Let us turn to God's Word, and
I want to direct you tonight to words that we have in that
portion we were reading, the second epistle of Paul to the
Thessalonians in the second chapter, and I'll read verses 3 and 4. For writing then to the Thessalonians
here in the second epistle, chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, Let no man
deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except
there come a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all
that is called God or that is worshipped. so that he is God,
seated in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. It's a topical subject, really,
because this is, of course, a prophetic portion of Holy Scripture, and
he's speaking of the great apostasy. except their comma falling away
first and what is that great apostasy it is of course that
that calls itself Christian and yet really is anti-christian
the whole papal system and in these days we've heard so much
concerning that man the Bishop of Rome well Paul says let no
man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come. The day he's speaking of of course
is spoken of in verse 2 as the day of Christ. In the opening words of the chapter
he is concerned for them. There we beseech you brethren
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled
neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as at
the day of Christ is at hand. There were those who thought
that Christ would come very soon It was not long previously, of
course, that he had accomplished the great work of redemption
and ascended to heaven, but he was to come in like manner as
the disciples had seen him ascend. And there were some who were
saying then that the Lord was at hand, but Paul says, not so. Let no man deceive you by any
means, for that day shall not come except there come falling
away first and interestingly that expression falling away
is the word apostasia apostasia from which we derive our English
word apostasy and really that's the theme I want to try to take
up for a while tonight the great apostasy and that man of sin
being revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalted himself
above all that is called God, all that is worshipped. So that
he, as God, seated in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God. First of all, to say something
with regards to the restraints, he speaks of something that is
holding back the revelation of this particular person or this
system. He says in verse 7, The mystery
of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will
let, until he be taken out of the way. He that now letteth,
holding back, restraining, In verse 6 he uses another word,
the word withholdeth. Now you know what withholdeth
that he might be revealed in his time. What is this restraint? What
is it that's standing in the way, as it were, of this manifestation
of this awful character and this terrible apostasy that's going
to take place? What is the restraint? Now Paul had clearly spoken with
them of these things. As he says in verse 5, Remember
ye not that when I was yet with you I told you of these things?
But now he seems somewhat reluctant to to say too much about these
matters. Strange really because he's so
bold really in in his ministry and in his preaching of the Word
of God. He had declared the gospel to
them very plainly. He makes that quite clear in
the first epistle. And there in verse 3 of chapter
2, he says, Our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness,
nor in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust
with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God,
which traith our hearts. For neither at any time use we
flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness.
God is witness." He was a bold champion of the cause of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And yet now it seems somewhat
uneasy because of what he's speaking of and this matter of what's
restraining things, what's holding things back. What was it? Surely
the restraint was imperial Rome. But he must be guarded if he's
going to say anything about that restraint being taken out of
the way. That's what happens, of course, historically. When
imperial Rome falls, there must be something to fill the void.
And what is it that fills the void? It's papal Rome. It's... It's the man of sin. It's the son of perdition. Paul
surely couldn't say, well look, the time will come when all the
might of this great empire, the greatest empire at that time
that the world had ever known, when Rome's fallen, then there'll
be the manifestation of this awful apostate church. We know that even when he was
preaching at Thessalonica the accusation was being laid against
him and other apostles that they were men who were turning the
whole world upside down. Because we have the record, don't
we, in the Acts of the ministry of Paul as he goes from one place
to another preaching and churches being established and in chapter
17 of Acts we find him there in Thessalonica and diminishing
the word of God. In verse 5 we're told, But the
Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain
lewd fellows of the basest sort, and gathered a company, and set
all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason,
and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they
found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the
rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside
down are come hither also." Paul must be guarded in what he says
concerning Rome, and this is the reason why he is really somewhat
reluctant to say exactly what it is that was acting as a restraint
and a withholding with regards to the manifestation of these
things. But what is the revelation? What
is to be revealed? Well, as I've said, it is the
great apostasy. It's papal role that will replace
imperial role. Now, there's a remarkable little
book on this particular portion of Scripture and I would commend
it to you. Not written by a man who was
an evangelical or even a Calvinist, but written by a man who was
very much a part of the establishment in the 19th century. Christopher
Wordsworth. He was a nephew of the famous
poet William Wordsworth, but as I said, very much an establishment
figure at one stage. He was the headmaster at Harrow
School. Subsequent to that he became
the Bishop of Lincoln. He was an old-fashioned high
church Anglican, not a Zracterian, not a follower of the pervert
to Rome, John Henry Newman, but an old-school high churchman
in the sense that he had little time for dissenters. He was a
great champion of the Church of England and those high churchmen,
of course, they were Protestants. They saw Rome for what it was
and Richard Wordsworth, the most learned man he's written on this particular
portion a book called is the papacy predicted by saint paul
or was the papacy predicted by saint paul it was in print some
years ago i don't know if it's still in print but it's a book
well worth reading and i think it's unanswerable he opens up
this passage and makes it quite clear what paul is speaking of
but he's not the only one I know William Huntington has also made
remarks on this passage. Huntington actually says, concerning
this portion, these descriptions can be applied to no other monster
than to that political and ecclesiastical head. Because of course the Pope
is not just an ecclesiastical head, he's the head of states,
the Vatican state. It's a political system, as well
as a religious system. But it was that that really, as Imperial Rome
fell, fills the void. And so after all the might, all
the pomp and ceremony of Imperial Rome is gone, So, what we now
know as the Roman Catholic Church fills it and becomes a tremendous
force, certainly in European history. Well, let us come to
consider the subject matter, apostate Christianity. Paul is speaking of a falling
away Let no man deceive you by any
means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling
away first. The departure from the truth
of Scripture. Apostasy. We know It's not just
to the Thessalonians that Paul speaks of the last days. Remember
the language that we have in his first letter to Timothy in
chapter 4, the Spirit. He says, Now the Spirit speaketh
expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the
faith. There we have it again. Giving
heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. speaking
lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot
iron, forbidding to marry, vows of celibacy, so unnatural, commanding
to abstain from meat which God has created to be received with
thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. Paul is well
aware then of these events that are yet to come to pass. And
he speaks, doesn't he, here, of one whom he refers to as the
man of sin. Not the man of God, the man of
sin. Corrupt, apostates, Christianity. The son of perdition. The son
of perdition. Of course, that's an expression
that's used elsewhere in the New Testament, but it's only
used on one other occasion. And it's used by the Lord Jesus
Christ himself in his high priestly prayer in John 17. He's praying for the disciples. He's praying for those who will
come to faith through the ministry of the disciples. But as he prays
for the disciples there in verse 12 of that chapter, as he thanks
God that they've been preserved, they've not apostatised, they've
continued in the faith, these men, they've been with him all
through his earthly ministry. And then he says of one of them
in particular, that they've all been faithful but one, and he
calls him the son of perdition. And that's Judas Iscariot. Judas
Iscariot who betrays the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have the
same word being used here concerning the apostasy, the son of perdition. And remember the manner in which
Judas betrayed his master. He had given a sign, hadn't he,
to those who were with him when they come into the garden to
take the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes up to the Lord and he
kisses Him. And Christ says, Betrayest thou
the Son of Man with a kiss. Or isn't that the Church of Rome?
It betrays Christ. And it betrays Christ with a
kiss. It calls itself Christian. And
in many ways we could say it's quite orthodox. It believes orthodox
doctrines. And yes, in all of this it's
betraying the Lord Jesus Christ with a kiss. It is surely the
great mystery, the mystery of iniquity. That's what he calls
it later. verse 7 the mystery of iniquity does already work
only he who now leteth will let until he be taken out of the
way the mystery of iniquity is there it's already manifest in some
ways we know how John in his epistles speaks of Antichrist
many Antichrist things were already happening What is the mystery
of iniquity? Well, the name itself is interesting,
isn't it? Mystery. Well, there's a mystery
of godliness. Paul says, doesn't he, there
in 1 Timothy 3 and verse 16, without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
you know, the passage. Oh, there is a wonderful mystery
really when we think about the gospel and that revelation that
comes to us in and through the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Again in that third chapter of
1 Timothy he speaks of holding the mystery of the faith in a
pure conscience. There's a mystery in the faith. You know, to believe these remarkable
truths concerning a man who is never anything less than true
almighty God. To believe that all that that
man did, he did as a public person, he did for others. What a mystery
there is in this. What our salvation is not in
ourselves, it's in that blessed person. and all that he accomplished. We're saved simply by the grace
of faith, by looking to Christ, looking on to Jesus, the author,
the finisher of our faith. Well, there's a mystery of godliness. Here's the devil's masterpiece.
There's a counterfeit. It's the mystery of iniquity.
And this is what Paul calls his apostate Christianity. The mystery
of iniquity does already work, he says. All that mystery calls itself
a church, calls itself the holy catholic and apostolic church
and yet is it not an arch persecutor of the true saints of God? There
was persecution from imperial Rome in the early years of this
Christian era. Those believers suffered at the
hands of pagan Rome, but we know, don't we, that papal Rome has
killed more martyrs than ever imperial Rome did. And we read,
don't we, in the 17th chapter of the Revelation of the Woman
The woman arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with
gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in
her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery, Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with
the blood of the saint. and with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration no wonder
John is wondering at the vision because this is the so-called
church the persecuting church killing those who are the true
disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ this is I say apostate Christianity
and what is it? it's Antichrist it's anti the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4, "...who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped
so that he is God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself
that he is God." What do we see here? We see pride This is that that is surely of
Satan, the devil, Lucifer. Pride. Is it not that that is so associated
with that arch-demon, Satan and Lucifer? John, as I said, speaks
of antichrists, but he says there are many antichrists. 1 John
2, verse 18, even now are there many antichrists. And you know,
it's remarkable what we find in these little short epistles.
John's second and third epistles are so short and yet what remarkable
truth we find in them. In that third epistle he speaks
of a certain individual called Diotrephes In the third epistle of John,
in the ninth verse, I wrote unto the church, but theotrophies,
who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore if I come, I will remember
his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words,
and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren,
and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church."
This is a man who is in the church, but this is a man who wants the
preeminent place in the church. That's pride, and that's the
spirit of Antichrist. And isn't that in many ways the
spirit of Rome? It claims to be the one true
church. And of course, it's as the Bishop
of Rome wants to take that preeminent place that it causes nothing
but strife. Not just at the Reformation,
but previous to that, the Great Schism. Back in the 12th century
when the Eastern churches, the Orthodox, break away because
they won't recognize that this man who calls himself the head
of the church in Rome, and says he's sitting in the seat of Peter,
and Peter of course, there's no historic evidence that he
was ever at Rome. And yet these things are prated
out all the time now, as if it's historic fact. You listen to
any broadcast, read any newspaper, that's what they tell us, this
man who's recently been elected, he's in the seat of Peter. Or
they have to have the preeminent place, it's pride. and it's so
contrary to the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ when Paul writes
to the Philippians in that great second chapter let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus you being in the form of
God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself
of no reputation took upon him the form of a servant was made
in the likeness of men being found in fashion as a man he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Why? It's one humbling thing after
another. He thinks it not probably to
be equal with God. He is God. He's God, the Eternal
Son of the Eternal Father, One with the Holy Spirit. But though
He is that One in the Great Covenant who becomes God's servant, He's
God's Son. and yet he's God's servant, and
he becomes a man, and as a man he humbles himself, he serves,
he's obedient. That's the spirit of the Lord
Jesus, the very opposite of the spirit of Antichrist. But the
word that we have in John's epistles, the word Antichrist, is interesting
when we look at it and examine something of the etymology of
that word, what it actually means, the word anton. That's simply
the Greek preposition. And literally, anton means in
the place of, instead of. And this is what the man of sin
and son of perdition does, showing himself that he is God. who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, all that is worshipped, so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God. That's Antichrist. That's one
putting himself in the place of him who is God, even our Lord
Jesus Christ. But when we think of that verse,
we can think in terms of the the titles, the names that the
Bishop of Rome takes to himself. He wears a three-tiered crown. That's his crown. He's a head
of state. He's a prince. Well, the cardinals are princes,
I suppose. In a sense, he's the king. He certainly wears a crown. And what are the names? Well,
what names are used by the devout Romanists when they speak of
their Pope. Well, they call him the Holy
Father. Of course, they refer to all their ministers or their
priests, they call them Father. But they call him the Holy Father. But what does the Lord Jesus
Christ say? Christ says call no man your
father upon earth for one is your father which is in heaven
Matthew 23 verse 9 that's quite clear call no man your father
upon earth we address God as our father which art in heaven
but they call the Pope Holy Father now We do have that name in scripture
and it's used on just one occasion. And again, who is it used by?
It's used by the Lord Jesus in that prayer in John 17 as he
addresses his father, his high priestly prayer. And he uses that name as he prays. Holy Father, he says, keep through
Thy known name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may
be one as we are. He calls upon God as his Father,
Holy Father. You see, what we have then in
that name when it's given to a man, the Bishop of Rome, he's
taking the name that Christ gives to the Father. God the Father
is the Holy Father. Well of course another name that
he takes has more than one name they sometimes refer to him as
the Supreme Pontiff. Really I suppose that name comes
from the Latin it's from that term Pontifex Maximus And that
was the name that they would give to the Caesar, because of
course there was worship of Caesar in pagan Rome. They worshipped
the Caesar. He was the Pontifex Maximus.
He was the chief priest of that pagan religion. And when they
speak of the Pope, you see, a supreme pontiff. Well, there are many
priests, but he is the chief priest. He is the greatest of
all their priests. He can celebrate a papal mass. Only a Pope can do that. The highest form of their so-called
worship, which is a perversion, a dangerous deceit, a blasphemous
fable, is the language that's used in the Reformed Church of
England. As far as I'm aware, that's still
the official doctrine of the Church of England today. What
a confused day we live in, the Church of England still has that
statement as it were in its confession of faith they have any faith
at all and yet they kowtow to the Bishop of Rome or they call
him the Supreme Pontiff the Great High Priest but what does the
Bible say Hebrews 3 The high priest of our profession, Christ
Jesus. The high priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus. Again, Hebrews 4.14, a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God. The title then belongs to God
the Son. So, when we read here of him exalting
himself above all that he's called God he doesn't just call himself
the Holy Father he will usurp the name that belongs to Christ
he will usurp the place of God the Son as well as God the Father Christ Christ is the High Priest
Christ is the only Mediator There's one God and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. But we know that Rome would invent
a multitude of mediators. Why doesn't the priest himself
come between the laity and God? They must go to the priest. They
must make their confession to the priest. The priest must pronounce
their absolution. The priest must tell them what
works I need to do in order to make amends. I must say they're
Hail Marys and they're paternosters. You see, it's a perversion, it's
a religion of works. And it's all governed by a whole
host of priests and the supreme pontiff, so-called, is over all
of them. And of course they look to the
saints as mediators. You can buy a national newspaper,
maybe the Times or the Telegraph, and when you see the announcements
on occasion you'll see, thanks to Saint Jude. Somebody is thanking
Saint Jude because they've prayed to Saint Jude. or the wickedness of it, and
of course, even the Blessed Virgin Mary, and she is blessed, above
all women. And yet, what do they do? They
make her the very Queen of Heaven. Or the blasphemy of Rome, as
it denies Christ as that One who is the Great High Priest,
the only mediator between God and man. And then also sometimes
they might speak of the Bishop of Rome as the vicar of Christ. He's Christ's vicar on earth.
We're familiar with the term vicar. It's used of course in
the Church of England to clergymen. So I think there's much misunderstanding
really with regards to what that word really means. He's called a vicar because he
is holding a living that really belongs to someone else. He's in their place, as it were. So the word vicar, if you look
it up, well the word vicarious means in the place of, in the
room of, in the stead of. And the Lord Jesus Christ tells
us quite plainly just who His vicar on earth is. Those chapters
in John where Christ is repeatedly speaking of the coming of the
Holy Ghost, the Comforter, and the words that the Lord uses
concerning Him and His coming, for example in chapter 14 of
John, verse 16, He says, I will pray the Father, He shall give
you another Comforter. that He may abide with you forever
even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because
it seeth Him not neither knoweth Him but ye know Him for He dwelleth
with you and shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless
I will come unto you. Now Christ comes by His Spirit as He departs He doesn't leave
His Disciples, comfortless, Christ speaketh in. Is God the Holy Ghost? That one
that He promised. And so we see His glorious coming
on the day of Pentecost. And it's Christ who sheds abroad
the Holy Ghost and the remarkable events that follow. We've been
reading again in those early chapter of Acts and it's amazing.
you know, 120 disciples in chapter 1, and then why 3,000, 4,000 multitudes added to the church?
It's Christ Vicar. It's the Holy Ghost who's working
mightily effectually. You see, the Pope would put himself
in the place of all the persons of the Godhead. What wickedness
is this? Oh, what wickedness it is. He opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God. And so, the papacy also has its
furious miracles, its satanic miracles, we might say. Verse
9, He, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan,
with all power and signs and lying wonders. Those awful spurious claims that
they'll be making. But here we have it. It's spoken
of in scripture, it shouldn't surprise us, there's prophecy
of course in the New Testament as well as in the Old Testament.
Is the papacy predicted by Saint Paul? Yes it is, we say. But
you know, in many ways it's so easy, isn't it, to find fault
with the papacy. But when we read the Word of
God, does it not have something to say to us personally? What
is there for us to learn here? What is the spiritual meaning?
What is the experimental meaning of this passage? I often think
of the language of dear John Newton, that gracious minister,
and his letters, those remarkable letters full of so much sound
Christian common sense, good old John Newton, and he says
that he had read of many bad Popes, but he said the worst
Pope of all was Pope Self. Pope Self. We have, you know,
we have that sin that he's spoken of in this passage in all of
our hearts. There's an Antichrist in all
of us in that sense, in our fallen nature. the danger of falling
away, the great apostasy, prone to wonder, Lord I feel it, prone
to leave the God I love. We sang it just now in our first
hymn, our proneness to apostatise, to turn away from
the truth, to embrace the lie of Satan. And sometimes we We
might read that portion. It's such a certain portion,
isn't it? The language of Paul there in
Hebrews 6 concerning those that do fall away. It is impossible
for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted
the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if
they shall fall away. It's the same word, you see.
falling away, an apostasy, if they fall away to renew them
again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God of flesh and put him to an open shine. We read it, it's left on record,
I think it's there for a purpose, surely it is. We have to examine
ourselves, we have to know ourselves, prove ourselves. bring everything
to this touchstone of God's words and confess what we are and our
tendency to apostatize, to turn from the truth and all that pride this pride, a cursed pride, that
spirit by God abhorred where it haunts us still Keeps
us from the Lord. He said, of course, when Satan
comes to Eve in the Garden of Eden, he shall be as gods. We want to be gods, ourselves.
We want to govern our own lives. It's not easy, is it, to be submissive
to the Lord and to His will. We want our own will, our own
way. You see, this spirit is in us. We have to mortify it. Mortify
the deeds of the body, says the Apostle, if ye through the Spirit...
Oh, we need the Spirit even to do that, we can do nothing. If
ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall
live. Without the Spirit, we are nothing and can do nothing. Oh God, then, cause us to turn,
as it were, from the folly of the great apostasy and to examine
ourselves and to know ourselves. But as we come to a conclusion
tonight, I turn to verse 8. Here is the great promise. Then
shall that wicked be revealed. For he will be revealed in his
day, you see, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming."
Two things that stand against all the apostasy of Rome. Firstly,
the Spirit of His Mass. What is that? It is the preaching
of the Word of God. And is there not here a reference
to that great Protestant Reformation that did come? Oh, it came back
in the In the 16th century it came. And it's centered in the
Word of God, certainly here in England. The work of Tyndale,
the translating of the Word of God, and then even Henry VIII
passing that decree that there was to be a Bible in every parish
church throughout the country. And the people would gather,
they were illiterate, but there were those who could read, they'd
read the Bible. but there was no one to preach
the word of God because through the dark ages it was just ignorant
priests who were incumbents in those parishes and so what happened
they issued the homilies and so there was not just the reading
of the word of God there was the reading of the homilies those
sermons because there was no one to preach
but then there were those who were being taught and schooled
in the Word of God and there was an uprising of ministers
and we go on into the next century and the great band of Puritans
and those men who were so masterful in the Word of God and preaching
the Word of God. Oh isn't this the spirit of his
mouth whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth?
It's preaching. Let us maintain this, said Latimer, this is the
only office that God hath ordained to save us by, the ministry of
the word, the proclamation of the gospel of the grace of God. It will consume the great apostasy,
but then, what do we read at the end of that 8th verse? He shall destroy with the brightness
of his He shall destroy ultimately end when he comes again. It seems,
does it not to you, it seems so to me that Popery is resurgence,
even in our country, this once Protestant country, we never
were a Christian country, there's no such thing, there were many
Christians, thank God there are still some Christians. But politically, we were a Protestant
country. We still have a Protestant constitution.
The monarch at the coronation has to promise solemnly to maintain
the Protestant and Reformed religion. And yet, our resurgent Pope re-is. Recent events make that so plain. Even on the BBC, newsreaders
are all in black when they're announcing the death of the Pope.
and all the razzmatazz about the election of another pope
it's everywhere the media is full of it and what of the Lord's people
that little remnant oh we have God's word we have his prophecies
this prophetic passage we have his promises that one who will yet be destroyed
coming after the working of Satan, but Satan's a defeated foe. So
what do we read? Then shall that wicked be revealed
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming. Or the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ must and will prevail, might it prevail
in all of our hearts. in God's goodness and God's mercy.
Amen.