Turn back to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2, titled the message, Bound to
give thanks to God always. All who truly believe the gospel have much to be thankful for.
We have much to be thankful for. God has not left us to ourselves. He's not left us to the spirit
of Antichrist that we read here in this chapter. There are so
many services that go on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday.
that is under the Spirit of Antichrist. Doing it in the name of Christ,
using His name, but the Spirit of it is under the Spirit of
Antichrist. It's against Christ. Our Lord
has called us away from that. And He's called us by the Gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
cannot put that into words. We just have to wait until we
see it and experience it fully. All that God has, He has given
to His Son. All the glory of redemption,
the glory of creation, all that exists is for the glory of Jesus
Christ. And we get to share in that glory. Now one of the very things that
God has saved us from and we are so thankful for is our sins. Our sins. No one else can save
us from our sins. No one else can put away our
sins, but He can and He has in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He
has saved us from false religion. I don't know all your backgrounds,
but I'd say 99% of everyone in here came out of false religion. Most of God's sheep usually make
a false profession, and then God sends the gospel to them,
like He did Paul, like He did many of us, and then you hear
the gospel. And like I heard one preacher
say, it's like being doubly saved. I was saved from my sins and
I was saved from a false refuge. The worst thing you can have
is a false refuge, a false hope. So with this in mind, Paul gives
some instructions and some comfort at the end of this chapter. And
he tells us here in verse 1, And we ought to find much comfort
in this. Much comfort. Christ is coming. Now we beseech you, brethren,
listen, by the coming, the sense is this, He's on His way. That's the sense of it. He's
on His way. He's coming. And this is good
news to us. It's not bad news, it's good
news. To the world it's bad news. The lost is bad news, but to
us, this is the best news that we could hear is the Lord's on
His way. He's coming to get us and take
us home. But while we wait, while we wait,
we have no excuse not to be productive. in the gospel, in the church,
or in the place where we work, where God has put us. You know,
we are not where we are, we do not work where we work by accident. God put us there. He put every
one of us. Not only are we placed in the
body of Christ where it pleases the Lord to place us, but He
has placed us in a community, in families, and in the workplace,
exactly where He would have us. You're the light of the world.
You are the salt of the earth. You are an ambassador of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of you that believe
the gospel, you're an ambassador. You represent the God of heaven
and earth. I always try to keep that in
my mind when I'm out and about. I represent God. I'm an ambassador
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and I are to look, we
are to expect his return. You know, I was looking at the lesson
or the message coming up for Sunday in Matthew and the Pharisees
scribes, they said, show us a sign. I'm not looking for a sign. You
are not looking for a sign. We have the word of God. We don't
need signs. We have his word. We have the
witness of his spirit. We don't need signs. Don't show
me a sign. Just tell me His Word. Preach
His Word to me. Read His Word to me. We don't
look for signs. I tell you what we're looking
for. We're looking for Him. We're looking for the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now He could return today. He could return before we finish
this service. And we ought to have some expectation
of that return. of it being imminent. I don't
know when He will. It may be a thousand years from
now. I don't know. But I know this. I know for a certainty
that Jesus Christ is coming back. And I also know this. There is
absolutely nothing left to be fulfilled. There's nothing else
left to be fulfilled. Here's what's left for that last
lost sheep to be brought into the fold. And when that happens,
this is over. So he says in verse 2, so don't
be shaken in mind. He said, be not soon shaken in
mind. That is, don't be off balance.
Don't let someone come along and knock you off balance spiritually. You know, every now and then
I get this vertigo. And things are just like this.
I mean, I hate it. When I get it, everything's off
balance. And that's the meaning here. Don't let anyone knock
you off balance. You and I are to be so established
in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the faith of Christ, in the doctrines
of Christ, that we should not be shaken by anything. Someone
comes along and says, I have a revelation from God. Do I go
tell it to somebody else? Don't tell it to me. I don't
need that. Here's all the revelation from
God you and I are going to have. And this is it. This is the revelation
right here in this book. Outside this book, we don't need
it because it's not of God. It's not of God. So don't be
shaken in mind or trouble or stirred up to the point where
you are useless. Some of them became useless. We have to have a different frame
of mind, a believer does. This whole world is God's vineyard. It all belongs to Him, right?
I quoted this to my youngest son yesterday. The earth is the
Lord's, the fullness are of Him, they who dwell therein. He was
telling me that... We got talking about this matter
of entitlement. Everybody thinks they're entitled
to something, that they have a right to something. And I said,
Jeremy, let me tell you something. Nobody on this earth has a right
to anything. I said, God owns it. We don't
have a right to anything. This all belongs to God. I said,
the problem is, is God is left out of it. And that's why they
think they have a right to it. And God is not preached in pulpits
today to be God. If he's preached as God, people
would understand that it all belongs to Him, and what we have
is by His mercy and by His grace. Not entitled to anything. I have
no right to anything. Now, aren't you thankful you
know that? If I have anything, it's by the
mercy of God. What rights does a criminal have? I'll tell you this, now in this
country they may have some, but before God they have none. Before
God Almighty, nobody outside of Christ has any rights whatsoever.
And whatever rights I do have, I have through the Lord Jesus
Christ. I have a right to the Kingdom of God because of my
relationship to Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, I have no rights.
None whatsoever. They were forfeited in the Garden
of Eden. So don't let someone come along...
I got off the point there. Let me go back here in verse
2. So don't be shaken in mind or
troubled or stirred up to the point where you are useless.
And don't let someone say that God sent them and gave them a
revelation. And I've seen this on television. I've seen this on television.
God's given me a revelation. Just turn them off. I'm trying
to figure out how to condense this so I can preach it on the
radio. Last week's message, I got the radio, they're going to play
the whole entire message. It's like 40 minutes long. But
they're going to play the whole entire message from last Thursday. And at no charge, at no extra
charge. And I'd like for this one to
be played. But I don't want to ask them
to do that two times in a row. I mean, at no charge. And we're
supposed to be 15 minutes. So I've got to try to figure
out how to get this into 15 minutes. But it won't happen tonight.
It ain't going to happen tonight. So don't let any man deceive
you by any means. He says this here, "...there
must come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition." Paul's talking about a departure from
the faith by men and women who claim to be in the faith. They
claim to be in the faith, but they've departed from the faith.
And this is the spirit of Antichrist. And I'm telling you, we live
in a day where, I mean, I believe this has happened, The vast majority
of all preaching goes on out there, you know that it's a lie. It's a lie. They are lying on
God. They're using His name, they're
using the Bible, they're using gospel terminology, but they're
lying on God. And this is the mystery of iniquity. The mystery of iniquity is not
some drunk on a corner. The mystery of iniquity is in
religion. It's so close to the gospel,
so close to the truth that the elect would be deceived. And
it's so wicked. You go down to one of these churches
down here that's preaching, and they've got the community services
going on, and you tell them, you say, what you're doing is
wicked. What you're saying and what you're
preaching is wicked. You're making men and women proselytes,
and you're making them two-fold the children of hell. And they're
going to look at you and say, you've got to be kidding. We
do this, we do this, we do that. We use the Bible. But that's
the mystery of iniquity. One thing about iniquity, sin,
you can't see it. You see the effects of it. You can see the effects of it,
just like you can see the effects of the wind when it blows and
it moves the trees, but you can't see sin, because sin's a nature. It's a nature. It's not a bottle.
It's not a pillbox. It's a nature. You can't see
it. And that's why it's so powerful in us. You can't see it coming. You think something is okay,
and then all of a sudden it just gets worse, and the next thing
you know, it's a real problem. And this mystery of iniquity
and sin has been working. And I'll tell you what, it's
been doing it a long, long time. And he says here, let's get back
here, that man of sin is going to be revealed. Now, God's elect
will recognize him. They'll recognize that man of
sin. You know what that man of sin is? He's the man standing
in the pulpit lying on God. He's the man standing in the
pulpit preaching another Jesus, another gospel. Look over in
Matthew chapter 24. I'm not going to get through
all this. Look at verse 22, "...and except though days should be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's
sake those days shall be shortened. Now if any man shall say unto
you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, don't believe him." Now I want
you to listen, "...for there shall arise false Christ." That's
many. There'll be many. There's false
Christs. You'll hear them preaching another
Jesus down here on this corner, then over on this corner, they'll
preach another one, then down 50 miles down the road, they'll preach
another one. These are all false Christs and false prophets, and shall
show great signs and wonders. You know, God allows Satan to
do wonders. He allows him to do these things.
You remember when Moses threw down his stick, that staff? And then the magicians there,
Pharaoh's magicians, they threw him down and they turned him
into a snake too. Serpents, they turned him into
a serpent also. Now Moses ate theirs up, but it turned it into
one. God allows them to do it, as
he tells us over here in 2 Thessalonians, that those who, and I'm getting
way ahead of myself here, but that those who love not the truth,
They are going to just be buried in delusion. When the gospel
is preached, He doesn't say they don't believe the doctrines.
He said when they don't love it, they are not in love with
the truth. Who is the truth? The Lord Jesus
Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the light. They receive not the love of the truth. They don't receive
the love of the message. They don't receive the love of
the one the message is about. And because of this, it says,
God sends them a strong delusion. He'll let Satan do things that's
just impressive. And if they see, he must be of
God, God must be with him. Strong delusions, strong delusions. I've seen some of these guys
on television start acting like they're speaking in tongues,
just gibbering away. And people fall for that. They
fall for that. That's a strong delusion. It's
like drowning in delusion. That's what's happening, drowning
in delusion. Now, he says here, back to this,
this man of sin will be revealed. Now, John, Gil, Calvin, and some
of the best men I have confidence in, Henry, one of them, said,
this is not any one particular man, but this is a succession
of men. I'm going to read you what they
said. It's called a man because all these men standing in the
pulpits are under the same spirit of Antichrist. They actually
make up one man of sin. Like Joe Terrell said one time,
he said what's interesting is that the spirit of Antichrist
is leading the search for Antichrist. because it keeps you, your mind
off of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not concerned about the Antichrist,
the spirit of Antichrist. Personally, I'll tell you what
I'm concerned about is my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and
your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as your pastor.
I want us to know Him. I want us to grow old in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I want us, when it comes
to die, if we grow old and we die, I want us to look forward
to it. I want us to look forward to
His return. That's what I want us to do.
I'm not concerned. I'm really not concerned. You
know, especially young people, I hope they grow up and get a
good job, good education, but that's not my real concern. I
hope they do, I hope the Lord blesses them, enables them to
do so. If it would be a blessing, if
it's not, I'd cut them off. Not every good job's a blessing.
Not every good situation's a blessing. Now, this spirit of Antichrist,
That is from Satan. Satan's the head of it. He's
the head of it. He opposes. These all oppose
Christ, even though they use His name.
Even though they use His name. They oppose His kingly reign. They don't preach His sovereign
reign. Other than me on the radio, Is
there anyone else on the radio that you know of that preaches
the sovereign reign of Jesus Christ over all? He's the sovereign
Lord. He saves whom He will. He leaves
alone whom He will. I kill and I make alive. I wound
and I heal. I wish everyone on the radio,
on television, in every pulpit would preach that message. But
it's hard to find it. You know why? Because there is
a great falling away that's happened. I was thinking today when I was
reading this and was talking about there comes a great general. The old writers called a general
falling away across this world. And it reminded me of a documentary,
I don't remember the name of it, that was showing the Catholicism,
these Catholics going to Africa and these different places in
China and these different places and making proselyte. I mean,
they were making converts. And I thought, those poor people.
As I watched it, I thought, they've taken them from dancing around
a fire to dancing around an altar. And both of them are, well, actually,
Getting them under Catholicism is more damning than what they
were doing, because now they've got a false refuge. And I thought, they have gone
compass sea and land and preached a false gospel. They talk about how many converts
they have. You know, Jimmy Swaggart and all these men, when they'd
go out, they'd say, we come back, we had thousands saved over in
this country and that country. It's a delusion. It's nothing
but a delusion. It's the spirit of Antichrist
going out. It's that general falling away. It's the falling away. The Spirit of Antichrist opposes
Christ. As I said, they won't preach
His kingly office, His sovereign reign. They have set up man's
free will instead of God's sovereign will.
Free will Baptist. Free will Baptist. That's arrogant,
isn't it? That's advertising right in the
face of God. My will over God's will." And
he said, these men sit in the temple, that is, the house of
God. This Antichrist spirit rose up from among the brethren. That's
what Paul said over in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19. And although he
was never a brother, like Judas was never one of the apostles,
he was the son of perdition, but it will come out from among
from among the brethren. Look over in 1 John 2. Look in 1 John 2, verse 18-19. "'Little children, it is the
last time, and as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come.'"
Now listen, even now are there many Antichrist. You know, before... Well, put
it this way. Outside of Christ, outside of
the Lord Jesus Christ, outside of faith in Christ, outside of
the new birth, every person is Antichrist. Every lost human
being is Antichrist. They say, who is the Antichrist?
Look in the mirror. Because you're under the influence
of the Spirit of Antichrist if you do not believe and love and
follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, even now are there many
Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. We know
it's the last time because listen to all the preaching and all
the false preaching going on. These are Antichrists. They went
out from us. At one time they were with us.
But they went out from us because they didn't believe the gospel.
They said, no, that's not the way it is. God loves everybody. God wants to save everybody.
Jesus Christ died for everybody, even those in hell. They couldn't take the sovereign
reign of Jesus Christ, so they went out and they started another
place down the road, not realizing they are antichrist. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. 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, they
were antichrist." I can tell you one thing, whatever
the... Henry said this before, whatever the majority of religion
is going after, you just go the other direction. You go the other
direction. I remember when I was 20 years
old, I'd made a profession, and I was, man, I was taken up with
this thing of the Antichrist, tribulation, you know, 666, and then I heard the gospel.
And I honestly have been taken up with Jesus Christ ever since. He knows who they are. And you
know what? He's got it under control. It
is absolutely under His control. I love the way this starts out,
when Paul starts this out here. Now, we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's certain. That's
what he's saying. It's so certain. This is done. This is done. He's coming. This is taken care
of. And this is what's going to happen
when He comes. This is not what He's going to try to do. This is done. And this is how
it's going to happen when He comes. And He's telling us about
the future. That's what He's telling us.
These men who are under the Spirit of Antichrist, they oppose salvation
by grace alone, Christ alone, by His righteousness alone, even
though they use those terms, they oppose it. As I heard a
man say here not too long ago, he said that he would be blessed
by what he did, that he'd be received of God by what he did. We are received of God by the
merits, the merits of Jesus Christ. And that's it. And if you and I do anything
at all worth talking about, first of all, he's the one who's doing
the work in us. It's under the power of his spirit.
And secondly, we've only done what we ought
to do. So don't write home about it. There's no sense writing
home about it and saying, oh, I did this, I did that. The Scripture
says, after you have done all that you should do, say, we are
unprofitable servants. We only did what we ought to
have done. You know, we should never brag
about doing right. Isn't that something? Do something right, we won't
brag about it. You ought to do it right. And go home and be quiet
about it. These men declare to be called
of God, speak on God's behalf, Pope John XXII was called Our
Lord God the Pope. He ain't called that now. And Paul says here in verse 5,
he says, Remember ye not how forgetful we are. How forgetful
we are. Part of the message for Lord
willing this Sunday, Christ feeds the multitude again. That's probably
what I'll title it. He feeds the multitude again.
4,000 men plus women and children. And the Lord said to His disciples,
I have compassion on them. And you know what they said?
We only have seven loaves and a few fishes. They were with
Him when He fed the five. Did they just forget that? Instead
of saying, Lord, here, Here's seven loaves and five
fishes. You just fed 5,000 plus the women
and children. But they said, we don't have
enough. All we got here is... When I
read that, I thought, how pitiful we are. The Lord can bless you,
bring you out of trouble, lift you up, A month later, trouble
comes and you completely forget. And I completely forget what
he did a month ago. He fed us today. And tomorrow,
will I worry about him feeding me again? You know, I lost three jobs when
we were young. I lost three jobs. Three companies
went out of business. You don't want to hire me. If
you don't want your company, go out of business. No. I just happened to be there when
it happened. But those three companies went
out of business. And each time, I was, I mean,
I'm serious. I was just like, well, the first
time, especially, first time, I was like, what are we going
to do? Second time, it's like, hmm. And the third time you realize,
the Lord will provide. And every time, I look back,
every time that happened, I came out better in the end, had a
better job, made more money, in a better situation. But at
the time it happened, it was a disaster to me. He takes care of us. Remember
you not, that's the way He's saying, don't you remember when
I was with you, I told you these things? Paul is repeating what
he told them already. This is the second letter. How
many times have I stood up here and repeated myself? How many
times have I said, I said this to you before? We're just so forgetful. It's sad, we don't forget an
ornery joke. But you can't remember the Word
of God. Isn't that amazing? I can remember ornery jokes back
when I was in elementary. That's sad. I can tell you some
ornery jokes when I was in elementary. But trying to remember the Word
of God, the promises of God that you can grasp onto, it's like
this flesh is just totally set against anything that's going
to give God glory, even your memory. We just remember the bad things,
though. And now you know what withholdeth." What is keeping this from completely
taking over? The Spirit of Antichrist. What
is keeping it from completely taking over? God, the Holy Spirit. It's under control. That's why
He's saying it's under control. The Holy Spirit restrains, He
withholds the power of Antichrist from taking over completely. you over. He says here in this one place
that if it were possible that it would deceive the very elect,
it'd be so close to it. But you know, God's not going
to let it deceive you. He's not going to let it deceive you.
But I'll tell you why. Greater is He that is in you
than he that's in the world. He's able to keep you. He's God.
He's God. In God's appointed time, this
spirit of Antichrist will dominate, and all nations shall be deceived
by him, and the Lord Jesus will finally come." And then stop
it all. Put an end to it. And all this
will be done. All this will be done. "...for the mystery of iniquity
doth already work." This spirit of Antichrist and iniquity, it's
hard at work, it's so subtle, It's so subtle, it can slip in
the door. And it can sit here for a while
before you realize there's something not right. Something not right. You know, first of all, Satan
knows the gospel you believe. And he knows how to just put
a little twist on it. Put a little turn on it, just
like he did Eve. He got talking to Eve, and next thing you know,
he's in her head. The next thing you know, she's
getting Adam's head. The next thing you know, they're
kicked out of the garden, and here we are. So subtle. Oh, so subtle. This mystery of
iniquity has been working for a long time, since the fall. Since the fall. And this spirit
of Antichrist, it will rise up. If you see in verses 8 and 10,
it'll rise up. It'll be revealed. You'll see
it. When you hear a false gospel,
you know it, don't you? You know it. When you hear someone
talking about Christ, that's not according
to the Scriptures, He's not the sovereign Christ, He's a servant
to your will, He can't do anything unless you let Him, you know
it's a lie. You know that's a crooked stick,
because you know the straight one. You've seen the straight
one. And he's going to be destroyed according to God's eternal purpose.
I was thinking today, it was just impressed upon me today,
going over this, I thought about this country and the world, you
know, we all get up in the morning, You're going to go to work. Some
of you are not retired. You're going to go do something,
but you're going to get up and go to work. People out here are going to
go to work, and the whole world is going to get up, and they're
going to go about here and go about there, and they're going
to do this and they're going to do that. Out of all of this
activity, There's a mystery of iniquity at work that you can't
see and you don't realize. And it's all moving like a river
moving in one direction. And once it reaches that point, God's going to put a stop to
it. When it reaches the point where there's just a general
falling away throughout the whole world, from the Gospel. Now God will have His church
here and there. He'll have it here and there. But for the most
part, they'll just be lying on God. And it's just, we don't see it.
That's what impressed me so much. When you get up, you go about
the day, but you don't see. That mystery of iniquity that's
at work today and tomorrow and tomorrow. And the thankful thing and the
thing that I'm thankful from is that the Lord has saved us
from that. He's pulled us out of it. It's
like being floating down a river and he reached in and just pulled
you out of the river. Set you on dry land, set you on the solid
rock. That's what he did. And Satan,
listen, Satan is the master behind all this. He's the master behind
this spirit of Antichrist. He's the master of it. I'm going
to have to close because this is too much here. I don't know though. Let me get
on down here to verse 13. I don't want to end on that note. He says here, let me read verse 8, "...and then
shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth." That's how you just speak. And what
he did to the devils? He just said, come out, and they
come out. "...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, with all deceivableness." of
unrighteousness, and them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth." Peter, do you love me? Do you love the
gospel? Do you love the truth? Truth. "...they receive not the love
of the truth, that they might be saved. If this cause God shall
send them strong delusion, that they shall believe a lie and
be damned, that they all might be damned. who believed not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness, and that unrighteousness is self-righteousness. It's just not necessarily those
who had pleasure in rioting and living out in a gutter. It's self-righteousness. But
here's what I had to get to. I had to get to this. But, verse
13, we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren,
Beloved of the Lord. This has the sense of, in the military, you know,
attention. You stand at attention. Instructions
are given, as Paul's given. And then after that, he says,
the general says, at ease. And that's what Paul's saying
here, at ease. Now you can be at ease, brethren.
We're bound to give thanks always to God for you. God's to be thanked
for saving our souls. No believer will apostatize.
This won't happen to a believer. Don't be afraid of the Antichrist,
for God is with us. You'll not be deceived. You are
beloved of the Lord. You are His children. You belong
to Him and He will not let you go. And the evidence of His love
is this, God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Now
any gospel that says, God did not choose you, He leaves it
up to you, is a lie. That's spirit of antichrist.
The evidence of God's love and the evidence of the gospel being
preached is that God has chosen you from the beginning. He purposed
to save you. He saved you on purpose. He gave
you an opportunity. He saved you on purpose. And
He did this before the world was. God set His love upon you
before creation. Election is a doctrine of praise
because of the God of election. We don't praise the doctrine,
we praise the God of election. God also chose the means through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. All
whom God saves, He saves through the regenerating work of the
Holy Spirit. I tell you this, man doesn't
believe he's lost. You die not believing, you're going to perish. Everyone whom God saves, He saves
through faith, through the sanctified work of the Holy Spirit. All right, I'm going to end right
there. Next week, Lord willing, we'll pick up, we'll speak of
this good hope through grace.