In Jason Dohm's sermon on 2 Thessalonians, he explores the themes of faith, persecution, and the destiny of believers and non-believers. The sermon emphasizes the importance of standing fast in traditions and the transformative power of God's grace. It addresses false teachings disturbing the church, highlighting that the 'Day of the Lord' has not yet arrived due to the absence of a great falling away and the revealing of the man of sin. Dohm underscores the necessity of encouragement, exhortation, and rebuke for new believers, using Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy's approach as a model. The sermon concludes with a reflection on the affectionate and family-like nature of Christian relationships and the central role of God's grace in the believer's journey.

Second Thessalonians chapter 1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus has revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes in that day, to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.

Therefore, we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Second Thessalonians chapter two. Now brethren concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to soon be 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 following 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 that is worship, 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. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom 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, and 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. But we are bound to Give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved, by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and Father who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace. Comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.

Chapter 3. Finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you both that you do and will do the things we command you. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us. For we were not disorderly among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you. Not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this, if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.

For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such, we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. But as for you brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother.

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle, so I write, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Well, this is our summary of the whole letter of 2 Thessalonians.

You'll be heartened to know that I don't feel the need to re-preach any or all of the 13 sermons that have formed our study of this letter. I just plan to touch on the head of a few things that we've been studying. I love these extended times of Scripture reading where we take not just a few verses, but three chapters at a time and just let the Word of God be read and considered. It's hard work. I have a hard time keeping my brain intent on such a long reading, but I find the work well paid.

I hope you find the same. We have our summary sermon today, and then the next four weeks we're going to be in some selected Psalms. Next week we'll be in Psalm 1, then Psalm 5, then Psalm 8, then Psalm 11. So that's it. 1, 5, 8, 11, and then we'll be moving on to Philippians.

So that gets us out six months or so. And then we'll be embarking on an Old Testament book, probably to be named later. So we go to our summary, let's go asking for the Lord's help. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you that you use it to teach us to retrain our thinking in so many ways.

Your thoughts really are as far above our thoughts as the heavens are above the earth in your ways than our ways. So thank you God for giving us your word. God, I thank you for the fondness that you give us for different books of Scripture as we study them. We've read many of these books that we've been studying many times, but We've read them quickly and not considered them deeply. And so when we do go and spend six months there or nine months there, we find ourselves loving these books in a very new way.

I pray that as the weeks and months and years pass, God, that you would teach us to love your Word like we've never loved it. To lean on your Word like we've never leaned on it, and to seek you in your Word like we've never sought you before. Make us a people who seek your face and love your word. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. So I'd like to begin by giving a brief review of every chapter.

If you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, it's just a review, a brief review of each chapter. So we'll just go to chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, a brief review of the contents, and then I'll move on. Chapter 1, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy address pressing current circumstances in the church. They're not writing in the abstract at all. They're writing about things that are happening in the church.

What are those pressing current circumstances? They're being persecuted. We were actually introduced to this in 1 Thessalonians, where Paul and Silvanus and Timothy acknowledge that they're experiencing the same kind of persecution in Thessalonica as the Judeans, Judean Christians, are experiencing at the hands of their family members, their brethren by bloodline in Judea. And we know that was intense persecution. So this is still going on.

This is ongoing in the Thessalonian church. So Paul and Silvanus and Timothy write back to a persecuted people and they address it right here in chapter 1. And so after a very warm greeting, a really familiar greeting, I say familiar because it's almost word for word what the greeting was in 1st Thessalonians. So after that warm, familiar greeting, and after giving thanks for them, they lay out with perfect clarity the ends of those who love Christ and the ends of those who oppose Christ by persecuting. In other words, everyone is headed somewhere.

There are those in Christ and they're headed somewhere. The Bible is not unclear about where those in Christ are headed. And so Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy want these new believers in Christ to know. Those in Christ are headed here. It's a glorious place.

And also those who oppose Christ and are persecuting these new believers, they're headed somewhere also. And The title for my sermon on chapter 1 verses 5 through 10 was, Continuing with the End in Mind. I think that's exactly what Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are doing in this chapter. That's the big point of the chapter. New Christians, continue in the faith with this in mind.

Those in Christ are going here, those who oppose Christ are going there, there's nowhere in the middle. So there's only Door A and door B, that's it. There's no other place. If you're in Christ, there is a glorious destiny for you. But if you forsake Christ and you oppose Him, there is the most terrifying end for you, and it's an eternal end.

So continue, stay steadfast in the faith, knowing What the only two end points are for every man woman boy and girl who's ever had a life in this world. Either I will love and trust Christ, and Christ will give me eternal rest, and I'll get to spend all the ages afterwards admiring Him. This is what we learn in chapter one. If you're in Christ, God gives you rest. The rest that we find so little of in this life, we have an eternity of purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we get to spend that eternity contemplating the greatness and the goodness of the one who saved him.

Jesus Christ comes and then those who are in Christ admire him. And admire him. And admired him throughout all the ages. But if I will not obey the Gospel, those are the words used in chapter 1, If I will not obey the Gospel, then I'll be rewarded with tribulation. Ultimately, I'll receive the vengeance of God for my unbelief, my disobedience to the Gospel.

It's called everlasting destruction. Being destroyed, but never fully destroyed. It's never done. The destruction is never done. It is an everlasting destruction.

So Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, in a sense, are answering this question. Should we go back to Egypt? These preachers came to town and they preached a good sermon about forgiveness of sins, but now persecution has driven them away from the city, and we've sort of been left orphaned, at least from our spiritual parents, the one who brought us into the Gospel. Now Egypt's looking pretty good. Should we go back to Egypt?

Of course, those aren't the exact words that are used in chapter one, but I think that is the thought in chapter one. You have these new believers who are finding out that through many hardships, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. They're faced with the question that every Christian faces sooner or later. Should we go back to Egypt? Like There was meat in the pots back in Egypt.

And the answer is no, because of the two eternities that face everyone who's ever been given a life. The chapter ends with our authors saying that they always pray that God would work mighty works of grace in them so that the name of Jesus Christ would be glorified in them. Did you get that? That's a mouthful of a sentence. Paul, Sylvainus, and Timothy say, we're always praying for you.

What are we praying for you? We're praying that God would work mighty works of grace. In other words, you don't deserve this, but God would work mightily in your life to transform you and to do works in you and through you. Why? So that Jesus Christ would be exalted.

This is one of the primary ways that God wants to put His greatness and His goodness on display in the world. Working in me, even though I don't deserve to be worked in. Working in you, even though you don't deserve to be a billboard for the greatness of God. God does that. He works mighty works of grace in our lives so that Christ would be glorified.

Not for our namesake, but for His namesake. Jesus Christ would be known as a mighty Savior who saves and transforms his people. That's chapter one. Chapter two. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy address a false teaching which is disquieting the church.

So there they are, new believers, and the most mature, the most thoroughly taught, have been swept out of the city by persecution, and now false teaching is coming in and it is causing waves in the church. It's disquieting the church. And what is that false teaching? That the Day of the Lord had already come. We read a lot about the Day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians, the first letter.

Some look at the eschatology or the teaching about the end times in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. They conclude from looking at the end time teaching in the two letters that one of them or both of them has to not be authentic because they're teaching contradictory things about the end times. But when you look at them carefully, you find out that that's not true at all. They're teaching complementary end times truths. Three end times truths.

And so an end time teaching has come into the Thessalonian church and it's not true. It's a false teaching. That Jesus Christ Day, His coming, has already happened and somehow they missed it. But Paul and Silvanus and Timothy say that that is impossible and they know that it's impossible that it cannot possibly have happened because two things must happen first and those things haven't happened. First, the falling away.

Now church history, you can look back in time and see many falling away. Many times where the people of God have departed from God and have, through their lifestyles, through the things they believed and embraced, they have backed away from the living God. This is going to be on a whole other scale. This is the falling away. This is going to be a falling away that dwarfs all of the other falling away.

The second thing that must happen first that hasn't happened yet is that the man of sin or the son of perdition or the lawless one, he's called these three names in this book, hasn't been revealed yet. So because the lawless one hasn't been revealed, then Jesus Christ can't possibly have been revealed in His second coming. The lawless one is being restrained, but when he is revealed, when this son of perdition, or this man of sin, or this lawless one, is revealed. He will operate with power, signs, and lying wonders. Okay, satanic power, satanic signs, satanic lying wonders.

He'll be a counterfeit Jesus. He'll be an anti-Christ in that way, in the way that Christ was authenticated by power and signs and wonders, not lying wonders, but wonders from God, there will actually be satanic power at work in the man of lawlessness. Those who did not receive the love of the truth will be judged with strong delusion. Did you get that? So there's going to be lying wonders that the Son of Perdition will be able to do.

If you don't love the truth, your judgment for not loving the truth will be to be given over to the delusion. You'll be given up to the lies because you wouldn't love the truth. We learned that in chapter 2. In the final section, beginning in verse 13, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy contrast the Thessalonians' belief with the unbelief from the previous verses. In other words, there are people who would not receive the love of the truth, and so they're given over to the strong delusion, they believe the lie.

They might have been saved had they loved the truth, but they don't love the truth. And now we get the Thessalonians and the contrast that they are in their belief. And it's said that God should be thanked for that. In other words, if you've received the love of the truth, that was God. God ought to be thanked for that.

And they're exhorted to stand fast in the truth. In other words, if God has been kind to you, and saving you from the strong delusion that would sweep you away to hell, then Your response to that should be to stand fast in the truth that you've been given the grace to see and know. That was chapter 2. Chapter 3. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy address a very particular matter in the church.

There's a matter in the church that requires immediate attention. And what was that practical matter? They needed to deal with disorderly brethren. So the chapter begins with Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy requesting prayer and then praising God for his faithfulness in establishing and guarding the Thessalonians. But then they begin to speak of disorderly brethren in the midst of the church.

Now, if we follow what we've seen in the letters, we find that these are brethren who have been instructed and then warned and now they're still disorderly. So when we looked at this carefully across 1 Thessalonians and into 2 Thessalonians, we see that the specific matter at hand, the specific area of disorderliness is not working for your own bread. And that in 1 Thessalonians, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy had instructed them, work for your own bread. We were your pattern. Follow us.

And then they had said, warn the unruly. In other words, If someone won't obey the things that we're saying, warn them. And now they're writing back. So this is really sort of a third pass on this issue. These are people who have been instructed, who have been warned, and now they still have this area of disorderly that they will not bring in line with the Word of God.

So the Thessalonians are commanded to withdraw from them. It was so clear when you trace it through the two letters that this is not killing a gnat with a sledgehammer. This is not sending a nuclear strike at the first sign of trouble, but it's really at the end of a patient process where you labor with the disorderly and then you deal with the disorderly. They're commanded to withdraw from them. We talked several weeks ago about what that does and doesn't mean.

But the end point is that they may be ashamed. It sounds so unchristian that we would relate with someone in a way that would make them feel ashamed. But the truth is, our sin, our persisting in sin is shameful. If we won't deal with the sin in our life, then God will mobilize His people to help us break patterns of sin in our life. It's not actually the hatred of God, it's exactly the opposite.

It is the love of God that He mobilizes His people to help me break the persistent patterns of sin in my life if his gentler methods are ignored by me. It's so clear we're not to count the disorderly as an enemy, but instead we're to admonish him as a brother, and we're to say, Brother, the confession of your mouth doesn't match the pattern of your life, and it's persistent. So God has commanded us to withdraw from you so you'll feel ashamed and you'll address the persistent disorderliness in your life. And then we welcome you back. The letter ends with the fondest farewell.

That was the title of the sermon last week. Such a tender, affectionate ending. And the letter ended as it begins, just like 1 Thessalonians did, with grace and peace. Both letters in the introduction, grace and peace, and at the end, grace and peace. That's a brief review of each chapter.

Now I'd like to consider a few memorable phrases. A few memorable phrases. Here's one from chapter 1 verse 3. We are bound to thank God always for you. And then chapter 2 verse 13.

We are bound to give thanks to God always for you. It's just a few words shuffled here and there, but essentially says the same thing. Twice in this letter, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy say, we're bound to give thanks for you. We have to. And what we learn from this repeated use of this phrase is that God expects us to recognize the work He's doing in our lives, in the lives of our brother and sister in Christ.

In other words, God is glorifying Himself by working in the life of your brother or of your sister. He is transforming them from glory to glory. He expects us to recognize his fingerprints and the goodness and glory of what he is doing in your brother's life or in your sister's life, your spiritual brother or sister's life. And when he does that transformational work in my life, he expects you to recognize it, and We incur a debt. We owe thanksgiving to God.

When I see God at work transforming your life, I owe God a debt of thanksgiving. I am bound to give thanks for what God is doing in your life. A second memorable phrase. In chapter 1 verse 8 we see this phrase, those who do not obey the gospel. And then in chapter 2 verse 10 we see this phrase, they did not receive the love of the truth.

So these go together like the two places where you're bound to give thanks to God for His work in your brethren. These two go together. Chapter 1 verse 8, those who do not obey the gospel. Chapter 2 verse 10, they did not receive the love of the truth. Yes, we sin.

And yes, our sins deserve death. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, and so it is. We would stand condemned just for our rebellion against God in our hearts, in our words, in our actions. But the Bible sets before us, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His work on the cross, a mighty saving remedy. And it's offered freely.

Anyone who is thirsty can come and drink. If you're thirsty, you can come and drink. And so the condemnation of the wicked grows beyond just their sins against God, their sins of commission, the ways in which They've done the things that God has said we should not do, and not done the things that God says we must do. I think we're being taught that there's something In addition, and maybe more fundamental here, that God through Jesus Christ has made a way for our sins to be cleansed away. He has offered it freely.

He has bid the thirsty to come and drink. And the more you've received the offer with clarity, The more you're guilty of not obeying the Gospel, of not receiving the love of the truth. We spend our time thinking, it's this sin that will send me to hell, or it's that sin, or it's their sins which are the kind that I don't do have you obeyed the gospel? Don't compare me to you, or don't compare you to your neighbor, or don't draw a line where you somehow are on the good side of it because you're not as bad as the other people and you assume that God somehow will have you on the right side of the line. These things are stripped away as a false hope if you have not obeyed the Gospel, if you would not receive the love of the truth.

If it's true that you can be condemned for not obeying the gospel, then it must be true that the gospel makes demands. God commands all men everywhere to repent. There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. It's only in Christ. That's the way you're saved.

Here's a memorable phrase, verse 13. Brethren, beloved by the Lord, may we see the love of God for His people all throughout both of these letters. And it's just condensed down into this wonderful, memorable phrase in chapter 2 verse 13. Brethren beloved by the Lord. In other words, God's love makes a family.

Brethren beloved by the Lord. It's God's love that brings you into this family. This isn't just an experiment being done in a test tube for God, where he's Desiring to glorify himself, and so he wants to tinker with your life to see what he can do with your life. God doesn't need your life for that. He makes a family because He loves His people.

They're brethren, beloved by the Lord. You're not a science project for God, and neither am I. He loves us. He's made us the objects of His eternal love. Here's another memorable phrase, chapter 2 verse 15.

Stand fast and hold the traditions you were taught. Stand fast and hold the traditions. This would be the envy of the Thessalonian Church. Your Bible, that you probably paid $20 for, would be the envy of the Thessalonian Church. Now to be fair to them, they did get to hear the Apostle Paul in person.

So maybe we'll save our pity for someone else. We have ways in which we'll envy them as well. God has given us His final word. It's here. We have all of it.

In one spot, we have words that this church, as blessed as they were to hear, person to person, Face to face, preaching of Paul, we have words that they never read. And we should stand fast in these words that we've been given. And we should hold the traditions. Not a tradition like the Grooms family pays for the meal on rehearsal night. No.

Authoritative, apostolic traditions. The Word of God. The exhortation for them to stand fast and hold the traditions should apply even more so to us because we have more privileges than they have. Here's another memorable phrase. Chapter 3 verse 1, Brethren, pray for us.

And We saw in studying that text how often the Apostle Paul in his letters solicits prayer, asks for prayer, requests that the Lord's people pray for him. We learn at least two things from this. One, we never move on from needing the Lord's people to pray for us. So the Apostle Paul is not a graduate from that. He still feels the need of the Lord's people appealing to God for him so you haven't graduated either.

That's what we should learn from this. If Paul hasn't graduated, I haven't graduated, you haven't graduated. We need for the Lord's people to pray to God for us to help us. Second thing we learn is that progress is of God, not of man. Progress is of God, not of man.

That's why you have to pray for Paul. That's why we need to pray for Mala at Antioch Baptist. That's why you need to pray for me. That's why I need to pray for you. Because we're not going to have progress unless God through His Spirit comes to help us.

Here's another memorable phrase. Chapter 2 verse 16, Now may our Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 3 verse 5, Now may the Lord. Chapter 3 verse 16, Now may the Lord of Peace. There are these three places in this chapter.

We can go back to 1 Thessalonians and find some more. They are almost exactly the same words where there is the pronouncement of a blessing. There is an expressing of a desire that God would come and help them in this way, and this way, and this way for particular things. So this goes back to Numbers chapter 6, where the priests are supposed to pronounce over the Lord's people, The Lord bless you and keep you and then at the end of that and give you peace. Blessing pronounced over the Lord's people.

So Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, they step up to do the same thing. To bless the Lord's people. To express a desire that God would help his people, would bless his people. I learned from that that I should seek the Lord's blessing on your life in very specific ways. And you should seek the Lord's blessing on my life in very specific ways.

A few parting thoughts. We had a brief review of the chapters. We had a few memorable phrases. I'm sure I missed some good ones. Three parting thoughts.

Number one, we have just been a party to a clinic on how you deal with babes in Christ. We've been on the front row observing in the reading and studying of these letters of how New believers, those who have recently been born again should be treated. We have this wonderful mix of encouragement and exhortation and rebuke. Starting with encouragement. How do you handle the Lord's people?

Especially those who are newly born again. You start with encouragement. This should help parents. You're going to lead with you're growing in faith and love. Hooray!

We praise God for you. We praise God for the fingerprints. His fingerprints are on your life. We can tell He's transforming you. And then there's exhortation.

This needs attention. New believers, give attention to this. Don't forget this. Somebody falsely taught you this. No, can't believe you fell for that one.

There's rebuke. You guys are putting up with disorderliness that demands action and there hasn't been action. This is a clinic on how to deal with babes in Christ, those who are recently born again. And it starts with encouragement and thanksgiving. It starts with sunshine.

There are some rain clouds that come into these letters when you're talking about the second coming, false teaching in the church, dealing with the disorderly, but there is encouragement sprinkled in about every third verse. Another parting thought, number two. It strikes me how much this is not a business letter. Does it strike you how much this is not a business letter? To whom it may concern.

Save that for somewhere else. These are loving spiritual parents writing to their beloved spiritual children. These are family members in the family of Christ. And it is dripping affection. It's dripping affection.

It's oozing out of the letter. The togetherness. Brethren, brethren, brethren, brethren, brethren, brethren, brethren, brethren, Brethren, brethren. I think it's a tremendous amount of times across the two letters. Brethren, brethren.

Like, we're together. This is one family. We might have difficulties and hardships and disagreements and areas that need attention, but this is us. God is our Father and we are brothers and sisters and we love each other. May God make our relationships here characterized by the same thing.

No business letters between us. We might have things that need attention. We might have business that needs attention among us, but no business letters among us. May our interactions be dripping with family affection. Anything else is out of step with the pattern handed to us by Paul, Sylvainus, and Timothy.

I don't want to be out of step with their pattern. Forgive me if I've sent you business letters. Number three. Lastly, all of grace. Lastly, all of grace.

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy have been so careful to tie everything back to God. You have progress, God did that. You acknowledge the Word of God is the Word of God, God did that. You have more faith and love, God did that. You need to be protected, God will do that.

You need to be established, God will do that. God's unmerited favor just being poured out on His people is in every chapter of both letters, all of grace, made available to us in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. It happened with Matthew. It happened with 1 Peter. It happened with 2 Peter.

It happened with Ezra. It happened with Nehemiah. It happened with 1 Thessalonians. It's happened with 2 Thessalonians. I love this letter.

I have a fondness for this letter. One of the reasons I wanted to come to 1 and 2 Thessalonians is I just hadn't spent much time there. I thought this closes the gap for me. I'll be able to come and study it. In the New Testament I probably spent less time here than anywhere else.

Well now that's not true by the factor of a bunch. And I've learned to love the things that are in this letter. God, I thank you at you. I prove yourself so wise every time we take up a book of the Bible. We are humbled and your wisdom is exalted.

Thank you for all the things that we've learned together in the study of this book. God, I pray that you would make us tender hearted and that we would be so yielded under your Word. That we would be so happy to have a source of truth completely outside of ourselves. Those of us who have lived in Christ for long, a long time, have learned by painful experience how often our thoughts and our own sense of what's true betrays us. And never once have we been betrayed by your word.

Thank you for this great gift and this mighty deposit. I pray that you would have us turn these memorable phrases over and over and over again in our minds. We wouldn't quickly lose the things that have been gained by the study of these books. I thank you for the tender heartedness of Paul, Sylvainus, and Timothy as they write to these new believers, their obvious affection. I do pray, God, that you would cause such affection to dwell here among us.

In Jesus' name, Amen.