Now, if you have your Bibles
open already, there's 2 Thessalonians 2. That's our text this morning. And I'm going to be preaching
from this chapter. But before I go to that chapter,
I want you to go back to the parables in Matthew 13. Now,
like I said, our text is 2 Thessalonians 2. The title of this message
this morning is this. Stand fast and hold on. Stand fast and hold on. Now that
may sound like an amusement park ride. But that's not what it
is. It's exhortation from the scripture.
But somebody asked me what I was preaching from this Sunday. I
said 2 Thessalonians 2. And they said, oh, you're not
going to stay in the parables. And I said, yes I am. Now let me
show you the connection here. Stand fast and hold on. in 2
Thessalonians 2. But look at Matthew 13. Now,
I want you to consider the parables that we studied in Matthew 13. And I want you to consider them
in this way. They are revealing to us things
that we need to know. Things that are just so important,
so serious, so vital that we need to know them. There are
two certainties that we need to consider in this context. And that's these two things.
Number one, either you're going to meet the Lord through death,
that passage that Brother Joe prayed about. Either we are going
to go meet the Lord, or the Lord is coming to meet us. Now, one
of the two things are going to happen, right? Now, given those
two things, either us going to meet Him or Him coming to meet
us in His second coming, there are some things we need to know.
And as I've told you, these parables now are not parables of desperation. You know, a lot of people, they
study the parables and they just read them. They may admire them.
They may get a chuckle out of them. They may memorize them. But these parables, and a lot
of people when they preach the parables, a lot of preachers
when they preach the parables, they preach them as if you're
supposed to walk out the door wondering whether or not you're
saved. Wondering whether or not you're a child of God. In other
words, like these are parables of doubt, or what I call parables
of desperation, but they are not. Christ is teaching His disciples
some specific vital things there, and He's telling them, now you
prepare for what I'm telling you. These are parables of preparation. And look at Matthew 13. Look
at verse 34. Now, we studied last week the
parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven. But
listen to verse 34 of Matthew 13. He says, "...all these things
beg Jesus unto the multitude in parables." And without a parable
spake he not unto them. He didn't speak to the multitudes
any more except in parables. Now we find later on he spoke
to his disciples in just plain teaching, especially in the upper
room right before he was arrested and put on trial. But he didn't
speak any more to the multitudes. And it says in verse 35 that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet He says,
I will open my mouth in parables. And this is quoted from the psalm. Psalm 7, the psalm of Asaph.
And he said, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things
which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Now, that's what these parables are about. He's teaching about
the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. The Old Testament
saints knew the gospel of God's grace in Christ. They knew that
their whole salvation was conditioned on the promised coming Messiah
and the death that He would accomplish. Moses and Elijah spoke to the
Lord about it, the Mount of Transfiguration, the death that He would accomplish.
They knew the Messiah had to be both God and man. They knew
the person of Christ because only God could save sinners. And only man could die for sinners. So He had to be both God and
man. That's why Isaiah spoke of Him as, unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given. He shall be born of a virgin,
Isaiah 7, verse 14. You can go on and on and on through
the Scriptures. They knew that He had to die
because they knew without the shedding of blood there's no
forgiveness, no remission, no redemption. That was pictured
and typified in all the Old Testament sacrifices. They knew that He
had to be their righteousness. Jeremiah called Him Jehovah Sidcanu
in Jeremiah 23. His name shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. And then in Jeremiah 33 verse
15 and 16, I believe, He said, She shall be called the Lord
our righteousness, speaking of the church and the union of Christ
with His church. They knew that. They knew that
salvation was by grace. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. But they knew grace had to reign
through righteousness and holiness. And so they brought the blood
of the Lamb. They knew the gospel. But there were things they didn't
know. There were things they didn't know. For example, they
didn't know about the development of the kingdom in the last days. How the church would fare here
on earth in the last days. From the time of Christ's ascension
unto glory unto His second coming. And that's what these parables
are about. Now, we're living in that time. Now, whether He
comes back in our lifetime or not, we're still living in that
time. And we need to know about these
things because there are multitudes who are deceived. Multitudes. Some of them so close, Christ
said, that if it were possible, they could deceive the very elect.
So these are not just light matters. And then look at verse 36. Matthew 13. He says, Then Jesus
sent the multitude away, and went into the house, and His
disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of
the tares of the field. Now, we've studied the parable
of the tares of the field, studied His showing the meaning of that
parable. But the point that you need to
see in verse 36 is that these disciples wanted to know more. They wanted to know more. They
weren't just content hearing the parable. They want to know
what that meant. Show us what that means. We're
interested. We have a desire, a thirst, for
the Word of God, a thirst for the knowledge of God. And they,
as Psalm 119 verse 161 says, even though they were going to
be under attack from the nobles of this world, they stood in
awe of God's Word. Did you notice how that opened
up? We stand in all of God. We don't stand in all of men.
If you stand in all of a man, you better stop. Start standing
in all. You know what all means, A-W-E.
That means you've taken a back bite. I mean, this is amazing
to me. I stand in all of God's Word.
And that's the kind of attitude that is set forth here in these
parables. And the disciples, they want
to hear them. They want to hear it. Now, what does this mean?
Tell me. I need to know this. Now, that's the issue of these
parables. And consider them the ones that
we've studied. Don't lose their connection.
Don't lose their context here. Teaching His disciples the Kingdom
of Heaven as it appears on earth. as it developed in this world
in the last days up until His second coming. We studied the
parable of the soils, the different types of soils, the sower went
forth to sow seed. What does that parable show us?
There are going to be true believers and there are going to be false
believers in the church. There are going to be true Christians
and there are going to be false professors right here today. Now, do you want to walk out
the door today saying, well, which one am I? I don't. I hope you don't. Well, stand
in all of the Word of God now. Okay? That's what that parable
taught. There's the good ground hearer.
Remember, four kinds of hearers, but only one was the good ground
hearer. That's the born-again believer, the heart prepared
by the sovereign power and grace of God to receive the Word. Do
you stand in all of the Word of God? You see, the wayside
hearer, the stony ground hearer, the thorny ground hearer, they
don't stand in awe of the Word of God. One of them just leaves
it. Two of them just show up for
a while. You see the difference? Do you have a thirst for the
Word of God? Does it feed your soul and your
mind and your heart? Do you love to hear Christ preach? and his grace and his glory and
his finished work on the cross for your whole salvation. Is
it your life? That's the issue of that parable.
And then we came to the parable of wheat and the tares. And what
he's teaching there is as the gospel goes out into all the
world, you know, Christ gave the Great Commission. He said,
go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
And as the gospel goes out, Christ is going to sow His good seed
in His people, establish His true churches. And then, alongside
of those, Satan is going to be going around sowing his poison
seed, his false gospel, and there are going to be false believers
and false churches. There's true churches and there's
false churches. True believers and false believers
in this world. You say somebody made the statement
and said, well, it doesn't matter where you go to church, just
that you go somewhere. Well, you might be in the tares. It does matter where we go to
church. We better go where the truth
is preached. We better go where Christ is exalted. We better
go where the Word of God is preached. You say, but you don't have enough
programs. You don't need programs. You
need salvation. You need grace. That's right. Better go where the gospel is
preached. That's what that parable is teaching
of the tares and the wheat. He's not teaching that so that
you have to walk out here wondering, am I a tare or a wheat? It's prepare to meet the Lord. How do you prepare to meet the
Lord? If you're going to meet Him or He's coming to meet you,
how are you going to prepare for that? That's the issue of
this whole thing here. That's why we're here. It's not
just religion. It's not just to have a good
time and entertain each other and feed each other. It's to
preach Christ. Isn't it? I mean, it means something. It's not just words. How do you prepare to meet the
Lord? You prepare to meet the Lord by looking to Christ, resting
in Christ and His blood and His righteousness. That's how you
do it. That's how they've always done
it. It's how they always will do it. There's no other way.
And then we looked at the parable of the mustard seed. That's where
he's teaching how the church started out small, twelve men,
the New Testament church, and how it grew throughout the world.
Fifty years after the death of Christ, there was a true gospel
church in every major city of the Roman Empire. Isn't that
amazing? That's the power of God. And
those influences went out throughout the world. But there were birds. You remember in the mustard tree,
the birds in the branches. That's Satan's evil outside influences
which will try to get into the church and corrupt the church.
the parable of the mustard seed talk. And so we have to be careful. These outside, don't, listen,
that's where the church goes out throughout the world, but
we don't want the world in the church. But listen to what happens.
Here we come to the parable of the leaven. Remember that? Look at verse 33. Another parable
spake he unto them, the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the
whole was leavened. Brother Don Pfitzer pointed out,
and I didn't point this out in the message, notice that said
the woman hid the leaven. In other words, it wasn't readily
recognized. It started out real small, that
leaven. And you know, leaven in the scripture is a type of
evil. And then it began to spread. And what that parable was teaching
is that the evil influences will eventually come into the church. until what we know as the visible
church here on this earth throughout the world falls away, rebels. Now that's not talking about
every believer, it's not talking about every individual local
body. But it's talking about a general
falling away, rebellion to this point so that that which is known
throughout the world as Christianity or Christendom will be Christian
in name only. And that's it. In other words,
the majority. Now, believers have never been
the majority in the world. But when the Christian church
first started, all Christian churches were true Christians.
But then it began to be corrupt with Satan's evil influences,
the leaven. There was moral corruption and
there was doctrinal corruption. Most places today, now this is
sad to say, I don't say it proudly, I'm not bragging, I'm not just
getting on to any one denomination, but I'll tell you what, you walk
into most so-called churches today and I would just about
fall over if you heard much of the Bible preached at all, let
alone the gospel. And you know that's so. And then
you have the spirit of potpourri that's crawled out all over the
world. They call themselves Christian.
But they don't have Christ as their one mediator between God
and men. They have Mary as their mediator.
That's idolatry. You say, well, you shouldn't
pick on that. I'm not picking on that. I'm just telling you,
anybody who's not looking to Christ and Christ alone is lost. And that's the kind of leaven
that has gone on. And I want to tell you something.
It's pretty prevalent in our day. So here's the issue, as
we come closer to the end of this age, now turn to 2 Thessalonians
2. As we come close to the end of
this age, and this age being the age of the new covenant,
the last days, what is seen and known throughout the world as
Christianity or Christendom will be in name only. Now there's
two important things you need to see right at the outset about
that. Number one, That does not mean that Christ's church is
defeated. At all. That doesn't mean defeat. Listen, Christ told His disciples,
He said, upon this rock I will build my church, that's the rock
of Christ and Him crucified, and He said the gates of hell
will not prevail against it. What is it then? Well, it's God
working all things after the counsel of His own will to work
His plan here on earth to save his people in Christ by his grace
and to bring damnation upon this world and all who refuse to follow
him. The true church, the spiritual
body of Christ, will be saved. Don't ever doubt it. Why? It's because Christ has secured
our complete salvation. And His blood and righteousness
demands our eternal life and final glory. He said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. You come to Christ, He won't
cast you out. And secondly, this truth is not revealed to scare
believers or to make us doubt our salvation. As I said, these
are not parables of desperation, but parables of preparation.
So how do we prepare? All right, well stand fast and
hold on. How do we prepare? All right,
first of all, we go to God's Word. That's number one. We prepare. We don't want to know anybody's
opinion here. Somebody says, well I'll just go over here to
the right Reverend Dr. So-and-so and see what he thinks.
Wrong. It doesn't matter what he thinks,
if what he thinks isn't consistent with God's Word. What does the
Word of God say? Well, Paul deals with this very
subject in 2 Thessalonians 2. Now, I'm going to read through
this chapter and make a few comments. We're going to come upon some
things that people kind of get confused about. Some things that
people just get dogmatic about. They have their view of it, and
then they invest their ego into it, and then Katie bar the door.
Let's start a church somewhere. That's the way people are. There's
nothing in this chapter that's going to divide believers. In
fact, there's nothing in the Word of God that will ever divide
believers. If believers divide, I'm going
to tell you exactly what it is. It's heresy. You say, well, they're
preaching the gospel. Now, let me tell you something.
Whatever issue it is that they latch on to in their minds and
they've got it all down pat theologically and doctrinally that they use
to divide brethren, it's heresy. That's what heresy means, schism.
There's nothing in this Word that God gives that's going to
divide believers. So when I come to some of these
things, I'm not going to stop and give you a theological dissertation
of my opinion, because really my opinion doesn't matter. But
I want you to see what the Lord has for us in this chapter. Now
look at verse 1 of 2 Thessalonians 2. The reason I entitled the
message Stand Fast and Hold On is from verse 15. when he says,
therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions that
you've been taught. But look at verse 1 of 2 Thessalonians
2. Now he says, now we beg, we beseech
you, brethren, talking to believers now, by the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, there's a certain fact, Christ is coming again,
and I'm begging you by that fact, he's saying. This is what the
issue is here in 2 Thessalonians. And he said, and by our gathering
together unto him, that means that Christ is coming to gather
his church like a mother hen gathers her chicks, like a shepherd
gathers the sheep. That's what he's coming to do,
to believe, to gather them, not to beat them up, not to scare
them, but to gather them. He's our husband. We're his bride. He's going to gather us into
his arms and take us into his bosom. So he says, now, this
is a fact. Don't ever doubt that. If you
deny the second coming of Christ, you deny Christ. Do you know
that? He's coming to gather His people, His church, and the ones
whom He redeemed by His blood, the ones who are washed in His
blood, clothed in His righteousness, the one whom He's called by His
Spirit into the fold, He's coming to gather them. The ones that
have gone on to be with Him, they're coming with Him. And
we're all going to be gathered together. That's every one of
God's chosen people, every saint. Every sinner saved by the grace
of God, we're going to be gathered together. We're going to be changed
in the twinkling of an eye. We're going to have a new body
that won't have that Arthur. Somebody told me, going out there,
they said, I said, how are you doing? He says, Arthur's bothering
me an awful lot. I think Arthur's come to live
in me. I'm beginning to see what he means. Get away, Arthur. Well,
Arthur won't be in that new body, Arthur Rydes. You see, he won't
come. It'll be a new, incorruptible
spiritual body. Now some people will try to explain
that to you and make a denomination on that. But I can't do that. And certainly if I divide people,
I may have an opinion, it may be right, but if I seek to divide
brethren over it, then it becomes heresy. You see, don't let that
happen now. Prepare now. Don't let that happen. Don't you be a part of that stuff.
See? Don't let that little leaven
spread through you. And it may seem so insignificant,
and you may just put it in the back of your mind, and you may
say, well, you know, it's not that little 11-11, it's a whole
lot better. Take it in mind now. Prepare. That's what these parables
are for. So Christ is coming. He's going
to gather His church, and He's going to judge all who refuse
to bow to Him. And the standard of judgment
is his righteousness, for he hath appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
and that he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead." The risen Christ is coming again. And he's going to gather his
church. Now he says in verse 2, that you be not so soon shaken
in mind, troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter
from us, as the day of Christ is at hand." There were false
preachers who were preaching and sending out letters in the
name of the apostles, fake letters, telling the Thessalonians that
Christ was going to come back in their lifetime. Here's what
they said, basically. You can see it in other scriptures.
We don't have time to turn. Things are just so bad that He's
coming back right in our lifetime. And that shook them up. That's
what's happening there. And Paul says, don't be shaken
in your mind, troubled. If somebody comes saying by speaking,
they claim, well, I'm speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit
and saying, well, he's coming back today. Or by word preaching
or by letter, as if it were from Paul. Now, look here, I got a
letter from Paul. Well, Paul never wrote that letter. And
he said, they're shaking you up. saying that the day of Christ,
His coming, is in your lifetime. Many of these Thessalonians believed
it so much that they quit their jobs and went off and lived in
a cave somewhere. And when He didn't come back,
they got hungry. And you know what they did? No
good people went to the church wanting charity from the church.
And that's when Paul said in Thessalonians, he said, if a
man don't work, he don't what? He don't eat. That means a person
who's capable. He's capable, but he's not for
some reason. Don't feed him. You're not to feed somebody like
that. And this is the issue. So now he goes on. He says, now
look at verse 3. Now here's the first exhortation of 2 Thessalonians
2. Let no man deceive you by any
means. Do you hear that? Don't let men
deceive you. Men will deceive you. But I'm
going to tell you who won't deceive you. God won't. That's why don't
stand in awe of men or any man. Don't do it. Stand in awe of
the Word of God. You follow a man as he follows
Christ. That's what Paul told the Ephesians.
You follow me as I follow His Word. If any man gets beyond
or above or outside of the Word of God, what's he doing to you?
He's deceiving you. If any man who calls himself
a preacher seeks your following or your agreement or your confederation
by ignoring God's plain revealed word, simple word, don't follow
him. Don't do it. I'm telling you,
don't do it. Prepare. And he goes on, he says,
let no man deceive you by any means. For that day shall not
come except there come a falling away first And that man of sin
be revealed, the son of perdition." Now, there's two things that
are going to happen before the Lord comes again. And these things
we need to understand. Now, remember what he's saying.
All of these things are for our preparation. Don't be easily
shaken in your composure. Don't get all upset. Just preach
the gospel, fulfill the Great Commission, worship God, be responsible
citizens, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
Watch, be sober and obedient in anticipation that He may come
any day now. Let no man deceive you in any
way, for that day will not come unless two things happen first. Number one is a falling away. Now that word falling away is
the word we use for apostasy. And what it means is a rebellion.
There's going to be a great rebellion. Well, what's he talking about?
Well, hold on. The second one is the man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition. Now, who is that man of sin?
Now, this is where a lot of people get in trouble and get bogged
down and get crazy. Well, this man of sin is Antichrist. That's what he is. But hold on
there. Now, let me tell you something.
People today I heard a man on TV this morning talking about
all kinds of physical signs of the second coming of Christ.
Now, I believe we're close. Obviously, we're closer. As time
goes on, we're going to get closer. I believe it's going to be soon.
I'll just be honest with you. That's my opinion as I see things. Soon, in the eyes of the Lord,
could be 100, 200, 300 years, though. Soon for me is tomorrow,
you know. But see, a day is a thousand
years to God and a thousand years as a day. I believe it's soon. But that day is not going to
come here until the rebellion comes first and the man of sin
or the man of lawlessness is revealed. He's called the son
of perdition. That means the son of destruction. But people
are looking for all these physical signs. And I usually go to passages
like Matthew 24 or the parallel passage, which is Mark 13. Those
are called the Olivet Discourses. That's where Christ on Mount
of Olives, Mount Olivet, stood and taught. And He taught His
disciples of future things. He spoke of wars and rumors of
wars. He spoke of famine, pestilence,
all physical things. Much of what is taught in Matthew
24 and Mark 13 has already taken place in the destruction of Jerusalem
in the physical temple in A.D. 70. Much of what is said there. He told them, he said, there
will be some of you standing right here who are going to see these
things. Now it couldn't be talking about His second coming because
they are all dead and gone. But they were there during the
A.D. 70 when Jerusalem and the Temple was destroyed. Some of
it that he taught in Matthew 24, Mark 13, goes all the way
to the second coming of Christ. But his point concerning physical
things is this. His point is that everything
is just going to continue the same as it always has, up until
His coming. Somebody says, oh, there's going
to be wars and rumors of wars. Have you all studied history? When has there never been wars
and rumors of wars? There's always been wars and
rumors of wars. Always. Somebody says, yeah, but it's
going to get worse. Well, yeah, I agree with that. It's going
to get worse. But that's always been. He said there's going to
be famine. Well, there's always been famine,
and there'll be more famine. Pestilence, always been that,
and there'll be more of that. Just the same as it always gone
on. He talked about people marrying and giving in marriage. Haven't
people been doing that since Adam and Eve? In fact, if you
want to get technical, that's pretty much not even the norm
today. Heck, they won't even get married
today. What's he teaching? He's saying
that up until the time of His coming, this world is just going
to go right on like it's always been going on. All things in
the earth will go on like they are, always have been. People
will go about their business, their daily business. They'll
eat. They'll drink. They'll marry. They'll give in
marriage. There'll be sickness. There'll be famine. There'll
be pestilence. Sin will prevail just like it always has. Nothing
different. Here he comes. That's what he's
teaching. Now, what's he telling us? Let's
prepare. Let's just don't go about our
everyday business just like things are going on like they always
were and he's not coming again. You say, well, I believe he's
coming again. Well, live like it. Do you really believe that? I've heard people say, I believe
he could come tomorrow. Do you really believe that? Then
live like it. Now, that doesn't mean this silly
old thing that got started years ago. Somebody said, well, if
Christ came today, where would you be and all that kind of thing?
What would He catch you doing? Something like that. That's not
what that's about. We're to go about our daily business,
but we're to live in anticipation of the coming of the Lord. He's
coming again. Don't you go out through your lives ignoring and neglecting The awesome Word
of God. As if, you know, there's no tomorrow. Don't eat, drink and be merry,
for tomorrow we're going to die. No, tomorrow you may come to
judgment. And if you're not in Christ, if you're not standing
in Him, where will you be? You'll be damned forever. That's
what He's teaching. But now listen, here's two spiritual
signs. And let me tell you something,
the only ones who are going to recognize these two spiritual signs are
believers. The world's not going to recognize them. Those who
are born of God and taught of God, there's going to be a general,
number one, there's going to be a general widespread apostasy,
a falling away, a rebellion by those. And by those organizations
that at one time professed to believe the true gospel, and
they'll fall away from the doctrine of Christ. You'll see the church
gradually getting farther and farther and farther away from
the truth, and you'll see people who claim to be believers, and
even those who you thought were believers, rebelling. That's
what he's talking about. This is a denial by the majority,
the popular opinion of the very truths upon which the true Christian
church has been built. Paul told Timothy, he said, there's
coming a time when they will not what? Endure sound doctrine. They'll be religious. They'll
call themselves Christian, but they don't want to hear the truth
preached. They do not stand in awe of the
Word of God. And then secondly, the man of sin must be revealed.
He's not revealed to the world. The world will not recognize
him. But the saints of God will recognize him. Who is this man
of sin? He's revealed by the apostasy
he causes. According to the parables, especially
the parable of the leaven, these two things happen so gradually
that God's saints in every age are kept in anticipation of the
Lord's return. Somebody said, well, every generation
has thought the Lord's coming. Well, that's because this has
happened so gradually, you see. Both Paul and John. Who is this
man of sin? Some say he's one man who rises
upon the political scene, who gets shot or something in the
head and then he comes back and everybody stands in awe of him.
And then others say he's not one man, he's a spirit, the spirit
of Antichrist. Now let me say this. In my view,
he's the spirit of Antichrist. Paul said it was present in his
day. And John said it was present in his day, Paul did too. John
said, they went out from us, they rebelled, but they were
not of us. In other words, they were professing
believers who revealed by their rebellion that they weren't true
believers. And he called that the spirit of antichrist. And
that's what I believe. But let me tell you something.
Whether you believe it's one fellow, or whether you believe
it's just a general apostasy, a general spirit, believers will
be able to recognize the spirit of Antichrist. And what's happening
in this spirit of Antichrist? We'll turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
11. And I think this is one of the best
passages to show this. Verse 2, Paul writes to the church
at Corinth. He says, I'm jealous over you
with godly jealousy. I've espoused you to one husband.
Who is that husband? Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? God in human
flesh, without sin. What did He accomplish at Calvary?
He shed His precious blood to put away the sins of His people.
He established righteousness whereby God could justify them.
He fulfilled all that was required of us for salvation. He did it. Grace, grace, grace. He said,
I have espoused you to that one husband, that I may present you
as a chaste virgin to Christ. Be loyal to Christ. Don't prostitute
or adulterate yourselves out to another Christ, another gospel,
another spirit, another man. And he says in verse 3, But I
fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled or deceived
Eve through his subtleties, so your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. Now, there's your key. What is that simplicity? It's
the simple gospel. Literally, it's the single message
of Christ and Him crucified. Salvation by God's grace. It's
not complicated. It's not confusing. It's not
deep and dark to the mind to whom it's been revealed. And part of this leaven of the
parable Part of this rebellion over here in 2 Thessalonians
2 is when men come in and they corrupt that simplicity in some
way. They'll get your mind on other
things other than Christ and Him crucified. They'll get you
taken up with things that they've seen that they've never seen
before. And things that only they've
seen, and if you haven't seen it, it's because God hasn't revealed
it to you yet. That's so common. And if you
ever get it, you'll know it. How? By standing in awe of the
Word of God? No, you'll get their approval.
You'll be in their circle. You'll be with their club. You'll
stand in awe of the man and not the Word of God. Anything that
takes your mind or your heart or your attention away from the
glory of Christ and Him crucified, buried, resurrected, seated at
the right hand, coming again, anything that takes your focus
away, anything that confuses those issues is part of the rebellion. Prepare for it. Prepare for it. Let no man deceive you by any
means. How can we keep from being deceived?
Stay fixed on Christ and Him crucified. Judge all things by
His glory and by His Word. This rebellion is the result
of a great deception that Satan and the man of sin were. Look
at verse 4. He says, this man of sin he opposes
and exalts himself above all that is called God. or that is
worshiped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing
himself that he is God. Now, I believe what he's talking
about there is the man who leads people apart from the Word of
God. In other words, it's my Word.
You follow my Word. Don't follow my Word. Follow
God's Word. And that temple there, I don't believe he's talking
about the literal temple in Jerusalem. It's not there. He's talking
about the church. This is where he gets into and tries to deceive
the very elect, tries to deceive God's people. He says in verse
5, Remember you not that when I was yet with you, I told you
these things? Paul had taught these things already. He says,
And now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in
his time? He's held back now, this spirit of Antichrist is
held back for a time. But there's going to come a time
when he's unleashed, and he says in verse 7, for the mystery of
iniquity does already work, that spirit's already here, he says.
Only he who now let us will let until he be taken out of the
way. I believe he's talking about the Holy Spirit there, who's
holding him back. But there's coming a time when
the Holy Spirit's going to let him loose. And he says in verse
8, And then that wicked shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth, that's his word, in other
words, your only protection from him is the word of God, 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 or deceptive wonders. They'll
do some wonderful things that will deceive many. Things that
seem holy. Things that seem spiritual. Now,
who are they going to deceive? Now, I want you to look at verse
10. This is important. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish, now listen to this, because why? Because
they receive not the love of the truth that they might be
saved. It doesn't say, because they
receive not the truth, does it? It says, because they receive
not the love of the truth. And those who will not love the
truth, love Christ and Him crucified, love His grace, love His Word.
Verse 11, And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness.
Now, who's going to be damned? All those who believe not the
truth. Who love not the truth. But look at verse 13. Now, here's
the comfort. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation." God chose
you. That's election. Unconditional. Through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. That's the new birth.
Spirit setting us apart, giving us life, bringing us to the truth. What truth? Verse 14, whereunto
He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? The gospel. of
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which you've been taught." The traditions
there are not the traditions of men. Tradition just means
something that's passed down. Well, this gospel has been passed
down from the beginning. And that's the tradition we're
to hold, whether by word, whether they preached it to you, or by
letter, epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation, comfort, good hope, through what? Through
grace. Comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word
and what? Prepare, you see, that's what
he's saying. Worship God where Christ is preached. Worship God
where the Gospel is preached, where the Word is preached. Fellowship
with others who love the truth. Be like the noble Bereans. Search
the Scriptures daily as their foundation. Test all preachers
by the Word. Study to show yourself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the Word of truth. That's what he's talking about.