If you'd like to turn with me
and your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Let's ask the Lord's blessings. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we are so very thankful that you've called us once again to
come here to this place. We thank Thee for Thy Holy Spirit,
which opens the eyes of our understanding. We thank Thee, Lord, for Your
Word, which You've given us to reveal to us the glory of Thy
dear Son. We pray that You'd be pleased
now to bless it to the hearts of Your children. Pray that you
would enable us to worship Thee in spirit and in truth. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I want to try to do something
a little different than what we've been doing in that I want
to use this first hour, which we've been calling our Bible
study hour, as a Bible study hour. I'd like to take a passage
of scripture and try to do an exposition explaining verse by
verse through that passage of scripture. I have found that
when I end up preaching the first hour, I'm spent and I don't have
anything left for the second hour. So we're going to try that. wonderful truth in this second
chapter of 2 Thessalonians. It's a passage that seems so
clear to me and I hope that it will be an encouragement to you.
The last three verses of this passage tell us what the result
is to understanding what the Lord has to say in this chapter. And this is our hope, this is
our objective, this is our prayer this morning that the Lord would
do this for us. Look at the last three verses.
Where unto, I'm sorry, verse 15. Therefore, brethren, therefore,
in light of what's being said, stand fast and hold the traditions
which you have been taught, whether by word or by epistle. Hold to the things that I've
taught you. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even
our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us an everlasting
consolation, and good hope through grace, comfort your heart." That's
our hope. that the Lord would comfort us,
that he would give us peace, that he would enable us to rest
and to rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone for all our righteousness
and for all our salvation. That the Lord would comfort your
hearts and establish you, plant your feet firmly upon the rock
of ages and enable you to be to be planted and grown in Christ,
establish you in every good word and in every good work. That the Lord would establish
us, that he would ground us in the word of God and in the work
of Christ. That's our hope. Now, there are
some things that I know to be true. in light of this chapter
that every generation of God's people
over the past 1,500 years have understood what I'm about to
tell you this morning in terms of who the man of sin, the son
of perdition is. Many believers have lost their
lives. They've been martyred by the
son of perdition, the man of sin. It's a message that was clearly
understood and unapologetically declared by the Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ for centuries. And yet, for some reason, it
seems to have come to a time where we're not as clear on this
subject as we once were. And I want to try to be as clear
as I possibly can this morning about who's being spoken of here. You begin with me in verse 1.
Now we beseech you, brethren, we plead with you, we come along
beside you. We exhort you and encourage you. We beseech you, brethren. This is for the brethren. Only the brethren can be comforted.
Only the brethren can understand the truth of the gospel. Only
the brethren will have the revelation of who the man of sin really
is and the the mystery of iniquity that's spoken of in this chapter
this is for the brethren we're not here to try to make goats
look like sheep we're not here to try to persuade men who have
no interest in the gospel we're here to comfort the brethren
and that's what this passage will do if the Lord if the Lord
enables us to understand it Now we beseech you, brethren, by
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him. So our hope, our hope is in his
coming and we long for that day. When the eastern sky is split,
and the trump of God sounds, and the dead in Christ are raised,
and those of us that remain alive are caught up together with Him
in the air, we long for that day. The coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's our comfort, that's our hope. And that's what we
gather together to be reminded of, don't we? We're here right
now, gathered together as a flock of sheep to hear about the return
of our shepherd. And in light of that, don't be
shaken. Don't be moved. Don't be confused. And remember
that a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump. So the simplicity
and the purity of the gospel must be held to if the hope of
His coming is realized in the gathering together with the saints.
Be ye not soon shaken in mind, Don't let your mind be changed
or be troubled. Don't be anxious. It'll take
away your comfort. If your mind is changed away
from the things that we've been taught according to the gospel,
if your heart is troubled, then there'll be no comfort, neither
by spirit Don't let a false prophet convince you otherwise. Or by
word, don't let their words or their perverting of the gospel,
don't let their resting of the gospel. I've told you what that
word means. The word rest means it's a word
that describes putting a person on a rack. And the purpose of
doing that is to get that person to say something that they don't
really believe. But if you put enough pain on
them and pull their bones out of joint, they'll eventually
confess what you demand that they confess. And that's what
men do with the Scriptures. Don't let them make the Word
of God say something it doesn't mean. And don't believe it when
they do. Nor by letter, as from us, there
were a lot of false letters. You remember Paul, when he wrote
his letters, oftentimes he would sign them in his own handwriting
and he would remind the churches that this is from me, this is
not one of those false epistles and false letters. There's plenty
of those going around, professing to be the Word of God, but in
fact being a lie from Satan. as if they were from us, as that
day of Christ is at hand. There were people in that day,
and there are people in our day, that were setting a date on the
coming of Christ. They put a date on it. They said,
well, in March, or this date, and this month, and this year. don't don't don't believe it
don't be deceived by them let no man deceive you by any means
whether by word or by preaching or by letters don't be deceived
for that day shall not come coming of the Lord Jesus Christ shall
not come. Now remember Paul wrote this
to the church at Thessalonica 2,000 years ago and he said that
day is not going to come until there is first a falling away. Now to fall away means that you
once identified yourself with the gospel but now you have fallen
from the gospel. And the Lord's telling us there's
got to be a mass falling away before the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to come. Have we seen that? And in what way have we seen
it? Except there come a falling away first and that man of sin
be revealed, the son of perdition. So he's the one who leads in
this falling away. Now John tells us that the Antichrist
is already among us. And so even when Paul was writing
this, there were false prophets. He's just identified them by
spirit. These are the false preachers
or by word. This is what they're preaching by letter as if it
came from me. This is what they're writing.
They're already among us. There's false prophets who would
pervert the truth and stretch the word of God and make it to
mean something it doesn't mean already among us. They're going
to get a foothold and they're going to draw after themselves
a large portion of the church and there's going to be a falling
away. Verse 4. who opposeth and exalteth
himself above all that is called God." So he's going to oppose
the gospel. He's going to teach a message
of salvation by works. He's going to rob Christ of his
glory in salvation. He's going to set up rules and
regulations of touch not, taste not, handle not. Rules of men
that must be followed in order to be saved. And he's going to
call himself a man of God. He's going to call himself after
the name of Christ. He opposes and exalts himself
above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that
he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, swelling himself, showing
himself, I'm sorry, and swelling himself as well, showing himself
that he is God. So he's going to set himself
up, and declare himself to be a messenger of God. Who is this man of sin? Who is this son of perdition
that would do such a thing? If you trace him back far enough,
you'll find that he at one time had some affiliation with the
gospel. But now he's fallen away. And
he's led many people to follow him in that falling away. Who is it? Verse 5, Remember ye not that
when I was yet with you, I told you these things? This is not
a new thing. This is something that's been
warned from the beginning. The Lord Jesus Christ warned
it. There will be false prophets among you. They're going to come
in. They're going to seek to lead
astray men. And they're going to be so deceptive
that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. I'm so thankful that it's not
possible. for the elect to be deceived. But here's the thing
about it. The means by which God keeps the elect from being
deceived is what we're doing right now. We can't just presume that the
elect won't be deceived, unless they're warned against and the
man of sin and the son of perdition is identified for who he is,
then the elect's eyes are enlightened and they're not deceived. And now you know, verse 6, And now you know what withholdeth
that he might be revealed in his time. So there's something
restraining this man of sin from being revealed. What is it that's
restraining the man of sin? What is it that's withholding
him? Look at the next verse. For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work. There's already those in the
church that are promoting this false gospel. There's already
Antichrist among us. There's already a works mentality. There's already false prophets
among us. The mystery of iniquity is already
at work. Only he who now letteth or restraineth
will let until he be taken out of the way. Who is that? So Paul, the Lord is saying 2,000
years ago, this man of sin, the son of perdition, has to be exposed.
He has to be revealed. Right now, he's working in the
shadows. Right now, he's in among us.
Right now, he's working as the Judaizers, following me around
and trying to pervert the truth of the gospel. But there's something
that's keeping him from being elevated to full exposure and
once that's taken out of the way then all of God's people
will see him for who he is. So what is it that was restraining
this man of sin, this son of perdition from being exposed? This one who would continue to
claim the name of Christ and yet pervert the gospel and
lead many astray." Know who He is, because in knowing who He
is, you know not to have anything to do with Him. In knowing who
He is, you have hope and comfort in Christ Knowing what he teaches
and what he's promoting, you have reason to be warned to stay
away from him, to come out from among them. Verse 8, after this one who is
restraining, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the one
who is keeping him from being fully exposed, once he's taken
out of the way, then the wicked one will be revealed. Then he's going to be revealed.
Once the one who's letting, the one who's restraining is taken
out of the way, then the wicked one will be revealed. Whom the
Lord shall consume, with the spirit of his mouth and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming." Now whoever this
man of sin is, whoever this son of perdition is, I don't want
to be anywhere around him when the judgment of God falls. God
says he's going to consume him with the brightness of his coming. Even him Verse nine, even him
who's coming is after the working of Satan. So this man of sin,
the son of perdition, the one that's being kept in the shadows
for now, but once the one who's restraining him is taken out
of the way, then he's going to be exposed to all. God says his
real power behind him is none less than Satan himself. Don't
miss that. This is not just a religion that's been led astray. This is not just a superstitious
traditional religion called Christianity. This is demonic. This is Satan's
religion. And God's going to destroy it.
Don't miss that. He's after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders. Oh, He deceives
the people. He pretends to perform miracles. He's got people swooning. He's
got people convinced. He's got followers that believe
that He's got the power of God. They kiss His hand. They bow
to Him. They worship Him. They do all
these things. God says this is Satan. This
is the devil incarnate. This is what I'm trying to say.
I hope you know where I'm going with this. Because the church
has always understood this. Ever since Rome started killing
Christians, which happened very early in its existence. The church
has always understood who's being talked about here. For some reason,
you know, and as long as the church was being persecuted,
and men's lives were being, believers' lives were being taken, it's
almost as if then the church stood up clearly. against this
man of sin, this son of perdition. And now that the persecution
is more social, it's more, you know, political correctness,
we just kind of have just sort of pushed it aside. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
17. You know that cone-looking hat that the Pope
wears? He used to wear it. You know
he doesn't wear it anymore. They haven't wore it in about 40 or 50 years. The Pope hasn't donned that hat. But in the 1450s, 1460s, the
Reformers saw and took notice of the fact that
on the front of that mitre was the words Mystery Babylon. And the Catholic Church took
it off. They continued to wear the hat,
but they took off Mystery Babylon. Revelation chapter, now stay
with me because I want to make sure that you understand this.
We're not talking about just the Catholic Church. She's got
many, many children. Look at verse 1 of Revelation
chapter 17. And there came one of the seven
angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto
me, Come hither, and I will show unto thee the judgment of the
great whore that is sitting upon many waters. with whom the kings of the earth
have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth
have been drunk with the wine of her fornication." So here's,
this is not just some oddball religion, this is a religion
now that has taken the name of Christ and taken the word of
God and perverted it. She's committed fornication. You know, it's not so much here. in the United States because
we weren't founded in Catholicism, but you could go anywhere else
in the world. And even here, if somebody asks
you, if something comes up on the news about Christianity,
what's presented as the symbol of Christianity? So he carried me away in the
Spirit, verse 3, and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored
beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and in 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 mother of harlots and abominations
of the earth." So she's the mother of many other
harlots. But in knowing who she is and
what she believes, you can see her doctrine and her teaching
influenced in all of her children. And I saw the woman drunken with
the blood of the saints. Our administration recently got
in some political hot water, I guess, when they tried to identify
the things that took place during the Crusades with the things
that are happening now among the radical muslims and uh... our president made a correlation
between that one and he said well the christians did the same
thing during the crusades that wasn't the christians that was
the catholic church it wasn't the christians i saw the woman drunken with
the blood and you don't have to go back to the crusades you
can go back to the inquisitions you can go back to you can go
right now to current day events taking place in many places of
the world where the Catholic Church is continuing to do the
things. We're going to Mexico next month and there's a, I've
been in a place in Mexico, they've got a statue, they've got this
huge cathedral, they've got a statue of Mary in a throne behind a
veil And every so often they open the veil and the throne
comes out. This is I'm talking about right
now today. The throne comes out on rails and Mary bleeds blood
out of her eyes and all the people in the Pueblo swoon and give
their money to the priest. Now that's happening right now. And the angel said unto me, I'm
sorry. I saw the woman drunken with
the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said to me, Wherefore
didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery
of the woman, and of the beast that carried her, which hath
seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was,
and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and
go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life
from the foundation of the world and they behold the beast that
was and is not yet is there's going to be a judgment of God
against this is going to cause all the people of the world to
wonder look at the next verse and here is the mind which hath
wisdom has God given you wisdom here's the mind which hath wisdom
the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth Look it up. The city of Rome
is built on seven hills. Go to chapter 18, verse 1. And
after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven,
having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory.
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great
has fallen, has fallen, and has become the habitation of devils
and a hold of every foul spirit and the cage of unclean and hateful
birds. Well, that's wrong. Which letter
in the New Testament most clearly defines the gospel of God's free
grace against a message of man-made works? Which letter in all the
New Testament? Romans. Romans does. Well, now John sees
Rome, she's fallen. that she's full of that, and
all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,
and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her,
and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance
of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from
heaven saying, now here's, why are you doing this, preacher?
Are you trying to stir up trouble? You have something stuck in your
craw about the Catholic Church? No. No. Here's what God says. Know the
difference between a message of works and a message of grace
and come out from among her, my people, and be ye not partakers
of her sins that you shall receive not of her plagues." Don't have
anything to do with her. Come out. She set herself up. Now, back to our text in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. The Lord said that she's among
us, this harlot, this fornicator who's taking the gospel and made
the gospel of grace into a message of works and led the whole world. I mean, you could say the whole
world's fallen head over heels after the Catholic Church. And
after that, not only the Catholic Church, but after her children
as well. And the Lord is saying, right now
she's being restrained. She's being held back. Do you
remember that? In verse 7 of our text, for the mystery of
iniquity doth already works only he which now letteth will let
until he be taken out of the way. What was restraining the Catholic
Church from taking over the world and from establishing itself
in Rome and from giving birth to all these other religions
of works. What was restraining her? What
was letting her? What was it that was taken out
of the way? I'll tell you who it was. It
was the Western Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire didn't
fall. It morphed. We talk about the fall of the
Roman Empire. The Roman Empire never fell. It morphed. When
Constantine became the emperor and made Christianity legal,
and then within one generation, Christianity became the religion
of the state, and Constantine had to move the headquarters
of Rome to Constantinople, and who took over Rome? Who was keeping
this fornicator from establishing her position of power? The Roman Empire was. The Western
Roman Empire. The Caesars were, once they were
taken out of the way. Then the Bishop of Rome took
over. and established and she now has
become the mother of harlots and all the harlots, all the
false religions that call themselves Christianity came out of her. Every single one of them. You see that? The one that leadeth. In Paul's writing to the church,
he's saying now she's being restrained right now. She's being held in
the shadows. But there's going to come a day soon when that
which is restraining her is going to be taken out of the way. And
in that sense, the Roman Empire fell and the Holy Roman Empire
took its place. And it hasn't ceased to exist
since. We were in Rome a couple years
ago and wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, and we went to St. Peter's
Square, and we noticed that St. Peter's and Sistine Chapel were
empty and out of all the people, and St. Peter's Square was packed
shoulder to shoulder with people. It was incredible. I'd never
seen so much. The place is huge. Which is good
for us, because we got to go in and see the architecture and
the art and the sculptures of the Sistine Chapel and different
things. Because all the people came, and what did they come
out there for? Well, they've got these huge screens up there,
and the Pope came out on one of the screens while we were
there, while we were inside. And it seemed as if those people
sucked the air out of the Sistine Chapel, out of the St. Peter's
Basilica, when the appearance of the Pope showed up on the
screen. I mean, it was like they just sucked all the air out of
the city of Rome. There's a million people just
swooning over this devil. Devil. I can make no apology
for saying that. Swooning over Satan. calling setting himself up on
the throne of God and calling himself a messenger of God and how many people are being
deceived by him and by his children verse 10 I know there's some people, I
wish they could hear this. I wish more people than you could
hear it. Whatever happens, you know, that's
just fine. That's because I'm telling you the truth. You know
I am. This is the truth. This is exactly
what the Lord was talking about. This is exactly why this chapter
is in the Bible. That we could discern the difference.
This is not just an archaic religion of tradition and ceremony. This is from the pit of hell. This is demonic. This is satanic. And they're using the name of
our God. Look at verse 10. and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because
they receive not the love of the truth that they might be
saved." Deceivableness of unrighteousness. Now that means that they thought
that their works were their righteousness. And they were deceived. In thinking
that what they were calling righteousness, God was calling unrighteousness.
And that's not just in Roman Catholicism. That's in all of her children
as well. And for this cause, verse 11,
and for this cause, God shall send them a strong delusion that
they should believe a lie. Now, how did God send the strong
delusion? This is of the Lord. It's demonic, but don't forget
Satan is God's devil. Satan is God's devil. And he's
here for you, for your good. It's necessary that heresies
be among you. The Lord caused this to happen.
He sent them the strong delusion. that they would believe a lie.
What was the means by which he deluded them? God has written his word in such
a way as to give the unbeliever enough rope to hang himself. What are they preaching? What
are they holding to? God sent them a strong delusion
that they should believe a lie. They're resting the scriptures,
they're changing the gospel, and they're using God's word
to do it. And God sent it to them. Don't be deceived. Don't be led astray. Comfort your hearts. That they might, verse 12, that
they might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure
in unrighteousness." Now that doesn't mean they were out indulging
themselves in the pleasures of the flesh. It means that they
were pleasuring themselves in their unrighteousness. In other
words, they were calling their unrighteousness their righteousness
and they were putting the hope of their salvation in what they
did. That's the false gospel. The
hope of our salvation is in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done
and it is in who he is. We rest in Christ. He's finished
the work. And any message of salvation
that would change that or add to that or take away from that,
God says, it's a harlot, a fornicator. and the wrath of God will fall.
Come out from among her. Oh, don't have anything to do
with her. Identify her. I mentioned our current administration.
There's also a political debate right now in our country about
our current administration not wanting to call radical Muslims, radical Muslims.
I don't know what they're thinking. That's what they are. In order to identify your enemy,
you've got to identify him. That's what we're doing. God
is naming and identifying, and those who have wisdom see that
this is what it is. This is what it is. Look at verse 13, and I'll finish
with this. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. He chose you. He elected you. He did it from the foundation
of the world. or else you'd be just like them.
Who have made thee to differ? How come you're not following
after the whore of Babylon? How come you're not doing it?
We are bound to give thanks to God. He's the reason why we're
not following. He's the one who chose us He's
the one who sanctified us, or set us apart by His Spirit, gave
us eyes to see and ears to hear, put us aside, and He's the one
who gave us not only a belief in the truth, but a love of the
truth. Love of the truth. Whereunto He called you by our
gospel. If we're going to be called out
of that, it'll be by the good news, the gospel of God's free
grace in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
finished the work. Therefore, to the obtaining of
the glory of Jesus Christ, that's our hope, isn't it? To obtain
His glory? to obtain His glory? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee for exposing the lies of Satan to the hearts
of Thy children. We pray for a discerning spirit.
We ask, Lord, that You would cause us to find all our hope in Christ.
For it's in His name we pray. Amen.