Well we've come to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 and it's a solemn solemn serious word from God. One of the great blessings of
the Gospel is that we actually have this world that we live
in explained to us. Explained to us in such a way
that we can see the hand of God upon things and that we see the
things around us as manifest tokens, as he says earlier, and
we see the hand of our sovereign God ruling over all things. And all things that we see around
us are going to be wrapped up And he begins in verse 1 by saying,
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and by our gathering together unto Him, that you not be soon
shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word
nor by letter, as if it was written by us, as that the day of Christ
is at hand. Let no one deceive you by any
means, for that day shall not come except there be a falling
away first, an apostasy. and that the man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all
that is called God, all that is worshipped, so that he as
God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember you not that when I
was with you, I told you these things." And so this was a common
part of Paul's teaching and preaching. And then in verse 6 he says,
and now you know what withholdeth, what detains, what holds him
back that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery
of iniquity, another name for Satan, does already work. Only
he that now letteth, he that now detains, he that now holds
him back, will detain and hold him back until he's taken out
of the way, and then shall that wicked be revealed. Him the Lord
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy
with the brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders
and with all deceivableness and unrighteousness in them that
perish, because they received not the love of the truth that
they might be saved. And for this cause God shall
send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. I love the way it finishes and
we'll read these verses at the end, Lord willing. But he thanks
God for these Thessalonian brethren beloved of the Lord, the only
solution to this shocking deception is the sovereign grace of God.
And so what we have in these verses from 6 down to 12 is we
have a picture, a picture of the sovereignty of God, a picture
of the workings of Satan, a picture of those who are deceived by
him, and the justice of God in dealing with them. in perfect righteousness. Again
and again we need to remind ourselves that the scriptures again and
again and all over say that salvation is purely sovereign grace, the
sovereign grace of our triune God, the Father electing, the
Son redeeming, the Spirit applying that work and sanctifying His
people. And also throughout the Scriptures
we have it revealed again and again that damnation and destruction
is purely and 100% the responsibility of man. And whether we can put those
things together or not, we need to hold them together because
that's exactly how the scriptures hold them. When God, as we'll
see here, brings judgement upon people, He sends a strong delusion
in verse 11, but it's for a cause, and the end result of the delusion
is that they should believe the lie. They received not the love
of the truth in verse 10, and God sends them in reprobation
a strong delusion that they'll believe a lie. And in verse 12,
they had pleasure in unrighteousness. There are some things that are
very evident out there from the scriptures and from this world
that we live in, that we live in an apostate religious world. And it's in opposition, this
religious world is in opposition to Christ and His Church. And it's characterised, this
apostate religious world which leads to this immoral and blasphemous society
that pervades this world has come out of a religion which
preaches salvation by the free will of man, justification by
the works of man, a teaching again and again of asceticism,
the teaching that evil is in things outside of us and that
if we touch not and taste not and handle not, then we will
live a life of purity and holiness. I'll teach that evil is in things
and not in us and not coming from our heart. And I'll teach
that there are rewards and loss of rewards in heaven based on
works. We live in an apostate religious
world and it's all over and it doesn't matter what name it carries. It can carry the name of Catholicism
or Buddhism or Judaism. The isms don't matter. This is an apostate religious
world, and the Church, as always, is a remnant according to the
election of grace. It's just a remnant, just like
Jerusalem. If you remember in Nehemiah,
God gathered His people together and gathered people to worship
Him in Jerusalem, and as He gathered them together, the enemies rose
up all around them. And there was this amazing picture
of the Church of God, a remnant community inside and surrounding
Jerusalem with enemies on every side, enemies of all sorts, deceitful
and wicked and malicious. We live in an apostate religious
world, and this apostate religious age is the result of God's judicial
reprobation. It is a just thing for God. As Ralph Barnard said, this is
a reprobate age, an age that cannot be explained apart from
the judgment of God. It is the judgment of God. And
we'll see that in these verses. Reprobation is the work of God.
It's a just and it's a righteous thing. And remarkably, remarkably
in the scriptures again and again, we see that God sovereignly employs
Satan and his minions to secure the damnation of those who hear
but will not receive the love of the truth. The messengers of Satan, we are
warned again and again and again in the scriptures, the messengers
of Satan come with various characteristics, don't they? In this passage here
we'll see that they come with enchanting miracles and they
come with an enticing message and they come with a motive and
their motive is one of covetousness. So I just want to look at three
things briefly this evening. I want to look at God's acts
and God's character revealed. I want to look again just briefly
at the nature of the deceiver and then the deceived. And then
I want to look briefly just at what it is, what is the deceivableness
of unrighteousness. But here again we actually have,
and we must not lose sight of it, we have a picture again of
the absolute sovereign rule of our God. Nothing wriggles or
moves in this universe outside of His control. He has a time
for everything. And now you know, verse 6, that
He that withholdeth He withholds him back, he detains this release
of Satan for a time, that he might be revealed in his time. He might be revealed in his time,
he'll think it's his time, but he will be revealed in God's
time. God has a time for everything,
even the hatred of the evil ones, these followers against the Church. He has a time to withhold the
evil ones. He has a time to let them loose,
let Satan loose for a little season. And He has a time to
reveal the wicked one. He has a time when He can sovereignly
destroy. He has, verse 8, that wicked
one will be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit
of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. will come in glory to gather
his saints, and he will come to be admired and wondered at
among those who believe." What is pictured here in these verses
is what Revelation talks about in several places, that Satan
has been defeated by Our Lord Jesus Christ, defeated in all
of those temptations, but then He's released. He's released
for just a little while. in Revelation it talks of the
thousand years, that long period of time in that Gospel age where
Satan has been restrained, he's been chained, chained and held
inbound and the Gospel has gone out into all of this world. It speaks in Revelation 7, in
the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of
his prison, Revelation 20 verse 7, and shall go out to deceive
the nation which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and
Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom
is as the sand of the sea. And they went out on the breadth
of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about and
the beloved city. and fire came down from God out
of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast
and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night
forever." He's speaking about that little season. The Thessalonians
were concerned that the day of the Lord, the second coming of
the Lord Jesus was right upon them. And here he's saying that
this is not going to happen, verse 3, except there be a falling
away. It's not going to happen unless
this man of sin is going to be revealed. And he's going to be
revealed, verse 6, in his time. And he's called in verse 7 the
mystery of iniquity, and he does already work. only now who restrains
him. He's still, as Paul was writing,
he's still restrained and he will restrain until he's taken
out of the way. And the old commentators saw
this, and probably quite correctly in so many ways, they saw it
as the fact that when the Roman Emperor was removed from Rome,
All of a sudden Roman Catholicism, the Pope and all of that blasphemy
that has continued on for all of these years was allowed free
reign and he ruled. They called it the Holy Roman
Empire. He ruled from Rome and ultimately
he ruled over nearly all of Europe. And that is true, and the Roman
Catholic Church is an apostate, demonic institution, and there's
absolutely no question about it. But the reality is that in
the days of the apostles, Antichrist was in the world, and if it was
as simple as to say that Roman Catholicism is the evil that's
being talked about here, then so much of what the rest
of the scriptures do to explain all of this would not be as clear
as I believe they are. Paul speaks about these perilous
times in the last days. People will have a form of godliness
and deny the power thereof. They will deny the Gospel. For
a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but
after their own lusts they shall keep up to themselves, teachers
having itchy ears." Satan is a crafty foe. He knows the scriptures
better than we do. He knows us intimately. He knows the plans and purposes
of God. Why he is named in so many different
ways, is he? He's called that wicked, the
man of sin, the son of perdition. We looked last week, that's a
reference to Judas who betrayed the Lord Jesus with a kiss. Satan
having entered into him. It's also called here in verse
7, he's also called here the mystery of iniquity, the secret
of iniquity. And it's not referring to one
person, but to one heresy, a heresy that the Roman Catholic Church
has always embraced, a heresy that we've seen in our time embraced
with the Roman Catholic Church by so, so many other churches. And it's the one heresy that
leads to the great apostasy, that falling away that we read
about. The wicked one, that wicked one shall be revealed on earth. He'll be revealed in that little
season, that little time when He has the freedom to deceive
the nations again and take them captive in extraordinary ways. He'll be revealed on the earth
and then He'll be revealed very quickly at the judgment. And
He's coming. He's coming in verse 9. is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders. If you get a chance
when you go home, read Revelation 13 and 14 in some detail and
you'll be just amazed at how clearly the Scriptures describe
the power that he has, the signs that he has, the lying wonders
that he has. and remarkably, the deceivableness
of unrighteousness. In Revelation 14 John behelds
he saw two beasts in chapter 13. He saw one that came out
of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns
ten crowns and upon his heads the name of Blasphemy. And the
beast which I saw was like unto a leopard and his feet were the
feet of a bear and his mouth was the mouth of a lion and the
dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. And I saw one of his heads, as
it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world wondered after
the beast. And they worshipped the dragon
which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast,
saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war? with him and there was given
unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power
was given unto him to continue forty and two months and he opened
his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and
his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven and it was given
unto him to make war with the saints and overcome them, and
power was given him over all kindreds and tongues in nations,
and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names
are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him
hear. He beheld another beast, verse
11, coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb.
This is a different looking beast altogether. Looks like a lamb
and he spoke as a dragon. He exercised all power of the
first beast before him and caused the earth and them which dwell
therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was
healed. And he does great wonders so
that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the
sight of men. He can do the great miracles
of men like Elijah and deceive them that dwell on the earth
by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight
of the beast. saying to them that dwell on
the earth that they should make an image of the beast which had
the wound by the sword and did live. And he had power to give
life unto the image of the beast and the image of the beast should
both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the
image of the beast should be killed. And he caused all, both
small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark
on their right hand or in their foreheads. And it goes on, it
has all power. There are signs and lying wonders. It's something that we should
need to take careful note of, isn't it? The signs and wonders
these days are as much a sign of Satan at work as the signs
and wonders and the miracles of the apostles was a sign that
they were sent. from God and they were signs
in those days of the testimony of the truth of the Gospel. The signs and wonders are enticing
and they are remarkable. The one that seems to come up
so often these days is this one of being able to raise people
from the dead. Isn't it remarkable? So often
you read about it on Facebook and other places, of these people
that can do these remarkable things. There was that terrible
false teacher who came to school and deceived, and still deceives,
a whole bunch of the children that I taught over there and
he had the capacity to see angels around the room and talk to the
angels. He had the power to give people
the ability to speak in tongues and if they could speak in tongues
already he had the power and the ability to get them to speak
in tongues again. And he lived a life on the mission
field in Asia for probably 30 years and he could come and say
that he lived this life on the basis of miracle after miracle
after miracle. And he deceived, signs and lying
wonders. He is a deceiver. He is a deceiver with lying wonders
and the deceivableness of unrighteousness. and that God's children should
be troubled. We must remember that Paul is writing to them
that are shaken in mind, and they see these wonders and they
say, what are you doing when I have these friends who can
do these amazing deeds? He doesn't want us to be shaken
in mind or be troubled by them. And we need to remember what
2.8 says, he'll be revealed and he will be consumed. with the
spirit of the mouth of God, and he will be destroyed with the
brightness of his coming." The Lord effortlessly, effortlessly
deals with him and destroys him. We mustn't think that somehow
this is some titanic struggle and the Lord might possibly be
defeated. He wins. As he did, as he did
in the wilderness, the Lord Jesus triumphed over Satan by saying,
and what does the word of God say, the scriptures say. We have a picture of him and
we have a picture of the deceived. We might say if he is so big
and powerful then the deceived are not responsible for their
deception. The mystery of iniquity is already
at work. It was already at work 1950 years
ago and it's restrained. It's restrained by God for a
season and there will be a time when it will be let loose. They
are deceived by the power and the signs and the lying wonders
And they are deceived by all the deceivableness of unrighteousness. They are people who perish. They are people who are destroyed. They are people who are damned,
verse 12. And yet they are people. They
are people, if you read verse 10 carefully, He comes with power and signs
and lying wonders and all the deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish. Why do they perish? They received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Note God's words very carefully.
They perish because they receive not the love of the truth that
they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. God is just in His judgments
on people who trifle with His Gospel and trifle with His Son,
who is His Gospel. And we have been in this reprobate
age where you've been led to believe that you can live a life
of rebellion and at your appointed time you can choose God. Because God loves you and can't
do anything else but love you because you're so lovable and
that Jesus died for you and the Holy Spirit wants to save you
and therefore at a time of your choosing you can choose God. The scriptures tell us that that
is a damned lie over and over again. If you read Proverbs 1
you will see that they will call, they will call on Him having turned away from Him and
turned away from His Gospel and turned away from His Word. You read the last part of Proverbs
1. He says, then they shall call
on me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me. And there is a reason, a judicial
reason, for they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of
the Lord. They would have none of my counsel. They despised all of my reproof. Therefore they shall eat the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices."
There are so many passages in scripture that speak in the same,
same way. That is just one of multitudes
of passages. Jeremiah 6 is a beautiful picture
of the Lord calling upon His people to go back to the old
paths Thus says the Lord, stand in the ways of the cities and
ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk therein
and you shall find rest for your souls, Jeremiah 6.8.16. And what was the response? What
was the response of these people who had that laid out before
them? But they said, we will not walk in Also a set watchman
over here saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But
they said, we will not hearken. Therefore, you nations, hear,
and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth,
behold, I will bring evil upon these people and the fruit of
their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to My words
nor to My law, but rejected it." Reprobation, the reprobation
of God, is judicial and just. And for this cause, verse 11,
God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe
a lie, that all might be damned who believed not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness. Just in the brief time we have
left, I'd just like us to think what it is, what it is to be
deceived with the deceivableness of unrighteousness and to have
pleasure in unrighteousness. Satan masquerades as an angel
of his lights and his ministers come as ministers of righteousness. What is this unrighteousness?
Did the Thessalonians ask, do we need to be told that unrighteousness
would end in destruction? but lying and stealing, fornication,
slander, blasphemy, all of those things that you can think of
as unrighteous. Did anyone think that unrighteousness
would be a path to salvation? There is a deceivableness of
unrighteousness. And it's the unrighteousness
of the self-righteous. It's the unrighteousness of the
self-righteous who can go through all of this life and all of the
scriptures and get to the Lord Jesus on the Day of Judgement
and still hold on to their works of righteousness. Their works
of righteousness and their miracles, in Matthew 7.21 he says, many,
many will come to me on that day and what will they say? They will come to the Lord Jesus
on that day with their works of righteousness. Not everyone
that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in
heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in your name, and in your name cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works? And he denies none of
it. Then I will, the Lord Jesus then
says to them, I will profess unto them, I never knew you,
depart from me, you that work iniquity." It's the self-righteousness
that he's speaking about here, the self-righteousness, the deceiving
self-righteousness of the Pharisees, the deceiving self-righteousness
of the Judaizers. the deceiving self-righteousness
of people who think that their deeds and their prayers and their
religious activities and their works of the law are part of
saviour to them or in some way go to aid or to embellish the
work of the Triune God throughout the scriptures. We have warning
and warning and warning. In Colossians 2, Paul says, don't
let anyone beguile you, let no man beguile you of your reward.
And they come, how do they come beguiling? With voluntary humility,
the worshipping of angels and vainly puffed up in his fleshly
mind, and indeed they come. These workers of legalistic righteousness,
they come, they have a show of wisdom in will-worship, in self-imposed
religious piety, in will-worship and in humility and in neglecting
the body. And all of these activities are
just unrighteousness. All of the righteousness of men,
according to Isaiah 64, 6, are filthy rags before God. In Philippians 3, Paul says,
beware of the dogs, beware of the ever-workers, beware of the
concision. He's saying, see, look, why carefully
examine them? If righteousness comes by the
law, if righteousness comes by anything that you do, Christ
is dead in vain. as we've been seeing in Galatians,
the just shall live by faith and the law is not a faith. Who
were the people opposing and persecuting and troubling these
Thessalonian believers? Were they not the people from
that church, from that synagogue? Into that synagogue came the
Gospel. Into that synagogue came the
Lord Jesus preaching the Gospel of the glory of God through the
Apostle Paul. And out of that synagogue came
a group of people who believed by the grace of God. And out of that synagogue was
stirred up, when the Gospel came, was stirred up this intense opposition. a satanic opposition, a deluded
opposition, a legalistic, self-righteous opposition to the very people
of God. And they are the ones that are
troubling them and causing them tribulation and pursuing them
and persecuting them. The just shall live by faith. A man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. Where is the boasting, Romans
3.27, where is the boasting? You see they had pleasure in
unrighteousness, they had pleasure, verse 12, they believed not the
truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. They took their pleasure, their
religious pleasure, in what the Lord calls unrighteousness and
what they called their righteousness. Where is the boasting then? Where
is the boasting? It is excluded. By what law of
works is it excluded? by the moral law, no, it's excluded
by the law of faith. It's excluded by the everlasting
gospel. The everlasting Gospel takes
all the boasting out of man. It takes all the boasting about
any righteousness he has ever done away from him. He strips
man. The Gospel strips man of his
righteousness and his worthfulness and the wonder of his will. I
love how he finishes. God, in verse 13, We bow and give thanks always
unto you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit, not the self-sanctification of righteousness, which is the
deceivableness of unrighteousness, and belief of the truth. God has chosen them. See, it's
the honour of God the Father to give faith, to give faith
as a covenant grace gift to all of His children. And the Gospel
reveals the Lord Jesus Christ as the object of faith, not the
Lord Jesus plus what I have done. It's the work of God the Holy
Spirit to work faith in the hearts of the elect, the deceivableness
of unrighteousness, the deceivableness of any righteousness of men. It robs Christ of the honour
of making His people free. We have Believers, we have perfectly
fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law in Him. The righteousness of the Law,
Romans 8, fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. Christ has the honour of making
His children free from the law and the elect. have the right
to the liberty with which he has made them free." See, Satan's
ministers are transformed into ministers of righteousness. What
sort of righteousness? A righteousness that you achieve,
a righteousness that you do, a righteousness you can attain
by turning back to the moral law. They're transformed into
ministers of righteousness, Satan's ministers, and God makes His
ministers able ministers of the eternal covenant, the New Testament. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Satan is at his very most deceivable,
isn't he? When he comes with humility,
he comes with a Bible in his hand, he comes preaching a Jesus,
preaching a sovereign God, preaching the five points of Calvinism
and says, and on top of You can get more jewels in your
crown in heaven. You can please God and you can
displease God by your activities of obedience. We'll finish in
Philippians 3, because Paul had been deceived. Paul had a righteousness. Paul had a righteousness which,
until he met the Lord Jesus, was a righteousness which he
would have proudly held on to and proudly and boldly taken
to the very judgment of God in that great day. Paul had a righteousness. He says, beware, beware, beware. He had a righteousness. He says in verse 6, touching
the righteousness which was in the law, he was blameless. and to be found in Him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law." He had a righteousness
which he thought that was really his and really worthy of God. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. the righteousness which is of
God by faith." Satan had deceived him. had caused them to be extraordinarily
moral and extraordinary zealous. If you read in Matthew 23 you'll
see how righteous and how zealous and how amazingly evangelical
and missionary minded they were. People like Paul travelled over
land and sea to make disciples. What an extraordinary thing.
What an extraordinary thing it is that that is called by the
apostle, that same apostle, the deceivableness of unrighteousness. Any righteousness that you think
that you have in anything that you do is the deceivableness
of unrighteousness, and Satan takes it and uses it and massages
it and keeps telling you how wonderful it is, and I'll just
show you a few more little things you can do. And other people
say, wow, isn't he amazing? Isn't he godly? Isn't he wonderful? Deceivableness. And they'll have
a pleasure in it. They'll find their pleasure in
it. And how do you know that they
have their pleasure in it, brothers and sisters? when the Gospel comes and they'll
choose to hold on to that righteousness rather than hold on to the righteousness
of God revealed in the Gospel, you'll know how much they love
it by how much, how willingly they are to throw it away like
Paul did. And call it as he does in Philippians,
he calls it dung. He's happy to lose all things,
verse 8, but count them done that I may win Christ. May God work in our hearts to
save us from the deception that our Adam nature is so prone to.
Let's pray.