened? And he said, well, I was at work and this guy and I got to talking about the times that we're living in. And I got to telling him that we're in the last days. Jesus is coming soon. We can't be wishy-washy. He's going to catch out the church and all that stuff. And the guy was real excited. And then he asked,

he said, you really believe that? He said, yeah, I really do. And he said, how can you live the way you're living if you really believe that? He said, man, it got me to thinking. He said, I prayed and I repented. And he said, now help me. Give me back into that section of Daniel and I'll give you back into the word. Our words don't match our works. Our testimony is shot.

And so Paul prays that God might strengthen and encourage us in our word and in our deeds. Lazarus didn't have to give lessons on the resurrection. He just walked around and his picture said, wow. It's real. What do people learn about Jesus when they look at your life? What kind of a picture do they see? Paul called the people to follow him. The things you see in me do.

Just follow me. Do what I do. And you know, each one of us as Christians should be able to say that to people around us. Paul didn't say, I'm a little hook-nosed, bent-over Jew that's old and I'm crotchety and I'm grumpy and I'll do things and say things at times that I'm really harsh about. Don't worry about those things. Just do these other things over here.

He said that just what you see in me do. You follow me. As I follow Jesus. That's what we ought to be able to do with other people. Somebody should be following you and you should be knowingly passing on the truth. Let's stand together.