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. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to begin preaching through the book
of 2 Thessalonians chapter two. And this is a really important
chapter, not that the others aren't as important, but when
it comes to understanding the truth of Christianity, the truth
of the true gospel, true Christianity, There are things that we read
in the Bible that are pointedly aimed at kind of waking us up,
especially you who claim to be a believer. If you claim to be
a believer, a true Christian, you need to hear this chapter.
This has to do with the second coming of Christ. and things
that lead up to that. And the first thing I'm going
to deal with in the first few verses of this chapter have to
do with what I call the great apostasy. That's the title of
the message today, the great apostasy. And this great apostasy
is a sad thing because the word apostasy means a falling away,
a falling away from the truth. And there are some historical
things here we need to see, and there are some things that apply
to us individually that we need to understand also. Paul, in
the book of 2 Thessalonians, is teaching the church in the
city of Thessalonica concerning the last days just prior to when
Christ comes the second time. As you know, that before he ascended
unto the Father, the apostles, the disciples were told that
in the same way that he ascended up into glory, he's going to
come back again. That's the second coming of Christ,
what we call the second advent. His first advent was His conception
by the Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and His birth.
And He came that first time to put away the sins of His people
that had been imputed, charged to Him, which I believe was before
the foundation of the world. He was made the surety of His
people. He took the debt of the elect of God. God's elect, the
Bible speaks of God's elect people. And some people say, well, that's
just referring to Israel. No, it's referring to the true
church, the true spiritual Israel of God. And who are they? They're believers. At some point
in time, if you're one of God's elect, at some point in time
between your birth, physical birth and your physical death,
you're going to experience a new birth. where the Spirit providentially
brings you under the preaching of the true gospel and gives
you a new life, spiritual life, faith and repentance and perseverance. That's what God's elect are,
they're believers. And we're going to see that in
2 Thessalonians 2 here in the later verses. where he talks
about how he called you by our gospel, hearing the gospel. And faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God. It's God who gives us ears to
hear and eyes to see spiritually. And so when we talk about passages
like that, we're talking about that's the first coming of Christ
to die for the sins of His people which had been imputed to Him.
He obeyed the law perfectly, walked this earth and obeyed
the law perfectly and went to the cross, suffered, bled and
died as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of His people. And
then He ascended unto the Father in glory where He now is seated
at the right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession
for His people and He's awaiting the appointed time which the
Father has set for Him to return to this world and to take up
His people unto glory with Him and to resurrect even those who
died in unbelief to face judgment and to be publicly condemned
for their sins. They have no Savior. So as I
tell people all the time, don't go through this life just assuming
that you're saved, that you're a believer. Examine yourself
whether you be in the faith, the true faith. Is the Christ
that I rely upon as my whole salvation, my whole ground of
forgiveness, my whole righteousness before God, His righteousness
imputed, is the Christ that I serve and believe in and love Is he
the true Christ of the Bible and not a counterfeit? And as
we know, the Bible in the doctrine of Christ gives us enough truth
here that we may know that we're serving the true Christ and not
a counterfeit. The true Christ is both God and
man united together. God-man, God manifest in the
flesh, had to be both God and man. That's His person, that's
who He is, and that's His glory. And then what exactly did He
accomplish when He died on the cross? Did He just make people
savable if certain sinners would cooperate and believe? No, that's
a false Christ. The true Christ died to secure
successfully the salvation of all whom the Father had given
Him before the foundation of the world. They're called the
elect of God, the sheep of Christ. And what you need to understand
there is who are these sheep? Who are these elect? Well, they
are all whom God brings to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works to persevere in the faith. And so the elect of God, that's
who he's talking about. Well, up until the time that
Christ is slated to come again, we don't know the day or the
hour, and it's useless for anybody to try to figure that out. We
know it's nearer that time than it was in Paul's day, because
time marches on, But as we get nearer, closer to the time of
His second advent, His second coming, the Bible gives us things
that are gonna happen. There's a lot of it in Revelation,
but there's some here in 2 Thessalonians 2. Now, one of the reasons that
Paul's dealing with this in the church at Thessalonica is because
some of those believers in that church, in that city, They were
convinced in themselves that Christ was going to come back
to receive them unto glory before they died. And so Paul teaches
them here. He says, look at verse one of
second Thessalonians two. He says, now we beseech you brethren
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what he's saying
there is I'm begging you with the assurance that we know Christ
is coming again. There's no question there. We
don't know when, we don't know the day, we don't know the hour,
only God knows that, but we know he's coming. And Paul said, I'm
begging you based upon the assurance of his coming and by our gathering
together unto him, as we're gathered together in Christ to worship,
to serve him, made separate from the world, He says in verse two,
that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither
by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the
day of Christ is at hand. Now what he's saying here is
don't be disturbed, don't be troubled by spirit. Now spirit
there is talking about those, they were false preachers who
came claiming to speak the word of God. And that's why John in
1 John 4 says, try the spirits, for not everyone that comes preaching
is of God. Test the preachers. Now, how
do we test them? By the word of God. So these
spirits, these preachers, false preachers, were telling these
Thessalonians that Christ was coming back in their day, before
they died. And he says, don't be troubled,
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by what they say, nor by
letter as from us. What does he mean by that? Some
of these false preachers were so low that they would write
letters and write Paul's name to it as if Paul had written
it, trying to gain the confidence of other believers. They were
that shady, that dishonest, And he said, don't be disturbed by
that. He said, as that the day of Christ
is at hand. Now the day of Christ, his second
coming is coming. But is it going to come in our
day before I die? I don't know that. So I'm not
to conduct my life as if I knew when he was coming. Now, the
Bible tells us to be prepared and to be ready because we don't
know the day. He's coming like a thief in the
night, which means that it'll be in a time that when people
least expect it. Now, unbelievers don't expect
it at all on the most part. Now, there are some false believers
who expect it, but they're not preparing the way they should,
examining ourselves whether we'd be in the faith. So don't be
disturbed by that. And he says in verse three, 2
Thessalonians 2 and verse three, let no man deceive you by any
means. For that day, the day of his
second advent, his second coming, shall not come, and here's the
point, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin
be revealed the son of perdition. He says, before Christ comes
back, there's going to be a great, some commentators say a worldwide,
and I believe they're right, a worldwide apostasy falling
away, and the man of sin is going to be exposed, and he's the son
of perdition. That means damnation, the son
of damnation. Now, as you know, a lot of people
use this verse to talk about the Antichrist, as if it's just
one person because of the way the language is read here, is
put here. But it is talking about Antichrist. But what is and who is Antichrist? I'm not just trying to bait you
or anything like that, but I'm gonna go into that next time
in more detail. But today I want to talk about
the great falling away. But let me just say this about
this issue of antichrist. Most people believe that, especially
what we call dispensationalist, which is probably the most popular
view of this, that antichrist refers to one man who will arrive
on the scene in a political and religious way and deceive multitudes
of people. And I know some believers even
think that, but I don't believe that's what he's talking about. Antichrist is a spirit of preaching,
a spirit of religion that comes in the name of Christ, claiming
to believe in and preach Christ, but denies the truth of Christ. Now let me show you a couple
examples of that and then I'll get back to this great apostasy
because it's so important that we understand that. The first
one is in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. And I'll show you this spirit
of antichrist and what it means. Paul, each time that he wrote
a letter to the church, usually it was to correct errors. that
had been brought in by false preachers. And usually these
false, a lot of times these false preachers were Jews who claimed
to be Christian, but they denied the truth. They denied the gospel
and they put salvation conditioned on sinners, especially circumcision
and keeping the law and all of that. And the point that Paul
makes here is what they're doing was getting people's minds and
focus away from Christ and onto themselves. And that's what false
religion does now. You see, the Bible teaches us
that the Christian life is a matter of looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. That's Hebrews 12 and verse two.
And there are many other verses that say that in another way,
but it's the equivalent truth. And so, and that's what I try
to do on this program. I want to point you to Christ.
I don't want to point you to yourself to make this thing sure. I don't believe in works-based
assurance. I believe in Christ-based assurance. But these false preachers
would come in and Paul would write to the churches to expose
these false preachers and to correct the error that some true believers have
gotten into for a little while. And so he says in verse one of
2 Corinthians 11, he says, would to God you could bear with me
a little in my folly and indeed bear with me. Now, why is Paul
starting it that way? He said, bear with me in my foolishness.
Well, what's he talking about? Well, a lot of times these false
preachers, they knew that the apostle Paul had been there and
preached to these people. It was through him that the Lord
started the church. And so one of the things they
always try to do, false preachers, before they are in concordance
with their false doctrine, is they try to discredit God's true
preachers. And that's what they had done
to Paul. They talked badly about Paul. They talked about how he
was short in stature. I guess that's what he was. He
wasn't a very good speaker, some of them said. He wasn't a good
pulpiteer. Couldn't hold their attention.
And he sometimes was too deep. They had all kinds of criticism
for Paul. And so Paul was forced, because
of that, to do something that he deemed foolish. And what was
that? He had to defend himself. And
he hated to do that. I don't want to defend myself
against false accusations. But he said, bear with me in
my folly. And he says, the reason that I'm doing this, look at
verse two of 2 Corinthians 11. He says, for I am jealous over
you with godly jealousy. You know, the Bible says God
is a jealous God. He will not share his glory with
another. Well, his people become jealous
over him. And he says, for I have espoused
you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ. Paul preached Christ to them.
And the church, the true church is married to Christ. And when
we preach the gospel and God brings his people into the church,
that's an espousal, that's a marriage, that's a spiritual union that
can never be broken. And so Paul says, I've espoused
you to one husband, that's Christ, that I present you as a chaste
virgin, true to him, loyal to him and not to another. But look
at verse three, he says, but I fear, lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And that's
what false religion does. And that's what false preachers
try to do to God's true people. They've been espoused to Christ,
their mind, their heart, their focus is on Christ and His glory. They're motivated by their love
for Him and His grace to them and gratitude to Him. The false
preachers try to get your mind off of Christ and onto other
things. Whatever it is, things of the
world, things of the flesh, yourself. And that's what Paul's saying.
That word simplicity means singularity. I don't want your minds to be
corrupted from the singleness of salvation by Jesus Christ
alone, salvation conditioned on Him alone, secured by Him
alone, assurance of salvation because of His work, His obedience
unto death, His blood to forgive me of all my sins, His righteousness
to justify me before God, His power, His goodness to save me,
to keep me, to bring me to glory. I don't want your mind to be
taken away from that. And set upon yourselves, oh,
have I done enough? Shouldn't I be better? Yes, you
should be better. I should be better. But Christ
is best. He's perfect. Fix your focus
on Him. The Bible says that He is at
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. Fixed on Christ. And so He says in verse four
of 2 Corinthians 11, For if he that cometh preacheth another
Jesus, whom we have not preached, another of a different kind,
or if you receive another spirit, whether he's talking about preachers
or the Holy Spirit, he says, which you have not received,
or another gospel, another of a different kind, which you have
not accepted, you might well bear with him. Actually, he means
me there. So that's how people's minds
are drawn away from it. Now, in these churches, there
are some who profess to be believers who went full swing away from
the true gospel and followed these false preachers. They apostatized
from the faith. Now that doesn't mean they lost
salvation. And I want you to look at 1 John
2 for that. Because here is a really revealing
passage where John talks about those in the churches who made
a good profession of faith, but they fell away from it. They
turned against it and actually called Christ accursed. They
fell away, they apostatized. And so John deals with this in
his first letter, 1 John 2, in verse 19, or let's look at verse
18, right? He says, little children, 1 John
2, 18, little children, it is the last time, the last age.
This is the new covenant, the church age, the New Testament,
which spans from the first coming of Christ to his second coming.
So he says it's the last age, And as you have heard, that Antichrist
shall come. Even now are there many Antichrists,
not just one, but many, a spirit represented by several false
preachers, and a spirit whereby we know that it is the last time.
This spirit of Antichrist, those who come in the name of Christ,
but deny the doctrine, the truth of Christ, and fix salvation
condition on sinners, That's a sign of the last stage. And
as we come closer to the nearness of His coming, it's gonna get
worse. And that's what Paul's talking about. Before Christ
comes, there's going to be a great apostasy worldwide. And he says in verse 19 of 1
John 2, this is 1 John 2,19. They went out from us, but listen
to what he says, but they were not of us. For if they had been
of us, if they'd been true believers, they would no doubt have continued
with us. They'd have listened to Paul
and to John who warned them, and they would have repented
of this, getting away from it, and be drawn right back to it.
But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were
not all of us. But now he goes on to tell how
true believers cannot apostatize. If you're truly saved by the
grace of God, you cannot apostatize from the way, you cannot fall
away under perdition. Paul wrote that in Hebrews chapter
10, he said, we're not of those who draw back under perdition.
John wrote it, he said, had they been of us, they would have no
doubt remained with us. If God saves you by His grace,
you'll be kept by His grace, and you'll be glorified by His
grace in Christ. But over here in 2 Thessalonians
2, verse three, back to our text. Let no man deceive you by any
means, for that day shall not come, except there shall come
a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition. Antichrist will be exposed. by that great falling away. Now,
what's he talking about? Well, think about it this way,
historically and biblically, and understand that we've got
to interpret history through the eyes of the Bible, the Word
of God, not the other way around. And I'm afraid that's what so
many dispensationalists do. They look at history and they
try to interpret the Bible through their view of history. No, the
other way around. Look at history as the Bible
teaches it. And what he tells us is that
there's gonna come a time in this last age when what is virtually
known as Christianity throughout the world, in the majority, will
not really be true Christianity. It'll be the church that has
fallen away. And they come in the name of
Christ, call themselves Christian, but they will not believe or
preach or stay firm in the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of the
gospel. And my friend, we're in that day. Now, how close we
are to the second coming of Christ, I don't know. I don't know what
day it will be, how soon it will be, I don't know that. But I
know I look around and I see so many churches, and this is
sad, and I don't preach this to say like I'm glad that this
has happened. I know that it's going to happen because God says
it and it's perfectly within His sovereign will to do this. In fact, He's going to tell us
later in 2nd Thessalonians 2 that it's a judgment upon people who
will not receive and lay hold of and love and persist in the
truth. And there's so many churches
today all over this world who claim to be Christian, but they
don't preach the true gospel. And that's what you need to be
concerned with. I see so many people who talk about, where
should I go to church? And they'll look, the first thing
they'll look is how many people are there, what kind of programs
they have, especially for the children. They'll look at who
the pastor is, or the preacher is, and is he pleasant to hear? Does he have a good pulpit voice? Things like that. Can he keep
my attention? They'll look at everything, the
social matters, but they don't care really what's being preached
from the pulpit, as long as they read a few scriptures from the
Bible, maybe talk about Jesus every now and then. morality
and all of that, give them some place to go socially, but they're
not really concerned. Does this pastor, does this preacher,
does this church preach and stand for the true gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace based upon the blood, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ? My friend, I grew up in one of
these churches that represents the great apostasy, that represents
the spirit of Antichrist. I never heard the gospel. I grew
up and came through the ranks, went to seminary, and I never
heard the true gospel. the true gospel of the glorious
person of Christ and the finished work of Christ, His righteousness
imputed. How many of you hear that preached
in the church where you are? The Bible says that's the heart
of the gospel and the ground of salvation, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. What is that? What is His right?
That's the righteousness of God that's revealed in the gospel.
And so I urge you to seek the Lord in his word, test the preachers
by his word. 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.