TV Transcripts

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1694 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

Phil: If you’ve never been brought to that place where you realize if He doesn’t save you, you’re lost, that’s your need right now. I pray for anybody who hears this. You have never been brought to the reality that you need a Savior or you are lost. And I pray that that will come.

That’s a step. That’s not where God wants to take you and leave you, but you gotta go through that. There’s no point in trying to claim salvation if you don’t know what you need. Folks, I was a helpless sinner. I don’t care if I was born in a preacher’s family or not. I was just as helpless a sinner as somebody who was in jail, in prison for murder. Paul was a murderer and God saved him as an example of what he can do.

But oh, praise God! But this is salvation and I need to understand what He’s asking of me here in the context of somebody who needs supernatural intervention in my life. Yes, there is something that I have to work out, but it means, oh God, I am completely dependent on you. Every moment, every day, I have… It is not like you can instruct me. And I say, I’m good with that, and I’ll just go and do it. It doesn’t work that way. I need help.

So that’s why the verse goes on to say, For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Now you see something more fleshed out. It’s one thing to say He’s gonna work in me, He began to work, He’s gonna finish it. This is what’s going on right here this morning. There’s a God who is at work in me and in you today. Praise God!

Okay? So He’s told me what I’m supposed to do. Now, let’s see. What are my issues? What do I have to overcome? Well, the first one is I don’t wanna. You know, you can tell people a whole lot of things about what the kind of person God wants us to be. But the reality is, our wills don’t want to do that. We can find every excuse in the book for not doing it, for sidestepping that requirement, because look how they did. Look, you know, there’s a 1,001 reasons, but none of those stand up. God has to work.

I guarantee there are issues in every person’s life here where you know you ought to do something or be something, but you’re really not willing if you’re gonna be honest about it. Am I telling you the truth? Well, what’s the answer to that? Where do we go with that? There’s a God who is at work.

That work, that energy…. By the way, that word work there is the word from which we get our word energy. How many of you need some divine energy this morning? And of course we’d like the divine energy that would make our spine tingle and give us a high, but I’m talking about energy to be what He wants.

Well, one of the ways He’s going to express that energy in our lives is by dealing with our wills and getting us ready, getting us where we are willing. Okay. God, I’m fighting you on this. I just don’t want, I can’t, 1,001 reasons. But don’t worry. If you’re His, God’s gonna conquer that will of yours.

And you know the expression, you can come the easy way or the hard way. May God help us to come the easy way and recognize. See, Paul wanted them to understand what’s the process that was happening, so we’re not just blindly blundering along wondering, why this, why that? God wants us to understand.

‘Cause when we do, we can say, Oh, I get it. You want me to be this way and this is against my nature. Everything in me fights that. Lord, you’ve got the energy to change my will, so I’m willing. Being willing is a choice. God doesn’t make that choice for us, but He can sure give you what it takes to make the choice. See? Okay, so I’m willing.

But there’s another part of that. Doing it. How I’ve gotta actually put that into action? I’m scared. I can’t. 1,001 issues that the devil wants to raise to hinder us, to hold us back. So God first works on my will and my want to. And then when the time comes to do it, He energizes, He injects energy.

How many of you have been in a situation where you just were struggling to do something and finally it came to you? I’ve gotta step out in faith. I can’t wait for some kind of, you know, a shock or something. Or a sign from heaven or… I’ve just gotta do what He said to do.

Well, are we not, when we do that, we know it’s Him, we know it’s what we’re supposed to do. Can we not trust the God who’ve started the work and is gonna finish it to do what it takes now? He is active right now. That means if I “push the button,” the power’s gonna flow.

And I guess it’s, you know, time. And how many times have I told the account of Corrie Ten Boom who went through all that she did in the Nazi camp? And then was going around holding meetings, telling people over and over again, There’s no pit so deep that the love of God is not deeper still. And there she was.

And then all of a sudden, at the end of one of the meetings, she recognizes the man who walks up to her. He was one of the wickedest, cruelest guards in that camp. He would beat people, he would beat the women, helpless women, torment them, kill ‘em. This was a pure devil-inspired individual, and he’s walking up.

And he’s talking about how God had come to him and changed his heart. And I just wanted to meet you and ask your forgiveness. And you think she didn’t have something to overcome? You think she didn’t need some divine energy? Oh, I can’t. I remember. It’s still in my mind, all the things he did. Oh, God.

But finally it just came to her. Okay, I’m willing, but I just, you know, all this ability to even do it. Said, All right, I’m gonna stick my hand out. I can do that much. I can physically lift my hand and stick it out to shake his hand. And as soon as she did, divine love just flowed. And there was a bond between a brother and a sister in Christ in spite of everything that had happened.

I’ll tell you, if we ever get to the point where God puts His finger on something in our lives and we make the choice to agree with Him and say, Not my will, but yours be done, and then we step out and we do the thing that we know we’re supposed to do, God is gonna come on the scene. There’s gonna be divine energy. A salvation process is going to be carried forward.

But remember, again, how this connects with the rest of the book. It’s all the work of God. Praise God! Well, we can actually be brought to the point where we’ll do the right thing.

How many of you have been to the process where you finally humble yourself, you agree to do the right thing, but you’re not happy about it? Do everything without grumbling or arguing. Boy, we’re full of that. Again, I’ll do it, but I don’t have to be happy about it!

But God wants us to be so in tune with what He wants and His nature. It’s there. The power is there. Christ is there if we just lean upon him and say, Not my will, but yours be done. God will inject the energy that’s needed to, to do that, but are we willing to make the choice, not only to do the right thing, but to have the right spirit about it?

I’ll tell you, there’s a God who will help us if we’re just willing to humble ourselves in that. Everything, without grumbling or arguing. Oh my God, we’re so full of that. Now, what’s the result of that? So that you may become…. Wow, am I gonna get through this? I’m gonna try to at least hit the highlights. Do everything… Okay, I said that.

So that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. God is wanting to put His life out on display. One of the reasons apart from working in us is there for us to still be here. What reason was there for Paul to still be here? There were things God wanted to accomplish through Paul. There are people God wants to reach.

What good does it do for us to have the right words and the right doctrines and not the right life? That’s what God is working in every one of us. But we need to have that same confidence that the God Who has started it, He’s here right now to help me be that person. It isn’t just about the big picture, it’s about me now with the issues of my life. There’s a God Who’s at work. Praise God!

Well, he goes into a bit of stuff about Timothy and Epaphroditus, and I wanna come and you heard he was sick and all those kinds of things. But then we come to the passage we’ve often used where the question of, Where do I get my confidence? And it’s certainly not in my own ability to do anything.

And that was the corruption Satan tried to bring into the church, was Jews who could not let the law go. They saw it as a pathway to righteousness when Christ came to fulfill the law and leave it in the past and bring about righteousness another way by living in us and beginning to conform us from the inside as a matter of the heart.

So Paul reached the point where he looked at all of his earthly qualifications and said, God, (indistinct), it is garbage. All the things that are so valued by so many, as far as I’m concerned, throw it in the trash. I got Christ. That’s all I need.

Folks, I’m so glad I can leave it all in the trash. Everything that isn’t of Him, that’s of me, I can just put it aside. That’s not what makes me… That’s not what qualifies me with Him. I have Christ. And He’s given me a right standing with God that I could never, ever attain. Praise God! Praise God!

And so not only do I have, one, this amazing person called Christ who’s done this for me, I get to know him. It’s not just I wanna know about him, I wanna know him. I want to experience.

And the pathway to experiencing resurrection life is what? It’s death, isn’t it? It’s being willing to die and to let go of all that is earthly about us and to embrace what he has given, the new life, and to live that out in its place.

And so Paul says, I wanna experience that. My goal is to experience resurrection life to its fullest right here. I gotta let all of that other go. As far as I’m concerned, that’s something that can die. I’m letting it go.

And, of course, this is where he goes into the fact that I haven’t got all this. I’m still in the process, right? We’ve used that so many times. But I want us to see it again in the context of the whole book.

Not that I’ve already obtained all this or already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Now, I mentioned the fact that there’s a devil out there who rules this world system, who absolutely will fight against every part of this. And this touches on one of the areas where the devil is at work.

I wonder if we could see in the spirit how many of us would look like Marley’s ghost. Okay, go watch the Christmas Carol sometime if you don’t know what I’m talking about. What was Marley’s ghost covered with? Chains. What were the chains? All the deeds, all the evil deeds that he’d done in his life.

Well, we’re not to that point. But Paul says something amazing there, Forgetting what is behind. How do you do that? And this is where the devil really takes a lot of us down. We’ve said it so many times, but I guarantee there’s people right now, there’s stuff in your past you cannot let go of. You cannot get up in the morning and be free to look to Christ for that moment and just face the day, casting all of the stuff upon him and saying, Praise God, I’m in a state of peace. Everything from my past is resolved.

And of course there are many kinds of things, but a lot of it is my own weakness and failure. Oh, I’m so bad. I’ve done so much. I’ve done this, I’ve done that. I could never be this kind of person he wants me to be. Oh, poor me.

How many of you think that’s how we’re supposed to live? Does that wisdom come from him? Did Jesus not die for all of our sins? All of them? Is he not able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? Is there a single thing from our past that we do not have the right as God’s children to bring to him to be honest about? But to leave them at the cross and to come to a place where it is.

And if we’ve never done it, it’s not a matter of saying, Well, I don’t care. You know, I did that, but I don’t really care about it. No, we care. But there’s a resolution that God has provided for at the cross where we can be honest, we can care, but we can leave it there. Take your burden to the cross and leave it there.

Did he come to save a people in their chains and leave them bound and say, Fight the good fight of faith?. Drag those chains behind you? No. We got enough to deal with in the moment in the days to come and all of that. We got all that to deal with. We don’t need to drag our past.

But here’s Paul saying, I can get up every morning. I got this. I understand salvation enough to say I can leave that in the past. And of course the other thing is all the stuff that’s happened to me and all the ways I’ve been treated, the people who’ve wronged me.

Oh, poor me. I was right and they were wrong, and I won’t ever forgive them unless they come and apologize. I’ll guarantee there’s plenty of people here right now that are not free from something that’s happened to you, something that somebody did to you, and you’ve never been free emotionally from it.

How many of you believe God wants to set you free? And so we talked about God working in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. Better start with the will because that’s the problem with so many of us. We don’t wanna let it go. We feel entitled to our pain, entitled to our chains.

But there’s a God who has broken every chain. He brings his people out of prison houses. He doesn’t want a congregation of Marley’s ghosts. He wants a people who can let the past go.

How many of you know that this issue of being able to start fresh every morning and not have the past that’s dragging, hanging off of us, how many of you know that’s a choice? And it’s a choice that we have the power to make if only we will. Whether it’s forgiveness for somebody else or just a resolution that I’m not gonna hold that in my heart. I’m not gonna be dragged down. I don’t care what they did.

Suppose Jesus had gone along, gone through his life taking things personally. Despised, rejected of men. How dare they? Oh, the emotional burden that I carry. Oh, God, they’re wrong. I’ll forgive ‘em if they ever straighten up. He was free from that to the point where he could weep and pray and say, Father, forgive them.

How do we do that? Certainly you can’t look inside for human nature. We’re gonna have to be willing to be his people. We’re gonna have to have divine energy even to make us willing to do that, and then actually do it.

There’s a lot of people right now that God longs to set free. His power is here. It’s at work. This is one of the ways that it needs to be at work so that we can be free to serve Him. And then we can press forward and reach. We got enough to deal with, like I said.

And of course that’s where you come. I’ll jump ahead. But the scripture that we use so many times, you know, he does talk about our destiny, talks about all that God’s power is gonna do that will serve Him and we’ll look forward to Him at the end of chapter three. He’s gonna transform our bodies. It’s gonna be glory when He finishes that job. Praise God! You see how it all ties together?

But then of course you get into the passage we often use, and it was brought up Wednesday night about rejoicing in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Chapter four verse fours and five. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything.

So if you see on the one hand, the devil has you looking back, clinging to things from the past, unwilling to let them go, not unable. God will always make us able if we’re willing. But unwilling to let them go. But now I’m free from that.

The devil was, Oh boy, I gotta figure out something. But what about now? Oh, I can’t. I’m afraid of this. What if this happens? And 1,001 anxious thoughts about what’s about to happen and what hasn’t happened yet?

And so many times, this has been so well brought out, how God wants us to be able to come and lay that burden at the cross and say, Lord, I know You got this. I’m gonna enjoy Your peace. I’m going to rely on your power to do what you tell me to do. I’m gonna make the choices, confident that the God who started this work, you’re right. You’re here now. It’s not just this vague general concept. You, the God Who is at work, You’re at work in me right now to make right choices, to leave the past, to not worry about the future, but commit into Your hands and just trust in You.

Does that sound like a pretty good message from the Lord to the people? Do you see the connection? God is at work. What He longs for us is to understand and to grow in our understanding. It’s to live a life that honors Christ, that expresses his life and not ours.

That’s going to be seen as we walk together in this perfect unity because we’re all energized by the same Spirit, and it’s gonna be in such a way that the world will see and they will know there’s something different about these people. It’s a witness of God.

How do we do that? We’ve got a God who works with our will and our ability to do something. What He’s looking for from us is to make the choices to say, Yes, Lord, I believe in Your work. I believe in the energy that You’re gonna inject. You are injecting into me right now. You’re here. Your power is at work right now to help me to be the person you’ve called me to be. And by your grace, I’m gonna do it.

And I know there’s more, and I’m after it. That’s what my life is about. Lord, I want everything You have for me and I refuse to let the past drag me down or be anxious about the future. It’s all in Your hands, Lord. Praise God!

It’s not the simple little three point sermon, is it? But is that a message? I mean, you got the high points there. But do you see how the message that God gave through Paul? I have all ideas that they read this whole thing in one gathering.

But do you see how it would’ve painted a picture? You know, we can see a beautiful picture one time, but if we just zone in on one tiny little thing, we can say, Man, that’s great. Look at the detail. That’s wonderful. But God wants to step back sometimes and see how that little detail fits into the big picture.

And I believe God wants everyone to know that the same God Who called you, set you on the path to His kingdom, He’s here right now. There’s nothing in your life, past, present, or future, that He’s not concerned about. He is actively working in us to help us make the right choices, to give us the power to do what He’s told us to do.

And He’s gonna be with us all the way to the end, and we’re gonna stand there in glory one day. So be encouraged, be enlightened. That’s for you, that’s for me. But you’re welcome to join with me if you want.

Isn’t God wonderful? Isn’t salvation amazing? May God give… I mean, there’s nothing we haven’t said a thousand times, but I just hope that the bigger picture has kind of emerged to see how these wonderful truths connect one with another. Praise God! So, that’s it. Lord bless you!

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1691 — taken from Closed Captioning Text

Phil: Well as usual, come into a Sunday morning, and I feel my weakness. Isn’t that a surprise how the Lord reminds us how much we need him! And I’ve had thoughts on my mind and just wrestled with them, and the devil has, does everything he can to interfere, doesn’t he? If we’re serving the Lord and looking to him, the devil’s gonna throw in everything he can, but I praise God for his faithfulness, I praise him for his goodness.

It’s like we said last week, a lot of times what we need is just the basics of Christian living and the foundation that we stand upon. Well, we never get away from that. But also, I believe God wants us to remind us about the context in which we serve him. That is this world and its condition, and the fact that he has called us not just to serve him in the world, but in this particular time in history.

And I believe the Lord, along with how it works and the foundation that he’s laid for us, he also wants us to understand the times and be ready. And we’ve had services that have focused on that recently, like not just be ready, but getting ready and being an honest appraisal of what’s happening.

And somehow my mind has gone back to Second Thessalonians, truths that we have looked at in the past, but I’m trusting the Lord will not only make it fresh, but emphasize what he wants to emphasize, okay? Paul had ministered to the Thessalonian Church and he was led there in the course of, I think it was his second missionary journey, somewhere along in there.

And he went to the city of Thessalonica, and as his custom was, you’ll read this in Acts 17, I’m not gonna turn there, but he went to the Jewish synagogue. Everywhere he went, if there was a Jewish synagogue, he went there first and announced the gospel, which was exactly the right thing to do.

And then he went for three separate, or three consecutive sabbaths, so that’s three Saturdays in a row he ministered. And so this was a period of, what does that make? Two weeks, a little over two weeks.

And then the people in the synagogue didn’t want to hear it anymore, some of them did and they followed him, and a whole bunch of other people from the gentile population began to gather to him. We are not told how long he was there, but it wasn’t long, weeks maybe.

And then persecution was raised up against him and they met at night and sent him out of the city, and was it Barnabas or Silas I think was with him at this point. And so he was only there a short time and raised up this church.

I mean, we think about what it takes to raise up a church. I’ll tell you, if the Lord’s with you and in it, and He is really making himself known, that’s what it takes. We don’t need methods, we don’t need anything that comes from, that originates in us, we need Him to sovereignly work.

And God had a people that He had known from the foundation of the world. They were some of the ones that Jesus went to that cross about, praise God! And you go back to First Thessalonians, which I won’t do, but Paul is rejoicing in the fact that the word came with power and conviction and that there was a real, there was a genuine, obviously divine work that had been accomplished in their hearts. So I’m just gonna read this and trust the Lord to stop and focus on what he wants to, I have a central thought that we’ll get to.

But anyway, Paul, Silas and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians, this is Second Thessalonians, the Church of the Thessalonians in God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, “grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to thank God for you brothers and sisters, and rightly so because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.”

I tell you what, church growth, this is the kind of growth the Lord’s looking for. You can have numbers and have nothing, but I’ll tell you, if you’ve got people that have more and more of the Lord and it’s evident in their lives, don’t worry, the numbers will come, the Lord can add to the church daily those who are being saved like He did in Acts.

But this is the kind of church growth that the Lord is looking for: is your faith growing? I’ll tell you, God is going to institute situations and needs in our lives where the only answer is to go to God and say, oh God, I need you, and I’m trusting in You. I’m going to exercise faith in the face of adversity, and my faith is gonna get stronger.

And the Lord knows what we’re going to need and what circumstances we will face. As we’ve said many times, He’s writing the story and He knows where we’re headed, knows how to get us ready for it.

But anyway, okay, so he’s acknowledging this in them. He says, “therefore, among God’s churches, we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.” So, the persecution didn’t stop when Paul left town, Paul and Silas left town, it kept on going. They were having to serve God in the face not only of just, well, we don’t like you guys, this is absolute persecution.

Some of them were being jailed, put to death, their possessions seized. There were a lot of things that were going on that we hear about in other parts of the world, we hear about in history. We’re not so familiar with them here yet. It’s coming folks. That’s part of what I believe the Lord wants to, wants us to get our, wrap our brains around.

Anyway, so Paul is just boasting, these people not only are facing all kinds of circumstances that they didn’t choose and wouldn’t choose, but they are still putting one foot in front of another, it’s not defeating them, they are bit stronger in the face of it, okay?

And Paul is saying, boy, you wanna know what it means to serve the Lord? Look at the fellows over there, look at the people in Thessalonica. Did you hear what happened to Brother So-and-so the other day? And he’s faithful and he’s looking to God. You need to be, you need to be like that.

Well, wouldn’t that be nice if the Lord could point to us and say that? It certainly wouldn’t be any credit to us, it would be a credit to Him and to His grace and His power, thank God, all right?

So of course that raises questions, is this just gonna go on forever or is God ever gonna put things right? I mean, look at all the evil people doing evil things, is God just, why doesn’t God do something about it?

Well, don’t worry. he says all of this, this that we see in your lives is evidence that God’s judgment is right and as a result, you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering.

Folks, worthiness doesn’t come from my what I am naturally, but I’ll tell you, if we’re going to, if we’re going to truly lay hold of what Jesus accomplished at the cross, we’re gonna have to lay hold of it a hundred percent, be 100% identified with Him, whatever the cost, whatever comes.

And I’ll tell you God’s gonna be with us to do it. He doesn’t dump that on us and say, figure it out and get, get your strength up and, and go for it. But I’ll tell you, people who are not willing to stand for Christ, whatever the cost, aren’t worthy of this kingdom. It’s a hundred percent or it’s nothing, all right?

That’s a message that is just not that clear in America because of the circumstances that we have. It’s not so clear cut as to those who serve God, those who don’t. It will get that way, okay?

So anyway, here’s the kingdom of God for which you are suffering, God is just, don’t worry, “He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to those who are troubled and to us as well.”

Okay, when’s that gonna happen? All right, this will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He talked about that in the first book. He pictured the time when Christ would be coming with the trumpet and the dead in Christ raised, he moves right straight into the fact that that day is gonna be a day of destruction for the world. And we’re not of those who are asleep and, and unaware of those things that are coming.

The picture God is painting is one that we painted many times. This all happens as part of one event. It’s not, he’s gonna zap people into the thin air, into the ether waves and make them disappear and then all this other stuff’s gonna unfold, and then he is gonna come again, again. And then all this huge chart of events, supposedly future events all happens.

No, it’s gonna all happen at the same time, just like it did as we said many times in Noah’s day and Lot’s day. God’s gonna come rescue his own and pour out judgment and it all happens at the same time.

God’s gonna take care of what’s wrong with this world, and there’s plenty wrong with it. Right now, He’s using it to help prepare us because being prepared for all that He has planned has everything to do with our having to stand in this hour and in what goes on in this world. It’s absolutely shaping us for something that is eternal. It’s worth everything to serve Jesus Christ.

Paul, I think this was read maybe at the funeral, I dunno recently anyway, where Paul said, the things that are happening to me are working for me, they’re working not against me, they’re working for me a far more eternal weight of glory, while, we look not at the things which are seen.

We look at the things which the world can’t see, but God can give vision. I don’t mean something you can literally see with your eyes, but I mean something that we know in here to be true because He has revealed it. There is that kind of knowledge, just real, folks. God wants everyone to have it that will turn their heart to him, all right?

So we see the relief happening to the one and the destruction and justice falling upon the other, all in one event. “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It is not just a matter of believing it with your head, there’s an obedience that follows, that demonstrates that, yes, I do really believe it. Faith without works is dead, it’s just theory. But God wants everything we believe about him to be translated into our lives. Thank God it all comes from him, doesn’t it?

Okay, all right, then speaking now of the wicked, “they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the,” when? “On the day he comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.

“This includes you because you believed our testimony to you. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling. And that by his power, he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”

I was just pondering this morning and thinking about what in the world with all the thoughts I had, what in the world are we gonna call this? But I think the title is probably right in that verse, in those verses, “by his power.”

We need to know what’s coming. But God is not wanting to tell us what’s coming to make us fearful and think that, oh God, I can’t possibly handle this. Everything has to be seen through this lens, by his power.

And so here is a people who have in their hearts a desire to please God, a desire to be more like Him, a desire to be conformed to His image and all of those things. Where do they get that? Where do you get that? God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.

See there’s a, everything about the kingdom of God is supernatural. He’s not looking for anything from you except surrender and looking to Him for all that we need. Praise God, Praise God, that’s the key to everything.

And you see this picture of fruition. What is fruition? I mean, if you have a fruit tree, what does fruition mean? It means not only a bunch of blossoms, it means they begin to form and they begin to ripen and then you wind up with fruit. The purpose of the fruit tree is to produce ripened fruit.

Well, God’s got a purpose for this earth. He has a crop, if you wanna put it that way, and Jesus did put it that way, that’s ripening. There’s a harvest going on right now. There’s a harvest going on in other parts of the world, many parts of the world. There’s a whole lot going on that God knows about.

I just wanna be a part of whatever He’s doing here, I want him to work in me, whatever He needs to work, and there’s plenty. I realize you guys are all perfect, but He’s got a lot of work to do in me!

So anyway, “by His power, he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Boy that grace comes in there, doesn’t it, a lot: God’s power at work saving unworthy sinners. I said, that’s my definition of grace, and boy, I’ve gotta have His power, there ain’t nothing in me. All I can do is come to Him as an unworthy, helpless sinner, totally unable to live up to His standard.

But He comes because of what Jesus did at the cross. He blots out my sins, but He doesn’t leave me there, and then say, okay, now do better. He comes in and begins to give me the brand new life. It’s not a matter of being trying to take someone that’s part of this corrupted creation and say, okay, now straighten up and fly right. This, the only thing you can do with this creation is destroy it, put it to death.

And I’ll tell you, when I come to Christ, when anybody comes, really comes to Christ, they’re identifying not just with the sacrifice of the cross, but with his death. We’re going right with him into that tomb, and we’re coming out with a new life. It’s supernatural power that we need folks. May God raise up, not just here, but everywhere, may He call together His people and make His power and the reality of His kingdom known.

So now Paul’s gonna deal with an issue because we know that, in the beginning the church, there was a purity and a power to the church, but it wasn’t that long before false teachers began to come in. People that Satan said, boy, I gotta do something here. And I can’t, I haven’t got the power against this, but I know what I can do, I’m a good liar. And so he says, I’m gonna get people that can just kind of begin to twist the truth and mislead the people and we’re gonna split them up. He’s done a pretty good job, hasn’t he? Boy, I’ll tell you, we need to have our heart saying, Lord, we don’t know and we need You to lead us, oh God.

So anyway, the issue that Paul was dealing here had to do with the coming of the Lord and some false teaching. And there’s more than one purpose, it’s not just to establish a doctrine and try to get that right because the Lord’s gonna come when He is gonna come and He knows, He just wants us to be ready and to be getting ready, okay?

But there’s something that’s very, very relevant to us because Paul talks about something that’s coming. And from his point of view, it was future, from our point of view, we’re in the middle of it. There’s something that’s unfolding that he’s talking about here concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him.

Now, in all that he follows to talk about, remember that’s what he’s talking about, His coming. So what’s gonna be happening at the time He comes, all right? Is it just gonna be in the middle of everyday life and then, boom, we’re gone? Or is this gonna be, there’s things gonna unfold that are gonna lead up to that, all right?

“We ask you brothers and sisters not to be become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching, allegedly from us.” So somebody came in and wrote them a letter and said, this is what Paul’s teaching on this, or here’s a letter and it’s from Paul. It says this is from Paul, but it wasn’t. And so Paul wanted to correct something that was a, that had become an error in their minds.

All right, so we’re gonna tell you not to be easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us, whether by prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter, asserting, here’s the false thing, the thing they were asserting, the day of the Lord has already come. I don’t know how in the world they were trying to get that across.

But anyway, “don’t let anyone deceive you in any way for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”

Now, it’s hard to read something like this without thinking about the popular doctrines out there about this antichrist is gonna make a covenant with the Jews, we’re all gonna be gone and then he’s going to set up, set up shop in the temple of God. I mean, there’s gonna be a temple built in Jerusalem, I mean, he’s gonna go in there and say, I’m God.

That’s not what this is talking about. And I don’t know one way or the other, we’re gonna have to stay tuned with all of this as to how this unfolds. I have heard it said that this isn’t an individual or at all, it’s just a general condition. Or I think there’s evidence that there probably will be an individual, but he wouldn’t be able to do what he’s doing unless the condition existed in everybody else. So what difference does it make? This is a condition that’s going to take hold of the world of lost men, that’s what it boils down to, okay?

Now, whether there is a single man who do does this and takes this place, I don’t know. I do know, and I’ve said plenty of times, that there are people who have laid out their plans to establish a global society, bring everybody under their control, and life wouldn’t look at all like it looks now. I mean, these are explicit plans that people, powerful people in our world have. What’s the Lord gonna allow and when He is gonna allow it, I don’t know, but it’s unfolding. You can see the inspiration behind it, okay?

So anyway, this is coming, now, what’s this business about the temple? Well, I’ll remind you of something that was said even in the Old Testament days when they did have a literal temple: God does not dwell in temples made with hands. When he talks about the temple of God, God created mankind to be his temple. His purpose was to live in us, He is spirit, to live within us, to empower us, to have a united existence that preserves all of our uniqueness, everything He created us to be, but yet, we’re in total harmony with Him.

Didn’t Paul talk about what God is doing when he broke down the middle of wall partition? We talked about this last week about the people of God, Jew and Gentile, that distinction is gone. God is building us together for what? A habitation, a place to live. We’re growing up to be a holy temple unto the Lord. That’s what God’s looking for.

But here is somebody who asserts the dream of Satan, to take God’s place and to inhabit the human race. That’s what’s going on. He sets himself up as though, I’m God, you’re gonna have to worship me, okay? So that’s what he’s talking about.

But he says there is a rebellion, there’s something that’s, that was in the future, this was something definite that was going to happen, okay? You think that’s happened? I do, all right?

“Don’t you remember,” verse five, “that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things and now you know what is holding him back so that he may be revealed at the proper time for the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way.”

What’s that about? You see something that Satan’s dream didn’t die with the cross. He has continued to work, but God has restrained him. Remember what Jesus said to his disciples before He ascended? All power, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, go therefore.

Do you think that if Satan were, had this kind of control over lost mankind, that the gospel could have gone out? He hasn’t had the power to prevent it. He has certainly tried every way. But his dream is not just to, well, it’s not just to hinder God, it’s to drive him out, it’s to be God himself.