Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today,
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Paul's letter, epistle, to the
church at Thessalonica in chapter 2, where he's talking about the
second coming of Christ, the Lord's return, what they call
the second advent. As you recall, the first advent
was Christ coming to put away the sins of his people. That's
why he had to be born of the Holy Spirit, having a
human body created for him in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
And he, as God, came and united himself with that sinless, human
body and soul, human flesh, and became God-man in order to die,
obey unto death, and satisfy the justice of God for his people.
That's his first advent. Well, his second advent, his
second coming, will be coming in his glory as the king of kings
to conquer all of his enemies and gather his church unto himself.
And Paul speaks of that in 2 Thessalonians 2. Now, I've already dealt with
the first three chapters of this, but what I wanna deal with today
is entitled the mystery of iniquity. The mystery of iniquity, that's
in verse seven, where Paul writes, for the mystery of iniquity doth
already work. And I'll get to that in just
a moment, but Paul informs the Thessalonians that before Christ
returns, to gather his church unto himself, unto glory, and
to judge the world in righteousness, and he will declare before the
whole universe that all who stand before God in Christ are justified
and soon to be glorified, and all who stand before God without
Christ without being washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness,
without faith in Him, that they'll be condemned and damned forever.
They'll perish. And so this will be declared
before the whole universe. And remember, that's the final
judgment. The final judgment is not to
determine anything. It's to declare the reality of
everything. And the standard of judgment
is the righteousness that Christ worked out on the cross. in which
his people stand in him. He's the surety, the substitute,
the redeemer of his people. And all who believe in Christ,
all who have been given the gift of faith in Christ, brought to
repentance of dead works and perseverance in the faith, it'll
be declared that they are justified. They are in him. They are washed
in his blood from all their sins. Sin cannot be charged to them.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for us. And all who stand, who are
found in unbelief and who died in unbelief, it'll be declared
before the whole universe that they are guilty and condemned. Their sins are charged to them.
They don't have a substitute. But Christ came the first time
to put away those sins for his people, the ones whom God gave
him before the foundation of the world. So when he returns,
he's gonna gather them together. Now Paul tells the Thessalonians
here that before that happens, before Christ comes the second
time, there'll be a great falling away of the visible church here
on earth. And when I say the visible church,
what I'm talking about is what people generally view, what they
generally see and think of as Christianity. And what he means
by that, it's a great apostasy, falling away from the truth,
that it'll be Christian in name only, but not in truth. People will call themselves Christians
and it'll be popular, in a way, in a sense, to be a Christian,
but they deny the doctrine of Christ. And that's a false church,
because the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of His glorious
person, the doctrine of His finished work, the tenets of Christian
doctrine, the gospel of how God saves sinners based on the righteousness
of Christ, by His grace, grace all the way. And he says in verse
three, he says, 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. Now the man of
sin there is Antichrist. And a lot of people believe that
Antichrist is going to be one religious political, economic
person who comes on the scene and takes control or leadership
and deceives a lot of people. But I believe if you look at
the scriptures now, I know it says that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition. And that goes back to the book
of Daniel. You see very references to Antichrist. What Antichrist is, is those
who come in the name of Christ, but who deny the doctrine of
Christ. And it's a spirit of evil. The Antichrist is Satan's
minion, Satan's servant. But instead of being just one
person, I believe that it's going to be a succession of people,
a spirit, you might say. of those who claim to be Christian,
but who deny the doctrine of Christ. And I read this last
time, but I want to read it again because I want this to be sealed
in our minds. John, the apostle, spoke of antichrist in his first
epistle in chapter two. And he says in verse 18 of first
John chapter two, he says, little children, It is the last time,
the last age, the New Covenant age, the New Testament age, the
age we're living in right now. And he says, and as you have
heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists,
not just one person, but many Antichrists whereby we know that
it is the last time. And then he goes on to say in
verse 19, they went out from us, but they were not of us. Now at one time they claimed
to believe the true gospel, but then they left it. And he says,
for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that
they were not all of us. In other words, if they had been
truly saved by the grace of God, truly regenerated and converted,
born again, brought to faith in Christ, they would have remained. Because those who are saved by
the grace of God cannot lose that salvation. God won't allow
that. Christ keeps his people from
totally falling away. But those who have just a mere
profession of faith, but no true heart faith, no spirit, they
can leave it. and turn against it. And he says
they never were of us to begin with. And that's the spirit of
Antichrist. And so when he says here, back
in 2 Thessalonians 2, he says, that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition. What he's saying is that spirit
of false Christianity that the world knows as Christianity,
but it's really not, You see, a lot of people claim to be Christian,
but they're not. They don't believe the doctrine
of Christ. A Christian is one who follows Christ as he's revealed
in the scripture. They follow his teaching. But
now a person who claims to be a Christian or a disciple of
Christ who rejects the teachings of Christ, that's a false Christian.
That's the spirit of antichrist. And he says, that man of sin
will be revealed, he'll come on the scene, and it'll be revealed,
not to everybody, but to God's people. And that revelation is
God revealing the reality of this situation to his people.
And look at verse four. He says in verse four, this man
of sin revealed the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. How do
they do that? A lot of people think that a
man is going to come on the scene and people will begin to worship
him instead of Christ. The thing about it is, that wouldn't
deceive God's people. because we know that Christ alone
is to be worshiped. Now you can think about false
religion. You can think about those who worship the Pope or
worship Mary. You see, that doesn't fool God's
people. That fools a lot of people. But
only God is to be worshiped. God in his three persons, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Christ is God. He's God manifest
in the flesh. And we worship Him because He
is God. He is the Savior. He is the great
I Am. We worship Him, the Father and
the Spirit, not three gods now, but one God in three, who subsist
in three persons. And so we worship Christ. To
worship anyone else other than God is idolatry. And so this
spirit of antichrist exalts himself above all that is called God,
or that is worshiped, so that he, verse four, so that he as
God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he
is God. Now the temple of God there refers
to the church, but at this stage it's a fallen church. And the temple of God's where
God dwelt. Christ himself is the temple
of God. The Word made flesh, tabernacling
among us. The church is the temple of God,
the dwelling place of God, spiritually and through His Word in His people.
But here's a fallen, a church that's fallen away from the truth.
Now this is well within God's plan. This did not take God by
surprise. Understand that. This is God's
way of bringing about all things to their end so that he'll be
glorified and his people will be securely saved and glorified
in Christ. But here it is. And how does
this Antichrist show himself to be God? He puts himself above
the word of God. Now, any preacher who denies,
ignores, or the word of God, the truth of God in the Bible,
or who adds to that truth is exalting himself as God. This book is God's word from
Genesis to Revelation. And I as a preacher have no right
to pick and choose the doctrines that I preach. We believe the
whole word of God. Paul called it the whole counsel
of God. And we know, I tell you, there
are preachers that I know who will not touch certain doctrines
because it'll offend their hearers, and that's wrong. You see, the
doctrine of Christ, the doctrines of God, the doctrines of God
will not, will not offend the people of God, the true people
of God. Now, it will offend false Christians,
but it will not offend the true people of God. And so this person
exalts himself above God and sits on the throne of the temple,
showing himself to be God, when he denies or ignores the doctrines
of truth, the gospel, how God saves sinners by his grace, all
of grace. You see, and I've made this distinction
on this program several times. You know, two things that are
common to all false religions is number one, they make salvation
conditioned on sinners at some stage in some way to some degree. The true gospel, the true doctrine
of Christ, shows us that salvation, in every aspect of it, was and
is all conditioned on Christ alone. And Christ, as God manifest
in the flesh, came to this world and fulfilled every condition,
every requirement, every stipulation that God the Father required
for the salvation of His people. And that's summarized in the
phrase, the righteousness of God. Paul wrote in Romans 1,
verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first, and the Greek also, or the Gentile, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith, that's knowledge
revealed, to faith, knowledge received, the gift of faith,
And he says, as it is written, the just or the justified shall
live by faith. Those who are justified before
God, which means to be forgiven of all your sins on a just ground,
and it means to be declared righteous before God on a just ground.
Those who are justified, and the only just ground of forgiveness
and righteousness is the righteousness of God in Christ. And they live
by faith. They live by looking unto Jesus. the author and the finisher of
their faith. That's what looking, that's what
living by faith means. It means looking to Christ for
all my salvation. And his righteousness is the
entire merit and value of his obedience unto death as the surety,
the substitute and the redeemer and the preserver of his people.
And His righteousness, as the sins of His people were imputed,
charged, accounted to Him, His righteousness has been imputed
to all of His people. And they are justified in God's
sight. And all who are justified, God sends the Spirit of God,
the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, into the world
to bring them under the gospel, give them spiritual life and
faith and repentance, and bring them to believe in Christ. How
do I know that I'm one of God's chosen people? How do I know
that I'm justified? How do I know that Christ died
for me and was buried in a rose again for me? How do I know when
he comes back in his second advent that I'll be glorified in him
and by him and with him? Do you believe the gospel of
the Bible? Not a false gospel. So that's
number one. They all believe that salvation
is conditioned on sinners in some way, to some degree, at
some stage. And they call that the gospel,
but it's a false gospel. The second thing that all false
religion does is they judge righteousness, they judge holiness, they judge
salvation on a sliding scale of the works and wills of men.
And that's wrong. The only way that holiness and
righteousness and salvation can be judged properly is as we stand
in the righteousness of Christ. And that's what Acts 17 31 tells
us that God has appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained in
that he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath
raised him from the dead. You see, I can't judge righteousness
on a sliding scale to say, well, somebody says something like,
well, I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as some. Well, that
means nothing in the kingdom of God. I've got to have a perfect
righteousness that answers and fulfills all the demands of God's
law and justice. And the only way that I can have
that and find that and have that is in the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10, four says, for Christ
is the end, the fulfillment, the perfection of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believe it. Now, anything less
may call itself Christianity, but it's anti-Christ. And it's
revealed to God's people. Well, he says in verse five,
now this is 2 Thessalonians 2 verse five. He says, remember you not
that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? Now
Paul had already preached these things to the Thessalonians.
Don't you remember when I taught them to you? And then he says
in verse seven, the mystery of iniquity. Now that's the title
of this message, The Mystery of Iniquity Doth Already Work. And he says, only he who now
letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. What he's
talking about there, I believe, is the Spirit's work of holding
things back in Paul's day, where they did not come to full fruition
until later. And so, what Paul's telling them
is this, There's going to be a great falling away, but it
hasn't happened yet. Now, it's beginning to happen.
John said that. They went out from us. They were
not all of us. He said many antichrists. And
it's beginning to happen even in Paul's day, even in John's
day. But it hasn't happened yet. Someone
is holding it back. And who is that? God the Holy
Spirit's holding it back. He who, in verse five, or verse
six, the mystery of iniquity in verse seven. But he who holds
it back, read verse five again. Remember you not that when I
was yet with you I told you these things and now you know what
withholdeth or holdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
There's a time. Paul's telling the Thessalonians
there's a time coming when God's going to let loose all that he's
holding back now, and then that will be taken away. He'll go
throughout the world deceiving people, and the spirit will be
taken out of the way in that sense, in his providential work. So then in verse eight, He says,
and then, verse seven, the mystery of iniquity doth already work,
it's already started. Only he who now letteth will
let until he be taken out of the way. Now this mystery of
iniquity, now you know what iniquity is. Iniquity is just another
word in the Bible for sin. There are many words in the Old
Testament and the New Testament that describe man's sinfulness. The most common word for sin
is, for example, found in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. That word for sin means that
we've missed the mark, we fall short. And the mark is perfect
righteousness. And what he's saying there in
Romans 3.23 is no matter how good we try to be in order to
be saved, we all fall short. We miss the mark. Other words
for sin are the words like transgression. Transgression of the law. You
can talk about other words like the debt. There's a word used
in the Bible for sin that means running up a debt, a debt to
the law. You owe a debt that you cannot
pay. That's why it's salvation by
grace. Christ paid that debt for his people. But this word
iniquity, it literally means in unequal. It doesn't balance
out. It's kind of like if you look
at a scale. And somebody says, well, I've heard people say this,
that when you get to judgment, God's gonna look at your good
works and he's gonna weigh them against your bad works and which
one tilts the scale will determine where you'll go. That's a lie.
Listen, again, the judgment's not to determine anything. You're
either in Christ or you're not in Christ. In Christ means glory. Out of Christ means hell. That's
what it means. But there's not enough good works
that a human being can do, a sinful human being who fell in Adam
in sin, and born dead, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins,
spiritually depraved. There's not enough works that
a person like that can do to balance out the scale. There's
only one way that that scale can be balanced, and that is
to be found in Christ. And that has to be revealed to
us by God. That's why it's called the mystery
of iniquity. A mystery in the Bible is something
that God must reveal to his people. And this is what God reveals.
In John chapter 16, verse nine, one of the things that the Holy
Spirit does when he brings a sinner to salvation, to the new birth,
is he convicts the world of sin, missing the mark, because they
believe not on Christ. In other words, everything that
we do misses that mark that only Christ could do. And then the
only way I can measure up is to be found in Christ, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
through the faithfulness of Christ. And anything less is the mystery
of iniquity. You understand that? Even the
best works, the Bible says in Luke 16, 15, that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination to God. Well, what is highly
esteemed among men? Their works, their wills, their
decisions, their experiences. My friend, the only thing that's
going to impress God is the blood of His Son. He said in the Passover,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Not when I see your
good works. There's a story in the book of
Daniel about a king named Belshazzar who had a feast and God sent a vision of a finger
riding on the wall. And the riding on the wall, none
of Belshazzar's magicians could interpret it, so he got Daniel.
Daniel came down, and he said, I'll tell you what that says,
O king, you are found in the balance, you are weighed in the
balance, and found lacking. And that's the way it is with
all of us who come before God without Christ. That's the mystery
of iniquity. And that's revealed to God's
people when they're brought to see, to hear, and to believe
the gospel. That mystery is uncovered. God
really shows us what sin is. And what it is, that for me to
be found before God without Christ, without His blood, without His
righteousness, it's iniquity. And it'll send me to hell. But
I need Christ, and you do too. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.