Holding Fast to the Truth

Well, good afternoon again, brethren. Always a delight to be able to come see you and to be here in our congregation here in Kansas City and be able to share with one another the things that God has done for us. And clearly, that's what we all can be thinking about and be thankful for.

I want to cover something today that I hope will be of help to us, because whenever Jesus spoke to his disciples, and then later, whenever Paul gave some instruction to the people in Thessalonia, there were two different letters, first Thessalonians and second Thessalonians, where Paul gave some instruction to the people there, he also gave them some encouragement and actually gave some insight into how to remain stable, how to remain consistent, and even as we approach the return of Jesus Christ. See, what Jesus told his disciples, if we look in Matthew 24, because they were asking him here in Matthew 24, Jesus said, verse 1, he came to the temple and was going away and disciples came and pointed to him in the buildings and they asked, you see all these things, do you not? Truly, I tell you, not one stone will be left upon another and all will be thrown down. He was telling them about something that was going to happen during some of their lifetime. The temple itself would be destroyed, which in many ways was a kind of a, you know, they couldn't comprehend it. That is the symbol or it is the emblem of the religion of God, which of course at that point was Judaism. It was worshiping God, as the Pharisees at least tried to do it. And of course, Jesus came and was making a lot of changes. They didn't necessarily like that. And yet he said that time will come when these buildings will all fall down. And so on a verse 3, when he was sitting in the Mount of Olives, the disciples came and privately said, tell us when will this be and what will be the sign of here coming and at the end of the age? And so they wanted to understand what he was talking about. And of course, I'm sure he was going to explain to them more what it was that was going to happen as far as the transition that would take place with the temple and with Jerusalem even being overthrown and actually his followers and the people that the disciples would be working with, they were going to be scattered. This happened in 70 AD. And so it was going to be a while before that would happen, but he was telling them that. But they were asking him, what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered them and said, I want you to beware.

Beware that no man would lead you astray. See, he was giving them clearly a warning. I don't want you to be uninformed. I don't want you to be, as Cleo mentioned in the verse we read in 1 Thessalonians, I don't want you to be ignorant about what's going to happen. I want you to be aware. I want you to be alert. He says, beware that no one leads you astray, for many are going to come in my name, saying, I'm the Messiah. He was actually saying, there will be many who profess religion and even use the name of Jesus and yet are not true. And so he said, many are going to come in my name, and they will lead many astray, and you will hear of wars and rumors of war. So he goes through even more of the signs that we know are going to lead up to the time when Jesus will have to intervene and actually rescue this world. And over in verse 24, if we rush on through this, I'm not going to read all of this, but in verse 24, he says, and this is again talking about not only a great tribulation that would come upon the earth, and he says in verse 22, if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved alive, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. And so, as he was talking of what would happen before he intervenes in world affairs, he says the people of God, the people called here the elect, God is going to be merciful too. He's going to help. And in verse 23, he says, if anyone says, look, here's the Messiah, there he is, don't believe it. Because in verse 24, false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the very elect.

In a sense, that's kind of a strong statement that he is making in verse 24.

He says, you need to be alert. You need to be awake, spiritually. You need to be growing and vibrant and thriving. And of course, he tells us to be on guard and to be concerned about our spiritual welfare and the closeness that we have to God. But as I said, Paul also gave a warning over here in the book of 2nd Thessalonians. And I want to primarily focus on this today because he gives not only a warning, but he also gives some very key elements that each of us want to be doing. We want to be doing these in order to avoid being led astray. Because he says, deception will come. And he says, this is how you can remain stable. This is how you will have absolute stability. And of course, that's what I want to know. I want to read what it is that he says, because Jesus actually said, you know, you need to be on guard. You need to not be led astray. You need to be stable in what you believe, in what you teach. And so here in 2nd Thessalonians, I don't know if all of you have read this recently, but it's a short book. I think it has three chapters here. Yeah, three. So it's not very long. You can read it fairly easily. But I would just point out that when Paul was writing to the Christians who were in Thessalonia, they, as we read 1st Thessalonians, they needed to be encouraged. They needed to be given hope. And he was giving them hope. He was telling them, Christ is coming back. Actually, what you find in every chapter of 1st Thessalonians, he closes each chapter with the admonition that Christ is going to come back. And certainly in chapter 4 that we commonly read, because it talks about the resurrection, and it talks about the trumpet call of God. And it talks about the return of Jesus Christ and us being united with him. Those are all, again, fairly familiar scriptures. He was giving that information to the people in Thessalonia. He was giving that to them in order to encourage them, in order to lift them up. He says, I want you to know what's going to happen, because this is inevitable. But of course, he writes 2nd Thessalonians in a sense to kind of correct any misunderstanding that some of them may have had from what he said the first time. He writes 2nd Thessalonians so that they would more clearly understand what to look for regarding the coming of the Lord. Because you can see this in 2nd Thessalonians 2, beginning in chapter 2. Verse 1, As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how being gathered together to him we beg you, brethren, I don't want you to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by spirit or by word or by letter as though from us. I don't want you to be shaken to the effect that the day of the Lord is very near or almost upon us.

See, what would you find whenever Paul had written such encouraging words to them? You know, they in a sense kind of misunderstood. And whenever you read it, because he said, well, you know, those who are dead in Christ will rise when Christ returns. But those of us who are alive, so they got the impression, man, maybe we'll still be alive. And of course, most of us have probably thought of him, maybe we'll still be alive. Maybe we won't, which might also not be so bad because we don't know what we have to go through. But see, that didn't fully understand what he had to say. But he said here in chapter 2, I don't want you to be alarmed or I don't want you to be shaken in anything. You know, that people might be saying about the day of the Lord. I'm going to give you some more information. In verse 3, he says, don't let anyone deceive you in any way.

For that day, talking about the day that Jesus would return to the earth, that day will not come.

And so here he's going to give a couple of clues about what has to happen before Jesus will intervene. He says that day will not come unless a falling away happens first. A turning aside, a rebellion happens, a falling away from the truth of God. That's what he said. That's one of the things we can all think about. We can all think about. I think about that some. I believe I understand a little bit about what that might refer to. I'll let you think about what you would think that might be. But he says these two things are going to happen before Christ returns. There's going to be a great falling away. And it says also, the lawless one, the son of perdition, the lawless one will be revealed, the one who is destined for destruction.

And so here he's given two different signs, a great falling away from the truth of God, and a lawless one that will come on the scene and actually will be on the scene when Jesus returns. That's what he's going to say in a little bit, but those are two things that we can easily see here. And so let's continue. He says this lawless one, or I think some of the other translations call this, this man of sin or man of lawlessness. There are different, perhaps, ways to phrase that.

But he says this lawless one in verse 4, he opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship. So he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God.

He says, don't you remember that I told you about these things when I was with you? He kind of throws that in. Don't you remember I explained that? He's actually clarifying it even more for them in this letter. He says, I want you to be mindful that a falling away from the truth of God would happen and that a man of sin would rise. And then he's going to go ahead and describe this man of sin in verse 7, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. So he said, okay, this man of sin is going to arrive, but kind of the lawless pattern of living and even churches who do not teach a respect for the law of God. This is already at work. It was at work, even during the days when Paul would have been preaching and teaching in the churches in the first century. And so he says the lawless one will be revealed. Oh, okay, verse 7, I'm sorry, for the mystery of the lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed. And then he makes a little more specific who this individual is, who the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. Clearly, you know, whenever we read that in Revelation 16 or 17 or 18 or 19, the whole scenario of Christ returning on the scene at that time will be a false prophet. On the scene at that time will be a great military leader, and both of them are going to be deposed. Both of them are going to be set aside by Jesus, and as it says there, by the word of his mouth, you know, as he intervenes in world affairs. But he says this lawless one will be revealed and Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. And the coming of this lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power and signs and lying wonders and every kind of wicked deception. So here he clearly attributes, you know, who this lawless one will be to Satan influencing a religious system that is against God, that is opposed to God, that is lawless.

Yet even as you think about the religious systems that we know of in our world today, you can think of a religious system in the Middle East that is pretty lawless, pretty ruthless, really ruthless, diabolical. And, you know, the religious system that is universal, the religious system that goes around the world, almost looks tame, almost looks tame to what we see in the Middle East. But it's still lawless. It still doesn't teach obedience to the law. And so, you know, you find that this lawless one is going to be empowered by Satan. And clearly, whenever Paul was writing this, he did not have the available to him Revelation 17, 18, 19. He didn't have that information available except as God would give him understanding. Now, what did he have? What he had was what's in the Old Testament. What he had was what Daniel was inspired to write down, what Daniel was told to write down and says, you don't have to understand this, Daniel. You're just going to write it down. And it talks about, you know, the rise of a wicked person, an insolent person who will exalt themselves against the God of heaven and who will cause many people to falsely follow him. And so, clearly, you know, he had something to go on here. But I think you also find that what Paul was writing about, you know, had to be partially understanding Daniel. Even as you find Daniel read Jeremiah and figured out how long he was going to be in captivity. We read that not too long ago. You find that Paul had to read Daniel and know this individual is going to rise on the scene. This individual will rise toward the time when Jesus will have to intervene, which is, of course, predicted in the end of the book of Daniel. So I want to point out, I'm just leading up to this as far as the setting. Here in verse 9 and down from verse 9 down through verse 12, you see two very key things. Key things that each of us want to keep in mind. And so starting in verse 9, he says, the coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan who uses power and signs and lying wonders in every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing. Because those who are perishing, those who would follow this wicked one, these individuals will be perishing because, and here he gives a very telltale sign. They refuse to love the truth. They refuse to love the truth, and so be saved.

You know, obviously the opposite of that would be to love the truth and receive salvation. And he goes on to say, for this reason God has sent them a strong delusion, leading them to believe what is false so that all who have not believed the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness or took pleasure in lawlessness, could be another description of that. They're going to be condemned. He talks here about how some are going to be destroyed or some are going to fall because they don't believe the truth and they don't love the truth. Those are two things that I want us to think about today because these can give us assurance, they can give us security, they can give us faith and courage in the face of whatever we may face in the future because this is clearly what Jesus told his disciples as we'll go into this. But it's clearly what Paul describes as to the people there in Thessalonia, you know, this can stabilize you. Realize that a fall in the way will come. Realize that a lawless one will rise, and people who are deceived by this lawless one do not believe nor do they love the truth. And so for us to be stable, we're going to need to identify with both of those statements. You actually see this accentuated by Jesus in John chapter 7.

John chapter 7 is a fairly familiar section to us because we read it often on the Holy Days. We read it at the Feast of Tabernacles. We read it on the eighth day. John chapter 7.

Verse 37, it says on the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out. And so here, you know, we see Jesus not only observing the Feast of Tabernacles and the last great day. That's what he had sent his disciples earlier to go to, and then he went up, and in the middle of the Feast, he was able to, you know, be there, and even being whether they could detect him or not. But it says on the eighth day, Jesus stood up and said, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me. Let the one who believes in me drink. And the Scripture has said, Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.

And an explanation of what Jesus was really talking about, John adds now, he said this about the Spirit. That believers in him were to receive. For as yet, there was no Spirit because Jesus had not yet been glorified. The Spirit of God was yet to come on the day of Pentecost. It was going to come. Let's see what Jesus was speaking about. We often refer to this as a time in the future when the Spirit of God will be available to all. And that clearly is a valid application of that because we see that in many other places. Spoken about as a time when God's Spirit is available and living water can flow forth to people and then out from people. But see, it's applicable to us today as we've been blessed with the Holy Spirit now. This applies to us.

Anyone who is thirsty can come to Jesus and let the one who believes in me drink, and out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water. See, that's exactly what God wants for all of us. That's exactly what He wants us to thrive in. He doesn't want us to be thirsty. He wants us to be thoroughly convinced and responsive to the truth.

And so, when you see what Jesus had to say here, you can see that He talks about those who would believe in Him, those who have a believer's heart. Those who believe in Him will receive and be guided by the Holy Spirit. See, that's the transformation that God is causing to take place in our lives. All of us want to be obedient. We want to be responsive. But the Holy Spirit needs to be working in our lives to transform us as we believe the truth. That has to do with our mind. It has to do with our thoughts, our understanding. It has to do with how we view things, how we understand the Bible, the love of the truth. That has to do with our heart, our devotion, and our yieldedness to Jesus Christ. See, that's why we're here, every Sabbath. That's why we're here on a somewhat cold day. Actually, it's not all that cold today. It's not even freezing right now, I don't think. And yet, we're here because we want to obey God. We want to worship God. We want to serve God. We believe what He said. We love His truth. And that, of course, is going to transform us in our latest Good News magazine, which is actually just fabulous to get that good news every other month and be able to look through all of the articles that are there. And, of course, we're trying to share that with anyone who will take it, anyone who would like it.

I hope all of us are benefiting from what it says, because there is so much tremendous information in the Good News. There's an article, a short article, I think, in this last issue. It's entitled, Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled.

Let not your heart be troubled. And, of course, we should be familiar with that if we're reminded of John 14, because John 14, verse 1, was a statement that Jesus made to His disciples right before He was going to be taken and put to death. He says, Don't let your heart be troubled. You don't have to be troubled by what I'm going to go through.

You're going to be disoriented, yes. You're going to be confused. You're going to be thrown off. You're even going to walk away, but you're going to know what you need to do because you believe, and you love the truth. But here in John 14, verse 1, Jesus told His disciples, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me.

I know I may point this out, and I want us to understand this, that this is really an important aspect of our commitment to God. Many people perhaps misunderstand and think all you have to do is believe, and yet there's far more to it than that, but you do have to believe. You do have to believe who Jesus was. You do have to believe that He's going to come back. You do have to believe that He's able to live in us. There are a lot of things that we need to believe. I know it's whenever He made that statement, you believe in God. Believe also in me. See, that was a statement that in many ways was it had a time factor that was unique.

Because up to that point, people could think the Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming, but He was telling them, You need to believe I'm Him. You need to believe that I'm the Son of God. You need to believe that I'm the Creator of everything. You need to believe that I'm the Redeemer. You need to believe in me. And He's going to point that out numerous times. I also wanted to mention here before I go into some other things here in John.

We started a new program, as I have mentioned to you, although we don't have, we do have several young people in our congregation here. We started a new program that began here in November, and there are kind of guides that families can use to be able to teach our children the things that we certainly hope they understand or will come to understand and be able to focus on. And we're trying to use a little different pattern, as again, I hope we all understand. We're not trying to have simply, you know, people coming to Sabbath school and hoping that they learn whatever they might learn, but that the parents are directly involved in teaching their children at whatever level, whatever age. I mean, obviously there's a wide range sometimes between the young and old of a group, but even within a family, the parents know those kids the best. They know how they learn the best. They know what might be needed that couldn't be easily discerned by somebody else. And yet they're starting on a new kind of a pattern that has at least the topics highlighted. And it's not so much, or it's not solely just for our parents with children. It's really for all of us, because all of us should be interested in our children. All of us should have interest in the kids in our congregation. And the first lesson for this month is really dealing with the existence of God. It deals with not only, you know, the fact that, you know, well, we can read the Bible and it says that God is, although, you know, that may be adequate for some, it points out how that we need to help our young people truly understand that God does exist. That God exists and that you can trust Him and that He's the Creator of all.

And so, even as, you know, we speak from week to week or as we go from month to month, I hope all of our speakers will be aware of what it is that our families are being asked to teach their children, you know, type the main topic of what it is that they are focusing on. And try to, it's not that we always want to be going over, you know, that particular material, but at least be aware of it and, in a sense, you know, help our young people kind of grow in understanding the topics that are being presented. And some of them are, you know, they're big topics. Does God exist? That's a big topic. It's a huge topic. And yet, I hope it's one that not only all of us as adults, but I hope even our young people. Parker's sitting up here on the front row, helping me try to figure out which song we're singing. And, you know, Bryce is in the back and Amanda and Alexis and Lauren are here on the second row. And so, we're thankful that they're here. I'm not trying to overlook anybody else. I know Quinn left. So, she'll be back. And I don't want to overlook if I did. I'm sorry, but see, I want to ask you kids, I guess. I want to ask you, I want to tell you about something. I want to ask you, you know, what do you think this is? It's because the other night, I think it was about 10, I'm not remembering exactly, probably about 10 days ago. 10 days ago, my wife went to bed. And she was actually, she often goes to bed earlier than I do. And so, whenever she goes to bed, she turns out the lights and she closes the door. And so, I can be noisy or watching TV or doing something else downstairs.

And after about an hour, knock, knock, knock, she's knocking on the side of the wall, wanted me to come. And she, she, when I came up and was talking to her, it looked like there were lights on in her room, in our room, in the room where she was. But I looked and I don't know, none of the bathroom lights are not on, the closet's not on, the overhead's not on. But it looked like the whole room was lit up! What do you think that might have been? Anybody have an idea?

It was actually a full moon. It was actually a brew! Very clear, of course, it's one month from the beginning of the feast, so it is a full moon time. And it just so happened that right here in Kansas City, and you know, we didn't have any clouds, the moon was as bright as it could possibly be. And in our bedroom, you know, it just looked like it was lit up!

And so, we start messing with the shades, and we could minimize that a little bit. But you can't, you can't really cut it out all together. Because she had thought, you know, either I'd select the light on, because it's awfully light, or I'm turning the lights on outside, or our neighbor's turning the lights on, you know, because he's got a bunch of lights out behind the house.

And no, none of that was on. It was this great big beautiful full moon that, you know, was shining in through the shades, even, to just make the room light up. See, now, I mention that because, you know, I think, you know, as we think about God as the Creator and the one who sets, you know, you can read a lot of words. I can read a lot of words to you about what God says and what he has done.

And yet, you can learn a lot from simply seeing what he created. Now, you know, he says in Genesis 1 on the fourth day, Creator set the sun and the moon in the sky to rule the day and rule the night. And, you know, the sun kind of always looks the same. It's hard to even look at. You can't even really look at the sun because it's so bright.

And it's really difficult to get a lot of variation there. It might be cloudy, so you can't see it very well, but the sun almost every day is going to look the same. But the moon doesn't. God has set the moon in such a way where there will be a full moon, and there will be a waning, which will turn out eventually to be kind of a half moon, and then it'll be kind of a crescent moon, and then you won't even see it at all.

And then you'll see it coming back, a crescent, and growing to a half, and ultimately to a full moon. God set that cycle. You can watch it! It's fun to watch. I like to watch the moon. It really is fascinating because it shows one of the signs of God's existence, of Him having set things in such a pattern, in such an order that we can bank on it. We know what's going to happen. Whenever they're dealing with the astronomical calculations that are necessary to do some of the spacings that we do, you've got to know, you know, this will happen because this is the way it is. This is the laws of nature that we're dealing with.

But it's fascinating to watch the moon, and so I encourage not only our young people, but maybe all of us. I'm always excited about it because I realize that, you know, the full moon is going to be there at the beginning of the feast, and full moons will be there at the beginning of the Passover season, the spring and fall holy days. You know, we are aware of that because most visibly the full moon, you know, the new moon you don't see, you don't hardly even know you can figure out when it is, but the full moon is real visible if it's clear. But I point that out just simply that God is wanting us to come to believe Him and love Him, and love Jesus Christ, and love or believe in Jesus Christ, and those are some stabilizing factors in our lives.

I mentioned to you, I wanted to read a little bit about the book of John, and actually the Apostle John, as he wrote the book of John, he wrote more about believing than anywhere else in the Bible. Now, obviously, it's in many other places, but more than half of all the quotes regarding belief are in the book of John, because he was revealing something about Jesus. He was revealing how Jesus is connected to God, to Father. And we might look in John 1.

John chapter 1, this is a remarkable little verse. Of course, you can go through every one of these verses and think about a lot of things, but it says in verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's a very telling statement about that Jesus exists prior to coming as a human, because he did. But it says in verse 10, and again, I'm not reading all of this, but in verse 10 of John 1, he was in the world, and the world came into being through him, and yet the world did not know him. So even though Jesus had created the earth, even though he had created Adam and Eve, even though he had dealt with Noah during the flood, and even though he had been with the Israelites throughout their time, when he came to the earth, people didn't know who he was. They did not comprehend who he is. And it says in verse 11, he came to those who were his own, he came to his own people, and his own people did not accept him. So essentially, that's a statement about the house of Judah. He came to them, he talked with them all the time, he preached to them, they were Sabbath, and in their synagogues, they didn't accept who he was.

But verse 12 is what I want to focus on, but he says, to all of those who received him, to all of those who believed in his name, who believed who he was, who believed that he was the Messiah. See, because you see, numbers of people coming to believe he was the Messiah. You can read John 4, and the Samaritan woman became convinced he was the Messiah. He said, nobody would know. All the stuff he told me about myself, unless he's the Messiah. But not only her, but numerous others, Mary and Martha, knew he was the Messiah. They were deep friends with him as was Lazarus. But here it says, those who received him, who believed in his name, it says he gave power to become the children of God.

See, belief in who Jesus is. Belief in the truth, because you can see Jesus defined as truth. Of course, you see the Word of God defined as truth. But I want us to focus on what it says here, those who believed in his name, he gave the power to become the children of God. See, again, that's a very easy statement to read, but that's a remarkably wonderful truth of God.

God extends the Spirit of God. He extends the power of God to transform our minds so that we can be His divine children. That's what He's doing. That's His job. That's His process.

And so, this is the first allusion here. Let's turn over to chapter 10. You can go to any chapter, and you can find John talking about believing in Jesus Christ, believing in the truth of God.

Here in John chapter 10, you actually see Jesus making a lot of statements. He says He's the doer for the sheep. He says He's the good shepherd who takes care of the sheep, who actually gives His life for the sheep. But I want to start in verse 28, or excuse me, verse 24. John 10, verse 24, as Jesus was walking by the temple, verse 24, the Jews gathered around Him and said, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you're the Messiah, then tell us plainly.

Well, and clearly He had, and clearly some believed that. Clearly some knew who He was and what He was there to do. He said in verse 25, I told you, and you simply won't believe. You don't believe what I just said. Works that I do in my Father's name testify to me, but you do not believe because you don't belong to my sheep. Those who are the sheep of God are going to fully believe who Jesus is. They're going to fully believe the devotion required and necessary to be a responsive sheep because as He goes ahead to say, verse 26, the Pharisees didn't believe because they didn't belong.

They weren't His sheep. And in verse 27, My sheep, He says, hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow Me. They obey Me. They respond. And of course, that's a part of the transformation that's taking place in our lives. That we are responding, that we are yielding to Jesus Christ because we know who He is and we know how much He needs to live in us because that's going to be what transforms us. So here in John 10, you see a reference. Let's go on to chapter 11.

See, obviously, chapter 11 is about Lazarus being resurrected from the dead. And clearly, that whole chapter is one that is remarkable in so many ways. But let's pick it up here in John 11. In verse 11, after Mary and Martha had sent for Jesus, and Jesus didn't go, He delayed. And He said after this, in verse 11, He said to His disciples, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I'm going to wake him up. And the disciples said to Him, Lord, if He's fallen asleep, He'll be okay. Jesus, however, had been speaking about His death, for they thought He was referring merely to sleep. But finally, in verse 14, Jesus tells him, Lazarus is dead. He says, I've waited around here until he would be dead.

And in verse 15, He said, for your sake, I'm glad that I was not there.

For your sake, I was glad I wasn't there, so that you may believe. So that you may believe what?

That they may believe who He is, and what He's able to do, and how important He is to our spiritual lives. And He said, let's go on to see Him, and you can follow on down. And of course, when they went and they talked to Martha, and they talked to Mary later, but in verse 25, Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the like. Those who believe in Me, those who believe in Me, even though they die, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. He asked Martha, do you really believe this? And she said, I believe that you're the Messiah. I believe that you're the Son of God, the one coming into the world. See, she understood who He was. She had other things to learn, but she clearly understood who He was, and the Pharisees didn't. If you drop on down to verse 41, verse 40, Jesus said, didn't I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?

So, they took away the stone, and Jesus looked upward, and He said, Father, I thank you that you always hear Me. I thank you for having heard Me, and I know that you always hear Me. But I'm saying these things for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent Me. See, Jesus pointed out over and over and over, and I can go to any chapter in John, and you will see something about belief, about believing not only Jesus, but believing what He said, and doing what He said, and responding to Him. See, that's one of the things that we can bank on, that can secure us and keep us from being deceived.

You know, you can go on to Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1 is a couple of verses here that we also focused on in our kingdom of God seminars. It says in Mark 1, verse 14, now, after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. You need to repent, and what do you need to do? You need to believe the gospel. Believe the message of the kingdom of God. You hear Jesus points out, you need to believe the truth. You need to believe who I am. You need to believe the gospel, the gospel which is involving the kingdom. It's involving the coming kingdom that I'm going to install.

And of course, there's perhaps a lot more that we can read about that. But let's go back to 2 Thessalonians, because that's where we started this. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, Paul told the Christians there, and he tells all of us today that we can be stabilized. We can prevent deception. We can prevent being led astray by believing the truth.

And then loving the truth. Here in verse 9, the coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan who uses all power and signs and wonders, every kind of wicked deception, to those who are going to perish because they refuse to love the truth.

See, brethren, that's why we have to love the truth. And for this reason, God sends them a delusion, a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what's false so that all who do not believe the truth. But pleasure and unrighteousness would be condemned. You hear Paul gives two identifying signs of things that we need to do, that we need to be stabilized in, that we need to be appreciative of, that we need to be grateful for. And I was reading in Psalm 86 this morning how the David... David was... and again, you can read a lot about David in the Bible. Some of it is not very pretty, but it was clearly a part of God's plan to work with him. To work with him even knowing that in the future he would be serving as a king in the kingdom of God.

And yet, here in Psalm 86, this is one of the only Psalms of David in the third set of Psalms. There's five sections of Psalms, and the third set of Psalm, the third book, I guess you would call it, is from chapter 73 to chapter 89. And chapter 86 is the only one that I see being attributed to David. I thought most of them are attributed to David, but they're not. There are many others who are attributed to others, asip or, you know, coethites, and different singing groups that David had appointed because these were set up to be songs. And yet, here in Psalm 86, this is said to be a prayer, a prayer of David. And so, ultimately, what David came to realize was that, you know, I'm a sinner, I'm wrong, I need to repent, I need God. I need God? That's the bottom line. I need God. And, of course, he talks about his relationship with God here in Psalm 86. He says, incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, I'm poor and needy. This is a description that is an honorable description. He understood what he needed. He said, preserve my life, I'm devoted to you. Save your servant who trusts in you, you're my God. Be gracious to me, for you, do I cry out all day long, glad in the soul of your servant. For you, O Lord, I lift up my soul, for you, O God, are good and forgiving and abounding in steadfast love.

All who call on you, give ear to my prayer, listen to my cry. The day of my trouble, I call on you and you will answer. The day that it come to have a relationship with God that is not only honorable, but is uplifting and inspiring, it is dependent, it is yielded, it is committed, it is devoted, it is fully believing, and it is fully loving the truth that comes from God. Admittedly, God dealt with David in a unique way. He lived in a unique life.

He went through a lot of difficulty, some of which he created, and yet God was able to rescue him.

He says in verse 8, there's none like you among the gods of the Lord, nor are there any works like yours. You're the only one who can do the things that you say. If we drop down to verse 10, you are great that you do wondrous things. You alone are God. Teach me your ways, O Lord.

That's what the sheep, spoken out there in John chapter 10, you know, they followed Jesus Christ. They heard his voice. They want to be taught the truth of God. It says, Teach me your ways, O God, that I may walk in your truth.

That's what he ultimately wanted to do. He had numbers of missteps, but he ultimately wanted to believe and love the truth, and then to walk in the truth of God. Give me an undivided heart to revere your name. I give you thanks, O Lord, my God. I give you thanks with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. It's fascinating to see what it is that God had done in the lives of some of the individuals that we read about, and we can see their failings. And yet, that's not written for us to say, aha, you know, they had failings, but for us to see God reclaimed them, God redeemed them, God forgave them, and God caused them to be stable in their spiritual lives. Let's go back to 2nd Thessalonians 2, as we can conclude with this. As I've mentioned, loving the truth and believing the truth are both highlighted here as important factors for each and every one of us. If we're going to keep them being deceived, and that is, I think, giving us something to certainly focus on. In verse 13, down through the remainder of chapter 2, you see Paul continuing to write to those Christians, and he'd already told them about what to expect before Christ returns. The falling away will happen. A man of sin will occur. He's going to be deceiving so many people because they won't love the truth. They won't believe the truth. What does he say about them? Here in verse 13, but we must always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God chose you. God chose you as the firstfruits for salvation. Through sanctification by the Spirit, and through belief in the truth. For this purpose, he called you through our proclamation of the gospel so that you may attain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brethren, God's the one who's drawn us into his battle. God's the one who's drawn us and given us the Spirit of God and enabled us to know the things of God.

And so he says, brethren, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, whether by word or mouth or by letter. And may God, or may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and who through grace has given us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and work.

See, Paul had a deep love for the people there in that congregation. He didn't want them to misunderstand. He wanted them to know that they can be fully assured. And if they believe the truth and that they love the truth, they understand their calling and they understand God working in their lives and He can prevent them from being deceived. And certainly that's the case for all of us as well. So God's calling is for us to be successful. He wants us to appreciate His words. And so I ask that all of us continue not only to believe the truth, but also let that truth transform our hearts to where we truly love the truth of God.