When we come together each Lord's
Day, we're reminded just of the grace that's necessary on our
behalf. Because we all come in every time with presuppositions
of what the day is going to bring, problems that the week has had,
sins that have obviously come up during the week before, the
day before, the hour before, the second before, as we're getting
out of the car. It seemed to be always the time when me and
Robin would get into something, right as we were getting out
of the car. And if it was a blessed day, we could get through service
and then when we get in the car. Everything would be fine until
the devil asked the question, where do you want to eat? And then nobody could make up
their mind. Get behind me, Satan, we're not eating anything, we're
going home. You know, the smallest things
can just destroy us. It can destroy our attitudes,
our mindset, our focus. It can destroy what we believe
is security. Well, I just don't feel saved
anymore. I just don't feel like I'm with the Lord anymore. I
just don't feel... This is just... How can we be Christians if this
is how we feel coming out of church or coming into church?
Well, how should you feel? What should you be thinking as
you pop in here? Should you float? Should we all
just sort of tear out the ceiling and float in here from heaven?
There's only one that's come down from heaven. His name is
Jesus. So if we are found in Christ, then we have been raised
to life and we are seated next to Him in the heavenlies. And
one day in that glorified place, we shall forever be with Christ,
immutable, unchangeable, holy, righteous. But in these days,
we are as righteous as we're going to be because Christ's
righteousness is our own. So no matter how awesome our
week has been, no matter how many decades we've gone without
any aggravation, that one half millisecond, nanosecond of frustration
just blows it all away. So our hope is not in how we
are acting, living, thinking, fighting. Our hope is not in
those participles, but our hope is in the participles that we
find in Scripture. Believing. Trusting, holding, striving,
these are all believing, and it's a constant thing. Belief
is not, and I will say it, I've said it a thousand times over
the last 15 years. Belief is not a point in history,
but it is a present reality. And so that when we see our sin,
and we see the wickedness of the world, and we see the struggles
that we have, and we see all the things that rightly should
condemn us, therefore now there is no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus, because Christ has taken our sin and
placed it on Himself. And the obedience of Christ,
have you ever thought about that? The obedience of Christ is His
righteousness. Christ as a, and I'm going to say this, a mere
man, He was God also, but He was fully man. We often forget
that reality. That Jesus, though He was the
God-man, He was all-human and all-God at the same time. He
was not this dynamic superhero that was intertwined with divine
powers. He was the divine God of heaven
at the same time, being completely human. These two natures of Christ. And Jesus is the righteousness
of God, not because He's God, which is true, God is holy, but
it's not God's holiness that we've been given, it's Christ's
righteousness that we've been given, that's been credited to
our account. And that is that as He was a
human being, as He was a baby, and a toddler, and a pre-adolescent,
and a teenager, and a young man, He perfectly obeyed God. He fulfilled all the righteous
requirements of the law. So that everything that we are supposed
to be, Christ is. Everything that God commands
of us, Christ is. Everything. Everything. So therefore thou, there is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because Christ
has surely obeyed God the Father fully, and in so much He has
obeyed, He is called the righteousness of God. Wow. What can we do to match that?
What attitude must we put on in order to be right with God?
When you find it, box it up and sell it. I tell you what, there's
something that's not for sale, it's just free. And that's the
grace of God through Jesus Christ. Continue believing on Christ
as your righteousness. Continue believing on Christ
as your Savior. Continue believing on Christ
as the one who satisfied God's judgment. He is your propitiation.
Now why would you start service like that? Well, because it's
on my heart. It's on my mind. It's forever in my face. You
think Psalm 51 is just a prayer of David? Oh, brothers and sisters,
if you aren't praying that prayer often, you're not seeing it. I'm not
saying that that's the prayer to pray. Don't go there and go,
okay, God, I'm praying Psalm 51. But if you don't know the
heart of Psalm 51, oh, my sin is forever before me. How about
Isaiah 6? Look what wretched man that I
am. How about Romans 7? How shall I escape this? Who's
going to save me? What am I to do? Christ. Christ. Christ has saved us. Christ is now saving us. And
Christ will continue to save us. And He will forever save
us. Salvation is of the Lord and it is an absolute perfect
thing. And friends, if there's no greater
power in our lives to press us into I hate to use this word,
right living, right thinking, right speech, right affection. There is no other power than
knowing that Christ is our righteousness. There is no other power but the
gospel of Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 1 verse 16,
Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus, for it
is the power of God. What is he talking about? The
good news that God has given us through His Word is the power
of God unto salvation. Friends, there is no external.
There is no existential opportunity for salvation, for experiencing
God. There is no other means through
which we might believe except the Word of God. That's it. No other way. No other way that
we find security. Friends, if I go with my feelings,
and if I go with my actions, and if I go with everything that
I am, then I am never saved. And many of you look at me like,
You don't understand. Yes, I do. I'm human. You don't
know what temptation looks like. Yes, I do. It's even more compounded than most people's. Why? Because I'm praying for y'all
and I'm worried about me. And I pray that you're praying
for me and for my family as well. I mean, we are in need of grace. We are in need of saving. We
are in need of a Savior. We are in need of a divine intervention
that comes from an eternal love and affection that God had for
us before the world began. That's hard for us to put our
minds around. Last week, one of the things
that we were talking about in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, or
the thing that we were talking about, is the dominance of evil
in the world. We have a lot of people throughout
our lifetimes who have come to the place of considering scripture
from a human point of view. And what I mean by that is that,
well, how do you know you're right? I'm not right. The Bible is right. The Bible is right. Scripture
is correct. Unless you're reading something by Eugene Patterson,
it's actually correct. And if you are, you've never
followed along as I read. There's nothing there. No bean
pots or anything. But I mean, we're coming to a
place where when we look at God's Word, we're hearing the voice
of God. We come to God's Word. If I give
my commentary on this, and it is not said explicitly here,
then what I have done is add to, twist, manipulate, or infer
something that Scripture does not teach, and in doing so, I've
put words in the mouth of God. We call that speculation. We
call that theory. We call those things philosophy.
See, the science of speculating and not knowing what we're talking
about is called philosophy. That's what it's called. And
I'm being funny. I'm not picking on you philosophers. They all
just ran out the back door crying. Sensitive people we are. But
I mean, I have had more time in my lifetime thinking about
what is not here than I have had time looking at what is here
in the Scripture. And what we've learned, and last
week we learned about the coming of the lawless one. And we got
down to verse 6, and so let's just start there. In verse 5,
Paul said, do you not remember that when I was with you I told
you these things? He's talking about the coming of the lawless
one, the coming in the sense that the lawless one would be
revealed. This is who he is. And you know what is restraining
him now, so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery
of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains
it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless
one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the
breath of His mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance
of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity
of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders, and
with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because
they refuse to love the truth and to be saved. Therefore God
sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what
is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." And I'm going
to stop there. I meant to get there last Sunday. There was
too much. I didn't give ample structure
to the timeline. In verse 6 there, and you know
what is restraining him, we see now all of a sudden at verse
7 that the work of lawlessness in the world is the work of Satan.
We've understood that God is sovereign. He is sovereign over
evil. He created Lucifer, who was an
angel of light. He created the heavenly host,
the one-third of the heavenly host that fell with Lucifer. And Lucifer looked at himself.
If you don't know who Lucifer is, it's who we call Satan and
the devil today, the adversary. He was an angel in the presence
of the abode of God, worshiping and doing the work of God. And
the Scripture says that he was a beautiful representation of
the glory of God. I look at it this way. Much like Moses when he saw the
dust of the shadow, Or the shadow of the dust of the back of the
glory of God on Mount Sinai. And He came down and His face
shone so bright that the people said, Oh Moses, cover your face
for we cannot stand to see the reflection of the glow that comes
from you seeing the reflection of the dust of the shadow of
God's glory. Cover your face. Imagine what
Lucifer must be to behold if he is standing in the presence
of God. And Lucifer looked at himself
and said, you know what? I am glorious. I am beautiful. I look nearly as good as God
does. I should share in His glory.
That's like me making something out of clay, and it resembling
my ability, and it resembling my skill, and it resembling my
glory. And that pot coming up and saying,
now I want to share in the glory that you have. That's the work
of the devil. And because God hurled him out
of heaven, the consequence and the judgment of evil and all
evil is forever been in the earth. As a matter of fact, the eternal
decree of God included the fall of Satan, included that God would
create heaven and earth, included that He would create man and
woman and breathe the breath of life into them. He had included
the fact that they would fall, I believe, on the very first
day of creation, on the very first moment they were created
and the very first opportunity they had. He decreed that the
devil would and purposed that the devil would tempt them because
he created the world and all that is in it so that he would
be praised for his glorious grace in Jesus Christ and through the
redemption of his people. That's the entire whole of the
narrative of Scripture. It's what it teaches. From Genesis
to Maps, the whole thing is about God's redemption of people who
were unable to be redeemed without divine intervention. Beloved, do you see the Scripture
that way? Do you see calamity and frustration? Do you see The
evil of this world, under the hand of a sovereign God, who
is not permitting it, He has purposed it. There's a big difference. Permission is just, I'll do what
you want to, I'll deal with it later. Like when the kids are
just, run your nerves crazy, and you're like, I'm not going
to force the cleanup of the bedroom today, but tomorrow, I'm throwing
it all in the trash. That's not how God deals with
things. He's not just letting evil run amok without chains,
without boundaries. All that happens in this earth
is under the sovereign rule of God. So therefore, when calamity
comes, I remember back in the church growth days, we used to
sing a song that had the line in it, blessed be the name of
the Lord. You know, blessed be the name of the Lord. You all
know that one? Blessed be your name. That comes
from the book of Job. And it comes, the lyric there
comes after Job got news that the house fell on his children
and killed them all. We don't sing it like that when
we sing it in church. We're just, I mean, especially
the guys on stage, we're jumping up and down, I mean, you know,
you couldn't jump on this stage, it'll collapse on you. But I
mean, you know, I mean, it was just unreal. And I'm sitting
there, it hit me one day, I'm thinking, my goodness, we're
quoting Job. after the death of his family.
And you go to Job and you see that God sent Satan to kill Job's
children. What? And now we're singing yee-haw
about it? But we should be able to sing
yee-haw about it. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord, the good, the bad, the ugly, the
painful, the joyous. The riches, the poverty, it's
all in the hand of God. We who are God's people, nothing,
nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Nothing can separate us. You might think, well, poverty
cannot separate us. And you know what's more likely
to separate you from the love of God than poverty? Wealth.
Than sickness? Health. But God's people will
not be separated for any of these things. None of them. None of
them. For all that we have is a gift
of God. And some of us have other things,
and some of us have other gifts, and some of us have other thoughts,
and some of us have other maturities, and God has put a people together
as He sees fit for the mutual benefit of the church. If we
were all preachers, what a disaster it would be this morning. If
we were all spiritually mature to the point we needed not each
other, oh, who would make disciples of whom? If we had all knowledge
and all understanding at all time and never had a problem,
what good would the church even be? We should just tear out all the
New Testament epistles and just put them in a filing cabinet
for posterity. We don't need to read them if
everybody is equally the same in gift and maturity. Brothers and sisters, God is
sovereign over all of this. And the lawless one is the work
of the devil. This action, these people. Scripture teaches that this dominant
evil in the world, God purposed it from the beginning. Therefore,
God will use evil for His purpose. And He will be glorified in the
damnation of wickedness. And He will be glorified in the
saving of wicked people because He cursed His Son. God has the
plans of evil in His grasps. And evil will do what it will
do when God is ready. Verse 7 here, For the mystery
of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains
it will do so until he is out of the way. Verse 8, And then
the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill
with the breath of His mouth, and bring to nothing by the appearance
of His coming. See, the work of evil has been
active, as I've already said this morning, before the creation
of the world. And then in the garden, God uses evil to bring
about His purpose. In verse 8, we see that the lawless
one is really nothing. He's at work and has always been
at work. The work of the one who is in the world, if we go
back to Ephesians chapter 2 and we see what Paul says there,
we see that there is a... Let's look right there. You were
dead in the trespasses of your sins in which you once walked.
Following the course of this world, following the prince of
the power of the air, and the spirit that is now at work in
the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the
patches of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and
of the mind, and because of this were by nature children of wrath,
just like the rest of humanity. But God, being rich in mercy,
because of the great love with which He loved us, what does
it say? Even when we were dead in our trespasses, what did God
do? He made us alive together with
Christ by grace. You have been saved, Paul writes. And He raised us up with Him
who, Jesus Christ, and seated us in the heavenlies, in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He
might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It's not a
result of works. It's not your own thing. So that
no one may boast, it is the gift of God. For you are God's workmanship. You are the work of God, beloved.
and the devil and the enemy and the wickedness of this world
and even our own shortcomings cannot separate us from the love
of God. Beloved, if not sinning will
not put you justified before God. Living well and living good
and living moral will not put you in right standing with God.
If we live moral from the age of one minute to the age of a
hundred, we are still guilty because we are sinners at heart.
We are still guilty because the imputed guilt of sin from our
father Adam is on us. Humanity as a species is guilty
before God and deserving of judgment. It is actually in every point
of church history an absolute heresy that was punishable by
fire if you believe that man is not inherently sinful. Period. But yet, all throughout our culture
today, people think that men are somewhat good, a little bit
good, or either all good until they decide to do bad. Friends,
it's just a matter of time when we decide to do bad, and the
deciding to do bad is not what separates from God. It is our
heart, our mind, our being, our essence, our existence. And we are part of the wickedness
of the world until, until, What Paul said, we once were, but
now because God has made us alive in Christ. When does that take
place? That's another sermon. What is this lawless one going
to do? Well, God's not going to reveal Him and say, look at
the lawless one. This is where I left off last
week. Look at what He's doing. Praise Him, honor Him, glorify
Him. Well, the wicked is never going to have opportunity to
celebrate the lawless one. People, you hear it all the time,
and it's on TV and on movies and stuff, and everybody's like,
well, at least if I got to go to hell, I'll have a good time
when I get there. Oh no, you won't. And people think where
there's a massive amount of people living in debauchery, that at
least they're having a good time on their way to destruction.
At least it'll just be a party. Friends, there's no party in
the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God. As we learned
last Tuesday night at 1600 Stadia, It's how deep the blood of the
enemies of God shall run. And that's an image, that's a
picture of the fact that because Jesus bled for us, we do not
bleed and recompense. But the enemies of God, those
who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ will bleed forever. They
will suffer forever. Their judgment will never end. I see some people go, well, you
know, I told you you were a hellfire brimstone preacher. No, I'm not.
I'm a preacher of grace. And what need of grace, what
need of there is grace? What need is there for grace
if there is not justice? What need is there for salvation
if there is not lostness? What need of there is there for
redemption if there is not someone to be purchased? Well, but it
starts with God's holiness. And it starts with His holiness
requiring justice. And the equivalent word there
that we need to keep in our mind is that God's holiness and God's
justice is His righteousness. It is right and good. Much speculation
has been made about what the Scripture teaches about who this,
quote, antichrist, which Paul never uses, nor is it written
in the book of Revelation anywhere, that term. But in 1 John, who is this guy? Who are these
antichrists? This is not a message of mystery
to be decoded, but a message of glorious power and mercy by
the Lord who is the victor of His people. Verse 9, the coming
of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power
and false signs and wonders. So the work of Satan and all
those who are his do the work of the lawless one. They do lawless
deeds. John says that sin is lawlessness. And all who live
in sin are lawless. Lawless people do not enter the
kingdom of heaven. Lawlessness has no place in righteousness. Well, what does that mean? What about me as the church,
Christian? What about me who is saved by
faith? What does it mean for me? Will,
are you lawless? John would say that anyone who
says that they do not sin is a liar. John would also say that
these things are written that you may not sin, beloved, but
if you do, here's the answer to that question. You have an
advocate with the Father. See, for the children of God,
even though there will be sin in our lives, even if there wasn't
sin in our lives, there'd still be sin in our lives. the sin
of the heart, the sins of omission, as James would talk about. Oh,
you think you're doing well because you're not doing all this wicked
stuff? What about the stuff you're supposed to be doing? Friends,
we can never please God in our acts. We can never please God
in our obedience. We can never honor the Lord by
following a set of rules and regulations. That's being subject
to the law. And the law of the letter kills,
but the Spirit gives life. And then Paul would ask the question
then in Romans, so are we supposed to just forget the law, be antinomian,
that means no law? Absolutely not. Forbid it. It
cannot be. May it never be. It cannot be.
But we live by the law of what? Faith. So that the works that
God has purposed in us are not the evidence necessarily of our
salvation and they surely aren't our anchor, are they? What is
our anchored faith? Jesus Christ the righteous. How
is that? He has accomplished all the obedience
necessary on our behalf that God is pleased with us. And that
when we sin, Christ is our answer. Oh Lord, what shall I do? Oh,
you know what the altars used to be like when I was in the
beginning days of my ministry? Do you need to rededicate your
life today? And I'm not making a joke about that. It's a very
horrible thing. If you want to rededicate, if
you find yourself today with sin, you just cannot overcome.
Just come down the aisle. As a matter of fact, let's make
it intimate. Everybody close your eyes. Bow your heads and
come down the aisle. These brothers and sisters have
rededicated. Listen, how many times a day do you rededicate
your life to Christ? A bajillion. And you know what
it does? Zero. It's like the abuser going, I'm
sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you. I'm sorry, I was
just angry. Oh, I'm sorry. Do those sorry's really work
after three bruises? No. Sorry's to God does not make
us right with God. Jesus Christ has never had to
say, forgive me. Jesus has never had to ask God
to cleanse him of unrighteousness. Jesus has never had to say, I'm
sorry. So if we're going to have an
anchor, let us hold to the one who has never, ever, ever sinned. He can take us to the Father.
He is the righteousness of God. Let us not worry about this lawless
one. Do not get entangled in the world's
ways. Friends, let me tell you what
happens when people teach this type of text in a way that starts
to put fear in you, that you better get your life right. No,
you better believe on Jesus. That's the end of it. What happens is they teach another
gospel. Fearful eschatology is another
gospel, and I dare say this in a public way for the first time,
but I believe people who hold fast to those things and teach
those things from the pulpit are anathemas, as Paul says in
Galatians chapter 1. What does that mean? That means
they are not our brothers in Christ. You mean that they got
a different millennial view? I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I said that
people who believe that the gospel is, let me scare you out of judgment
and get you walking straight, they're cut off from Christ. Remember what I said a few weeks
ago, it's never wrong to say what Jesus says. Who is this? It is everyone who
is under the bondage of sin. Everyone who is under the bondage
of the law. Everyone who is reprobate. Everyone who is unbelieving.
Everyone who rejects the gospel. Had a conversation with a gentleman
Tuesday night. That went on until about 10.30
though, brother. and then took him home because
the rain came down. He gave me six steps to salvation. Six necessary
things that had to happen for one to be saved. And I'm thinking,
I just don't think I can do those. He made the comment that there's
a time, you know, everybody can come to Christ. Everybody can
believe before it's too late. And I corrected that. And then
one day last week, that same conversation happened at a local
restaurant with a man, who said he just heard somebody say, well,
you know, people can come to life, and sometimes people don't
come to Christ until they're old and they've lived their life.
Well, let me show you what the Scripture does teach about reprobation.
You might think, well, what is reprobation? If you will flip
with me to Romans chapter 1 real quick, and I want you to hear
this. And I want you to know that I'm
not making a doctrine up, I'm just reading Scripture as it's
written, and I really don't even have to commentate it. In verse 16 it says, as I've
already quoted, for I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it's the power
of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, the Jew first,
and then also to the Greek, or the Gentile. For it is, verse
17, the righteousness of God, for in it, for in what? The Gospel. The righteousness of God is revealed
from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous
shall live by faith, not works, not obedience, not pressing,
not eating, not drinking, not doing, not anything but faith,
believing on Christ, period. 4.18, the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
by their unrighteousness, what do they do? Suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God
has shown it to them for His visible attributes, namely, eternal
power, divine nature, have been clearly perceived since the creation
of the world and the things that have been made, so that they
now are without excuse. For although they knew God...
See, when people say they don't believe in God, I say, that's
a bunch of bull. That's baloney. God Himself says you believe
He is. So don't want to hear it. What
evidence might you bring? God says He is. And God has made
Himself known to you. Don't tell me you don't know
Him. But by the works of unrighteousness, and the acts of disobedience,
and the acts of wickedness, and the acts of the flesh, they suppress
the truth. For although they knew God, they
did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became
stupid." That's a better translation for that word there. Worthless.
Foolish. English would be stupid, but
when people say stupid, it really upsets folks, because it's a
bad word in my house. Don't say stupid, especially if you're
calling someone that. But they became foolish, futile,
worthless, empty, vain in their thinking. And their foolish hearts
were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became
fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creepy things
that crawl upon four legs and all these different things. Verse
24 is what I'm getting now. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts
of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies
amongst themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God
for a lie, and they worshiped and served the creature rather
than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. You hear that? Paul reiterates that here with
the Thessalonians, that though the wickedness is still in the
world, you know that God has not returned, Christ has not
returned, because judgment would put evil in its place, and we'd
see justice and recompense and wrath. He says, do not be deceived,
because the power of the lawless one comes with great words. Friends,
every one of us is probably thinking about really evil stuff right
now. The power of the devil in the world, man, that's evil.
Abortion's evil. So-called gay marriage. Things of this nature.
Pedophilia. All this stuff is just evil.
Murder and all these crimes against humanity. Hatred. This is what,
Paul, it's included in that. But friends, let me show you
what else is included in the work of the devil. Listen. It's
by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and
wonders. Who is doing that? Well, it's not the church of
Satan, that's obvious. It's not pagans are us. It's not the clan of antichrists. or the demonic brotherhood or
whatever else I could come up with. These aren't the people,
I mean, obvious, yeah, we got you, the upside down cross and
blood coming out of your ears, man, we know who you worship.
What about the ones carrying Bibles just like ours? What about
the ones gathering today just like us? What about the signs and wonders
that we saw even in the days of Moses in Egypt that replicated
even fictitiously the signs and wonders of God. And people believe
the lie rather than the truth. Many will peer into the way of
deception. And Paul is telling these people,
he starts us out, do not be shaken and do not be alarmed and do
not be deceived. Isn't that the command? Don't
be deceived. The work of the lawless one is
at work in the world today, and when he is revealed, he will
be in judgment. And you'll see the end of him. Friends, some
who hear and love the gospel with their mouths today will
see the power and the signs and the wonders and the philosophy
and the argument and the appreciation and the intellect and the continuity,
and the intimacy, and the unity, and the rewards of another gospel
that sounds so much like ours that it's actually very tempting. He says, do not believe that
gospel. Some will hear it and they will fall prey to what they
think is a better gospel. Oh, that makes sense. Why? Because
a better gospel for the flesh, you know what it looks like?
It's a gospel that actually feeds the flesh. A better gospel is
a gospel that gives us control. A better gospel to the flesh,
to the natural man, the wicked gospel. Just in case y'all were
thinking, now what is he talking about? is one that makes us feel
good about what we can do and how we can secure our own salvation.
It allows us to follow a specific doctrine or practice or actions. It comes to the table and says,
if you want to seal yourself in the love of God, then you
need to be fully allegiant to Christ. It says that you must follow
this way, or go this direction, or do all these things, where
Jesus Himself says, believe in Me. And what about all the teaching
in the New Testament about how the church ought to live? Listen, that's
fatherly instruction. Don't stick your hand in the
light socket. Don't slap your sister. Don't yell at your mother. For the wrath of God comes upon
these things. You're not in the wrath of God, so cut it out. That's really the simplicity
of what the apostles teach. We're not condemned for them.
It's fatherly discipline. There's consequences, but it's
fatherly discipline. We don't throw our children in
a pit for the dogs to eat when they disobey us. We love them,
correct them, and guide them in direction. We discipline them.
We correct them. Why? Not so that they can be
perfect because they've already messed up. They can never be
perfect. The same thing is true for the church. We can never
be perfect, but we will be one day. But we are righteous because
we are counted as Christ is righteous. Christ's righteousness is counted
for us. Many will peer in the way of this false gospel. Many
will hear and love the gospel and fall prey to this powerful
display of apostolic signs and wonders and gifts. And in doing
so, what Paul is saying here is that they may be proving themselves
as objects of wrath. In Revelation 13, we saw that
the dragon and the beast, his two
beasts, they perform signs, make fire come down from heaven. And
by the signs, it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast.
It deceives those who dwell on the earth, telling them to make
an image of the beast that is wounded by the sword yet lived,
and is allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, that
the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would
not worship the image of the beast to be slain. You know what
I suppose that one of the main things that we see in Revelation
13, if those of you who want to hear what I have to preach
on that, I preached on it three Tuesdays ago. Go listen to it. Because I believe
that that includes a lot of congregations in the world today. You say,
man, you're turning into a polemicist. No, I'm not. I'm just telling
you what the text is offering. Remember, those who live to watch
lifestyles are easily identified. What about the marginal? What
about the apathetic? What about the mystic? What about those? What about
the zealous? Is it our zeal that proves our
adoption? I don't know about y'all, but
I have a lot of friends who have adopted children and as they
grow up, sometimes they hate their parents. What do you mean
I can't go to my friend's house on Saturday night? I hate you.
Slam the door. Just because we've been adopted
doesn't mean that we're not going to be disgruntled. This new message, this new mission,
this new vision, these new morals, they're easily fallen for, beloved. Listen to what I'm saying. This
is the work of the devil. Be very, very careful. And I
say it often. God has put us together that
we may be fed the Word of God together. You know why? Because
it's safe. It's safe and it's how God has
decreed the local church to operate. And if I mess up, you will tell
me. If you mess up, we will tell
each other. But if I'm a big head preaching
on a screen somewhere a thousand miles away, and I'm all that's
feeding you, what's to protect you? What's to protect you? Be discerning when we listen
and read. And when we see something that
doesn't fit, we need to say it. Don't be afraid to say, I don't
like the way that sounds. I had a brother say that to me
a couple of weeks ago. He said, I want you and I to sit down
and talk about this particular thing, because I don't like the
way that sounds. Absolutely can't wait to do it. And we will. And
we talked about many things like that. And if I'm not clear, I'll clarify.
If I'm wrong, I'll correct. If I'm right, He'll change. That's
the beauty of the gospel. It's the beauty of the Word of
God. This wickedness and this deception has been happening
throughout history. Friends, the devil is more at work deceiving
people with a false hope than he is out there doing malicious
things. Think about it. And most of us know what I'm
talking about. How many times in our history,
in my own life, have I been part of a church that proved itself
Ichabod? people that just thought love
the Lord and then all of a sudden they stab you in the face, not
the back, in the face. But it's not just the devil's
henchmen, it's the devil also that will suffer this judgment. The Scripture says that God will
take all those who are perishing and bring recompense. This is
the judgment, the unbelieving ones, the objects of wrath, the
lovers of self, the haters of sound teaching. I actually was
able to knock out five chapters of one of the books that I've
been desperately writing for the last 50 years, even though
I'm only 43. Maybe one day I'll finish it, but this particular
one is about my journey into the reformed faith and the cost
that it has caused me. And I wasn't going to do it,
but because I end up telling this story over and over and
over again because it's a continuation. Every day I have someone else
ping me or message me or call me or come by and say, hey, I
want to talk to you. I know you went through a lot.
Tell me how you overcame it. And one of the things that I
make very clear to them is I'm not a victim and you're not a victim.
We deserve judgment. We deserve frustration. We deserve
pain. But that God brings that persecution
because it's a promise. You will be persecuted if you
desire to live a godly life. You will have problems. You will
have to fight the good fight of faith. But it is not our fight,
it is not our battle, it is not ours to win for it is already
won in the person of Jesus Christ. But those who are perishing look
at that and they say, that's foolish. They say, that's ridiculous,
that's foolish, you shouldn't be saying that, that doesn't
go along with what I've learned, or what my mama taught me, or
what the teacher taught me, or what the pastor taught me. But
friends, if the Scripture doesn't teach it explicitly in context,
it's been taken out of context, which is a pretext, which is
false teaching. Hear that. John 3.16, Philippians 4.13. All these texts have been taken
out of context to such a degree that people think that John 3.16
says that whosoever, that God loved the world so much that
He gave His only begotten Son. No, God loved the world so. How? By giving His only Son.
But what's the difference? A big difference. Does God love
the world so much? Absolutely. But what does the
world mean in that? Context. In contrast to the audience
that he has, Nicodemus, the world is not just Jews, but all peoples. All peoples. Because likewise, we see Philippians
4.13 being twisted out of context. Revelation 3, Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. And whoever opens, I will come
in and we'll snack together, and eat together, and fellowship
together, and play Yahtzee, or whatever it is you and Jesus
want to do. Shake it up, pour it out, I got a word, bingo!
I mean, what is it? Is that Jesus of the Bible? No. Jesus is talking. Jesus is
talking to the church of Laodicea, who is lukewarm, who is apathetic,
who has no fire, and no coolness, and no usefulness. And Jesus
says, if you all do not repent, of your apathy, I'm going to
remove your usefulness. And when you do, I'm going to
knock on your door and we're going to come in together. It's about
reconciliation, not salvation. It's about intimacy, not redemption. Don't believe every wind of doctrine
that blows your way. Test it. And with all wicked deception,
verse 10, for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the
truth and to be saved. The point is, is that the hatred
that I've experienced in my life toward me has not come because
of my reformed leanings. It has come because I dared to
question everything by the Word of God. Think about that for a second. I mean, just by a show of hands,
how many of you have just gone out into your life and said,
I'm a Calvinist and I love John Calvin? Never. I didn't say his name until 2009
in a public place. It's not Calvinism that divides. It's not Arminianism that divides.
It's not these positions that divide. It's not your pre-meal,
a-meal, post-meal, who cares a meal. It's not any of that
stuff. It's when you say that God wants
you happy all the time and that if you have problems, you're
sinning. And I say, well, what about this? Anyone who desires
to live a godly life will be persecuted. What about Paul's
teaching to the Thessalonians? Remember we told you that you
would suffer greatly. What about to the church of Colossae
that I read this morning in opening service? Paul says in the very
next things, for I, what? Fill up what is lacking in the
suffering of Christ in my body for your sake. What about to
the Philippians? I do not know what to do. It
would be far better for me to go and be with Christ, but it would
also be good for you, for me to stay. So stay, I must remain. I must remain for your sake. Because for the sake of your
growth and for the sake of the expansion of the gospel is greater
glory to God and greater praise to God. As Paul would tell the
Corinthians in the second letter. And when you say, well, what
does it mean there? People hate it when their babies
are called ugly. And when we have a baby doctrine
that really gets us up and going in the morning, when we can look
into the mirror and affirm who we are based on what we want
to be, and not based on what Scripture says, when the Word
of God comes forth, it takes our breath away. And for we who
are in Christ, though it may grieve us, though we may even
be depressed, though we may be even a little bit cage stage, we love truth because we love
Christ who is truth. See, God permits the devil to
deceive the perishing ones. Do you see that? 2 Corinthians
4 says, for if our gospel is veiled, it is only veiled for
those who are perishing, for the God of this world has blinded
the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of
the glory of God. You know what that means, beloved? That as we teach truth and as
we hear truth and as other people hear truth, when the world hears
truth and they shut it out, God comes to a place where He goes,
enough. And He seals their destruction. It's called reprobation. Romans
1, He turns them over to a reprobate mind to do that which ought not
be done. What does that mean? He gives them up to what they
love the most. And sometimes it's just flat, evil, wicked
debauchery. And sometimes it's just flat,
wrong doctrine. This is not an easy thing to
swallow because it doesn't match the God of our caricature, does
it? Those who love the darkness,
the world, the flesh, love their own glorious religions, God will
cause them at one time when He is ready in His wisdom to be
unable to see the truth. God decreed through Isaiah that
Israel would not hear, nor see, nor understand, nor comprehend.
He would not let them. And in John's gospel, Jesus said
out of His own mouth, the words of Isaiah have been fulfilled
today in your hearing, that you can hear the gospel, you hear
me, you see me, you know who I am, but you cannot believe.
So we don't have all day, beloved. The people of the world don't
have 50 years. It's not just about what if you
die on the way home, what if God hardens your heart on the
way home. What if God, in your sleep tonight,
just takes away all light? Where do you get that? People,
we have to preach the truth. We have to live in the truth.
We have to live by faith in the truth. And people need to hear
the truth. And people have heard the truth,
but they do not want to hear it, and they do not want to live
under the truth. They do not like the truth. They
love the lie better, because it fits them. Therefore, verse
11, look at this, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what
is false. The psalmist writes in Psalm
80, Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who
pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar from the forest
ravages it, and all that move in the field feed upon it. Listen,
if we don't believe that God will take the wall of understanding
down, then we are not reading the Scriptures that are set before
us. So when I share the gospel every single day, just about,
with somebody, I go there pretty quickly. Well, you know, I've
been a believer, I've been this, I've been... Listen, you've not
been a believer if you're not a believer. You've not followed
Christ if you're not in Christ. You are not anything but the
reprobate if you are not in Christ. And today is the day of salvation.
Timothy was warned by Paul that many would turn away from listening
to the truth and wander into myths. Prophet Ezekiel, God says,
and if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, this is good. This will give us, a lot of us
in here will take a deep breath. I, the Lord, have deceived that
prophet. Did you hear that? If the prophet
is deceived and speaks a word, I the Lord have deceived that
prophet and I will stretch out my hand against him and will
destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. So even those
who preach sometimes, who are not in Christ, are sealed to
preach false doctrine. And you know what we're going
to do to change their minds? Nothing. We fend for the faith, we fend
for the flock, we fend for the truth, and we say, beware the
wolf, and behold the lamb. It's a two-part thing. The end of the reprobate is certain.
The end of unbelievers is absolutely clear. Why would God seal the
hearts of unbelievers? because they reject the truth.
Why would He do that? Look at verse 12, and I don't
have a lot of time to unpack this, but it goes with verse
13, and I'll preach it next week. Verse 12 says, God, verse 11,
sends them a delusion so that they will believe what is false
in order that they all may be condemned who do not believe
the truth. And those who do not believe
the truth, it's because they had pleasure in righteousness.
You see that? The opposite of believing the
truth is pleasure in righteousness. Unrighteousness. Everybody's
looking at me like strange, like, what are y'all looking at? That's
a sound bite that needs to be edited. That'll put me in a pile
of trouble. Had pleasure in unrighteousness. Un! Say that with me. Un! Okay. Unrighteousness. We don't understand how God works
in that way. We don't understand. God has
not given us a table in the back of His scripture that says, okay,
here is how many times someone must reject the gospel. Here's
the magic word that I've had enough. Here's the last, at 33
and a half, I'm done. He doesn't tell us that. My friends, the reprobate will
suffer righteous judgment. Look at verse 13 in closing. But we ought to always give thanks
to God for you, beloved brothers, beloved by the Lord, because
God chose you for Himself. I'm just
going to tell you what the Greek says there. Chose you for Himself. as the first fruits to be saved,
through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm
and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either
by our spoken word or by our letter. And now may our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and
gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts and establish them in every good work and word. It's often a little unpleasant
to think about reprobation, but beloved, it's a doctrine right
here. Doctrine means teaching. It's
a teaching of Scripture. And Jesus says that broad is
the path that leads to destruction. Broad is the path that leads
to reprobation. Many will go that way. Narrow
is the gate that leads to righteousness and few will find it. So I say
to you this day, be not discouraged because we are sealed in Christ
Jesus and therefore we can stand in Christ. We do not cower. We do not run. We do not hide.
We do not get behind the couch when we sin and hope that Jesus
doesn't look at us like Adam and Eve did in the garden. We
don't run in shame. We stand bold before the throne
of grace. And our Father who is in heaven looks at us and
He sees the perfection of Christ and He's satisfied in us. Beloved,
the only way those who are unbelieving will ever be those who are the
believing is that prayerfully we go and take the gospel of
Jesus to their ears that they may hear and believe. And through
hearing, God gives them ears to hear. when God seals and sets
a man apart. It is the mission and the purpose
and the wisdom and the decree of God. It is not for us to employ
tactics or manipulate under massage circumstances. It is for God
to bring to life those who He deems ready to believe. In His
timing. The wind blows where it wishes.
And it does what it wants to do. The same is true, Jesus says
in John 3, for the Spirit of God. And He blows where it wishes. Beloved, the Spirit of God blows
everywhere that the Word is. And that the Gospel is preached.
And when others seem to reject it, I want you to hear this.
It is not a rejection of us. People hate us, people hate you,
people are frustrated, your own families, your co-workers. I
mean, it's hard sometimes, but they're not hating us, they're
hating Christ. They're hating the One who says,
I am the bread of life. They're hating the One that says,
it is finished. They're hating the One that says,
I am the living water, drink of Me. They're hating the One
that says, I offer water that overflows to eternal life. They're hating the mercy and
the grace of God. What else is there for them?
But that we pray. And that we pray that God would
send us into the harvest. Beloved, we are at peace with
God because of Jesus Christ, nothing else. And we must diligently
labor and prayer that God would bring others to faith. And that
His will be done. Let's pray. Lord, we love You. We praise
You. And we do so because You have
first loved us. And we are able to stand here
today before You, justified because of the righteousness and the
obedience of Jesus Christ. And Lord, we see the wickedness
of the world and we see the calamity that befalls us even as your
people. And Father, sometimes we are
distraught, but fill us with all your fullness. Secure us
in that which we have heard and learned, that we may be at peace
even in the midst of uncertain circumstances. And Father, cause
us to pray for one another. to make disciples of one another,
to teach the gospel and to share the faith and to fight with all
joy and with all peace, with all knowledge and all security
in Christ alone. Bring a fire in us for your word
so that we might continue to learn you and to know you so
that we might share the truth of the gospel with others around
us. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.