Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

Let's take just a moment and prepare our hearts to come into the presence of the

Lord. Grace and peace to you in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our God.

Please stand. Oh come, let us sing to the

Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him with psalms.

For the Lord is the great God and the great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth.

The heights of the hills are his also. The sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the

Lord our maker. For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

Oh people of God, this is a sacred hour where the people of God corporately come into the presence of God.

Let us consider the weightiness of it and pray together. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We joyfully come into your presence because we have a savior who is

Christ the Lord. Oh Lord, we ask that this worship, however feeble it may be, humanly speaking, it will be pleasing in your sight because of the powerful operation of your

Holy Spirit. The kindness and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We ask that you would receive us now, oh Lord, into your presence and bless us.

We ask this all in Jesus name. Amen. Please kneel for the corporate confession of sin.

Let us join together with one voice in confessing our sins.

Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too deep to undo.

Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear.

Let us become for us a consuming fire of judgment. Set us free from a past that we cannot change.

Open us with a future that can never be changed. And grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image through Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Amen. Amen. Please stand. It is a fearful thing to come into the presence of a holy

God. We are sinners, but our sins have been paid for by the efficacious atonement of Christ.

Receive now the assurance of pardon. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake.

And I will not remember your sins. Oh, people of God, rejoice.

If you be in Christ today, your sins are forgiven. Amen. Take up the hymnal today and find number 400.

Oh, bless our God with one accord. The tune there, it says, is the doxology number 400.

Oh, bless our God with one accord. Insert Psalm, it says, sing to the

Lord aloud. The tune for this today is I love thy kingdom,

Lord. So Psalm 81 to the tune of I love thy kingdom, Lord. Let us begin.

Please remain standing for the reading of the word from Genesis chapter 13.

Genesis 13. Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and lot with him to the south.

Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold. And he went on his journey from the south as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai.

To the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there

Abram called on the name of the Lord. Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents.

Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.

The Canaanites and Perizzites then dwelt in the land.

So Abram said to Lot, please let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren.

Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then

I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the

Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zoar.

Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated from each other.

Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.

But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward, for all the land which you see

I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you. Then Abram moved his tent and went and dwelt by the terabith trees of memory, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the

Lord. This is the word of God. Thanks be to the Lord. Let us now confess our most holy, ancient, and apostolic faith.

Let's sing the Apostles' Creed together. Let us begin. I believe in God, the

Christ, his only begotten Son, Christ conceived by the

Holy Spirit, and I believe in the

Holy Spirit. Please turn in your hymnals to number 715.

The hymn we're singing is, Come, ye thankful people, come. And if you're thankful today, rejoice.

If you're not thankful, repent and be thankful. Let's sing number 715 together.

Please make preparations now for the prayers of the people. To our guests, we kneel.

Kneel if you're able. And seeing the multitudes,

Jesus went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. That's such mercy.

That would not be easy for them, but that would be really hard for them. We ask that you would do the same.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Father, we know that this has to be a work done by your

Spirit, through a sanctifying work in our hearts. And Father, we ask that you would pour out this mercy on us, and we ask that you would give us hearts that are clean and pure, only by the washing of your blood.

Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This is God's holy and infallible word.

Little children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that the

Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come.

By which we know that it is the last hour. 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 they might be made manifest.

That none of us, none of them were. But you have an anointing from the

Holy One. And you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the

Christ? He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the

Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either.

He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most excellent word.

Please pray with me. O Lord, we thank you that you have anointed us, that you have put your name upon us, that you have marked us, you have sealed us, you have made us one with you.

O Lord, give us great wisdom to discern the times that we might see all of the error that comes into the church, that we might preserve your holy, spotless, blameless bride.

We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.

The bulletin says John 6, and that's because of me. I, earlier in the week, was going to add a supplemental message to help us with some background in 1

John. And I opted, very late in the game, to return to 1 John 2.

So there was no fault in the people who prepare or produce the bulletins.

The fault is all mine. The title of the message today, if you would like to write it there in place of what is in the bulletin, is

Acknowledge the Son. Acknowledge the Son.

And our text, again, is 1 John 2, verses 18 -23.

For those of you who would benefit from an outline, I placed it in the bulletin, I should say in Slack this morning, and I'll give it to you now very briefly.

The first point is they went out from us. They went out from us.

And second, you have an anointing from the Holy One.

They went out from us, referring to the Antichrist, the false teachers, the distinction drawn between them and the people of God.

You have an anointing from the Holy One. John has taken us into a very deep place of introspection.

He's called us to look at ourselves and our lives. Are we walking in the light? Do we love our brother?

Do we keep his commandments? Do we walk in his ways? We know there is in us a lot of wretchedness and a lot of sin that needs to be exposed by the

Word of God and the light of Christ. But there is also a very present danger, trouble from without.

The church is waging a war against the flesh internally, but she's also waging a war outwardly.

And there are false sons within the pale. There are false teachers who come into the church and they deny that Jesus is the

Christ. In the late 1990s,

Josh Harris wrote a very famous book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye.

And the world that I traveled in, it was a very landmark book along with homeschooling families and people who cared about doing things the right way when it came to marriage and to family life, to be pure and all of those things.

And in the passage of time, this young man now was a pastor of a very large church and he started to recant his writings.

He said that he received a lot of information from people that he heard a lot of people in the purity culture and the

Christian courtship model. So he began to reconsider his position.

And then a little while later, he says, I have to resign my pastorate because I think the faith is broader than the narrow confines and the limits of my own group.

So I need to have a broader view of my faith. And then shortly after that, a year or so later, he posts and made widely known that he and his wife are getting a divorce.

The I Kissed Dating Goodbye guy divorced his wife.

And six months later, the same man says, by all objective markers,

I am not a Christian. And he posts a picture later at the gay pride event, wherever he was.

No one here, as my wife pointed out to me, denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

I don't know if anybody struggles with this doctrine in our church. I've never heard anybody remotely say anything like that. But how does an ordained man, raised in a

Christian home, believing, generally speaking, right doctrine in many ways, how does he go from that to now an apostate?

How is it possible? Well, at several turns, he made bad decisions in our epistle here in 1

John, the dating of which probably is in the 60s of the 1st century.

That's very important to our proper understanding of the text. John says this little children, those that term of endearment, that term of affection that a teacher has for his disciples.

John really loves his people. Some have argued that this is the church at Ephesus.

I think there's probably some good reason to think that. John loves the people of God.

But he says it is the last hour. And we're faced with what

Pastor Mark was teaching us this morning in Sunday school. Either John is wrong or this is uninspired.

And neither of those are true. How is John speaking about the last hour?

It is that word. We get the root of the word. We get eschatology and it means last.

Finally, that which is coming to the end. Redemptively, the first century church recognized the arrival of the

Messiah in his sinless life, his authoritative teaching, his sacrificial death, his triumphant resurrection, his defeat of sin and death, his glorious ascension.

They all recognize this surely is the last days. And given the fact this is probably written in the mid to late 60s of the 1st century, there is something coming.

This generation is not going to pass away. In fact, we're not going to make it through this decade, another 10 years.

Jerusalem is going to be sacked. The nation of Israel will, as we know it, be no more.

Probably my third pop culture reference of all time.

Now, REM song, it's the end of the world as we know it. That's what happened to Israel.

The destruction of the city and the temple in 1870. Now, when we read this, we see there's a capital

A on Antichrist and you maybe would hope that the pastor would give you the identity of the

Antichrist. Maybe we could have published that. We can get some crowds in here and say they're going to tell you who the Antichrist is today.

But a little lesson in hermeneutics, a little lesson in your own Bible reading. We have to go into the 1st century.

We have to understand what was being said then. And then we take those principles and we apply it to the time in which we live.

What we do is Trump was shot. Israel is bombing

Yemen and they're at war with several countries. Is this the end of the world?

We take our current events and try to read it back into prophecy and scripture versus the other way around.

We read the scripture. We go deep into the word of God and then we discern the times.

It's not the opposite. The times don't tell us. The word tells us. And in the original, there is no capitalization for Antichrist, which is disappointing probably to us.

But it is in the singular. And Paul talks about a man of sin.

But this idea of Antichrist is exclusively a Johannine construction.

He's the only writer in the Bible that says Antichrist. He's the only one. He says it here in 1st

John and he says it in Revelation. So what does it mean?

It is the last. That which is coming to an end.

I believe it is the Jewish nation, the Jewish system. The cultists, the culture, the sacrifices, the temple.

And even if they slaughtered the red heifer a few weeks ago, I don't know if they did or not. There is no temple there.

There is no priesthood there. There is no king there. So all those ideals about Israel, since these days, they have been wiped away.

What does it mean? The hour has come. The last. The eschatos, hour, hora.

Well, this is a definite space of time. It's like our word hour.

But it also refers to a season. It's a finite season.

A limited time or opportunity. A limited chance to reach a goal, to fulfill a purpose.

A limited period to accomplish the Lord's specific purpose.

The fatal hour. The hour of death. The time when one must undergo the destiny appointed him by God.

Jesus used this language when he was tried to be pushed out into the public square as the

Messiah. My hour has not yet come. But John says the hour has come.

It's the last hour. If you think about a couple of things that are happening, we had an early revival of religion in Israel where thousands upon thousands of people are coming to Christ.

Think about the Pentecost event and the things that would happen after. But in the passage of years, 30 years later, let's say, a little bit more than 30 years later, some of the church was shrinking back.

Some of the church says, well, we believe in the Father. We're not so sure if Jesus is the eternal word incarnate.

We're not sure if Jesus is the Messiah. We see a connection to our

Judaism, but now we're maybe coming back. In the

Gentile world, you can imagine the scribes, the philosophers coming into the church.

And as we sang today, the tares growing right up alongside the wheat and the corn.

It's the enemy. All those under the sway of their sin nature. They are bent on sabotage and destruction of Christ's church.

The hour, the last hour is at hand.

You have heard the murmurings. The Antichrist is coming. Then John says, even now, many

Antichrists have come. And this word in its essence means this.

One who opposes Christ. Very simply from our English translation, we gather that.

There's another one that maybe is not perfect for this application.

It maybe has an application for the man of sin and the end of times and revelation.

It's the idea of one who puts himself in the place of or the enemy of the

Messiah. There is a lot of evidence that Titus sat on thrones in Jerusalem.

That he went into the temple and desecrated it. Maybe it is fulfilled there.

It's possible. But now at this time, Antichrist is coming.

Even now, many Antichrists have come. And the revelation of these Antichrists is confirmation that it is the last hour.

John uses this, as I said, five times. And he uses it to speak of the corrupt power and influence hostile to Christian interests.

Especially that which is at work in the false teachers. Who have come from the very bosom of the church.

And are engaged in the dissemination of error. Josh Harris had a following.

And now he has disaffected people who said, you've ruined my life. He's apologized to them.

And now he probably has a following again to be leading those people astray from Christ and his gospel.

Inside the church. So you think about all that we do in our covenant duties and responsibilities.

All that we care about. We have to be vigilant with our swords drawn. Our chests out.

We need to be ready to shout down and expel and purge anti -Christian doctrine in the church.

But now in this time in which we live. We have to be nice to everyone. We have to accept everyone.

They're really nice people. There's no way they could be Antichrist. There's no way they could be against Christ and his church.

I'm sure there are people in the first century who thought that about these folks.

It's also another thing I'd like to point out. These people are readily known by the audience, apparently.

They now, reading and hearing John's letter. They've seen people who have been in the church.

They've made a lot of noise. And they've maybe brought in some heterodox doctrine. And now they're leaving the church.

And John says, they were with us, but now they're gone.

They went out from us and they didn't come back. I pray that Josh Harris repents and comes back.

I pray that Josh Harris will be restored and reconciled to his wife.

And he'll ask for forgiveness to his very faithful parents for abandoning the faith and dishonoring his family and all that.

But if he leaves and he stays gone, we can say that he is an Antichrist type of person.

He was a pastor, sold a million books, spoke at all the conferences, had all the influence.

They went out from us. They were not of us.

For if they had been of us. They would have continued with us.

The revelation of anti -Christian teaching. Can you think of some in the church today?

Gender, sexuality, obedience, headship.

How many things? All of these ideas are in the church now. Lady pastors, homosexual pastors.

Antichrist doctrine has come in. We'd say it never happened to us.

So the question is, what are we doing today to make sure this doesn't happen 70 years from now at Ascension?

It may not happen next year. But what are we doing to fortify our defenses in orthodoxy to ensure that Christ denying doctrine doesn't come in?

Today, we can't tolerate any error. We know that the church is a place for people to grow and to be sanctified and to grow up in their knowledge of God.

But if someone comes in and says, I don't believe in the deity of Christ, they can't be a member of the church.

That's what's happening here in the first century in places like Ephesus.

And over time, they reveal themselves. People can be great academic theologians, but their life betrays them.

They start to show signs of their unbelief. They don't love Christ, really.

They love to be honored in the streets. They like to write books.

They like to have the applause of men, but they don't love Christ. They went out from us, but they were not of us.

Oh, Lord, don't ever let that happen. Please, please don't ever let it happen to us here. Don't let one of these covenant children go.

We trust you. It's not going to be our methodology. It's going to be our commitment. It's going to be the grace of God.

It's going to be the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ grabbing our children and not letting go.

And our grandchildren and grabbing them and not letting them go. So we cry out to you, oh God, let none of our descendants go this way.

Please, Lord. And then we have to do our part to walk in that obedience and that faithfulness.

To do our part to ensure that this doesn't happen.

The church is always in danger. There's always precarious things happening in the life of the church.

False teachers are here now exposed. Isn't it terrible? They came in.

They lived among them. They wreaked havoc for a period of time and then they're gone.

They sowed seeds of discord and bad doctrine and unbelief and the doctrine of demons.

And then they left the church. John says their unrepentance, their departure from the faith.

Was their manifestation that they were not of us. So it's a sober minded morning on point one.

The church is under attack. The church is always under attack.

The point two is very exciting and it's good news. You have an anointing from the

Holy One. Look again at verse 20. You have an anointing.

This word is chrisma. That's where we hear of the term chrismation from the

Eastern Orthodox. This is what anointing is.

To anoint something is to smear on. Imagine taking a jug of olive oil and smearing it on the head of a person.

Sometimes they would make an ointment out of other herbs and be thicker and they would put it on different places of the body.

And in the Hebrew world, it was usually prepared by them with aromatic herbs.

And it was the inaugural ceremony for the priesthood. It was also done for the kings.

I remember very famously the anointing of Queen Elizabeth the second. The priest put oil on her and put a cross on her top of her chest and she was anointed as the monarch of England.

Sometimes it was put on the prophets. I want you to think about this for a moment.

The three offices of Christ, prophet, priest, king, all speak of anointing.

All are anointed positions. And by it, in the

Eastern Orthodox tradition, this is the moment and the sign, the seal of being endued with the

Holy Spirit and divine gifts. John speaks nothing of that here.

Some ceremony, another sacrament, he doesn't say that. He says, if you be in Christ, you have the anointing.

You've been consecrated. You've been set apart for this very holy purpose.

And here in our context, grammatically, it's used of the gifting of the

Holy Spirit as the efficient aid and getting a knowledge of the truth.

Just found in the person and work of Jesus Christ by a show of hands, if you can answer this question.

Have you ever encountered error? And you couldn't quote chapter and verse, but you are absolutely sure that this was contrary to biblical teaching.

Can you ever say that? Anybody say that? Raise your hand. That's almost everybody. The Holy Spirit has so come into the believer and most certainly into the church that we now discern truth and error.

And one of the beautiful things about body life is some crazy doctrine comes into your mind.

Go talk to a couple of Christians about it. Talk to the elders of the church about it. You might find this new idea that you have is not

Orthodox. What a gift of the Holy Spirit to say you're going the wrong direction.

Come back into the fold. The church is the pillar and support the buttress of the truth.

And the reason the church is the pillar and buttress of the truth is she's filled with the

Holy Spirit. You have an anointing from the

Holy One. You're not like the Antichrist. You're not like the pagans in the street. You have been set apart.

You have been sealed. You've been washed. You've been purified. And you now discern the truth over against error.

Praise the Lord. What a great God. What a salvation there is in the

Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to look back at last week's text.

Verses 15 through 17. This idea of Haggios of Holy refers to sacred.

Set apart for God. Exclusively His.

I have to pause here for some application. Your professed faith in Christ and I've extolled all these benefits that you enjoy from Christ.

Does your life reflect this exclusivity of your consecration to God?

When I look at your life, do I see from start to finish, from A to Z, from morning to sundown, and as you sleep, whatever you are, whatever you do, are you set apart for God and exclusively

His? We should repent those ways in which this is not true.

Positionally, by decree, by our identity in Christ, by the salvation we have in Christ, by our union with Christ, we are the saints.

We are the holy ones. We are sacred. We are set apart for God.

We are exclusively his. Our lives are not our own. If we're set apart by God and for God, it makes verse 15 through 17 make even more sense.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the world.

And the world is passing away in the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever.

To be worldly is to share a likeness with the world.

To be a holy one with the unction, the anointing, the smearing of God's favor and blessing, then we need to have a greater and ever -increasing likeness of nature with our

Lord. We need to be different than the world.

It takes us to another element of this, and it says in verse 21, I have not written to you because you do not know the truth.

This has been a constant theme in John's epistle. But because you do know it, and no lie is of the truth.

Two weeks ago, when we did the section from verses 12 through 14, we learned and were reminded that even the most immature child knows his father.

Today, we welcome for the first time into the church, Thomas Stevens is here today.

A covenant child of God has been brought by his parents. How old is the kid?

A week old? Not even a week old. You guys are crazy. Nobody does that. I like that you brought your child.

It was one week old. Not yet a week old. Into the house of God.

Welcome, Thomas, to your home among God's people. Even the most immature child,

I tell you right now, that boy knows his mama. And in a few days, he's going to know his father.

Just like the little ones in John. The Christian knows that Jesus is the

Christ. That he came in the flesh. That he died for our sins according to the scriptures.

That he was buried, that he rose again on the third day. And even now, he sits on high, reigning and ruling the universe for his glory and namesake.

We'll never depart from that doctrine. We'll never look to the right or to the left.

And that's why this practical godliness is so important. Because if we be like Josh Harris, we'll maybe compromise out here on a smaller issue.

And that gets us a step closer to compromising over here.

And before you know it, someone within the pale, someone in the body, leaves the church.

And leaves the faith and divorces their wife. Let's be on guard at this thing.

Our foot is down on the accelerator for the kingdom of God. But we're checking our flanks.

We might be catching some fire. We might be catching some flack. We need to defend, fortify our defenses.

As a family, you might be trucking in the right direction. Are you letting some stuff in on the side? Well, we're on mission for Christ.

We're advancing the kingdom. We're fulfilling the great commission. We're on fire for God. Well, keep doing that.

But glance in your rear view mirrors. Your tires may be wobbling.

You might be catching some fire. And in fact, you might even be getting shot by so -called friendly fire within the church.

But we rise above these things because we have this anointing. Because we have this union with Christ.

We know all things. We believe Jesus has come in the flesh. We know the impossible is true.

That he is God and man. He is in that one person, two natures. No diminishment in his humanity.

No diminishment in his divinity. He is the only one. He is Christ the Lord. And we say,

Amen. We rejoice, Jesus, that you are who you are.

Exclusively. We vow to walk in your truth.

Finally, let's look at the last section in verse 22 and 23. Who is a liar?

One of the things I say when we think about the third commandment is, as Christians, it's very hard.

It's very painful. But when we are disobedient, we lie about Christ and his salvation.

We've been named with that name. We are holy and sacred. We have been given the capacity to not sin.

Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we lie about Jesus and his salvation.

But do we call a spade a spade in the church today? Someone who denies essential

Christian doctrine? Do we not use the force of language? Liar!

We don't use it that way. Well, he's off on this. He's a little off on a couple of these things.

He's a nice guy. It says in verse 22, who is a liar, a deceiver?

You know who the deceiver is, right? Liars take on the image of their father, the enemy, the evil one, the

Satan, the serpent. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the

Christ? He's one who falsifies, misrepresents.

Of course, this is a false teacher within the church. He distorts.

He misleads. But I'm here today, and I hope you're listening,

Josh Harris. But you are a liar because a liar is a false or faithless man, one who breaks the faith.

You're a liar, Josh Harris. Repent of your lies. Come back to Jesus.

Be on guard to the deceptions that come within.

And a closing statement that brings it all together for our conclusion. In verse 23, it says, whoever denies the

Son does not have the Father either. I was talking to a man who is very rare.

He's a very skillful Jehovah's Witness theologian. He had common ground.

So about God, the Father, we can do this with our people we like in the media and Jews. So we're not too far apart.

I believe in the Father. I don't believe Jesus is the Christ. He said. We have no common ground that they were going to inch up a little bit closer.

I believe in the Father. We have no common ground. Oh, Ben Shapiro is so nice.

We have no common ground with him. Whoever denies the son.

Does not have the father either. Remember Jesus interacting with the Jews. Abraham is our father.

Jesus said, if you really were a child of Abraham, you'd believe in me because he saw my day and he rejoice.

No quarter on these issues. J .W.'s, they're OK. Mormons, they're

OK. All of these aberrant doctrines. If you deny the exclusivity of the son, you do not have a relationship with the father either.

And there's no possibility you can have the sealing, the anointing of the

Holy Spirit either. It's time for a stronger.

More robust, apologetic of Orthodox Christian doctrine, because everyone's going to find some common ground.

Until they lie and take us away and make someone in our church an antichrist.

Oh, Lord, may it never be so. But you take heart today.

You have the charisma. You have the anointing.

That which was prepared for the prophets, priests and kings has now been sealed upon the people of God.

Walk in his ways. Remain vigilant. Pursue obedience.

Ever repenting of sin and even more so ever rejoicing and giving thanks for the great work.

Salvation in Christ. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for letting us go into the first century and to bring the principle of.

False teaching. And all of those elements. And Lord, we we almost blow by it because we say no one's denying.

That Jesus is the Christ, but maybe we love the world.

Maybe we're pursuing the lust of the flesh and the eyes and the pride of life. Maybe we're pursuing those things in the world which are passing away, and we ask you, oh,

Lord, to. Reveal these things to us that we might wage the proper warfare.

That we might cover our flanks. That we might walk in the righteousness that you have supplied for us in Christ.

We ask all this in Jesus name. Amen. Let us continue our worship through the presentation of our tithes and offerings.

Please stand. And let us pray.

Our gracious God and father. You have indeed blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.

For those who are in Christ Jesus, we have been blessed immeasurably.

But not with spiritual blessings only, Lord. As we have been reminded with various seasons of rain that your blessings pour down on us like rain.

And our cup indeed overflows. We thank you, father, that you've set apart as part of our worship service a time where we render back to the service of the church a portion of those blessings.

We pray, dear father, that we have done so cheerfully. Acknowledging that all things come from you.

And we pray, dear Lord, for those who use these funds for the furtherance of your kingdom.

Especially in the local congregation at Ascension. Would use them wisely.

And that we would all be greatly blessed by their use. We ask this in the name of Christ.

Amen. Well, let us render glory to our great God through the singing of the glory of Pottery.

And to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now.

The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the

Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you.

O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved

Son to redeem us from sin and death. And make us heirs in Him of everlasting life.

That when He shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world.

We may, without shame or fear, rejoice to behold His appearing.

Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven.

We praise and magnify your glorious name. Evermore praising you and singing.

Please be seated. And let us pray.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father. Who of your tender mercy gave your only

Son, Jesus Christ. To suffer death upon the cross for our redemption.

Who made there by His one oblation of Himself once offered. A full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice.

Oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. And did institute and in His holy gospel.

Command us to continue a perpetual memory of that His precious death.

Until His coming again. Hear us, O merciful Father.

We beseech you and grant that we receiving these creatures of bread and wine.

According to your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Holy institution and remembrance of His death and passion.

May be partakers of His most blessed body and blood. We ask this all in Christ's name.

Amen. And the night in which our Lord was betrayed. He took bread.

And when He had given thanks, He broke it. And gave it to His disciples saying, take, eat.

This is my body which is broken for you. Likewise, after supper,

He took the cup. And when He had given thanks, He gave it them saying, drink this all of you.

This is the new covenant in my blood. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup.

You proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore, we proclaim the faith.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Let us prepare our hearts to approach the table by praying together.

We do not presume to come to this your table. O merciful

Lord. Trusting in our own righteousness. And in your manifold and great mercies.

We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table. But you are the same

Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord.

So to eat the flesh of your dear Son, Jesus Christ. And the drink of His blood.

That our sinful bodies may be cleaned by His body. And our souls washed through His most precious blood.

And that we may evermore dwell in Him. And He in us. Amen. Christ our

Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the peace. The gifts of God for you, the people of God.

We sing praise to our victorious

King. Who has washed us in the tide.

Flowing from His pierced side. Praise to Him whose love divine.

Gives His sacred blood. Let us make this commitment together.

Almighty and everlasting God. We thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food.

The most precious body and blood of your Son. Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And for assuring us in the holy mysteries. We are living members of the body of your

Son. And heirs of your eternal kingdom. And oh Lord, grant us this other benefit.

That you will never allow us to forget these things. For having them imprinted on our hearts.

And we grow and increase daily in faith. Which is at work in every good deed.

And now Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do. To love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our

Lord. To Him, to you and to the Holy Spirit. In honor and glory now and forever.

Amen. Please stand. Praise God.

Receive now the blessing. Now may the God of peace. Who brought up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

The great shepherd of the sheep. Through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Make you complete in every good work to do his will.

Working in you what is well pleasing in his sight. Through Jesus Christ to whom be glory.

Forever and ever. Amen. Peace to love and serve the risen and reigning