Abiding Through Opposition

0:46They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they are or not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lies is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

1:18This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you receive from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him.

2:06This is the Word of God. You may be saved. Some of you know that in my former life, I worked in the world of advertising and PR. And I really enjoyed it, and I'm happy that I get to still use some of those skills today. But one of the things that they teach you when you're studying advertising is that the goal of advertising is to create a desire for a product or experience, or to create a desire for a new product or new experience that previously did not exist.

2:47And so, if you take a look at the history of advertising, this becomes very clear as you see some of the greatest print ads of all time. Take a look at this Nike ad from 1989. Be familiar to me. Nearly everyone who was a kid in that generation or an adult in that generation, this is the famous Bo Nose ad. And so, what is it communicating to us? Saying, you want to do it all. Bo Jackson does it all. And if you too want to do it all, all you need to do is replace those weak tennies with these sweet new air trainers.

3:25That's all it takes, and you'll be like Bo Jackson. Or what about this Apple ad from 1997? I love this ad because it's throwing shade at IBM. IBM ran this whole ad campaign in the 90s that was called Think. Wanted to show you that their machines were really powerful, that they were really great products. And so Apple comes right out and says, Think different. So if you want to break away from the pack, if you want to separate yourself, you've got to think different. Ditch that old IBM, get a new Mac, and think different.

4:00And of course, one of the most famous ads, and one of my favorites of all time, is this Camel ad from 1949. Have you heard that smoking is bad for you? Well, actually, it's not. Just ask all these doctors who smoke, who, strangely, were no longer available for comment some years later. As you can see, these companies or their ad agencies, what are they trying to do? They're trying to create Create a desire for a new product or a new experience, one that you don't have or haven't had yet or haven't had in a while. And whether you don't have this product or you've never had this experience or you had an older version of the product or you have a past experience, what they're communicating to you is that's not good enough anymore. You need a new product. You need a new experience, and namely the one that we're selling.

4:57And so, friends, we're going into 1 John 2:18 through 27 this morning. And in this passage, John is going to tell us that there are these false teachers, these deceivers who have crept their way into the church trying to lead people astray. And what these deceivers are doing is they're claiming new truth, new revelation. They're saying that the Jesus that you know about and the gospel message that you heard about, that's old news. We have something new for you that you need. We have new revelation, something new and better. And so these people were opposing Christ. And so the Apostle John knew what his responsibility was. As an apostle, his responsibility was to write to these churches to ensure that they didn't get swept up in this false teaching, that they didn't wilt in the face of all of this opposition that they were experiencing. And he wanted his readers and you and I today to abide in Christ.

6:00This is so important because the opposition to Jesus has not gotten less over the years. The opposition to Jesus has only increased over the years, as you probably feel in different ways in your daily life. And so, what we're going to learn this morning through this passage is that in the face of opposition, we abide in Christ by abiding in the truth. So, let's look now at the text together. If you look back up in the previous section that Pastor Beau preached last weekend, if you didn't get a chance to listen to that message, let me encourage you to do so. He did a fantastic job. Look at that verse 17. He says, And the world is passing away along with its desires.

6:42The world is passing away along with its desires. In other words, this present world, the world that is bearing the scars of the fall, it's not going to be here forever. And so, what happens is that certain people hear that truth and they say, Okay, the world's not going to be here forever. I get that. I understand that. But what I want to do is, I want to try to enjoy this present world as much as I can until it does go away. I want to squeeze all that I can squeeze out of it, so to speak. And so, John continues in verse 18. Let's pick up there now. Children, it is the last hour.

7:23Now, what does he mean? Well, as we know, both Jesus and the apostles talked about what's often referred to as the last hour. Last days or the end times. And every time that they're talking about that, teaching about that, they're referring to the time period between when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and the time where he is going to come again to restore all things, make all things new, gather his people to himself and inaugurate the new kingdom once and for all. That's what it's referring to.

7:56And according to Scripture, the last days are going to be difficult times. The end times are going to be difficult. They're going to be marked by wars and rumors of wars. There's going to be natural disasters, persecution of Christians, professing believers departing from the faith, people loving themselves and loving money and loving pleasure more than they love God. That's just a small sampling of all the things that Jesus and the apostles say about the end times, about the last days.

8:30And so I share all of that with you because it's so significant. Look, John does not say, children, these are the last days. What does he say? Children, it is the last hour. He says, this is it. The clock is almost at zero. And keep this in mind. John is writing this nearly 2,000 years ago. Nearly 2,000 years ago. Ago. This is around, depending on when you think John wrote these letters, it's somewhere between AD 70 and AD 90. Nearly 2,000 years ago, he's saying, it's not just the last days, it's not just the end times. This is the last hour. This is it.

9:16But I think most of us can say, from a human perspective, it just doesn't feel that way, does it? I mean, from a human perspective, it feels like, no, everything is just going on as it always has. I mean, 2,000 years have passed since Jesus died and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Things just seem to be continuing on like they always have. But what John wants us to do through this passage is to recalibrate our understanding so that we get, so that we understand this is the last hour. He's saying, look, don't be lulled to sleep.

9:54And you know, we live in Texas, and so we're familiar with hurricane season and everything that comes along with that. We have friends and family that have experienced the devastation. And, you know, you go back, if you were in Texas back when Katrina and Rita hit back then, or Hurricane Ike in 2008, you know that there was lots of people. The warnings came. You had politicians, you had meteorologists getting on and saying, you need to evacuate. You need to get out of your home. You need to go to higher ground. You need to get further inland. And tons of people said, ah, it'll be fine. It'll be fine. I sit out hurricane. Season every year, it's going to be fine. And many of those people lost everything. Some of them lost their lives.

10:37John is saying, I don't want you guys to be lulled to sleep like that. Jesus has already told us this is what's coming in the last days, and it's the last hour. And in the rest of verse 18, he gives us the sign to prove that we are in the last hour. Look at what he says. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore, listen to this. We know that it is the last hour.

11:13Now, this particular word antichristos, antichrist, it's just used in John's letters. You won't find that word elsewhere in Scripture, but the idea is contained in places like the book of Daniel. The idea is contained in the Gospels. The idea is contained in the book of Revelation, and so it's all over the Bible. But I think one important distinction that we need to make this morning is that believers a lot of time conflate two ideas: the idea of false Christs, pseudo-Christoi, as they're called in Scripture, and Antichrist, antichristos, or antichristoi in scripture. We just kind of conflate those ideas, and we think to ourselves, those are the same thing. But see, I'm not going to say, A pseudo-Christos is a false Christ. An antichristos is someone who is opposed to Christ.

12:10So the pseudo-Christoi, the false Christ, they were saying, I am the Christ. Follow me, I am the Christ. But these antichrists, they weren't saying, I am the Christ, follow me. They were just saying, Jesus is not the Christ. And so we're going to get there in a few minutes, but for right now, John just wants us to understand that the presence of antichrists, the presence of men and women who rise up to say, Jesus of Nazareth is not the Christ, that proves that we're living in the last hour.

12:45And friends, the closer we get to Jesus' return and final victory, the more opposition there's going to be from Satan and those who have been taken captive to do his will. So I think you have examples that would serve us well from football. If you're a football fan, you know that when the defense is in the red zone, the defense tightens up a great deal. So the red zone is that last 20 yards right before the end zone, in between the 20-yard line and the goal line. And so for the rest of the time, the defense is on the field. If they're somewhere in the middle of the field, the defense might sag back a little bit. The linebackers are playing off the line of scrimmage. The cornerbacks are... Giving some cushion to the receivers, they don't want to give up a big play.

13:35But as soon as the ball gets into the red zone, into that final 20 yards, the defense tightens up a great deal. You have linebackers pressed up against the line of scrimmage, cornerbacks are toe-to-toe with their receivers, they're in press coverage because they know that the opposition is about to score. And so everything has to tighten up. This is what happens in the spiritual realm. This is what's happening all around us. The closer we get to Jesus' return and his final victory, the more spiritual opposition that there is that we're going to experience. And so John presses this idea: it's the last hour, and you know it's the last hour because of all of these people who are opposing Christ.

14:20Now, in verse 19, we learn something very important about these people. Look at what he writes: they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. So, in other words, these people remove themselves from the fellowship of the church, and they remove themselves from the fellowship of the church probably because the believers refuse to follow their teaching. That's why they went. Out, they went away. John says that the reason that they left, though, is because they were never really part of us to begin with. They were pretenders from the very beginning.

15:13Friends, all through Scripture we find what theologians refer to as the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. I want you to look at how Wayne Grudem, the systematic theologian, defines this term. He says, the perseverance of the saints means that all those who are truly born again will be kept by God's power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives. And that only those who persevere until the end have been truly born again.

15:48Now, that's not just Wayne Grudem's idea. That's a truth that Jesus taught explicitly. Look on the screen at Matthew 24. He says about the end times, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. Look at how he concludes this section. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

16:27So, again, in this passage, Jesus is talking about. The end times and what they're going to be like, and he is clear that only those who endure to the end are going to be saved. Now, you might look at that and think to yourself, now, hang on a second, that sounds like salvation by works. It sounds like Jesus is saying that what you get as a reward for your endurance is salvation. But of course, that's not what Jesus teaches. And John Stott helps us with this. Look at what he writes. He says, He who stands firm to the end will be saved, quoting Jesus, not because salvation is the reward of endurance, but because endurance is the hallmark of the saved.

17:15That's the proof. The proof that you have been bought by Christ and His blood. The proof that He holds you in His hand and that no one can snatch you out of His hand, as Jesus teaches in John 10, is that you endure to the end. It's the hallmark of the saved. And so, what the Apostle John is telling us is that these Antichrists, these teachers who are opposed to Jesus, left the church, and the reason that they left the church is because they were never truly a part of the church to begin with.

17:50You see, friends, we don't become a part of the church by being born into it physically, by having parents who are believers. We don't become part of the church through our baptism. We don't become part of the church through marriage. We don't become part of the church by attending worship or church programs. The way that we become a part of the church is by grace alone, through faith alone. That's how we enter into the church. And so we don't want to be confused in any way about how it is that we become a part of the church. We become part of the church by faith alone. But these false teachers, they did not put their faith in Christ alone. In fact, they explicitly denied him. They said that he was not the Christ. They were never a part of the church, and that's why they left.

18:45You know, we hear a lot of talk these days about the millennials and how the millennials are going off to college and they're leaving the church. And of course, that's not a new phenomenon. Generation X went off to college and they left the church as well. And so people left and right, both secular commentators as well as Christian commentators, are asking the question: why are so many people leaving the church? Well, friends, I think what John is saying to us is that nobody leaves the church.

19:21They may stop attending the church's programs. They may no longer be attending worship. They may no longer be going to Sunday school. But no. True believer leaves the church. True believers continue their connection with the church because our connection to Christ's body is proof that we belong to Him. That's not my words or my opinion. That's what John is telling us here. And so I think we need to understand that what a lot of unchurched people need, many of whom are our family members, our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, what they need is not really to get more serious about church again, they need to come to repentance and faith in Christ. They need the gospel. They need to hear it from us. They need to see its effect in our lives. They need a call to repentance and faith, not merely to get back involved in church again.

20:22But, friends, John's readers and many of us here today don't fall into that category. And so he's going to address true believers beginning in verse 20. Look at what he writes. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. So John is answering the question for us: how are we going to be able to stand firm in the face of opposition? Well, he gives us two reasons. You've been anointed by the Holy One, and you have knowledge. So, first, we Can stand firm in the face of opposition because we've been anointed by the Holy One. Anointed is a great word, but it's a word that's lost some of its meaning today because we don't have the same experience with it that old covenant and Old Testament believers did. When somebody was anointed in the Old Testament, what happened to them? A prophet, a man of God, someone would come and they'd take a vial of oil and they'd pour it over the person's head. There was a sensation of it running down. There was the aroma of the oil all around them that stayed with them for days. When you were anointed, you knew it, and everybody around you knew it. And what that was supposed to do is it was a physical representation of what was going on internally. So when Samuel goes and anoints David, the Holy Spirit had already entered into him to do the ministry that he had set apart for David to do. So it was an external sign of an internal reality, and that's what the anointing of the Holy Spirit is for us in the New Covenant. Look on the screen at John chapter 14. Look what Jesus declares.

22:11He begins and he says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Does that sound familiar? We just talked about that earlier in John's letter. He says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot. Receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. Now, listen to this: you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

22:43He's saying right now the Holy Spirit is with you, is among you, but the good news is he is going to be in you in the future. And so, later on, the Apostle Paul explains what happened to us when we come to faith in Christ after Pentecost, right? After Acts chapter 2, look at what he writes in Ephesians 1. He says, In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, what happened to us? You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

23:29So, friends, this is really important because there's a lot of people out there who believe that the Holy Spirit does not reside in every single Christian. That after you come to faith in Christ, you then need a second experience. You need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit apart from your conversion. But as we see very clearly from Jesus' own lips, as well as from the Apostle Paul, when we repent, Of our sin and place our faith in Jesus, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. We are filled with Him at our conversion, and that's very important because He is the seal and the guarantee of our inheritance.

24:15So, the scriptural teaching is you're either a Christian or you're not, and if you're a Christian, you've been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, He lives in you, He dwells in you. And John's point here is so important to grasp because what He's saying is that if you have the Holy Spirit living in you as a Christian, then you don't have to worry about Antichrists, you don't have to worry about those who oppose Jesus because you have the Spirit of truth living inside of you. That's what we just read at the beginning of the service from John 16, that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He's the one who guides us into all truth. And that takes us to the second reason that we can stand firm in the face of opposition. The first is because we've been anointed by the Holy Spirit. The second reason, though, is because we all have knowledge.

25:15We all have knowledge. The Holy Spirit is guiding us into all truth. Look at what John writes next, verse 21. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Truth. See, John's readers and we ourselves know the truth. We know that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. He is the Christ, the promised Messiah. And how do we know that?

25:50Well, first, we know that because that's what Jesus Himself claimed. Mark chapter 2 is such a great story in the life of Jesus. He goes into this house, and these guys bring this paralyzed man and set him down in front of him. And Jesus says, Son, your sins are forgiven. And all of the Pharisees, all the religious leaders are standing around and they're like, How can this man say that? That's blasphemous. Only God can forgive sins. And so Jesus says aloud to all of them, so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sin, I say to you, take up your mat and walk.

26:29He claimed to have the power to forgive sin. Later on in his ministry, he's disputing with the Pharisees again in public in John chapter 8. And Jesus is talking about having seen the glory of God and the past and the future all together. He claims to know all these things about the temple, and the Pharisees say, what do you mean you've seen Abraham? What do you mean you know all these things? You're not yet 50 years old. And Jesus says to them, before Abraham was, I. Am now in English, and to our modern ears, that just kind of passes over, like that was a weird way to say that.

27:08He's using the expressed name for God. That's why they immediately pick up stones to stone him, because they know what he claimed. And then, of course, you know, as he's with his disciples at the end of his earthly ministry, he asked the disciples, and it's interesting, he asked the disciples in the Decapolis, these ten cities, where all of these pagan gods are worshipped. And you can just imagine Jesus and the disciples, they got all these statues, all these altars around them everywhere. And he says, Who do people say that I am?

27:43And so the disciples say, well, some say this and some say that. And he says, well, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus says, you're right. Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, because this wasn't revealed to you by man, but from heaven. You see, friends, we know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, because that's what he himself claimed. But that's also what all of the apostles taught. All of the men who walked with Jesus and saw him after his resurrection from the dead, they taught the same thing. One of the classic examples is in Colossians 1. Look at the screen. Paul says, He, that's Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

28:56I mean, Paul could not be more clear. Jesus is the one through whom and for whom all things were created. Jesus is God, fully divine. John, of course, wrote these same things in his gospel and in these letters, as we've seen. And so John's readers know this truth because Jesus and all the apostles affirmed this from the very beginning. The message has not changed. Jesus is the Christ. But now look at verse 22 because not everybody is saying this.

29:33John says, Who is the liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. So what John says is: anyone who says that Jesus of Nazareth is not the Christ, is not the Son of God, the anointed one who came to fulfill God's law and to die and rise again on our behalf. He is not just a liar, but the liar. Now, the Antichrist, in one sense, is this great figure who is going to come at the end of the age once and for all to oppose Jesus. I don't want you to think that John is saying or that I am saying that the literal Antichrist is not coming. He is. Scripture is clear about that. But there's another sense in which the Antichrist is anyone who opposes Jesus, who denies that he is both fully God and fully man.

30:35Anyone who says, look, I think that Jesus was fully God. I just don't think that he actually took on flesh. I just don't think that he became a man. That is the spirit of Antichrist at work in them. Anyone who says, listen, I can get my mind around Jesus being a human being. I can get my mind around him being fully man. I just, I don't think that he was fully God. The spirit of Antichrist is at work in that person because they're denying either the full humanity or the full divinity of Christ, both of which are completely necessary for us to be reconciled to God. If he were not fully God, we could not be reconciled to God because he alone could live a sinless life and pay the price for our sins. If he were not fully man, he could not have stood in our place as a human being and offered himself up on the cross as our substitute. Both of those things. Were essential.

31:33And if you deny those things, it's such a big deal because of what John writes in verse 23. Look again what he says. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Well, that sounds very exclusive, doesn't it? I mean, how can John say that? No one who denies the Son has the Father? I mean, there's billions of people around the world who deny the Son. But again, this is what Jesus himself taught. Look on the screen at John chapter 10.

32:12He says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. So you see, you cannot deny Jesus without also denying the Father, because Jesus and the Father are one.

32:47And many of us are familiar with Jesus' words in John 14, verse 6. He says, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father. Father, except through me. You see, because Jesus and the Father are one, and because Jesus is not a way to the Father, but he is the way, the truth, and the life, you cannot come to the Father except through him. And friends, in our society, a lot of people believe that as long as you believe in God, you'll be saved. As long as you believe in God, you're going to heaven. I have met plenty of professing Christians over the years who believe that sincere Jews, sincere Muslims, even just sincere theists, people who believe that God exists generally, that they will go to heaven.

33:45But friends, Jesus was very clear. You cannot believe in God generally while also denying the Son specifically. You cannot come to the Father except through the Son, because to know the Father is to know the Son, and to know the Son is to know the Father. That's why we can't deny him. And I think so many genuine Christians are losing their urgency in evangelism because we live in this pluralistic society that believes these things. I mean, every one of us knows lots of nice people, decent human beings who have good friends, good marriages, good families. Families, good jobs. And we've bought into this idea that because they have some sort of squishy theism, some sort of general conception that God may exist, and they're not out there like obviously and publicly sinning or posting atheist content on social media, that they're going to be fine, that they're going to go to heaven.

34:54And friends, what we have done is that we have functionally subscribed to salvation by works. We have said that good is good enough for God, and so good people go to heaven when all of Scripture denies that idea. There is no one who does good, not even one, says the psalmist in Psalm 14, says Paul in Romans 1 and again in Romans 3. There's no one who does good, not even one. Our goodness can never merit favor with God because we are not good enough.

35:36We need to recover our urgency in evangelism and remember that apart from saving faith in Jesus, His life, His death, and His resurrection, no one is going to heaven. And so, friends, our calling is clear. Look at verse 24 and also 25. He says, Let what you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning, Abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He made to us: eternal life.

36:11What do we need to do? We need to let that message, the true, genuine, biblical gospel, abide in us. Because as we abide in that message, in the truth of that message, then we abide in God. And we have the promise that He made to us, eternal life. And so, John is going to end this whole section by reassuring His readers and us as well about why we can stand firm in the face of opposition. So, let's look now at verse 26 together.

36:54Verse 26, I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him. So, friends, who is John writing about? He says here that he's writing about those who are. Trying to deceive us. Those who went out from us because they were never part of us to begin with, who deny that Jesus is the Christ. That's who John is writing about. But he reminds us here at the end of this section that the anointing that we received, the anointing of the Holy Spirit that we received at our conversion, he abides in us.

37:55And as a result, we have no need that anyone should teach us. Now, understand, John is not saying you don't ever need to hear teachers, you don't ever need to listen to preachers. I mean, John Himself is teaching us, isn't he? So he's not saying you don't need any teachers. You don't ever need to listen to preaching. You don't ever need people to teach you theology. You don't need to read good Christian books. He's not saying that. What John is saying is you don't have any need of new teachers or new teaching. You don't have any need of someone to come along and say, actually, there's a different Jesus that you haven't heard about. Actually, there's a different gospel that you haven't heard about. That's what you actually need. John says, you don't need that. You don't need a new teacher or new teaching. And the reason for that is because Jesus's anointing, the promised Holy Spirit, teaches us about everything.

38:54He helps us to discern truth from error. He guides us into all truth. Points us to Jesus because that's his job. He is the Spirit of truth and points us to Christ. And so, John's closing exhortation, the last words that he leaves us with in this section are: abide in him. Remain in him, remain in Christ to whom the spirit of truth points. And so, friends, don't leave the biblical Christ for some pseudo-Christ who is fully man but not fully God, or fully God but not fully man. That pseudo-Christ can't save you.

39:48And don't leave the biblical gospel for a false gospel that tells you, as long as you're a decent person, as long as you try to ensure that your good works outweigh your bad works, as long as you are a religious person who attends church programs regularly, that you will be fine, that you will go to heaven, that you'll be saved. That false gospel cannot save you. Instead, abide in Christ. Remain in Him by holding firm to the truth of the gospel of Jesus' sinless life, His substitutionary death. In our place for our sins and his resurrection from the dead.

40:35Because, friends, we are going to face opposition for believing that message and for preaching that message. But in the face of opposition, we abide in God by abiding in the truth. Let's pray, Father. We confess to you that we don't handle opposition very well. We very quickly get discouraged. We lose our confidence. We can set aside or throw away our hope. Being opposed is really, really hard. And we need to learn from you, from your word, from the spirit, how to abide in the face of opposition.

41:57Because your word is so clear, it's. Things are not going to get better. They're going to get more and more difficult. Even when we can't see the difficulties around us necessarily, the reality is that the spiritual warfare is ramping up because it is the last hour. And so, God, we come before you this morning to pray and beg you to help us endure and stand firm to the end. We firmly believe that through faith in Christ, you hold us. Jesus, you and your Father hold us. No one and nothing can snatch us out of your hand.

42:50And yet, there are days, there are seasons of our lives, sometimes months or years, where we feel like we have been snatched away. And it's in those moments that we most need one another to remind us of the truth. Because it's in abiding in the truth of the gospel that we abide in you. God, we are thankful this morning that you hold us in your hand. And I pray for men, women, children. Who are here today who are not sure if they are held by you. They're not sure at this point if they have exercised saving faith. Maybe there are some here who left the church a long time ago and now are coming back for the first time. God, I pray that you would speak to them this morning. I pray that you would minister to them, meet them where they are. I pray that they wouldn't be too prideful to go to someone else and say, I need to talk to somebody about these things.

44:05And that we'd be ready and eager to point them to Christ. And God, for all of us who are being held by you and who are also holding on to you, I pray that this morning's message is encouraging to us. Because we have the Holy Spirit not just among us as he was when Jesus was walking the earth, but we have him inside of us, sealing us, guaranteeing our inheritance, pointing us and guiding us into all truth. Thank you for that amazing gift of the Spirit, God.

44:53We pray that you would help us to listen to him and respond to him. In Jesus' name we pray all these things. Amen.