Please remain standing for scripture reading. Let me invite you to take your Bibles and turn to our text for the reading and the preaching of God's Word. We are in 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and we'll be reading verses 1 through 5. and let's hear the word of the Lord. Paul says, we ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that you not be quickly shaken in your mind or alarmed, whether by a spirit or a word or a letter, as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you, in any way deceive you, for it has not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the sanctuary of God, exhibiting himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? May God bless his word. Please be seated. Would you bow with me as we ask the Lord to bless his word as it goes forth. Father, we are here this morning to hear you speak. We're not here for the words of a man, but to hear the words of the living God. that they might be set forth and proclaimed plainly and clearly. So, Father, I pray that you would help me to do that, to turn loose, Lord, the word, and wait for you to work through it. So we pray now that you would do that by your spirit, taking captive every thought, every thought, and make it obedient to Jesus Christ. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. One of the chief areas of deception that the enemy is seeking to do is to confuse and to divide and to discourage the church over the return of Jesus Christ. Paul, as he's writing to the church in Thessalonica, his second letter here, he knows this. And we ought to know that the lies of the enemy are good. They are good. But they are entirely detectable. Detectable with the truth of the word of God. We've often seen the lies of politicians to be very bad. I think the enemy might look at them and say they're rookies. They're often like children who have cookie crumbs all over their face and they still say they didn't take a cookie. But not so with the enemy. He's good. And he knows the right amount of truth to mix with the lie. Charles Spurgeon said that That discernment is not so much detecting the truth from the air, but it's detecting the almost truth from the truth. And we ought to know, though, that God has not left us defenseless to the almost truths of the enemy, to his deceptions. We have what we need to expose everything that he would bring. Beloved, you ought to believe your Bible has all you need to expose every lie that the enemy would bring to you. There's not been a lie that the Bible has not exposed from the enemy. It is a sufficient tool and a weapon in the battle for truth. Satan hasn't come up with a lie that Jesus has missed in the Word. And so know that you don't need other things outside of scripture to fight against the devil. It's sufficient. The Bible is sufficient and it is devastating to the forces of hell. Even though it doesn't seem all that flashy. You don't need special deliverance ministries or special deliverance prayers or any kind of talismans or prayers to supposed saints to help you. I just saw a sign on a local church that asked for a dead saint to pray to help us. No, you pray. You pray and that will be sufficient. You, you ask for your daily bread and that is enough. You, you ask for the kingdom to come and God's will to be done and that is enough. You ask that God will lead you not into temptation and that is enough. You, you ask that God will deliver you from the evil one. That is enough. You pray that God will grant you more of Christ, and so draw you near to God, and the devil will flee from you. You see, all these extra biblical things sometimes that are added, that are put forth in the name of Christ, are just like paper swords in the battle. And in the end, they really leave us defenseless. You wouldn't face a grizzly bear with a rubber knife. Why? Why would you look to things outside of scripture to face down the enemy? No, the Bible you hold in your hands, or maybe it's on your phone, Make sure you have one though to hold in your hands. The phone is great. It's good for its own purpose, but all that you would have one to hold in your hands and you would wear it out. But that Bible you hold in your hands is enough, not barely enough, but abundantly enough to demolish the strongholds and every argument that would set itself up against the knowledge of God. And so, when the devil comes and he lies about the return of Jesus Christ, and he will do that, we must just simply trust the word. There are a number of lies we find in scripture exposed that the enemy brings around the return of Christ. He's been using these since the start of the church. They're not new. One is that Jesus is not coming back at all. Peter addresses this one in 2 Peter 3, where it's said that there will be those who will come and who will say, where is this promised coming? Everything is just going along as it always has. forget about Jesus ever coming. That's one lie. Another lie is that we can know exactly when or even mostly when Jesus is coming back. This one has been tried and tried and tried and tried and tried in the history of the church. It's been done by cults, it's been done by cranks, and it's even been done by well-meaning, very well-meaning misguided saints at times, just so longing for Jesus. But beloved, no man knows the day or the hour, the era of his return, so we ought to give up on predictions. We don't know. And then there is this lie that Paul speaks of here in 2 Thessalonians that Jesus has already come back. You missed it. Beloved, one of the surest truths in this world is that Jesus is going to return and he is going to return in a manner that will be undeniable like lightning. is seen from the east to the west as it flashes in the sky, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. It will be undeniable and it will be unconquerable. It will be the greatest visible triumph over the world forces of this present darkness. You won't miss it. We love movies where the cavalry comes riding in at the last moment. The delivering army rises above the horizon. The superhero comes in on his three-point landing. And yet this will be the moment of all moments as Jesus returns to deliver his people. It's one of the greatest truths in all of life. The Lord Christ is coming back. with unstoppable power and vengeance and deliverance for his people. And so we know that on that day when the smoke clears, not one enemy will be left standing. And not one saint will be slain. None will be lost. a few weeks ago, we remembered the great victory that happened on D-Day in World War II. We just celebrated that day recently as the, that marked that day that marked the beginning of the end of the Third Reich. But we know that day came at great cost, terrible cost. Six to 7,000 Allied soldiers died on, And some were told on those early waves of soldiers as they were going to the beach, the man to your right and to your left didn't make it. Even in the great victories of Israel at times over the nations, it still cost her in blood. but not so on that final day. You will look around and all of God's people will be there with you, standing. The Bible makes it plain, beloved, that the Lord Christ is headed this way to win. And as Paul says, to gather us up to him in verse one, are gathering together to Him. He's not going to lose a single saint on that day. Not the weakest among us. Not the bravest among us. Not the one charging the gates of hell and maybe the ones trotting behind. He'll save all. And he's coming back as the God-man. Returning bodily and visibly. It won't be hidden. He won't simply be a wispy sort of ethereal spirit as he comes. But he's coming back. In the same way that he came in the first moment in flesh and bone. Beloved, you should know that just as you can touch your own face in this moment, you will be able to touch the Lord. He was dead. Behold, he's alive forevermore. And he's coming as a living man. the God-man to rescue his people and crush the enemies of his kingdom. But Satan wants you to believe false things about the coming of Jesus. He wants you to believe, perhaps, as he did to the church in Thessalonica, that you missed it. And he will send false teachers and fake letters to get the church to believe that. That's what he was doing in Paul's day. He had sent out fake letters from the apostles, false words as though from them. Throughout the history of the church there have been false letters. that have circulated through the centuries that were purported to be from the apostles. You have things like the Gospel of Thomas or the Infancy Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Judas or any number of other fake letters. The The books and the movies, The Da Vinci Code, a number of years ago was all about that. It was looking to promote the idea that there were these other letters that were genuine. Satan uses those things to confuse the church. Paul lets us know that even in the first century, during the ministry of the apostles themselves, when they were actually walking around and teaching, Even then they were being faked by the enemy. Today we have deep fakes in audio and video and AI or artificial intelligence that can mimic and put up false realities in ways we never thought possible. But even in Paul's day there were, you could say, deep fakes in the church. in letters, messages coming supposedly from Paul and others. So Satan is good at lying. He's good at it. But there's another side to it. He's also predictable. He's predictable. In that he continues to run the same plays against the church. And it continues to work, more or less, to some degree, but God has always ensured that the believer is able to know Satan's schemes and his strategies and his lies. Because the Bible is sufficient. So in the days of the early church, there were those who in the name of the apostles were saying Jesus had already returned. You missed it. Now, imagine what that might do to your hope, or the anxieties that might begin to well up within you, or the confusion in the body of Christ if there were a letter that arrived from, quote, Paul, that said that some Somehow Jesus had already come back. He missed it. And then you might begin to think, and if I missed it, it wasn't really what I expected even then. And frankly, it might even be a massive disappointment. Sort of like those clickbait ads, right? You've seen those where they promise to give you some great information on curing cancer or how to make a lot of money and you click on it. And all it is is about vitamins or some work at home scheme, right? A big letdown. Satan was trying to get the church to feel like there's nothing there. There's nothing to hope for. Liberal theology of the past century has long turned up its nose at the idea of a visible and bodily return of Jesus. And instead, they preferred to speak about the return of Jesus as more of a symbolic kind of thing. Not real, but just a picture. And it was just simply meant to put our focus upon things like social justice in the world. To which I think the Apostle Paul would have responded like, with something like, are you nuts? And so for some, in you might say liberal parts of the church, they really don't care about the return of Christ. It's somewhat of a non-issue for them. We also have those though in the church that the evangelical church that seem, as a practical matter, not to care so much about the return of Jesus. Frankly, there are a lot that live as though Jesus either came back and they missed it, and sort of like they missed seeing the Northern Lights a few weeks ago, if you were here. Would've been nice, but it wasn't really all that life-changing. Or there are those who practically live like the return of Jesus doesn't really have a lot to do with their daily living. I mean, you gotta pay the bills, you gotta have a little fun in life. Life's just a lot, really, too busy. to think much about the return of Jesus. Beloved, we must be those who know with certainty of the return of Christ and live in light of it. As we look to understand the rest of this text in the weeks ahead, we need to be first those who are absolutely certain absolutely certain that Christ is coming back as a flesh and blood man, the God-man, the very son of the living God. And his coming is more sure than the sun rising in the east tomorrow. If you were a betting man or a woman, how much would you wager? that tomorrow the sun will rise in the east. How much? Probably everything. Maybe even your life. For since the beginning of creation it's always been the same. It's never failed. How much more are you willing to wager your life on the return of Jesus that it will be just as the Bible says it will be? That's the hope of the Christian life. We are those who are living to see Jesus, a Jesus who is alive, who has been crucified for our sins, and who has been raised from the dead, and who has ascended into heaven, and who is returning again to this earth to judge the living and the dead, and to gather up all who believe in him. We are those who work, and who eat, and who sleep, and who witness, and who who love and who laugh and forgive and who raise our families. Knowing that Jesus is coming. And that every eye will see him, as the scriptures say. It won't be hidden. Every eye will see him. And those who pierced him are told will mourn on account of him. And we, as Paul has said back in chapter 1 of 2 Thessalonians, we who believe will marvel on that day. Beloved, we have a future. We have a future because we have a Redeemer who is headed our way. He is coming for us. We won't miss him when he comes. And we are those who long to be ready when he comes. We want to have our lamps trimmed and ready. We want to work, we want to eat, we want to play, we want to worship and witness knowing in it all Christ is coming to meet us, to gather us. And so our plans ought to be plans that plan for the return of Christ. Our play even now ought to be in light of the eternal pleasures that will be ours when Jesus returns. Our work ought to be so that his kingdom is established. Our worship ought to be so that the living returning Christ is longed for and honored as king. We live in light of the return, as Peter says. We live in light of that day in holy conduct and godliness. Looking for, he says, and hastening the coming day of the Lord. This is the life of the saint. So saturated with thoughts of Jesus coming back in all we do. Because in the return of Christ is all that we want because every need and all true desires will be fulfilled in the kingdom of Christ. All enemies will be defeated. All joy will be had. All rest will be found. All work is going to find its purpose. All pleasures will be, as the psalmist says, at his right hand forevermore. No more death. No more tears. No more mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things will have passed away. The late Francis Schaeffer used to speak about living the Christian life as though we had already been raised from the dead. That is, he meant that we ought to live in light of the fact of the resurrection so much that the resurrection is so certain that we should live like it's already come to pass. and as we ought to live life as though we have the power of an indestructible life. Just as Paul said to the Galatians, he said, for I've been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. The certainty of Jesus' coming. for his church is more certain than anything. It's more certain than you showing up for your own wedding day. Did you wonder if your husband or wife was gonna show up that morning? Did you think they might forget? No. There's nowhere else he would rather be on that day. Beloved, your king is coming. And he will gather us up to himself. The bridegroom of the church will not fail. And you will not miss him. Your waiting is not in vain. He's coming and there's nothing that will keep him from you and his church. You have something more sure, more sure than the sunrise. You have the promise of the word of God. Let's close with prayer. Father, we stand in awe that you would have such a glorious plan for your people. For sinners as you have redeemed, that you would move heaven and earth to gather us in, to rescue us, to establish us in your kingdom one day. Lord, we stand in awe that Christ would come for us. and yet we believe it because you promised it in your word. And so, Lord, I pray you'd help us to cut through the lies of the enemy, the doubts that may arise in many ways and many places, and trust your word. Father, I pray that you would help us to be able to live life now in light of that. Every moment, Lord, let it be just sort of saturated with the hope of the return of our Lord. Teach us what that looks like, what that means in every place and every part. We want to be faithful, Lord, in it all. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Would you please stand as Aaron would come and lead us as we close, as we sing, I will glory in my Redeemer. you