Well, as we were working through our study in the Heidelberg, you'll notice that we came to that little last article in the second section there, from there he shall come to judge the living and the dead, and so we're really still on that. I wanted to spend some time in 2 Thessalonians with you, and last time we looked at the beginning part of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and again, tonight we'll conclude our brief study in 2 Thessalonians, which really, I'm not, it's close to of completing a whole study in the book, so, but tonight we'll conclude chapter 2 and look into a little bit of chapter 3. With this great question and answer tonight, I'll just say it and read the answer. How does Christ return to judge the living and the dead comfort you. Remember, we're holding on to that theme that the return of Christ is a comforting truth, a truth that is never meant to confuse us as has happened often in Christianity or make us concerned or worried. It's supposed to be a great truth of comfort to us, and the answer is in all distress and persecution with uplifted head, I confidently await the very judge who has already offered himself to judgment of God in my place. We saw that from John chapter 18 this morning. Jesus stepping into our place. And remove the whole curse from me. Christ will cast all his enemies and mine into everlasting condemnation, but will take me and all his chosen ones to himself into the joy and glory of heaven. And particularly tonight, we're still considering what to expect as we wait for that great day to come. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is our text tonight. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God. You not remember that when I was with you I told you these things and you know it is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his 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 and then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this He called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. And there we'll end the reading of God's Word. Well, tonight we're looking at the second part of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I didn't preach last Sunday night, so if you remember any of that, that first part was really important to understand a main theme that Paul is developing here of a struggle that happened in the church of Thessalonica and that we're taking up tonight and continuing. The context here is important because what had happened at the church in Thessalonica was some group, some troublers in the church were running around saying that the coming of Jesus had already happened and that they had missed it. So this is the particular problem where Paul will say here, I don't want you to be troubled as if the day has come. The day has not come yet. So Paul spent a lot of time on the issues of the second coming in the first epistle and particularly the second to deal with this for what he had said in the first epistle about the second coming was so glorious and between that time obviously these troublers had come in and caused a lot of trouble in the church but jesus uh here the apostle is telling us very clearly that when the end comes you don't you won't miss this jesus said that was really remarkable um as lightning flashes from the east to the west so it will be when the coming of the son of man comes you're nobody's going to miss the coming. That's an impossibility. It's going to be that great cosmic event where even the very time pieces that God put into place will be taken out. That's what God put at creation for time to happen, and we understand that with the sun and the moon. As Jesus said in those days, the sun will not give its light, neither the moon. But on that day, there will be a great thing that happens. Believers are going to be placed on the right hand. Those who know the Lord and have been saved by him, they will be placed on the right hand, and they will receive the gift of eternal life that had been promised to them, the promise that has been made the whole time. Forgiveness of sins has been already given, but eternal life being given, and a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness shall dwell. And then those placed on the left are going to face the terrible judgment that we talked about this morning. And this is an important thing to say, that when Jesus took on and stood in our place, that there's two books that are brought out at the very end. There's the book of life, and then there's the book of deeds. Now, I mentioned the book of deeds. If you're not in Jesus, the book of deeds has a record of your life. If you're in Jesus, your name is written in the book, the Lamb's book of life, and there's no deeds written in that book, just names. Just names. So I made that comment about the book of deeds this morning. Hopefully that clarifies about the other book. For those on the right who are the Lord's, your name is put. You've been purchased by the blood of the Lamb. That's why it's called the Lamb's Book of Life. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Well, Paul is here encouraging the church. If you look down at verse 13, we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brothers. Notice that there. in verse 13, be beloved by the Lord because God chose you. There it is again. It's just everywhere in the Bible. God chose you as the first fruits to be saved. What a beautiful thing. And belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he chose you and he gave you the truth and he says the result is to obtain the glory this is this is what's given to you this is what's coming the whole book was meant to encourage them of what is to come and to not lose heart in this struggle that we're in in the present and that's what the theme has been from the heidelberg uh tonight and this great truth of comfort about this then he says it again in verse 16 may our lord jesus christ himself and our god and father um our god and father our father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. So there's the encouragement that is intended as he's telling them certain things. But now we come to this important truth so that we have some kind of understanding of what to expect until those promises are fully realized, until the ultimate consolation is given to us. And this is important so that we don't get caught off guard by the things that are happening. I think that's the most important thing to say right now in our time is so many Christians have been caught off guard by the state of things. And really we should say we shouldn't be caught off guard by the state of things. That's what this is helping us to understand. We're just products of living in one of the best times of peace and prosperity that the world has known. And times are changing. Times they are changing, aren't they? And it has never always been easy for the church. And we're looking at how to think through these times, how to process through these times. That's what this book is doing for us so that we're not losing heart. And I'm going to come back at the end that we're committed to the truth, but also that we're not idle. That's going to be an important note to end on because when people are discouraged and they're watching too much news, they get idle. And that's not what we want to be. So, this has a great goal. We're continuing in what we looked at last time. He's explaining a few different things that he introduced last time to help us understand the nature of things in the present and how things are going and why things are the way they are. And it's very informational, but it's meant to be because it's providing you clarity of thought on these things. The basic points that he's making is that God is restraining things right now. And at some point before the end, that restraint will be lifted. And then the Lord is going to come again to put a final end to all this. It's a very simple point that he's making, but some of the language, because we call this apocalyptic, is challenging for us. There are certain genres in the Bible, and apocalyptic genre is the most difficult. Somebody often will come along and say, well, I just like to read the Bible literally. Great, how do you read things literally symbolic when they're meant to be symbols? And they're meant to be symbols that are playing off of the past with apocalyptic ideas and concepts to help us understand the present. That's why Revelation's challenging. That's why that particular genre is different from other genres, and we have to take that into account. This is one of those. But the basic point is not missed here. That last time we looked at, there's going to be two major things that are going to happen before the Lord comes in their fullness. A climax of these things. Remember what they were. There's going to be a great apostasy. A falling away. And we look, we spend some time with that. I encourage you to go back and to look at that. A falling away. Not only in the church, but this is, my conviction is, is that what you're looking at is a falling away from the most basic things that God put in place. A rebellion is the word. A rebellion from the Lord. A cosmic rebellion from him. And that's going to be joined together with an antichrist, a figure. And I took you through the history of that last time, remember? This started in the Garden of Eden, where there was a rebellion away from the Lord. There was a rebellion from the good way he made things. There was a rebellion. Oh, did God really say, he's not for your happiness. He's oppressive and he's cruel. And they said, yeah, you're right. Give us the fruit at the instigation of an Antichrist. And that plunged us into this mess. And all throughout history, we've seen that play out. We saw it at the Tower of Babel with a figure named Nimrod, and let's build our tower, top that reaches to the heavens. Let's head up to Mars and inhabit Mars, right? I mean, you can just go down the line of the pride of human ingenuity. And not that it's wrong to do and be creative, but when it stands against the Lord, it is. And that spirit of rebellion has been present throughout history. That spirit of rebellion was evident in the times of Isaiah when the king of Babylon said, I will sit in the place of the Most High. I will be the ruler of the gods and led rebellions. So we looked at that last time and now we're continuing where we were of this antichrist phenomenon where he says in verse four, we know that he will seat himself in the temple and will blaspheme by speaking against God. Now, I pose the question, exactly what are we to expect? What Paul was essentially saying is, if this stuff is still going on, he hasn't come yet. That's the big point here. It's a real simple point, isn't it? If you're still having this kind of opposition, if you're still having these antichrist movements in history, you don't think everyone thought Hitler was the antichrist when that happened? Of course they did. They all were saying it. um the reformers were clear in saying they believe very strongly it was the pope who was the antichrist they put it down in confessional statements when he wore those hats and he took his seat and said i'm the vicar you know i am ex cathedra whatever i say is law they said that's antichrist behavior no man sits in jesus's seat you see so we've had these movements throughout history. And Paul is saying there's going to be a great culmination in the end of this in some way, shape, or form. What that will exactly look like, we don't really know. But I think it helps us to stop and say, well, now I can kind of understand why the world is the way it is. Now I can understand why things are constantly moving and shifting and that there's ideas. And notice how much ideologies come into this and how much really it is belief systems that are under attack and belief systems that are being pushed. That is because there's a demonic realm. It's a belief system war that's going on. So this is where we are, as we looked at last time, these two coinciding events of rebellion and antichrist that he introduced to us. And then he says in verse five, do you not remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things. I I explained this to you in some detail, which is an interesting verse that doesn't so much help us, but it does say that be careful in being too specific here, because Paul was speaking things to them that we don't have access to. But I want to pick up this evening shortly in verse 6, where he says and discusses why this final escalation of Antichrist has not yet happened. Why hasn't it come yet? Well, he says there, notice it in verse 6, And you know it is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way. Now that's a mouthful. Those are some of the most complex verses in the Bible, I think. Some of the most difficult verses in the Bible. Essentially, in very clear statement here of what Paul is saying, something is presently holding back the man of lawlessness from being revealed. Something presently is holding that full revelation and manifestation of whatever's coming at the end back. What does that mean? Who's restraining him? Why is he doing it? Those are the sort of questions that you ask when you look at this, and you'll notice that these two verses are difficult. The restrainer here is impersonal in verse 6 when it says you know what is restraining, and then personal in verse 7, the one who restrains, if you can look at that in the original. The idea connoted here is that something is presently holding back this antichrist figure from showing up on the scene of history and from being fully revealed. As I look at this and look at the big message of Scripture, I think the message is very clear here that God in some way is restraining and stopping the full development of this prematurely and holding it back until His purposes are accomplished. That's where we stop for a minute and have to look at the big picture. I believe this is helpful for us to see, not defeat, but to see that what we're actually a part of is immensely successful. Immensely successful. What did Jesus accomplish when he came to the earth? What is this restraining? What are we talking about? And you have to look at it in connection with the work of Christ himself. When he came to this earth, what did he do? And what broke in? And what about the kingdom of God that happened that made all the devils tremble? Remember? Have you come to torment us before the time? See, there was great fear of the demonic realm of Jesus. They knew who he was. We didn't, but they knew. And they feared and trembled. You read Mark 1 right out of the gates. It is quite a powerful passage when Jesus comes to the synagogue and they start yelling out through a man, I know who you are. I know who you are. It's a big moment. What did Jesus accomplish when he came? Well, he stands in the synagogue and he grabs the scriptures and he says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, to recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are troubled, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he said this, he hands it back, today it's fulfilled in your hearing. Whoa. Kingdom of God just broke through into history. Really powerfully. John and the authors are making statements like this the whole way through. You remember the beginning of John. when he says, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. That's not just a little statement. The light has come onto this earth, and he has lit up and given people light to be able to see again. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn't comprehend it. As Jesus said, I have come as the light, as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me should not abide in the darkness. So the whole New Testament is portraying the coming of Jesus as doing something very damaging to the demonic realm. Why do you think there was all this demonic activity at the time of Jesus and all of the craziness that was happening? Because it was the one who had stepped in the history was here. They knew it. The devil himself is held out as directly attacking him in the wilderness. So much so that Jesus would say in the Gospel of John, how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man and then he'll plunder his house? Look, if I'm going to come here and I'm going to recover people and I'm going to save to the ends of the earth, I'm going to bind that guy. I've come to his house. He's talking about Satan. Jesus said, it's happening with my presence. That's why when he went up and he ascended and seated, that's why we believe we've entered something glorious. When he said, all authority has been given to me. Go preach the gospel to all the nations. When Jesus was here, remember when he sent out the 70 and the 70 returned saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. You see what happened with his coming? He invaded the darkness, the darkness took a blow, and something happened. And when Jesus was heading to the cross in John 12, you'll remember, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out so that through the work of the cross, Colossians would declare to us, he disarmed principalities and powers, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. And Jude would come along and say, the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Now here's where it comes. I hope it's coming together. Revelation 20 said, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having a key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set his seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he needs to be released for a little while. Now, you know what is restraining? You know what is restraining? Satan's not in some literal pit. This is apocalyptic. He was bound in the sense. He can't stop the missionary work of the church. Have you ever thought about, I've said this numerous times, how successful the gospel ministry's been? We're sitting here in Escondido, California, from a little room in Jerusalem. It's made it all over the earth. What do you mean the Lord's not reigning? Look at the success of this. Millions and billions of people believed all throughout time. It's made it into China. I told you the church is booming today in China. The whole success of the ministry, if you could only see and you had eyes, how wonderful it's been. And we're still doing this. That's why we're here. The gospel today is breaking through to every kingdom and to every nation and Satan can't stop it. That is what's happened. That's what's happened. In the darkest places of the earth where the devil has had great holds in places, the gospel's broken in. And you can talk to these people about the gospel coming into these dark regions of the world where there's nothing but unbelief and barbarism. And the gospel comes in. And people hear it, and they turn to Jesus for life. The Bible's been translated. Wycliffe Bible translators. How many translations have gone out in people's native tongues to the ends of the earth? Ephesians 1, he has been seated, and all things have been placed under his feet. He's on the throne. He has preeminence over everything, Colossians 1. Now, now read again verse 6 of our text. Now, you know what is restraining. Look again at verse 6 of our text. Get there again. And you know what is restraining him. That's the Antichrist. Now, you know what's restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. So you can get the big picture here. What the text says is that the Lord has been holding back this collective rebellion, this great final rebellion that has happened at times in history, and he's always stopped it. Have you ever wondered, why don't these guys get there? They get stopped, don't they? The Tower of Babel got dispersed. Nimrod was done. He stopped them prematurely throughout history. The great working of Satan to bring the final escalation of this When he's released at the end for a short time, the Lord's been holding this back. And the gospel's been successful. This is why the end has not come, beloved, because he's still saving. And the gospel's gone into all the world as a witness. That's what's happened. But then right before the end, a short time before the end, The text seems to indicate that the restraint will be lifted. And whatever this is, whatever it will look like that has been under restraint will be lifted. Paul knew how the Thessalonians would react to this. What do you mean? If there's presently a restraint on the activity of Satan so that the man of lawlessness has not been fully revealed yet, why are we still suffering persecution? Why are we still going through all this hardship? Why are things so difficult? And he says, listen, the mystery of lawlessness is at work. Of course it's at work. Satan's roaming around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Satan and his activity is alive. But it's put under a restraint. Remember 2 Corinthians 11 says that he masquerades as an angel of light. It's not surprising if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. He is trying everything he can do right now to plague you and your children and stop you. He's doing everything he can do. But he can't gather together this final rebellion yet. It's all under restraint. And in verses 9 through 10, notice what he says. He says, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. What he's saying here is really important. At some point, God will lift this restraint. And the full revelation of this final figure will come out and this great rebellion. And because they never have received a love for the truth in the present, they are the ones who are going to be carried away in this. That's what he's saying. I can't emphasize enough. The great final rebellion is a time when the Word of God and everything that is morally good and right, everything that God has said in his word, things so clearly set forth that there then becomes no standard whatsoever and people live in the full manifestation of whatever is right in your own eyes you do. Is that not going on right now? They're the ones setting themselves up for the deception. That's what he's saying. And I think this gets to the big point tonight that we have this great responsibility as a church to be discerning in the truth. Why do you think every time they talked about the end times and that, the final coming, they were all calling us to be strong in the truth, to love the word, test the spirits to see whether they be of God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. Many false ideas have gone out into the world. The spirit of Antichrist has given all kinds of crazy ideas. And those who aren't committed to the truth today, the judgment is that they're set up for the delusion that God will send when this comes. Notice it's God. They'll believe the lie. Now, we have to understand as we close this tonight and think about this, the Lord wanted them to know it's a short time period. The final escalation, the final conflict, Revelation talks about it in chapter 18 and 19. The final conflict, the final battle is not much of a battle. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns, notice what it says there. I mean, it's really, really powerful in verse 2. Notice what he says, verse 8. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom, and he doesn't even give it much time, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. I mean, it's going to be so awesome. There's no battle. his brightness utterly consumes the enemy, and it's over. It's over. And he comes, and he rescues us. And that's been the encouragement that Paul's trying to give them in this church, is listen, this is not going to go on forever. We're here for a reason. The reason is to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. That's why the Lord's been restraining all of this. And it's been great struggle, but one day he's going to bring an end to this and be encouraged that this is not it. We have something so much more glorious held out for us, something so much better to look forward to. As good as God has been to us in this life and giving us all kinds of blessing and help and encouragement and strength and families, what hasn't he given us? There's something much better coming. And all the troubles that we face in this life, don't lose heart is the message of 2 Thessalonians. He's coming soon, and he's going to reward you, and he's going to take you to be with him, and he's going to pay back those who've troubled us. That was the first chapter. But I think the first great encouragement here is to remember that he chose us and to, what do we need to do in the present? What is the calling of the church in the present in light of this knowledge? See, that's the thing. It's not just knowledge that's given to us. It's not just that these things are given to us for information. Paul has two things on his mind to close this sermon out today to help us with. Number one is, notice what he says there at the very end of this section to help us then with our responsibility. Verse 13, But we are always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the what? Truth. To this he called you. He called you to be sanctified through belief in the truth. See how important the truth is. See how important it is to say that in our day. See how important it is to give ourselves to the Word. I think I saw, it was John Newton, I'm sure I'm not quoting this correctly, but give me a candle and give me a Bible and let me read it in a prison cell and I'll know the whole state of the world. We know what we need to know. It's to hold to the truth that's been given to us and be committed to that as a people. To love the truth. To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions. Notice that. There are good traditions that have been passed to us. We're one of these days, well, we're anti-tradition. We don't like tradition. We're against tradition. Listen, if it's a good biblical tradition, keep it. What a blessing that's been handed to you from generation to generation. Hold fast to the good, firm truth and the traditions that you were taught by us. These are apostolic he's talking about here. Either by spoken word or by our letter. And then he encourages them. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. That's the first thing. Be a real people committed to the truth because remember it's those who are not committed to the truth who are setting themselves up for the great delusion. But the second thing is also important. I love, I don't, I didn't spend time in the third chapter, but I want to just read verse 6. Notice this. Now we command you brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who's walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you. Nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with toil and labor we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any one of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone's not willing to work, let them not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. And as for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. I think that's an important call in our day. We've never had so much free time in all of our life. A society full of idleness. You know what the great complaint was of Sodom and Gomorrah? We tend to just hold out sexual immorality. Read Ezekiel. They were full of idleness. Idleness. Sitting around looking at computers all day long is not the calling for us. It's not God's calling for us. God has given us all vocations. God has given us all work to do. God has given us all responsibilities to help others and love others and be busy in what he's calling us to do. One of the greatest dangers in waiting and being concerned about the state of the world, looking at everything, is to sit around and watch it and simply be idle. And that's not your burden. It's not your burden. Isn't this freeing? God's given you a calling. So go do it. You know what it is. And if you don't know, talk to us. There's lots of work we can do in the church to help others. Be about what the Lord's given you to do. Stand in the truth. Don't be idle. Give yourselves to the callings that He has given you. Fill your lives with his duties, his time. And that's a great way to look for the coming day of the Lord, isn't it? And to not be caught up in all this. I hope that encourages you tonight with the big picture. There's so much more we could say, but that's the big picture. You know what's going on in the world now? None of this should surprise us. The Lord's told us this activity's going on throughout history. It's going to continue. And at the end, it's going to have one final culmination. So love the truth. Hear God's Word. Make church a priority. COVID, if anything COVID-19 has done, it's really harmed people taking seriously the call and understanding of the necessity to be under the Word, to love the truth, and be about your Heavenly Father's business. What a good calling the Lord's given to us, and to help us through these times with real light and understanding. Be encouraged, says Paul. Notice that he says that here. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in what? Every good work and word. That's a good word to end on. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for such a wonderful section of Scripture to give us light and to guide us in your calling for us. May we not lose heart of the things that happen in this world. We commit them to you, O Lord, knowing you know best, and that you're in control ultimately of the things that are happening. For you've been restraining things for some time, that in due time, whatever is to come will be short-lived, only to display the glorious revelation of Jesus when he comes on the clouds of heaven to put an end to this once and for all. Continue your work of saving. May we have a heart for the lost. Remember those, Lord, all around us who do not know. And let us be a good example in our work and what we do and commitment to the truth that we are eager for the coming day of the Lord and as those who will not be caught off guard by the delusions that come in this world. Bless the work of the ministry to the ends of the earth and let the truth prevail, O Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.