Well, once again, may the Lord
be gracious to us as we turn to the second epistle of Paul
to the Thessalonians and the second chapter. And this evening
we'll read verses 7, 8, 9, and 10. So the second epistle of
Paul to the Thessalonians, chapter 2, and reading verses 7, 8, 9,
and 10. I'll just read those then. For
the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now
letteth or hindreth will let, until he be taken out of the
way. And then shall that wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. As we read through the Word of
God we find sometimes there are verses and parts which are really
quite difficult to understand and difficult to interpret. And it's not really perfectly
clear who the Apostle is speaking of here. We can take a general
view that of course it must be the devil, Apollyon, the adversary
of souls, Of course, as we know, the Word of God does speak of
the man of sin. The man of sin is generally referred
to as the Pope, and it may well refer to him. So as we just run
through these verses, to realize that there are those situations
which we need to remember and consider. So the Apostle commences
by saying, in the 7th verse of the Mystery, of iniquity doth
already work." Well, of course, in one sense, it is a mystery. Sin came into the world, the
Lord permitted sin to come into the world, and sin, of course,
has always worked. And what a sad scene it is. The whole world groans because
of sin, because of iniquity. The mystery of iniquity doth
already work. And then we read, only he who
now letteth will hinder until he be taken out of the way. So
there is that hindering against the truth of God, against the
word of God, against the blessing of God. Of course, we know our
great adversary, the devil, does not want there to be any blessing
for there to be any prosperity, and therefore he does all that
he can to hinder his work. He always has done, right from
the time when he spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden. And he
is still a great adversary, and he's still very subtle in the
way he works. And he continues to try and hinder
the work of Almighty God. But we should always remember
that he is a tethered foe. Indeed, he has been conquered
by the blessed Saviour himself. How thankful we should be for
that great and glorious work, completed upon Calvary, where
all the devil's plans were destroyed. How thankful we should be to
Almighty God. Then we read, and then shall
that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the
spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming." Well, clearly the reference to wicked is again
important. It's written with a capital letter.
So it's either somebody eminent like the Pope or indeed the devil
himself. But then we're told this, and
then shall that wicked be revealed. And surely we see the devil revealed
today, more and more, as we commented last week. He goes about in so
many subtle ways, and he's a great deceiver. And he turns men away
from the truth of God. But here we have this statement,
which we should be thankful for. Whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth. And that clearly means, by the
spirit, The Word of God. Well, the Word of God does destroy. Destroy those who desire to speak
against the things of God. The Lord sometimes graciously
uses His Word to destroy. And so those whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of His mouth and shall destroy with
the brightness of His coming. Now that may of course mean as
the Lord comes in His glorious light into our souls and as it
shines forth in the face of Jesus Christ which we should be so
thankful for and that of course will indeed consume the devil. The devil will not be able to
stand against the brightness of Almighty God and in the 2nd
Corinthians in that 4th chapter We're told for God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. What a blessing it is to have
such a statement like that, to believe that the evil one, the
devil, will not be able to withstand this great and glorious light,
the light which shines in the face of our blessed Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore we are told, whom
the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming. The devil cannot
stand against the blessed Lord. And so he goes on, even him,
whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs
and lying wonders. Surely today we see many people
pretending virtually to be in the place of God and command
God with signs and wonders, but they're only of Satan. They don't
emanate from Almighty God. Perhaps on a casual observance,
They appear to be genuine, but if we examine these things, one
thing is very clear. It doesn't bring honour and glory
to God. It brings honour and glory to
puny man. Whereas we should be thankful
to know that God will have the honour and He will have the glory. And so even Him whose coming
is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and
lying wonders. And there are many today who
like to think that they're in God's stead and they can do these
wonderful things, but in reality emanates from the devil himself. And you shouldn't just misunderstand
what it says here. It's after the working of Satan
with all power and science and mind, the devil is able to do
things. He's not able to do things for
the honor and glory of God. And what he does is not lead
us in humility to Christ. It leads us away and directs
us to the pride of man. And then he goes on, and with
all deceivableness, yes, how the devil almost has deceived. And He still does today. And
we need to be on our watch now that we're not deceived by things
which appear to emanate from God, but in actual fact emanate
from the devil. And with all disableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish. It's a very solemn statement,
isn't it? Of unrighteousness in them that
perish. Yes, there will be many who will
perish under a false religion, under a false belief, under what
they thought emanated from God, but in fact it emanated from
Satan himself. Because they receive not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. And that's an important
statement, isn't it? To receive the love of the truth. The Word of God is true. And God sent His Word to us because
of His love. He loves to utterly unworthy
sinners. And what a mercy, therefore,
if God has given us that light, that light from heaven, which
has shone into our heart, to reveal to us the great and glorious
truth of the Gospel, and that therefore we receive Not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. We receive it. Those
who are lost do not receive it. They turn away from it. They
don't do anything really of the love of Christ. They love themselves
and they love to be exalted like the Pharisees. What a mercy if
we come in like the publican did and cry out, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner. And so he says, that they receive,
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Solemn,
isn't it, to think that there we have the Word of God with
the truth, but so many do not receive it, they will not believe
it, and therefore they are lost. They are lost forever. They're
not saved. Well, may we know the blessing
of saving grace. May we know it's not of our flesh,
it's not of works, lest any man should boast, but it is through
the free mercy and love of God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. Well may the Lord bless His Word.