Turn in the Word of God to Daniel, the book of Daniel chapter 12. The book of Daniel chapter 12. And let's stand together, and then we're going to read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Let's stand, Daniel chapter 12. And there we're just going to read The first four verses, the book of Daniel is filled with prophecies that reach all the way to the very end of the age, center on the personal work of Jesus Christ, have much to do with the great rebellions that will happen in human history against our Savior. And here is a prophecy of the very end from Daniel chapter 12. At that time, Michael, shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that time. And at that time, your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." Now to 2 Thessalonians 2. And we will Study this passage in the preaching of the Word this morning, the first 12 verses. Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us. as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first. And the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed. And the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders. with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." This is the word of the living God. We turn to 2 Thessalonians 2, looking at the first 12 verses. It's something that the scriptures describe that will happen before the second coming of Jesus Christ. A great worldwide rebellion against God, and especially against the gospel of Jesus Christ. Satan would be quite content for you this morning never to think about the second coming of Jesus. Content for you to reject the clear New Testament witness to things that are to come without a doubt. Sometimes he does this by, you hear people who just say, that will never happen. People just say, He's not coming back. He died and He's in the grave. He's not going to come back. The only thing important about Jesus is His ideals. And His ideals live on. And that's what the New Testament writers really meant by the resurrection and by His continuing life and power. The ideals of Jesus Christ are all that matter. If that's what you believe, It's a very dangerous thing because He is coming and He lives. He lives right now, body and soul, Jesus at the right hand of the Father in heaven and He's coming back again to judge the living and the dead. We confess this regularly. He presently, consciously rules and reigns over the universe and over your life. And you will see Him, the scriptures say. Others push the possibility of His coming so far into the future that the doctrine has no apparent effect on the present Christian's life. Say, that's so far beyond where we're at right now. In essence, this New Testament, the New Testament really pulses with the idea of the coming of Jesus Christ. It's in the ministry of Christ himself, and it's the very last words of the New Testament, the prayer, even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. This is the great believer's hope. And it was front and center in the minds of the apostles 2000 years ago, and surely it should be front and center in our minds today. Others yet become so fascinated with all the details and minutia the timing of His coming, that the simple reality of one day standing face-to-face before Jesus Christ is lost in endless speculation. Ignore the truth that no one knows the day nor the hour. Still others yet. Some people think He's already come. And that all the New Testament prophecies about a coming of Jesus are fulfilled. There's actually a technical word for that belief. It's called full preterism or full preterist. And they believe that in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed, all the New Testament prophecies of the coming of Jesus Christ will fulfill. And that there's nothing left except a slow rise into utopia. They deny the visible bodily return of Jesus Christ, which the angels, the day of Jesus' ascension, said is going to happen. This same Jesus, he's going to come in the same manner, on the clouds, from heaven. Same clouds that received him up, he'll be revealed again. He's coming. And today you can probably find a YouTube channel somewhere, or a show on CBN, that could teach you any mix of the above things in any proportion or variety that you would like to hear it. And with this topic there have been a long line of spiritual shipwrecks in history. Think of the Russellites, the followers of Charles Taze Russell, the Jehovah's Witnesses. It all began with an unbiblical view and understanding of the second coming of Jesus. together with the denial of who Jesus really is, that He's just a man and not God. Seventh-day Adventism is the same thing. There have been many other movements in church history. Sects and cults get this wrong. It's important not to get it wrong. The simple truth is that the Second Coming is a major theme of the New Testament, but it's one that Satan wants twisted in your mind. He either wants it gone or he wants it corrupted. And it was no different in the days of the apostles, the church at Thessalonica, because that was the very temptation they were under, to get it wrong. So we're gonna look at a few things from this passage. First, the danger that these Christians were in, the danger of making a major blunder. concerning the doctrine of the second coming. And then the second thing we're going to look at is the sobering truths that Paul teaches by way of reminder with expansion that protected this church from really falling into this false teaching. We'll see what it is in a moment. False teaching about the second coming of Jesus. So first, the danger of a major blunder into false teaching about the second coming. Paul's sobering corrective. And then finally, After that, we're gonna look at what this corrective and the clear picture it brings should do to change your life today. Where's the danger of the major blunder that these Christians were about to make at Thessalonica? Years ago, it was a cold, snowy morning, I was in Michigan, I was racing from a little town where I had preached, and I was trying to catch a flight at 6 a.m. from Detroit to Greenville. And at least I saw, I thought I was. But it was one of those mornings you get up early, you scrape the snow off the car, you warm it up, your traffic was bad, everything was bad, the rental car return was slow, the bus to the terminal seemed slow, and I was just running, running, running, running, all the way till I got to the gate. I got there at 6 a.m. and there was no one there. Nobody. Nothing. I thought, how in the world did I miss that flight? What happened? And I went to talk to a gate agent at another gate, and I was embarrassed to find out that in my haste, booking online, I had not looked at the two little letters behind the time, and my flight was at 6 p.m. And so I was only 12 hours early. But you know that when I was there, I thought I had missed the flight. Now thankfully, Delta, the folks were very kind, and they didn't make me wait the 12 hours, and I got on an earlier flight. I thought I had missed the plane. But it hadn't. It hadn't come yet. Some in the church at Thessalonica were having a similar problem in their thinking about the second coming of Jesus Christ. They thought they had missed their flight. The topic of this section very clearly, verse 1, is the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you know there's been a major theme in these two letters, 1 and 2 Thessalonians. The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him. And there's two things the apostle has in mind, not only the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ when he comes as the ascended reigning king, but he also has in mind the glory of that moment when we will be gathered together to him. And he talked about that in his first letter when he says that we will meet him in the air. The Lord Jesus Christ will come and we will meet him in the air and we gather to him. And he said, thus, we will forever be with the Lord. Again, it's the same thing that the angel said. Jesus is coming. Acts 1 and verse 11. This is essential to Christianity. We confess it almost every week, either in the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed. He ascended into heaven. From there, he will come to judge the quick and the dead. That's the Apostles' Creed. Or the Nicene Creed, we confess. He should come again with glory. The Bible teaches the visible bodily return of Jesus Christ at the end of the age when he will judge the wicked and he will gather the dispersed. And this language, particularly for those in Thessalonica who had come from the synagogue, would have reminded them of God's promises all through the Old Covenant to gather His people from the nations and bring them back to Him, to gather them around His temple, around His throne, close to Himself. And Paul says, concerning this coming and the gathering, the final gathering of God's people, he says, this is what's in mind. The one second coming of Jesus Christ which will include the final resurrection of the just and the unjust, the final judgment of men and angels, two final states after judgment, either heaven or hell. It will be the end of the world as we know it. What's the problem, the major blunder that they're about to make? Some are trying to convince the believers that they had missed it. that what he wrote about in the first letter, that we are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air, thus you will always be with the Lord, that this somehow had happened and they had missed it. Keep reading. Concerning this, we ask you not soon to be shaken or mined or troubled, skipping down to the end of verse two, as though the day of Christ had already come. The problem, the temptation, the false teaching was floating around was that this already happened somehow. And what was the source? Look at verse two again. Either by spirit, that's a common apostolic shorthand for prophecy. Either someone was saying they were speaking on behalf of God, or by word, some sort of teaching or preaching, some false preacher, false teacher floating around, or by forgery. He said, even if someone wrote a letter and signed our name on the bottom and it said, Jesus has already come, don't believe it. You're in danger of making a major error. Critically, he's saying, we ask you not to be shaken or mind in trouble. Let no one deceive you by any means. This is wrong. Full stop. He has not come. Don't believe this. And verse five is the key to understanding this warning. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? Paul is saying, you already know that this would be a mistake. Paul had already taught them this. He's saying the apostolic record, the apostolic teaching concerning the second coming, what I wrote to you in the first letter is clear, it stands. What I've already taught you is clear, it stands. Don't be deceived. Don't be shaken in mind. And that literally means, Have your clear thinking derailed. It's not so much a language of emotion, but the language of letting go what is true and grabbing hold of something that is false. Paul is warning them not to be deceived. Verse 3, by any means, full stop, Jesus has not yet come. And he's warning them. The Thessalonians here have skated to the edge of a cliff. What is that? Denying a major Christian doctrine, the second coming of Jesus, by assuming that it was already over. Paul now writing this second letter is warning them, don't do this. Now, how does he remind them? And how does he teach them? What is it that he says here or writes here that fortifies this church against making this error or following this false prophecy, false teaching, or forged letter, or whatever means, the deception was coming into this church, how does he fortify them against this deception? Well, with a very sobering truth, perhaps one of the most sobering things for a Christian to read about concerning the future in all of the Bible. First of all, it's something that should have already been known. Look at verse 5. Paul says, do you not remember that when I was with you I still told you these things? So he's going to be reviewing something. And in verses 3 and 4, we have what he told them already. And in verses 6 through 12 is Paul's he begins to fill out or explain more what he had already told them. So what had he already told them? What should they have already known? The basic idea is this, that he had taught that the second coming of Jesus Christ will be preceded by several clear and public events, that there are things that will happen. Now, these in a sense are connected to the second coming of Jesus, and we'll see that in a moment. But there is an order to the things that will happen at the end of the age. What are they? Event number one, that no one deceived by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, the apostasy. There's going to be, before Jesus comes again, a great departure from truth, and a spiritual malaise and sickness in the world, it will be a falling away and an overt conscious rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the truth. Later on, Paul calls it the truth. And it's not a truth even that wasn't known in the world. The whole world knows today to some degree, maybe not every individual, but the scriptures are in every land And the great proclamation that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took to himself human flesh and came into the world and died and rose again, has been now proclaimed to humanity for 2,000 years. 2,000 years. Paul says there's gonna come a time before Jesus comes that This will be consciously and overtly rejected. Look at 1 Timothy 4. Now, the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. One of the marks of the last days, which we live in now, is satanic deception meant to keep you from thinking about or believing that Jesus Christ will come again. that this will intensify in a great falling away or a rebellion. And again, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ referred to this in Matthew chapter 24, where he warns against such rebellion and that it will come. In Matthew 24, verses 11-13, then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. This is all the same language of 2 Thessalonians 2. But he who endures to the end will be saved, and the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Paul says there will be a period of a mass rejection of the Christian gospel. Second event, the appearance of the man of sin. Unless the falling away comes first and then the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. This man of sin is also called the man of lawlessness. Paul here is speaking of a singular figure testified to in the scriptures repeatedly that will arise at the end of the age as a leader and a deceiver, a man, called the lawless one in verse eight, verse nine rather. Well, the lawless one, verse eight, that the lawless one will be revealed, the coming of the lawless one in verse nine again. We have indications of the same kind of rebellion, organized human rebellion, under specific leadership in Revelation chapter 13 when we read about the beasts. And the language of the beasts in the Book of Revelation has the same sort of Same outline, the same themes as we have in 2 Thessalonians 2. There a beast from the sea was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. He was given authority to continue for 42 months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacles, and those who dwell on the earth. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given to him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him. whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." For Daniel 7, verses 23 to 25, again, the idea of a figure rising, leading the world into idolatry and calling for allegiance to himself as God. The apostolic witness is to the same. Now this has happened in human history in small ways many times. You think of Nebuchadnezzar, a giant image of himself. If anyone worships, any other, thrown into the fiery furnace. Think of Darius. If anyone prays to any other except King Darius. Think of Herod, the voice of a god and not of a man, Acts chapter 12. You think of in our own day. Powerful dictators who have asked for the total allegiance of their people and their worship I watched the documentary on North Korea years ago and Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un's father Kim Jong-il was the leader and a doctor I think from Bangladesh had gone in and I doctor and done a lot of cataract surgeries in a whole room full of people Who had their bandages taken off at the same time And when they did, the government placed before them a picture of the supreme leader and asked them to worship the one who had made their sight whole. It's a National Geographic documentary, actually, and they did. They worshiped. And this impulse, both in men to take to themselves the glory of God and call for the worship of others, and for deceived human beings to bow down before mere men. There's a spirit that has been alive in human history since the fall, and behind it lies Satan himself. The apostle is foretelling the appearance in human history of a unique competitor to the throne, the truth claims, and the power of Jesus Christ, who will be revealed when the man of sin is revealed, and it's a competing revelation to the final revelation of Jesus Christ. It's an imposter. An antichrist. A Savior who will promise with signs and wonders a new world. Well, what are the characteristics of this dangerous and powerful figure? Let me give you some of them from the text. Verse 4, He will forbid all other forms of worship except for the worship of Himself. Verse 4a, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshiped. And will, second half of the verse, second characteristic, will call for universal allegiance to himself. He will sit as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Now, if you're in Thessalonica, this would not be a far off idea. There was the cult of the emperor. There were temples in town with lesser deities, but you are to know that the greatest deity was the emperor himself. This would not be strange to the hearing of those in Thessalonica. But this figure would rise up and say, I am God, worship me. Again, not unusual in human history, I just said that. And don't think that our scientific age has cured the idol worshiping tendencies of humanity. Third characteristic, he will possess clear supernatural powers. Look at verse 9. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception. It appears that Paul very clearly is stating that sometime in the future, There's gonna be something that might look like what happened when Moses and Aaron went to the court of Pharaoh and Aaron threw down his rod and it turned into a snake. You remember what the Egyptian magicians did? This is an astonishing text. They threw theirs down and the same thing happened. The Bible says that that's history. The Bible says that behind that is satanic power. Remarkable satanic power. The same Satan who appeared as a serpent in the garden. Was able to some way appear in a form beyond our natural ability as humans to appear. According to the working of Satan, who Paul says in another letter can disguise himself as an angel of light, he was able to torment Job to some degree under God's dominion, who appeared to tempt Jesus Christ, who is the prince of darkness, and who is interested in a great apostasy and rebellion. There's spiritual war here. As Christians, we need to keep our heads up and recognize that what we see is not all there is. There are real dark demonic powers. They're seeking to deceive. Lead astray. But I want you to think about how they were trying to do it in the days of the Thessalonians. By corrupting good doctrine. In order that they would not wait for Jesus. Believing that He had already come. There are real spiritual powers. They are however subject to Jesus Christ. We'll see that in a moment. But they are real. This is also why Christians ought not ever to be fascinated with the occult or anything approaching witchcraft or sorcery. You can find endless number of shows right now They go to the edges of these supernatural, paranormal phenomena. This insatiable hunger for signs and wonders and deceptions. Christians ought to stay away from it all and stand on the Word. Characteristic number four, he will have extraordinary success in deception. Look at verses 9 and 10. According to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, with all unrighteous deceptions among those who perish, Verse 11, they will believe the lie. Many will be swept up in the great apostasy and the great rebellion. Many, many will follow him, the word says. And not just those who had a passing acquaintance with the Christian faith, but people who would say that they were Christians. For false Christ, Jesus said, and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But now, why this before Jesus comes? Why this? Why is this the antidote? How could this be the antidote? He hasn't come yet. Paul says, because this is gonna happen first. You ask yourself, well, why? Why does B have to follow A if this is A? Notice two things in the text. One, this man of sin will only appear when Jesus himself loosens his restraint on human evil. Why is the world right now not unfathomably bloody, dark, and wicked? To the worst degree, evil. It's because Jesus, who sits on the throne, actively restrains evil. Verses 6 and 7. The language of restraint here. This is a difficult text, but the idea here is that evil is being restrained until the day that Christ takes his hand and pulls it back. And at that moment, the man of lawlessness will appear. And this coheres also with what we read in Revelation 20 concerning the day that Satan, who is chained, will have his chain loosened, taken off, and for a short time before the revelation of Jesus at the end of the age, he will deceive the nations. And his agent of this deception here is the man of lawlessness. So he appears in connection with and Jesus' conscious preparation for his own appearing. Now why does Jesus loose the restraints? As a response of judgment on prior unbelief. Verses 9 and 10, look again. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they may be saved. Now notice this little phrase, the love of the truth. It's not just they didn't receive the truth. There are a lot of people who would probably tell you that Jesus Christ died, rose again, died, was buried, rose again, ascended, coming back on the clouds from glory. They would say, I believe that's happening. They don't actually love Jesus. They don't actually love this truth. They don't love the thought of His appearing. They're not like John who says, when I see Him, when we see Him, we will be like him as he is." They're not praying, come quickly, Lord Jesus. They're living a double life, and they don't love it. Jesus, in judgment, will unchain Satan and release the man of lawlessness. Look at the language of the text. What will God do? Verse 11. And for this reason, God will send them a strong delusion. And they will believe the lie. They will be hardened in their unbelief. And fall under the sway of the wicked one. Because they did not believe in Jesus. hearing they will not hear, seeing they will not see, and they will follow the man of sin. He will be released, Paul says, as the beginning of the final judgment of Jesus Christ against all those who will not serve him. So this is what has to happen first. And that's why Paul says, don't be deceived. Christ has not come yet. How should this clear picture change your life? First, we're not quite done. When Jesus does come, how will he deal with the situation? What will he do? Look at verse eight. The lawless one will be revealed. And Paul says this almost in passing. whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming." Luther, one little word shall fell the kingdom of darkness. This is actually language from Isaiah chapter 11, when the Messiah, Redeemer appears. In an instant, the man The world system behind whom is the great deceiver himself, Satan, will be destroyed by Jesus when He comes with the breath of His mouth and with the brightness of His glory. He'll be gone. And the righteousness, the kingdom, the power, and the glory of Jesus Christ will be unmistakable and undeniable. The wickedness and rebellion of humanity against Jesus Christ will also have been unmistakable and undeniable. And the judge of all the earth, Psalm 110, who will make his enemies a footstool for his feet, who will execute the heads of many nations, he will drink from the brook, he will lift up his head, and he will vindicate his name at the end of the age. And there will be, No Monday morning quarterbacking. There will be no commentary. Because it will be the end. And then every knee will bow and tongue confess. Your knee. And then he will turn and look at humanity. Jesus himself taught us this. And he will see two kinds of people. Those who worship the man because there was no love of the truth in them. And because, look at the end of verse 12, because they had pleasure in unrighteousness, because for the passing foolish pleasures of this world, whatever it is, sexual sin, money, power, they just couldn't bow to Jesus. And they found in the man of lawlessness someone who they could worship, who would approve their life. But he'll be gone. And there'll be no one there. The chair will be empty. Because Jesus, just with the breath of his mouth, will destroy him. What will he do? They all will be condemned. Hell. And it will be clear that that condemnation will be just. And then, back to verse 1. When he comes, he will do a second thing. He will gather to Himself all those who love the truth as it is in Jesus. Those who love Jesus, who waited for His appearing, who prayed for Him, who were willing to suffer for Him, persecution, who were martyred because they would not bow before Nebuchadnezzar's statue or Darius' edict, or Nero's tortures or all the others in human history who have stood against this dark kingdom. He will gather them all to himself and he will take them home. And they will, to use Paul's first letter, forever be with the Lord. He will separate the sheep from the goats. A few lessons for you this morning. First, discernment. Paul's plea here is don't be deceived. Hold fast to the truth as it is in Jesus. Listen to the words of the apostles. We have them in written form. Right here. Don't follow made up speculation and error, but the plain apostolic witness to the kingdom, power, glory, second coming of Jesus Christ, and the warnings that accompany it. And again, I mentioned earlier CBN or YouTube or whatever else you can find, there'll be a million people who try and make this clear picture that you have just heard impenetrably complicated, or deny it. Because Satan doesn't want you to believe that this is going to happen. What he wants you to do is just ride the flow until that day comes. You need to be discerning. My brethren, we ask you, don't be shaken in mind or trouble by spirit or word or letter as if from us as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means. The deceiver is still active. and you need to be discerning. You need to know the word and pray for the Spirit's work of illumination that that word would be in your heart. Hide it there that you might not sin against God. Second, think clearly about your own future. We don't know when Jesus is going to come. Could be many generations from now. It could be in our generation. Could be. Every new generation has had to learn to be ready for this day. It's part of being a Christian, to pray for this day, to long for this day. It's clear that these events here, the word says, will precede his coming. But Jesus, who taught the same things in Matthew chapter 25, he said, watch therefore. Spiritual discernment, combined with a watchfulness, a careful thinking. When Paul writes to the Philippians, every knee will bow. Your knee will bow. You will be there. You're not going to miss the second coming of Jesus. You're going to be there. This has to start to shape your life. It has to, unless you are so bound in unbelief. Think clearly about your future. And clearly about this idea of lawlessness, it's all through the chapter here. Third is, the man of sin is the lawless one. Those who follow him are those who take pleasure in unrighteousness. And this traces its way all the way back to the working of Satan. One of the ways to watch and be ready is pretty simple. If you're here this morning, and you're caught in a sin, you need to repent. And you need to recognize that anything that tends towards lawlessness and disobedience needs to be put aside. And you have to pray if Jesus comes in a century, if he comes in a thousand years, we don't know. Lord, prepare me for him by making me holy as he is holy. Trust him. Believe in him. The other thing that the Apostle says is sobering is he says the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. This principle to tempt you to leave God and live in rebellion. It's not just going to be at the end of the age. It has run through all the ages. It manifested more clearly just before the second coming of Jesus, but it's here now. The same devil, the same spiritual war. Don't be deceived. Follow Jesus Christ. Today isn't safe in the sense that there's no war going on. There is a spiritual war. Paul speaks of that in Ephesians chapter six, and one day it'll spill more clearly into the open, but the same war is reality in your life now. Repentance is critical to waiting. Trust Jesus Christ. Fourth, I want you to leave one moment with you. In the middle of all of this warning, look again at verse 8. The Lord, that's Jesus, He will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming, the wallowless one. Really at the center of this text is no one less than Jesus Christ. What you need to see is His unbounded power and glory. The breath of His mouth, He will judge. With the very inherent brightness of His glory, our God is a consuming fire. With the glory of His holiness, He will appear. Now for the Church of Jesus Christ, the warning is don't be deceived, be discerning. But the encouragement is, he is coming on the clouds from glory, in glory, look at verse one again, to gather his people together to him. Paul says to the Thessalonians and to us, keep praying for and looking for that day. Let's pray. Lord God, we pray that we would hear Your Word, that You would give us discernment concerning the truth, repentance concerning our sins, and greater faith in the Lord Jesus Christ presently reigning and one day coming on the clouds from glory to judge the living and the dead. Lord, we pray if there's anyone here who is not living, in light of that coming. Lord, if we are spiritually sleepy, lethargic, unaware of the spiritual warfare that is around us and that one day is to come with brighter clarity, Lord, that You would wake us up. Lord, we pray also that You would receive our thanks for the clarity of Your Word. For the things that will come. And You're preparing Your people for them. And for the great a notable day of the Lord, for the day when the breath of the mouth of Jesus Christ and the brightness of His glory will appear. Lord, we pray, longing for that day sheltered in Him. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.