I'd like for you this morning
to open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 12. We began studying on this passage
last week, but I want to pick up at verse 9. Actually, verse
9 is the text of the message this morning concerning the subject
of Satan's war against Christ's church. Satan's war against Christ's
church. Now what I want to do, if you
can't turn to all these scriptures that I reference here, write
them down. I don't have time to go into
an in-depth study of all the passages of scripture that we
could refer to here in this passage. We've been studying this in our
Sunday morning Bible study at 930 and we have lessons on that
so if you're not able to attend that get the lessons and study
In on your own and that But it starts off in verse 9 talks about
the great dragon. That's Satan He's symbolized
in the book of Revelation as a great red dragon sometimes
because of his ferocity and because of his anger and hatred for Christ
and the church, the great dragon. And it says he was cast out.
I mentioned this last week, but I'll repeat it. Don't think about
geography here. This is not referring to the
time before the world was created when Lucifer and Isaiah 14, as
it's related, fell out of heaven. the fall of Satan and the non-elect
angels as it were. This is talking about the work
of Christ on the cross. Turn over to John chapter 12.
This is something you really need to understand now. Christ
here teaching his disciples about his death on the cross. And in verse 31, he mentions this. He's preparing them for what's
about to happen. His public ministry is about
to be closed out and he's going to take them to the upper room,
beginning in chapter 13, begin his private ministry to the disciples. That's when he exposes Judas
for what he is and then begins to teach them concerning his
death and institutes the Lord's Supper, and then after that's
over he makes his journey to Gethsemane. And in verse 31 of
John chapter 12, listen to this, he says, now is the judgment
of this world. The time has come now. Before
this, you know, when some would try to get him to go to Jerusalem,
and he'd say, my time has not yet come. But now it is. And he says, now shall the prince
of this world be cast out. That's Satan. And what's he talking
about? Well, Satan brought in the fall
of man back in Genesis chapter three. And after man fell, took
sides with Satan against God. That's what happened. You remember
the Lord revealed in Genesis chapter 315 that the seed of
woman, that's important in Genesis chapter 315, That's the first
prophecy of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, that the seed
of woman, that's how he's identified there, would come and bruise
the serpent's head. And that's Christ, the seed of
woman. And in his work as the substitute,
as the mediator, as the surety, as the sin bearer of his people,
he would remove the wrath of God in his person, you see. That was upon him and us in him. Somebody asked me one time, were
the people, the elect of God ever under the wrath of God?
The only way I know to answer that is only as we were in Christ. Because Christ went to the cross
and the wrath of God fell on him in our stead. So technically
speaking, we never were under the wrath of God except as we
were represented in Christ. But he did that great work and
what he did is he removed the ground of condemnation by putting
away our sin and establishing righteousness whereby God could
be just and justifier And that's when Satan was cast out, in other
words, separated all his work, and we'll see that in just a
moment here in Revelation 12, all his work of accusation and
all that, it has no merit, has no power. Now, he never really
had any power. You know that. But he's been
allowed to operate, and we'll see that in Revelation 12 too,
for a time, for the glory of God actually for the glory of
God in Christ. And so it says in verse 31, now
is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this
world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all unto me, that's all whom he represented, this
he said signifying what death he should die. Now go back to
Revelation 12. So that's when the dragon was
cast out, at the cross of Christ in time. was fulfilled. The finished work of Christ on
the cross nullified any accusation that Satan could bring against
God's people. And then he's identified here
as the great dragon, verse 9. He was cast out. He's called
the old serpent. Now what I'm going to do is I
want to read through this to the end of the chapter. And I want to
come back and I want to take each name that identifies Satan.
I want to show you how he operates. If you're going to show the warfare
of Satan against the church, you've got to know how he operates.
And these names show you how he operates. He's called the
old serpent. He's called the devil. We'll
come back and see that. Satan, which deceiveth the whole
world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels, his ministers, were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying, in heaven now has come salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
Christ. See, only Christ can defeat Satan.
You can't defeat him. I can't defeat him. Christ is
the only one. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
And they overcame him. The brethren overcame him. How?
By the blood of the Lamb. Boy, and that's something. That
puts it in perspective, doesn't it? You're going to overcome
Satan. The blood of the Lamb's the only
way. That's the righteousness of Christ. That's the power of
God's Christ. And by the word of their testimony,
well, what is the word of our testimony? God forbid that we
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
then he says, and they loved not their lives unto the death.
They didn't want to hold on to this world. and their lives in
light of eternity. Now verse 12 says, therefore
rejoice ye heavens and you that dwell in them. That's believers
there. That's a description of every
sinner who has come to Christ for mercy. Heavens, you that
dwell, we dwell in heaven. That's where we dwell right now.
Our citizenship is in heaven, Paul wrote in Philippians 3 and
verse 21. We're in Christ. We're not citizens of this world.
And he says, woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea.
That's unbelievers. Now what he's talking about there are
people who are so connected to this world in heart and mind
and soul that they will never seek the Lord. They'll die in
their sin. This world is everything to them. It's materials, it's religion,
it's honor. You see what I'm saying? That's
the inhabitants of the earth and the sea. They'll die in their
sins. Woe to them! For the devil has
come down unto you having great wrath, it's anger, because he
knoweth that he hath but a short time. You see, in light of what
Christ accomplished on Calvary, the devil now realizes that he
has only a short time. And it's made him angry. Remember
I told you last week, don't misunderstand this thing of the devil. He's
not just an influence. He's not just some kind of a
evil cloud out there. He's not the evil counterpart
of God. I know he's called the God of
this world, but that's little g God. That's a usurped authority. His days are numbered. He is
a person. He's a created being. He's not
everywhere. He can't be everywhere, no more
than you could be everywhere. He's more powerful than us now.
He has his demons. He has his henchmen. He has his
ministers. All these things are true. He's
powerful now. I don't want to diminish his
power and make you think that he's not. But he's not equal
with God in an evil way. He's not omniscient. He doesn't
know everything. He's not everywhere. But here's
what he does. It says in verse 13, when the
dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, defeated, he persecuted
the woman which brought forth the man-child. Now the woman
there is the church. Last week I mentioned the historical
reference to Mary, the human mother of Christ as to his humanity,
but here this woman is a symbol of the church. Christ was made
like unto his brethren, you see, and the man-child is Christ himself.
And it says in verse 14, to the woman were given two wings of
a great eagle. The eagle's wings is a symbol
from the Old Testament concerning the power of God. And what it's
simply saying here is that this woman, this church, the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, is going to be delivered from the
onslaughts of Satan by the power of God. When God brought Israel
out of Egypt, that's the way he symbolized it. You were brought out on eagles'
wings. And that's what this is talking about. In other words,
it's the power of God. It's not the two wings of a great eagle.
That's the power of God. That's how we're going to be
delivered. Not by our own power. but by the power of God. That
she might fly into the wilderness. Remember, Israel was brought
out of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness
for 40 years. That's a picture of the church
in this world in the last days up until the second coming of
Christ. We're in the wilderness of this world. You know, if you're
a believer, you're not of this world, you're in it, but you're
not of it. You're a pilgrim. You're looking
for a city whose builder and maker is not man, but of God.
and you're wandering through the wilderness of this world.
And he says, into her place. That means a place prepared for
her. We're here because this is where God wants us. Somebody
said, well, why don't he do that? He put us here for a purpose.
See? And it says where she is nourished
for a time and times and a half a time from the face of the serpent. Now God didn't put us in the
wilderness just to let us starve. Just like Israel, when Israel
was in the wilderness, how did God feed them? Manna from heaven. How did God quench their thirst?
He sent them a rock. And Moses had to strike the rock
one time and water gushed from the rock. In other words, they
were in the wilderness, but they were preserved and protected
and nourished by God, not by their own power. That's the way
we are. And what is our nourishment here? It's the bread of life,
Christ. It's the water of life, Christ. It's the word of God.
Now that time and times and half a time is a symbol of the short
period of time that exists between the first coming of Christ and
the second coming of Christ. And I don't have time to go into
how I got that, but it's scriptural. Get the lesson, all right. Verse
15. It says, and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as
a flood after the woman. Now back in verse 13, it says
he persecuted the woman. That word persecuted there means
to follow after. When we think of persecution,
we think of somebody being tortured or even martyred, and that's
included. Same word the Lord used when
he said that in Matthew chapter five, when he said, blessed are
you when men shall persecute you. All right, but it's also
the same word that Paul used in Philippians 3 when he says,
I follow after the mark of the high calling of Jesus Christ.
So it means to pursue. And what he's saying here is
that Satan is gonna pursue the church. He's gonna hound you.
He may not torture you physically. He may not kill you physically.
Satan doesn't have that power to kill anybody physically. But he's gonna hound you. He's
gonna, he's gonna, Be on your heels, he's not gonna let up.
That's what that's saying. He's gonna follow after for evil
purposes. And here it says in verse 15
how he does it. He's gonna cast out of his mouth
water as a flood after the woman. What is that water that comes
out of his mouth? That's his accusations, that's
his deception, that's his false doctrine. When we go about preaching
the gospel and God raises up his people, Satan is out there
preaching his false gospel, sowing his tares. Remember the parable
of the wheat and the tares? He's sowing his tares. It's his
false gospel of salvation by the works and the will of men,
it's his accusations, it's his pettiness. You know people who
divide over petty things? You've got a preference, they've
got a preference, who's gonna win out there? Satan's gonna
divide. I'm telling you the truth now.
We got our way, that's satanic now. And if you give in to it, if you accuse somebody falsely,
if you listen to an accusation without the proper biblical method
and proof, that's satanic. And he floods it out there. And
it says in verse 15 that he might cause her to be carried away
of the flood. Now he's not going to win. But that's his purpose. He wants the church carried away
with his flood. But look at verse 16. It says,
and the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth
and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
You know what that verse is saying? Very simple. God's in control. Satan is not going to win. You
remember when Moses and the children of Israel stood on the banks
of the Red Sea and Pharaoh pursued them, hounded them. What happened? The earth helped. Well, who's
in control of the earth? Who's the God of this earth?
God is. And the Red Sea opened up and they walked over dry shot. Believe it or not, the earth
is gonna help the church. The church is gonna, because
God's on his throne. And Satan's not gonna win. But
look at verse 17, and the dragon was angry. He's wroth, that means
angry, with the woman. And he went to make war with
the remnant of her seed. You know who the remnant of her
seed is? That's all who come to faith in Christ. Every, every
sinner who comes to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works, he's gonna make war with you. You've just entered, when
you come to faith in Christ, you've just entered a warfare
with Satan. You've just declared war on Satan. And he's declared
war on you. And he says, which keep the commandments
of God. Now what does that mean? Well,
if that's talking about perfect obedience to the law, there's
none of us who are saved. But you know that's not what
it's talking about. It's talking about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and
following him in his word. His word of grace. It's not salvation
by works. It's not salvation by free will.
It's salvation by God's grace, which brings a sinner to rest
in Christ and to follow him. And then he says, and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ, Christ and him crucified. My whole salvation
is wrapped up in one, the person and finished work of Christ.
Now, how does he operate? We'll go back to verse 9. Let
me just give you this. We've already talked about the
great dragon. Verse 9, that's the first one. He's the great
dragon. Christ is the only one who can
defeat and has defeated Satan. He's the one who is called the
strong man in Luke chapter 11 that enters in to sweep the house
clean. That's false religion. And the
only one who can cast him out is one stronger. And the one
stronger is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the seed of woman. He
cast out the great dragon. And then secondly, here's the
second one. He's called that old serpent. Now immediately
your minds probably, and rightly so, go back to the Garden of
Eden. The Garden of Eden. But I want to turn you back to
a passage that we looked at last week. Turn to John chapter 8.
Now you know how Satan was allowed of God to bring about, and I
believe ordained of God, to bring about the fall of man. Christ is the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Slain for what? Slain for the
sins of his people. Salvation by God's grace was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, the scripture
tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 1. But that old serpent, remember
Satan appeared unto Eve in the form of a serpent. And he brought
about the fall of man when Adam took sides with Satan and his
wife against God. That's what happened. The Lord
refers to that here in John chapter 8 and verse 44. Now how does
that old serpent work? Now listen to it. Verse 44. First
of all, understand who he's talking to here. He's not down in a bar talking
to the drunks here in John 8, 44. He's not in the brothels and
the drug dens. He's talking to the Pharisees
who claim to be the children of God. Who said, we're Abraham's
seed. Here's men who claim to be children
of God based on three things. Number one, they were physical
descendants of Abraham. Number two, they were circumcised.
And number three, they claim to keep the law of Moses. And listen to what he says to
him in verse 44, you are of your father, the devil. You claim God is your father.
You claim to be serving God, but you're serving the devil.
Now, how do you suppose that made them feel? That's not a
way that religion would teach us today to win friends and influence
people, is it? I've heard people say, well,
you know, in your doctrine you ought to be more loving. Listen
to the Lord's words, you're of your father the devil. You know, really, he's just telling
them the truth. And he says, in the lust of your
father you will do. Now, lust there means unlawful
desire. Their desires were unlawful,
ungodly, unholy. That's what that is. Now, what
is he talking about? Well, read on. He says, he was
a murderer from the beginning. Now, what's the beginning there?
That's back in the garden. Genesis chapter three. He was
a murderer from the beginning. Now, what kind of murder did
Satan commit back in the garden? Did he take out a knife and stab
Eve or Adam? No. Did he take out a machine
gun and mow them down? No. Did he set off a bomb? No. He just simply did what it
says here, look on, and abode not in the truth. He did not
continue in the truth. He didn't tell the truth. He
told a lie. And it's a soul-murdering lie. What was his lie? It's a lie
that sounds good. Think about it. Thou shalt not
surely die. Now God said, thou shalt surely
die. Satan said, thou shalt not surely
die. Now which sounds better to you?
Thou shalt or thou shalt not surely die? Which would you rather
hear a preacher say to you? Thou shalt or thou shalt not
surely die? Which is the truth, which is
a lie? Which is instrumental in the hands of the Holy Spirit
to keep a sinner out of hell. Thou shalt or thou shalt not,
surely thou. Think about it. He abode not
in the truth, the truth of God's word. And it says here in verse
44, it says, because there's no truth in him. He's by nature
a liar. Do you know that's what the Bible
says we are by nature? That doesn't sound good to us
either, does it? And it says, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own. And what that literally means
is, when he speaks his lie, he's only saying what's natural to
him. You see, when false preachers preach a false gospel of salvation
by the works and the will of men, they're only preaching what's
natural to them. That's what's natural. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned. You see, if I stood before you
and preached salvation by the works and the will of men, rather
than by the works and the will of God, rather than by the blood
and the righteousness of Christ, I would only be saying what's
natural to me. Because if I preach the gospel of God's grace to
you, that's by the power of God. That's not what's natural to
man, you see. And so he says he speaks of his
own, for he's a liar and the father of it. Now there's that old serpent.
How does he operate? By telling lies disguised as
truth. Telling lies disguised as truth. That old serpent. Look over at
2 Corinthians chapter 11 with me. And I'll tell you. You know, I may have mentioned
this last week, but you know, what the Bible really tells us
by Satan is so foreign to the natural man that it's ridiculous. Because you know how people naturally
think of Satan? The devil made me do it, that
kind of thing. Horns and a tail and all that, pitchforks and
all that. Well, listen to this. Paul was concerned about these
believers in Corinth because their attention and their hearts
and their minds were being drawn away from what he called the
simplicity or singleness that's in Christ. Look at verse 2. He
says, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have
espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ." That's a spiritual virgin, pure in Christ. In other
words, you have no loyalty, no faith, no hope, no assurance
except in Christ and him alone. But I fear, verse three, lest
by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve, that old serpent now, through
his subtlety So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity. That's the singleness that is
in Christ. Christ alone. That's what that
singleness is. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's it. Don't corrupt it with
anything else. Don't bring in your prayers.
Don't bring in your baptism. Don't bring in your giving. You
see, it's Christ alone. His blood alone. Complete, final,
full, eternal payment of all my sins. His righteousness imputed
alone for my justification before God. Christ alone. That's the
single. Now if your mind goes to somewhere
else to fulfill any of those issues of salvation, you're being
corrupted. And it may sound good. Well,
what's wrong? You know, that's why Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 1, 17, Christ sent me not to baptize. I mean,
Paul said it. Paul baptized people. But that
wasn't his main mission. Because baptism doesn't save
you. Paul's main mission was to preach Christ, preach the
cross, the finished work of Christ. And so he says if you bring in
baptism as forming any part of the ground of your salvation,
you're being corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ.
And he says, look here in verse four, he says, for if he that
cometh preacheth another Jesus, you mean there's another one?
Oh, there's a lot of other ones. Counterfeits. Only one true one. Whom we've not preached, or if
you receive another spirit, which you've not received, or another
gospel, which you've not accepted, you might well bear with, and
that should be me there, that hymn is in italics. translators
supplied it with him. It's an objective pronoun. It
should be me. Bear with me. But now jump across the page
to verse 13 of 2 Corinthians 11. He says in verse 13, he says,
for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. In other words, they'll
transform temporarily and preach some truth, claiming to be apostles
of Christ, and no marvel, don't be amazed at that, for Satan
himself is transformed into an angel of light, therefore it
is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
That's the way Satan operates. His goal is to get your mind
off of the simplicity, the singleness that's in Christ and onto other
things, as to making you saved, more saved, holy, get you involved. You see, that old serpent, he
was a liar from the beginning, you see. Go back to Revelation
12 now. That old serpent, Now here's
the third one, verse nine. He's the great dragon, cast out
that old serpent, and then here's the third one, called the devil.
Now the word devil means slanderer. You know what slander is? It
means false accuser. You see, slander and accusation
are also weapons of Satan and his ministers in their warfare
against Christ and his church. And when Satan accuses, it's
kind of like this, Satan will accuse you of being a sinner. He'll accuse me of being a sinner,
and we are. But what he accuses us of is
this, that we deserve condemnation. We deserve hell and death. And what's our only defense against
that? There's only one defense, the blood and righteousness of
Christ. Look at verse 11 again of Revelation, and they overcame
him by the blood of Christ. When Satan accuses me, and how
does he do that? He does it through people. You
ever been falsely accused? Have you ever been falsely accused?
Yeah, I have. That's satanic. That's why there's
a proper way. If somebody, listen, if somebody
has something in their lives that's a problem that needs to
be brought out, bringing scandal on the gospel, or denying the
gospel, there's a proper biblical method of doing that. And you
know how it goes. First of all, you've gotta have
proof. But secondly, you've gotta have witnesses, and you've gotta
go to that person, you take the witness, if that don't work,
then you bring it before the church. But it's a method, you see. But Satan
didn't like that. Because, see, that doesn't accomplish
his goal. He's a slanderer. He's a slanderer. I heard a message
several months ago of a man who accused me of being a false preacher. And he did it, the way he did
it, he said it was based on two things. He said, number one,
he said I was a Gnostic. Now, I'm not a Gnostic. A Gnostic
is a person who believes in a mystical knowledge that can't be grounded
in the scripture. I believe that when God brings
a sinner to Christ, he teaches him some knowledge. For example,
the Bible says the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. When God
brought me to Christ, I found out things about myself that
I didn't know before. How about you? I found out I
was a sinner deserving damnation and that my best works could
not deliver me. from damnation. Now who taught
me that? God did through his word. He
used a preacher to do it, but that's knowledge I didn't have.
He taught me who God is. God's holy and righteous and
just as well as merciful and gracious. He must be just when
he justifies the ungodly. Who taught me that? God did through
his word by a preacher in the power of the Holy Spirit. He
taught me who Christ is. One and only savior of his people.
That's not mystical knowledge that can't be grounded. I can
show you scripture where all that's true. But that's not some
kind of a mystical knowledge that I have that you don't have.
And if you ever get as great as I am, you'll get it. That's
a Gnostic. So what did the man do? He accused
me falsely. He said, I denied the work of
the Holy Spirit in us. I don't deny the holy work. I
challenge anybody to go back, go back to Albany and get all
the tapes that I preached there. If you can find one tape, one
message that indicates that I deny the work of the Holy Spirit in
regeneration, you won't find it. It's a lie. That's Satan accusing the brethren. But I want to show you a scripture.
Turn back in the Old Testament, next to the last book of the
Old Testament, Zechariah. I want to show you something
here. This is a beautiful picture here. I've preached on this.
Zechariah chapter 3. Satan, the accuser of the brethren. Here in Zechariah 3, there was
the high priest of Israel in this day. His name was Joshua.
He's not the same, obviously, of the one way back when. But
this is another man named Joshua. He was a high priest of Israel.
And the Lord gave Zechariah a vision of the high priest. And here's
the way it goes. Look at Zechariah 3, verse 1.
And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel
of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him,
to be his adversary, to accuse him. And the Lord, and this man's
a sinner now. That's what Satan, he deserves
damnation. And the Lord said unto Satan,
the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuke thee. Here's the Lord stepping in,
here's Christ stepping in as an advocate, as a defense attorney,
you might say, to Joshua. And he has two points of defense.
Number one, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, God chose
him, that's election. And then it says, is not this
a brand plucked out of the fire, plucked out of the fire of God's
wrath? That's redemption. That's chosen and redeemed by
the Lord. Now it says in verse three, now
Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the
angel. That's our sins. That's a picture of our sins.
We're sinners. What's our only hope? that God
chooses us and redeems us, verse four, and he answered and spake
unto those that stood before him, saying, take away the filthy
garments from him, O my soul. There's redemption. Christ took
our sins away. He bore them away. He was made
a curse for us. He was made sin. Christ, who
knew no sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Behold the Lamb of God, which beareth away the sin
of the world. Christ on the cross, having our
sins charged to Him, bore them away by His death on that tree.
He shed His precious blood as the complete, final, full, eternal
payment for our... Take them away! No sin. You see, in Christ, God sees
no sin in His people. There's no sin charged to them.
Take away the filthy garments from Him. No sin, it's gone,
it's wiped clean by the blood of Christ. That's why it says
over in Revelation 12, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. I'm washed in the blood of Christ. No sin in the court of God's
justice. He sees no sin in me. And then
it says, and unto him he said, behold, I have caused thine iniquity
to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. What's that a picture of? That's
the imputed righteousness of Christ. I stand before God in
Christ, righteous, justified, not guilty, cleansed from all
my sin. That's when Satan throws his
accusations, we overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. That's
the great exchange. My sins charged to him, his righteousness
charged to me. Look back at Revelation 12. You
see that? The devil, the accuser of the
brethren. Here's the fourth one, Satan. Satan, that means adversary. That means opponent. He's the
enemy of Christ and of every true child of God. That's who
he is. Satan, the accuser. Satan, the
opposer. He's against that and look it
says, he deceiveth the whole world. You see that? He deceiveth the whole world.
As one of Satan's weapons, his deceptions, his works with lies
disguised as truth, his deceptions come out in the form of false
messages, false gospels, corrupting the simplicity that's in Christ,
and false miracles. I want you to turn back to the
passage that Brother Jim read in 2 Thessalonians 2. And I also
want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 1 that I read, 2 Thessalonians
2, and I'll give you time to get there because I want you
to see this. This will really help you now. I want you to see this, 2 Thessalonians
2 and 1 Corinthians 1. You see, Satan's goal is to keep
sinners from seeing God's glory in Christ. that sure, free, unconditional
salvation that God provides for his people in Christ. Paul speaks
in 2 Thessalonians 2 of a great falling away in the last days
prior to the second coming of Christ. It's a great apostasy. What he's talking about is false
religion that comes in the name of Christ, but denies the truth
of Christ. Now, there are a lot of people
who claim to be Christian, but their Christianity is based upon
a counterfeit Christ, a false Christ. For example, there are
denominations who claim to be Christian who deny the deity
of Christ. That's a counterfeit. There are
those who deny his humanity. That's a counterfeit. There are
those who deny the power and effectual working of his work
on the cross. That's a counterfeit, all right? Paul speaks of that. They're
deceived. He speaks in verse seven of 2
Thessalonians 2, he speaks of the mystery of iniquity. That's
an iniquity that we don't know by nature. It's kind of like
Matthew 7, you remember he said, and those who say Lord, Lord,
and not everyone that says Lord, Lord, will enter heaven, will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of
my Father which is in heaven, which is to look to Christ and
follow him, glorify and honor him. And they said, well, we
preached in your name, we've done many wonderful works, we've
cast out demons. And he said, depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. Those things are iniquity. You
know why? Because they don't measure up to righteousness.
You see, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, I've got to
measure up to righteousness. Well, my preaching doesn't measure
up. All the works that I could do
would not measure. There's only one thing that can
measure up to righteousness, Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. In other words, when I stand
before God, I must plead Christ or its iniquity. That's why Paul
said in Philippians 3, Oh, that I may know Him and be found in
Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. You see what I'm saying? All right, that's, all right,
he says in verse eight, he says, in verse seven, he says, for
the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now
letteth will let until he be taken out. In other words, there's
someone holding this mystery of iniquity back, that's the
Holy Spirit, and at some point in time, he's gonna be removed
out of the way, and that mystery of iniquity's gonna flood this
world. Remember what Revelation 12 said? He deceives the whole
world. And he says in verse 8, and then shall that wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, that is with his word. Who's he going to be revealed
to? Not to the world, he deceives the whole world. He's going to
be revealed to the church. We're going to recognize him
for what he is. And how are we going to do it? By the spirit
of his mouth, by his word. That's how we're going to recognize
it. It's not feeling now, it's not our own wisdom. It's by the
spirit of his, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,
that's his second coming. Even him whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. Things that people are gonna
look in and be amazed at, but it's gonna be a lie. Now, verse
10, listen to this. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish. In other words, who are
the deceived there in Revelation 12? He deceives the whole world. He says, them that perish. Now,
have you ever asked yourself this question? Could I be deceived? Have you ever asked that? Well,
who are those that perish? Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. Now,
listen to this very carefully. This will help you. I'm telling
you. Verse 17. For Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. That's the gospel
of Christ. That's the gospel of God's grace
in Christ. That's the gospel wherein the
righteousness of God is revealed. Christ and him crucified and
risen again. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made none effect, for the preaching
of the cross That's Christ and Him crucified, the finished work
of Christ, the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ,
is to them that perish foolishness. Now who's going to be deceived
over there in 2 Thessalonians 2? Who's deceived in Revelation
12, the whole world? Those that perish. Who are the
perishing? Those to whom the preaching of
the cross is foolishness. Is the preaching of the cross
foolishness to me? Is it foolishness to you? Well,
if you know the Lord, you won't say it's foolishness, you'll
say it's your life, won't you? The preaching of the cross is
my life. It's my hope. My only hope. Foolishness, my soul, it's the
wisdom of God. It's the power of God. Unto us
which are saved, it's the power of God. There's the power of
God, the preaching of the cross, the finished work of Christ,
the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ in him. Verse 23, we
preach Christ crucified, the power and the wisdom of God.
Do you see that? Don't be deceived. when he talks
about the whole world over there in Revelation 12. He's talking
about the whole world of unbelief, the whole world of the religion
of worship. He's not talking about every
individual without exception. If he is, then we're all goners. Even God's people, it's true,
we do start out to see, but we don't remain to see because God
sends his spirit to open our eyes and our ears to where we
hear the gospel of the cross, the gospel of Christ.