I want you to open your Bibles
now to the book of 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. I brought a message from this
scripture to our church recently. and entitled the message, The
Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I thought, I believe, led of
the Spirit of God, that you would enjoy this study this morning
on the return of Christ, on the second coming of Christ. We throughout our lives have
heard a good bit of preaching and talking about the return
of Christ. And in the last few months, it's
been intensified to a certain extent. With the passing out
of one millennium into another, and moving into especially the 2000s, Many of the old timers, way back
yonder, the old writers, felt that the days of man upon the
earth would be 6,000 years, 2,000 years from the creation of Adam
to Moses, the giving of the law on Sinai. and then 2,000 years
from the law to the coming of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ,
and then 2,000 years to his return. One of the scriptures they use
for that teaching is over in 2 Peter, when the Lord talks
about his return. Chapter 3, Peter writes about
his second coming And he said, reminded us that a thousand years
is as a day unto the Lord, and a day is a thousand years. And
that's what they draw that from, that the Lord made the earth
in six days on the seventh millennium he rested. And they teach that,
but I'm not teaching that. I'm not saying that. I'm not
setting dates. But I'm saying that all believers
rejoice in the coming of our Lord. And we're going to talk
a little bit about it this morning, because that's what this chapter
deals with, 2 Thessalonians 2. Starts out that way, listen.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, we rejoice
and look for the return of our Lord. He told his disciples in John
14, he said, I go to prepare a place for you. And when I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself. There'll be a gathering unto
him. He'll gather together all things in one, which are in Christ,
both in heaven and earth. And then in second Thessalonians,
first Thessalonians, Paul says the coming of the Lord will be
with the shout of the archangel, with the voice, the shout of
the archangel, the voice of the trumpet, and the dead in Christ
shall rise. We which are alive and remain
shall not precede them which are asleep, but they shall rise
first, and then we shall be changed and called up together with them
in the air to meet the Lord, and so shall we ever be with
the Lord." So, this is the subject. by the coming of our Lord Jesus
and by our gathering together unto him. We should be gathered
together. The living will be changed in
a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. For flesh and blood shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. This corruptible has got put
on incorruption. And we'll be changed and caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air. When our Lord ascended on the
mountain, his disciples, he led them out, you remember, to the
mountain and blessed them. He said, now you tarry in Jerusalem
till you be endued with power, and you shall be my witnesses
in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, uttermost parts of the earth.
And then he was taken up from them in the clouds, and they
stood and watched him go. And as they looked up into the
clouds where their Lord had been taken and disappeared, the angels
appeared to them. And the angels said, ye men of
Galilee, you disciples, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
I imagine they stood there a long time and just gazed. The man, Jesus Christ, the God-man,
had descended to heaven. And they stood and watched, and
the angels said, Why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same
Jesus. Now that's important. This same
Jesus. Peter used that phrase on Pentecost
several times. This same Jesus whom you crucify,
so God has made Lord in Christ. This same Jesus. Not another. Job said that. He said, My Redeemer
liveth, and he'll stand on this earth. and I shall see him myself,
not another, not another, the same Jesus, and he'll so come
as you've seen him go." All right, but now verse two, that this
had happened. Paul warns this church about
becoming unsettled, alarmed, and excited by some people who
had said, the day is upon us, he's coming. This was back Thessalonians
was the first of Paul's epistles, not Romans, not Corinthians. Thessalonians, his first epistle. They're not in order in the Scripture
in the order in which they were written. It was the first one. So the other epistles had not
been written. Book of Revelation had not been
written. And here's some people who come into the church and
said the Lord's coming is imminent. He's coming. He's coming right
away, right away, right away. And Paul said, verse 2, Be not
shaken, that you be not soon shaken in your mind, and be troubled
neither by spirit. People claim to be speaking by
the Spirit of God. You know, John said, Try the
spirits. Everybody who stands in a pulpit,
everybody who preaches, claims to be preaching by the Spirit
of God. They have to if people wouldn't
listen to them. They make claims that their spirit of God sent
them. Spirit of God said this to me.
Spirit of God taught me this. He said, try the spirits, whether
they be of God. There's more than one spirit
in this world. There's one Holy Spirit. There's
one Spirit of Christ. But many spirits, evil spirits,
demon spirits, spirits of Satan, deceiving multitudes. So, whether
by spirit, listen, nor by word, preaching, nor by letter as from
us." What does that mean, a letter as from us? He didn't say a letter
from me. He said a letter as from me. Some of these fellows had forged
epistles. They had written epistles in
Paul's name. Said, Paul sent this epistle.
Paul sent years ago they keep talking about those lost books
in the Bible, the Maccabees and all these things they wanted
to add to the Bible. Those are false epistles. Those didn't
come from the apostles of Christ or the prophets. They weren't
given by God. They were forgeries. And that's
what this is talking about here. Paul said, now listen, don't
get unsettled. Don't get alarmed, excited by
those who declare that the return of Christ is imminent. that his
coming is right now, even about people claiming to have a spirit,
claiming to have a word from God, or by epistles they claim
are from me, as that the day of the Christ is at hand. Now, let me say something here. The second coming of Christ,
the return of Christ, that's the most momentous event since
his first coming. That's, you know, the thing that
blesses us the most, thrills us the most, is His first coming.
Because if He hadn't come the first time, we wouldn't want
Him to come the second time. We'd be confounded and ashamed
that He's come. But He came the first time as
our Redeemer. He came as the Lamb of God. He came as the Christ, the substitute. Our second Adam, our representative,
our federal head, to give us a righteousness and put away
our sin so that we could look for his coming. I go to prepare
a place. He's not talking about spending
years and years and years building castles and palaces and streets
of gold. He's talking about preparing
a place in God's presence for us. We got no place there. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord? Who will stand in his holy place? He that hath
clean hands. Christ cleaned our hands. He
that hath a pure heart, he gave us a pure heart. He that has
never lifted up his soul to vanity, he gave us a spiritual life. Who's never sworn deceitfully,
not guilty, that's us. We're not guilty in Christ. I
go to prepare you for the place and a place for you. And he entered
into the Holy of Holies with his blood. He entered beyond
the veil into the presence of the Father as our forerunner. What does a forerunner do? What
was John the Baptist? A forerunner? What did he do?
Prepare you the way of the Lord. Forerunner. So our forerunner
is already within the veil, and the place is prepared on the
cross through his perfect life, by his, I preach the word, by
his mediation. And he said, if I prepare, I'll
come again and receive you, take you to that place where I am,
there you may be. So we're looking for his coming. But an event like that, the return
of Christ, the end of the world as we know it, eternal glory
beginning at hand. Now, if you go preaching that
and say to them, it's going to happen next week, and it doesn't
happen, you know what's going to happen? You know what is going
to happen? Disappointment. Disappointment. And disappointment leads to what? Despair. And despair leads to
what? Doubt. Where is the promise of
His coming? Since the fathers fell asleep,
everything going along just like it is. So be careful. In 1993, 1992 or three, Mr. Camping out in California, who's
a very wealthy preacher, teacher, and a man who believes grace.
who owns 39 radio stations all over the country and a TV station
in California on which our program is broadcast, wrote a book entitled
1994. It's that thing. I've had a copy
of it. I read some of it, in which he
said Christ is coming back September the 6th, 1994. He's a well-known, he's so well-known,
Larry King Live had him on his program. I watched you and I
watched it together, talking about that book, and him and
two or three other preachers. He's coming September 6, 1994.
He said, well, it may be. It may not be that exact day. And one man quoted this, no man
knows the day or the hour. And Mr. Camping answered, yes,
it says no man knows the day, but it doesn't say no man knows
the month or the year. They get around these things,
you know, subtly. Well, anyway, it so happened
that they invited me out there to preach at their conference
in August. The Lord's coming in September.
I was the key speaker every night at eight o'clock for five nights
in San Jose, California in that large auditorium to these people,
Mr. Camping and all these people.
They invited me to come preach the gospel. Every morning at
ten, he lectured on this book. Every morning at eleven, another
man lectured on Hebrews. Every night at eight, I spoke,
I preached the gospel. CNN news cameras were there. I got around those, though. I
didn't want to get in on that stuff. But I was there to preach
the gospel. And they said, He's coming. And I met a lot of the
people. You said, Well, how did you deal
with that when they asked you, Do you believe Mr. Camping's
book? You know how I answered them? I sure hope he's right. I don't know anything that would
make me happier if the Lord would come tonight, tomorrow, September
the 6th, throw me to death. And that's satisfying. They left
me alone. I preached the gospel to them.
A lot of people heard the gospel. They put me on the television
station after I'd been on for five years because of that meeting.
It accomplished something. But Christ didn't come. Some
of the people had sold their homes, withdrawn their savings. Got ready to leave here. He didn't
come. And I corresponded with many
of them. They were devastated. A lot of them left, Mr. Kennedy.
A lot of them left the meetings. Didn't go back anymore. You see,
when you make, set dates, and the Lord doesn't fulfill that
date, and he won't if you set it. No man knows the day or the
hour, not even the angels. But it leads to disappointment,
it gives way to despair, and then you doubt he'll even come. And that's what Paul's talking
to these people about. Don't you get alarmed, excited,
no matter who comes along and says it. Now, I want you to look
at verse, verse, and let me tell you this. You say, well, what's
the motive of a man? What was Mr. Camping's motive?
Two things. Number one, he was trying to
motivate believers to be better believers. This is what they
told me. I walked one day with him from
the cottage down to the meeting place. Nice man, wonderful man,
just loves people. He's given everything to getting
the gospel out. He has a lot of men you know
on his radio. He won't have anybody on the
radio that doesn't preach the fundamental truths of the Word. And this is what they told me.
You see, if people, if the believers, like you and me, expecting Christ
to come next week, will live better, will give more, will
witness better, that's bad. That's not the motive by which
you motivate God's servants. No, you don't. God's servants
aren't motivated. They're motivated out of love
for Christ. That's right. Love for Christ. You love Him. You serve Him. You worship Him. You give to
Him. Not because you're scared He's coming. You remember when
we were growing up, our parents tell you, don't go to a picture
show because Christ might come while you're in that picture
show. Don't go to a ball game on Sunday
because what would you do if the Lord came and you was at
a ball game on Sunday? Whoo! You'd get left. That's
not the way you motivate believers. You don't use threats, or law,
or reward, or fear. You use love for Christ. If you
love me, he said, you'll keep my commandments. Well, the second
thing they said they were doing is unbelievers, if you get them
looking for the Lord, they'll get saved. They'll just suddenly get interested
in the gospel and believe it. Now listen, we don't convince
men of sin, the Holy Spirit does. We don't reveal Christ to the
heart, the Holy Spirit does. We can't save people, the Spirit
of God saves them. We preach, it's the gospel that's
the power of God unto salvation. It's not the gospel of fear,
it's the gospel of Christ. You see what I'm trying to say?
Their motive, their motive was entirely wrong. But you know
the most interesting thing that happened? The last night of the
meeting, now this was the last of August, Christ was supposed
to come September the 6th. The man in charge who invited
me there to preach to that large crowd, he got up and said, I'm
hoping, Brother May, he'll come back next year and preach for
us in our conference." That's what the congregation, they laughed. Isn't that something? I tell
you, the games preachers play, the games they play, and they're
using people as their pawns and checkers to play their games.
Don't let preachers Make merchandise out of you. That's what Paul
said. They're hucksters. They're merchandisers
of souls. He said, Give to them numbers.
That's all. Flash. Thank God you have a pastor
that does not operate that way. And 13th Street has one, too.
There's some left. There's some left. Look at verse
3. Now, I want you to look carefully
at this. Look carefully. Let no man deceive you by any
means, by any means, whatever the means are. That day, what
day? The day of Christ's coming, shall
not come except two things happen. One, except there come a falling
away first. Secondly, that man of sin be
revealed, son of perdition. falling away, and the man is
sin. Now, when this epistle was written,
like I told you, they had the Old Testament, but the New Testament
hadn't been written. It was written by the apostles.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John may have been written, but these
epistles weren't written. The book of Revelation wasn't
written. So this is the early days of the church. This was
1900 years ago. This is the beginning of the
last days. But Paul said two things have got to happen. Number
one is falling away. What is this falling away? I'll
tell you what it is. See, you can't fall away from
where you never were. It's not, this falling away is
not just, it's not just unbelief. It's apostasy. It's falling away
from truth to heaven. Falling away. from looking to
Christ to looking to self. Falling away from the will and
glory of God to the will and glory of the flesh. Falling away. Now then, it's falling away from
these things. Listen, the authority of the
scriptures. Scriptures, authority, word of God. The character of
God. Omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient,
almighty, sovereign. The Lord our God reigneth. in
the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of this earth. The
personal work of Jesus Christ, man's original sin in Adam, man's
restoration in the second Adam. The first Adams of the earth,
earthy, by which we were made sinners. The second Adams, the
Lord from heaven, by which we are made righteous, who restores
our souls. by his obedience and by his death,
the personal work of Christ, sovereignly saved, effectually
saved, particularly saved, eternally saved. The Holy Spirit who quickens,
who awakens, who gives life, salvation by grace alone, plus
nothing, minus nothing. The Word of God, character of
God, the personal work of Christ, the need of man, the inability
of man, the effectual offering of Christ the reign of Christ
till he comes. That's truth. Falling away is
leaving that. Leaving that. And up until now,
the world of religion in general, up to the last hundred, two hundred
years, hasn't experienced that falling away completely. Now,
you go back, and some of you men are well-read in this. You
go back in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th century, Greeks, Augustine,
Polycarp, Ignatius, all these great men, even the men who became
the apostles through the Dark Ages. And then about 600 years
ago, there was a Reformation. There was a revival of what?
These truths. When Martin Luther, John Calvin,
Zwingli, these men came along, that wasn't a fallen way. That
was a Looking to. Looking to God. The character
of God was there was three things that formed the foundation for
that Reformation. Three things. The Scriptures
alone. The Scriptures alone. Not the
writings of men or the sayings of men or the dogmas of the church.
The Scriptures alone. The Scriptures alone. The truth
of the Word. That's when they start translating
the Scriptures into other languages. French and Spanish and Wycliffe
and all these men translated the word. Scriptures are Christ
alone. Christ alone. Not Mary. Christ. Not St. Jude. Not any other mediator
or only one. Christ alone. His personal word. Grace alone. Now it works. That was the foundation of that
Reformation. It swept over Europe. It swept over Germany. It swept
over France. It swept over the islands, England,
Spain, France, Scotland, Ireland. And then after that came Gil,
Bunyan, Whitfield, all of these, Knox, Huss, all these great There
was a—God had voices in every country. America came over here. Spurgeon. All of those great
preachers up until 200 years ago. Isn't that right? Falling away wasn't—it wasn't—it
wasn't—it hadn't occurred. Still the message—God had a message
in our area. Today, the apostasy is taking
place. You see, it's a falling away
in the church, in religion. He's not talking about the...
It's always been homosexuals, but it's more than that, because
the message of the church is not the same, the message of
gospel. There's always been killings and... incest and abuse and all
of this sort of robberies and wars and rumors of wars. Christ
said, they all come and go until the coming of the Son of Man.
But the absence of the gospel, that's what's happening today.
The absence of truth. I have people tell me all the
time, you're the only preacher on television. We have television
that reaches all over the country. In Washington, we've got that
program that reaches clearly the West Coast, in our area,
in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in Oakland, California. I hear from
people everywhere, they say, you're the only voice on television
that's telling the truth about man, the truth about God, the
truth about Christ, and the truth about grace. Do you ever hear
one? There isn't any. There used to be a lot of them.
England and Ireland and Scotland and France were full of them.
I've got the books to prove it. Charnock, Clarkson, Richard Sims. Just keep... Ed, you're familiar
with them. The force is everywhere. There
aren't any today. You've got one here. There's
one yonder, one yonder. but they're not recognized. The
voice is the Grahams, and the Harriams and Fosdicks,
and the Bishop Tutus. And you just keep naming. And
what are they preaching? Apostasy. That's right. They're coming and falling away.
And the falling away is not out shouting the honky-tonks. It's
in the church. Falling away. People who name
the name of God, people who claim to be the children of God, people
who claim to believe in God, believe the Bible, are turning
away from the Word, away from God's true character, away from
Christ. And you men who work in public
works, you know what I'm talking about. Everybody around you,
you work with is religious, but you listen to them talk. And
they never say a word that you believe. They never say a word
that you agree with. You have to close your ears,
even when they're talking religion. It makes you all throw up. That's
true. And you make one reference to
God's sovereignty and salvation. One reference to the fact Christ
redeemed the people, affectionately. One word. about salvation being
all of grace, and you get shot, maybe fired, they'll take out
on you. The falling away is almost complete. That's exactly right. The falling
away—there's got to be a falling away first. And I know what I'm
talking about. I've been moving over this country.
I preached in in Australia twice, in France, in Spain, in Africa,
in Mexico, in Canada, all around. I know, I hear from people everywhere,
there's no gospel. There's no gospel. There's no
truth. There's no grace. There's no scriptures alone.
Christ alone. Grace alone. There's no voice
being heard. There's nobody... Bill Clark
told me this in England before he died. He told us, Doris will
tell you this is the truth. He said there's not one preacher
in England, not one, pastor, who consistently, on a regular
basis, requires the grace of God. Not one. And that's true of all the rest
of the country. I preached in Ireland in 1972, to a gathering of all of the
northern Baptist churches in North Ireland, all of them. I
was in Bangor at the Hamilton Rose Baptist Church, and they
were having a convention of all the Baptist
churches in North Ireland. I was the speaker on Monday and
Tuesday night. Monday night, I brought a message
on For Whom Did Christ Die? You'd think all us Baptists would
rejoice to find out for whom Christ died. I've told them for
whom he died. He redeemed his people, his sheep,
paid their sin debt, put their sin away. He didn't die for people
in hell. He died for his sheep. That's
so. He redeemed it, but he didn't try to save. He saved. When I
got through preaching, an old preacher came up to me. His name
was Jackson. Hair the color of mine now. I
was a boy then. His hair's the color of mine.
And I will forget, he said, I never thought I'd hear a message of
particular redemption from an Irish Baptist Pope there. I never
thought I'd ever hear it. But he said, I heard one today.
I said, don't they believe that? I was under the impression over
here in New York I don't know. I don't know. you