So it tells us that something
has taken place from the time of the departure of the apostles
and the planting of the church to the time of the writing of
these letters that somewhere and somehow in the midst of the
church that error had crept in. And it had crept in in such a
way that people began to embrace it. And then it was contradicting
that which Paul and the apostles had taught them, so it caused
a change in their hope. See, because false doctrine is
not always just going to lead us down a sinful path. False
doctrine and error in understanding, oftentimes for the church, I
mean, if it leads us straight to debauchery, we know there's
something wrong with it. But when it takes our eyes off
of Christ, When it takes our eyes off of truth, when it takes
our eyes off the confession of our hope, then and only then
do we start to see things that are not necessarily joyful. We begin to worry instead of
worship. We begin to fret over what we're
going to do instead of trusting by faith in that which God has
already done and is doing. We begin to start thinking about,
well, if this is true, then the implications of this error means
this and this and this, and then our theology becomes philosophy,
and in turn, we end up losing hope. We end up practicing things. I mean, imagine the church of
Galatia, where the Judaizers had come into that city and brought
in Jewish customs, namely the custom of circumcision as a requirement,
in addition to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Judaizers would
say, yes, it's all of Christ, it's all of grace, it's all of
faith. It's sort of like the Reformed tradition of the day.
It is all the work of God's salvation through Jesus Christ alone, who
imputed His righteousness to us by sacrificing Himself on
the cross and atoning for us. However, to be a really good
Christian, you need to be circumcised. The same thing happened with
Peter and others as they began to embrace Christianity in the
culture, and then when their Jewish brothers and sisters came
on the scene, they began to shun Gentile Christians and start
acting Jewish again in such a way that Paul rebukes them so sharply. that they repent of that and
they turn from that, realizing that it is indeed another gospel.
Paul would tell the people of Galatia that if there is anything
added to the gospel, even as a safety net, that those who
do that are anathomos, the Greek word there means to be separated
permanently, cut off forever from Christ. I find that a little
bit sarcastic and ironic that Paul uses that term in the context
of talking about circumcision, but that's Paul. Here, in 2 Thessalonians,
this issue of the Day of the Lord is still a problem. Now, beloved, there's never a
deficit of erroneous teaching. I mean, just go on the Internet. No, don't. But if you were to
go on the Internet and you just type in the word gospel on YouTube,
you would probably get like six gajillion videos of about something
related to the gospel, or Jesus, and it would be anywhere from,
He's a fake, to this crazy, awful, mixed up mindset of everything
that Jesus is, except what the Bible says He is. If you start
looking, you will see a plethora, a sea of error, and hardly ever
been able to find the truth. In our world today, we have a
love affair with the salvation experience. That means my salvation
experience is my hope, that thing that I did and the things that
I heard and the things that I felt. We have a problem in our culture
today with people who have forsaken the Word of God and relegated
it as a tool of antiquity rather than the supreme authoritative
speech of God this very day. And in doing so, there are some
who would say that they actually hear from God, that they actually
get revelation from God through other means. We do get revelation
from God. It's called the text of Scripture,
the Holy Writ, the Word of God, the words of Christ. God, in
many times and many ways, has spoken to us through our forefathers
and the prophets, but in these last days He speaks to us through
His Son, the Living Word who became flesh and dwelt among
us. And people will go to their death on a pyre of fire to say
and prove that they actually hear God's voice audibly. Well,
let me tell you who is the deceiver and the liar who wants to replicate
himself as God. His name is Lucifer. We call
him Satan. He is known as the devil. The
devil is not this maniacal little imp that runs around hiding the
horn and hiding the tail and hiding the pitchfork. He is a
beautiful representation of the glorious radiance of God in appearance. That's why he wanted to be like
God anyway, because he looked so beautiful. He radiated the
glory of God so well. And he doesn't come on the scene
and say, OK, I'm going to start a lot of maligning things and
malicious things and wicked things that are so obvious. He does
those things too. But when it comes to error in
the church, he's very careful. He has people who profess Christ,
who carry their 1689 Confession with them. It's an inside joke
for those of you who get it. I have one and I carry with it.
Is that the Bible? No, that's the Baptist Confession.
I'm just looking at a couple of things. We have to be careful.
It's not Scripture. There are many people in the
church who are in the pulpits this morning across the world. And in all reality, we have an
unbelieving congregation because we have unbelieving pastors.
And they preach out of the text of Scripture and they do all
sorts of things that would cause us to believe that they are indeed
of Christ because they use the right language and they hold
the right Scripture in their hands. But the practices thereof
and the application of what the gospel is and the teaching of
what the gospel does is so close to correct that it's hard to
tell the difference. There's no deficit of air, beloved.
It's everywhere. You know what? And for us to
try to stamp it out is like to go out in your yard here in the
South on a good summer morning and say, I'm going to eradicate
this property of fire ants. Yes, we will poison the mounds
we see. It does not poison them, it runs them to someone else's
yard. So your neighbor that had the small mound yesterday will
have the triple-sized mound today. It turns in from the house to
the condominium, to the subdivision. That's what error is like. We're
not going to stop it, we're just going to move it away. From one
place to another, it's never going to be stopped because God
in His sovereignty has decreed and willed and purposed evil
and error for His glory. You hear that? Evil does not
exist apart from God's sovereignty. Evil does not operate against
God without His permissiveness. And I use that word very lightly
because I am not one... I like to be precise in my language.
And permission means He allows it. Friends, God doesn't allow
sin. He wills it. He doesn't allow
Satan to run amok. He sent Him to do it. for His
glory, that when He brings justice against evil, He will indeed
be glorified for it. And everything that evil does
in the name of itself, God uses for good. God uses for good. Friends, we have misunderstood. We have misunderstood the reality
of God's sovereignty. And I've said this often in the
last three weeks, most of us, if not all of us, in some sense
have a caricature of God in some ways, and it is erroneous. That
means it's in error. There are many things that are
plaguing the church, many ways in which error has invaded the
church. There's error from false teachers, that's the obvious
thing. And you might say, well, who's the false teacher in here?
I hope it's not me. If it is, correct me and I won't
be a false teacher again. You see, we correct each other
because we care. And we don't correct each other
in the sense that we feel like we are better and more self-righteous,
but by the grace of God we see the error. Oh, that's a little
bit wrong. Or explain yourself. Or where does this come from?
Or show us in Scripture. And then we work together and
we grow together. To shun our brothers and sisters
in Christ because of ignorance or immaturity is just as wicked
as teaching falsely. Because it's living falsely.
So what if we have the truth and we can't live it? We're just
like the Pharisees. Whitewashed tombs, snakes, brood of vipers,
dogs. Let us be gentle and patient and kind, knowing that if it
were not for God's glorious grace and the love and the affection
He'd given us in Christ Jesus, we too would also be deceived.
There are many ways, false teachers, error from a weak truth. Like
an almost true but not quite. Let's just don't go there because
it's really not that important. The church shouldn't learn these
deep things. That's a lie. We should learn the deep things
of God. We should not hear the word propitiation the first time
when we've been in church six decades. We should know that
in our pre-school days. Why? Because it's written in
the text. We should know that the word Savior and Redeemer
and Atonement, Justification, Sanctification, Glorification,
Effectual Call, Depravity. We should understand the wickedness,
the deadness of sin. We should know these words because
they're in the book. It would be like reading a novel
or a series of novels and never reading any section that had
to deal with the main character. But seeing all the peripheral
things, the shops, the adventures, the objects. More like reading
an encyclopedia or random pages of a dictionary rather than seeing
the face of God through Jesus Christ. Sometimes error creeps
in through assumption and speculation. Well, you know what? He's a heretic
or that's true. You know, that's different. I
think I'm going to... That makes sense. Why? Because we're easily
caught by straw man fallacies. We're easily caught by someone.
Hey, has your pastor ever snapped his fingers during service? You
know, that's a sign of a cult. My pastor snaps his fingers.
That's just to get my kids' attention. Or yours if you happen to be
nodding off. Error from the traditions of culture sneaks into the church.
We're always cutting the ends off the ham because the, I don't
know, the pan's too short, but we just don't know why the ham
was cut off. We don't know what's happening
in our lives. We just always do the same thing. We don't know
why we pass an offering plate. Isn't that the way Jesus did
it? No. Why does this guy stand up here in front of us and talk?
What is he trying to prove? What is he doing? Sometimes it's
just tradition. And error can creep in from tradition.
Error from entertainment. What do you mean by that? What
we're going to talk about this morning, the son of perdition, the man of
lawlessness, the so-called, quote, Antichrist, which is not listed
here in this text, but this is the proof text so many people
go to for Antichrist. And the entertainment of the
world actually does something here. We think of who God is
because we watch the Moses movie. We think of who Jesus is because
we watch the passing of the Christ. We imagine Jesus as this real
pale, Anglo, blue-eyed guy named Billy. That's Uncle Billy. Brother
Luke and I have this inside joke. We don't call that a picture
of Jesus. That's Uncle Billy. And he's banging on that door hoping you'll
open it because he's hungry. Revelation 3.23. And that caricature of Jesus
Christ comes from the entertainment of the world. Well, that's not
entertainment. Yes, it is. It's art. That's what they did it
for. So we could enjoy it. It was before there were the
picture shows, as we called it. Most of us think we know something
about the Gospel or the Word of God because we watch the Discovery
Channel, or worse, the History Channel. The History Channel
would tell us that aliens... Well, beloved, if you can believe
in aliens, then by golly, can't you not believe in a sovereign
being who created it all? And sometimes error creeps into
the church from the failure to read and study the Scriptures.
And I'll be honest with you, all of those things, plus many
more, come into the church and take root because we're not reading
and studying the Scriptures. I mean, if I could see into your
hearts and minds right now, and you could see into mine, we would
all sit in horror. Oh no! Because we would know everything
that came through our minds, every opportunity, every time
the... The jerk across the street cuts
us off. The things that we think, it could be seen and known. But ultimately, if we're reading
and studying the Word of God, when error comes in, when traditions
come in, when entertainment comes in, when assumption and speculation
come in, when weak truth and false teachers and this Americanized
Christianity just invades our lives, we see it for what it
is and go, wait a minute, something's wrong. And error doesn't take
root. And you might say, well why does
it matter? Can't we just learn about Jonah and he got spit up
by a fish and he did the things that God wanted him to do and
the worm ate his plant? Can't we just learn the story
of Noah who built a boat and looked like an idiot for a hundred
years and then God saved several people on the boat and then it
flooded and then, you know, it got a twig? Can't we just learn
the story of Jesus, that He loved us so much and He died? Does
it really matter if He was born of a virgin? Does it really matter
if He rose from the dead? Does it really matter if He was
divine? Does it really matter if He was all-human? Does it
really matter what propitiation stands for? Does it really matter
that we are gathered today? Does it really matter? Yes, because
truth matters. Theology matters. Scripture matters. The Christian faith is invested
into the nature and the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian
faith is about knowing God from the Scripture. This is eternal
life, that they know you, the one true God, and the Son whom
you have sent, John 17, 3. That's from the mouth of Jesus. Because the eternal life is gained
from Scripture, we must take seriously truth. Because beloved,
we are unified in the truth of God. We are unified through that
which is taught to us, not just through the pages of Scripture,
but then solidified through the Holy Spirit of God. It matters because all that is
ours in Christ, all the promises of God, all of our joy and our
hope are all found in the Word. So let's look at the Word today.
Chapter 2, I will read all the way through. Now, concerning the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him,
we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or
alarmed either by a spirit or spoken word or a letter seeming
to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come
unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is
revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself
against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he
can take his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to
be God. Do you not remember that when
I was still with you, I told you these things? 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 when
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
they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but
had pleasure in unrighteousness." I'm going to pray. Father, I
pray that the words here, Lord, would just be taught accurately,
Lord, as they are written, that we could see the Scripture as
it's written and not impose all of these things that we've heard
for so many years traditionally about this text. Father, that
when we leave today, we have application for this text in
our own hearts and minds and lives and within the lives of
each other, that we would not Regard it as unnecessary, but
Father, as glorious and beautiful. And I pray, Father, that through
the hearing of your word and through the power of the message
of Jesus Christ, that you would bring us who are not in faith
to faith, that you would solidify us who are surely yours to know
the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ is ours. And the
gift of faith is ours. And we long for that day when
You return to set it all correct, to set it all right, and that
Your holy name is vindicated before the nations. May we rest
in the grace of Your promises, in Jesus' name. Amen. There's
a lot here. You hear me say often that there
is a... When we say... What's the word? You call someone's baby ugly. It makes them mad. When our oldest
two children, when Katie was born, everybody would always
say, oh, look at the beautiful baby, look how cute the baby,
oh, look how sweet the baby, and she got used to that. And
then when Grace was born, everybody goes, oh, look how cute the baby,
look how pretty the baby. And I remember one time, Grace
was a baby, and she said, hey, I'm cute too, or something like
that. because you're out in public. And it's not that children stop
being cute or stop being pretty, but that infant just draws attention. There's something precious about
a child, and the younger they are, the cuter they are. That's
why we don't kill them. Because God makes them cute. But I've said for years that
there's always this There's always this thing that makes people
upset. If I were to walk into a restaurant today for lunch
and walk up to someone who had this darling child and say, oh,
look at your baby, that is so ugly, they would come undone. It doesn't matter how much church
they just had or how much prayer, they would come undone. It would
be a scene above all scenes. It would get a billion hits on
YouTube. It would be a very massive problem. And I'll tell you, beloved, that
for some of us today, I'm gonna call your baby ugly when this
text is preached. Because I wanna preach this text
by the Lord's grace as it's written, not as it has been imposed upon
me for 43 years. I want to show you what the Thessalonians
saw when they saw this text. And I pray that you would open
your hearts and minds to hearing the word of the Lord today. Look
at this, verse 3. We've already dealt with verses
1 and 2. If somebody tells you that the
day of the Lord has come, do not worry about it. Do not worry
about it. He's already said this in the
first letter, and now He's moving into explaining to them why they
should not worry about it. Verse 3, let no one deceive you
in any way. This deception is being led away
from the truth, or falling away from the truth. Do not apostate. Do not leave this. And sometimes
we use the word apostate or apostasy as a complete rejection of the
truth. And that is true, but also, beloved,
we can apostate on certain doctrines. We can believe falsely certain
things while not forsaking our faith in Jesus Christ. We can
come to the table of saying, no, I don't agree with that and
I'm not going to believe that or be deceived. And Paul is saying,
let no one deceive you. Let no one cause you to fall
away in any way from the truth about the day of the Lord. Do
not be deceived. In verse 5 and verse 15, we're
not going to get to verse 15, but in verse 5 and 15, Paul reminds
the church that he has already taught them these things. This
is not, oh, I forgot, let me teach it to you. He said, we
talked about this, remember? So this isn't an issue of ignorance,
this is an issue of leaving that which they clearly have already
been taught. And so we come to this text today and we need to
embrace this. Do not be led to a different
truth, beloved. Do not let someone come up to
you with a Bible in hand, or a letter in hand, or worse, a
newsletter in hand. Newsletters, I get a thousand
a month, I'm not kidding. And I'm not subscribed, people
send them to me. Read this, and read that, and
read this, and read that. And I love to read things, but
nine out of ten of them are people trying to send me something to
change my doctrine. I'm not kidding. Who would do
that? Everybody does that. I tweet something on the internet
and that's my notepad by the way. I'm not really doing that
for your benefit. I'm trying to remember those things that
pop into my mind as I'm, I don't know, driving down the road or
eating or walking to the car, or whatever it might be that
I'm doing, and I don't want to forget it, so I tweet it out
so that it's a constant reminder. And people read those 140-character
limited statements, and then it's like the world has come
to an end. Oh, you didn't say it about this,
and what about this? I'm not writing in treatise,
it's a statement. And it never fails, at least
once a week, somebody... People rarely publicly rebuke
me. Because all of you go, no you
don't! I mean, you know, it's sort of like a... Don't you talk
about my pastorate, which I don't... I don't need y'all jumping in
there and setting things on fire and then others pouring gas on
it. But most of the time it's private. Hey, what about this?
You know, I think you're wrong in that, leave this. And I read
or will peruse most of it. Usually the headings and the
titles or the author. I'm going, I've been there, done that, I'm
not going there. And I say, thanks a lot and I just dismiss it.
We can't argue. But friends, if that happens
for me, what about you? And you might say, well, nobody's
sending me stuff like that. Well, it's probably because maybe
what you're putting out is not necessarily in opposition to
what they believe. What you stand for, what you
say, what you speak, what you live. Because I'm going to tell
you, when you stand for something, it's going to bother somebody.
That's why we don't stand for truth in an arrogant way. We
stand for truth just because truth stands. And it's not about
us being right, it's about us being used by God. And so we
come to this text here, and I want us to remember that we have been
taught great things. People are coming into our lives
every moment to try to change our doctrine. And if it's not
personally, it's what you see, the memes that you see. If you
really love Jesus, share this on your post and forward it to
60 people. If you want an angel to give you blessings and a pot
of gold at the Leprechaun City, then do this. And it's one thing
after another. It's one thing, it's constant.
Without social media, I believe we'd all love each other a little
bit more, and the world would be a little more unified, and
there'd be a false unity. But I mean, there's just something
weird about it. There's something psychotic about
the way we engage on the web. It's really weird to me. It's
odd. It doesn't even make sense. But
to use those things that we have in this day for the glory of
God, praise God, go for it. Just be careful. Don't be deceived. Don't be led to a different truth.
This means they had a truth. They had a foundation. And they
were taught a truth. Because they had it, so they
were taught it. And then they were hearing something different
now than what they had been taught and had learned. And these things
that are different are what? Untruth. How do we know what
truth is? God's Word is clearly. the place of truth. God's Word
is clearly that which gives us all truth. Friends, I cannot
say that enough. People like to say, well, I don't
know anything about denominations, or I don't know how this thing
sort of works. How come we can't all just be
Christians and love Jesus? Well, what Jesus is it that we
love? Is it the Jesus of the Mormons?
Who have a very good Baptistic doctrine of salvation? On the
surface. And then you look at it and you
go, not even close. But for most of us, we'd be deceived by it.
Or is it the Jehovah's Witnesses that come into our homes on Saturday
and wake us up? Ding dong. What are these people
doing in suits out here? Well, that's the Jehovah's Witnesses.
They want to say, hey, do you know about the peace of God through
Jesus Christ? You're thinking, yes, I do. These
are nice people. They're sharing with us. They're
using the King James Bible now to go door to door. Oh my goodness,
they're brothers. They're just misunderstood. No,
they're not. They do not believe Jesus is eternal. They do not believe Jesus is
God. They do not believe the way the
Bible teaches. Do not be led away to untruth. Do not believe them. Let no one,
you know what that means? Let no one. Don't let me, beloved,
teach you something that's contrary to the Scripture. But at the
same time, when we see these idols of doctrine that we've
held to for so long and the idols of practice and the idols of
application, when God's Word comes forth in context and it
shakes the foundations of these things, we should let them go.
It doesn't mean that it's not going to hurt. If this building
fell down and we all survived, we'd be bruised and broken and
scratched and damaged, but we would survive. Beloved, when the building of
our false doctrine and the building of our idols fall, it's going
to leave us a little scratched. Let it fall and walk out of the
ruins alive with truth and power. Do not believe them. See, the
problem is our feelings and our thoughts. We think they're authoritative,
but they're not. There is no one in this room
or the sound of my voice now or forever who has ever had autonomous
thoughts. What's autonomy? Separate, independent
of any influence. There's no such thing as autonomous
thoughts. Nowhere in the world. Don't think of that pink elephant.
You know, where you go. We can be influenced by how we
think and our thoughts influence our own thoughts. The scripture
teaches that the heart of man is increasingly wicked and cannot
be trusted. The Scripture says that the natural man is hostile
to God. The things and the thoughts and
the actions and the love and the affection of us before God
has saved us by His absolute grace for His glory. We are hostile
to God. So even the philosophy that comes
from our brains is wicked before God and it is deceiving among
all things. We are not to let our feelings
and our thoughts and our experiences and our traditions and our histories
influence what we know is true. When we become lazy, not putting
our time in with Christ and His Word, when we become lazy in
our diligence toward the Scripture, we become less interested in
Scripture. Why? Because the things of this world
take away our focus. And when we become less interested,
we become less caring. And that's called apathy. And
apathy leads to apostasy. Well, that's not really important,
or I won't do that, or I'm not in the Word. Oh, well, that's
a neat truth. I think I'll follow that. Do not be carried away
by every wind of doctrine, tossed to and fro. Do not be like a
child, but grow up into Him who is Christ. Speak the truth in
love with each other, beloved. One of the greatest needs as
the church is that we teach each other truth and we hold tightly
to the truth that we see. It's a very myopic, that means
it's narrow-focused, it's narrow-minded, it doesn't look out to the side,
it's not open. It's myopic. It's a very myopic,
explicit. That means it has no room for
peripheral or no room for border additions. It's a very explicit
truth. That which we believe is very
narrow, explicit and precise. Jesus Christ is exclusive. That means there is no other
way. There is no other addition. And
if we're not believing a myopic, exclusive, explicit gospel, explicit
doctrine, we have fallen prey to other truths which are not
truth. Apathy leads to apostasy. It
does matter, beloved, and I pray that you take seriously, above
all things, your time in the Word of God. I cannot preach. If I preach for five hours today,
it would not be enough to carry you through tomorrow morning.
Did you hear that? If I were to pull a Spurgeon
on you and just preach for three and a half hours and have the
deacons bar the doors, you're not leaving. You're thinking, who's the deacons?
You never know. It wouldn't be enough till tonight.
The man of God, the woman of God, meditates on the Lord's
Word day and night. The Word of God is profitable. The Word of God is useful. The
Word of God is life. Beloved, I pray that you would
take to heart the truth that God's Word is what keeps us from
apostasy. Apostasy then seals us from the
truth. It conflicts us from truth. It encourages desensitivity to
God's Word. And it births a frustration. But truth, the Lord's Word, encourages
sensitivity. When we are discerning, we see
the world for what it is. We see these untruths as they
come. As Paul preached and taught to these Thessalonians, They
received the true gospel with power and in the Holy Spirit,
he said over in chapter and in letter one and first Thessalonians.
And he was confident of their election because of the things
that God has done. He who began a good work in you
is what certain, confident. I'm confident of this, that he
who began a work in a good work in you is certain to complete
it. He's sure to complete it. He will complete it. Beloved, we need to see. The error is all about us. We
need to have a discernment. And we need to see that even
things that seem what we call peripheral doctrines, like the
Lord's Day or eschatology, eschatos means the last things, logos,
the word of, so the study of last things. When I say eschatology,
that's what I mean. Well, those aren't really essential
doctrines. Well, they may not be essential doctrines unto salvation,
because I don't know of anybody that teaches, oh, here's the
gospel of Jesus Christ and He's coming back like this. Oh, and
He also died in your place. I mean, but they are essential
doctrines, Bob, because they tell us about the person of Jesus. They tell us about the promises
of God. They tell us about that which we hang our hat on and
put our hope in. And beloved, let me tell you this, if our
hope is not in the coming of Jesus Christ and all glory and
all power and all authority, if my hope is not in that I will
spend eternity with Him because of what He has done and because
of God's mercy toward me, then what is my hope in? Some people
believe that our hope lies in how we obey. Some people believe
that our hope lies in the context of how we act. Some people believe
that the hope of eternity lies in the essence of how we teach
certain things in certain ways. And that if we get the right
doctrine, that we're there. Beloved, I spent a lot of time
on campuses of seminaries, and there's a lot of lost people
graduating out of those things. The error. What is the error
here? The day of the Lord has come. That's the error. Thessalonians, somebody has told
you, either by letter, or by decree, or by teaching, or some
spirit of conversation, or whatever, that God has come, Christ has
returned. This error is not gone. What error causes us pain this
morning? What error? How about the error
of marginalizing rigorous study? We may believe that Christ is
coming. We may have the right eschatology, but are we studying
Christ or are we just studying eschatology? Are we studying
God's Word or are we just becoming a student? Are we embracing the
truth? Are we minimizing church intimacy
by just being heady? What about the error of idolizing
our ways and our teaching and our doctrines? You know that
the doctrine of Christ can be an idol in itself? Did not the
Pharisees, did not Nicodemus have the right doctrine? Did
he not hold fast to the things that he believed and the oracles
of God that he had for millennia? But Jesus said, you must be born
again. What about the era of Americanizing the Christian faith?
Man, that's a sermon series that gets you thrown out on your head
in most congregations. Don't you touch the red, white, and
blue, boy, or you'll be black and blue and white. How about the error of systematizing
Christian virtue? Well, this is what holiness looks
like. You act like this, you dress like this, you live like
this, you eat like this, you speak like this, you sing like this.
We do that a lot. How about the error of demoralizing
others who don't seem as holy as we are? There's a lot of error. The error of apostatizing central
truths and thinking that they don't matter. What is our error?
What are we missing? What is it that we have let slip
through our fingers? What is it that because of our
lack of being in the Word has led us astray? Look where it
is. Look where our culture is. Look
where the state of the Church of America is. Now, it may sound
like bad news, but let me tell you something going back to the
beginning of where we started. It is exactly where God has ordained
it to be. Did you hear that? As bad as
things may be, and as much that needs to be corrected, beloved,
the only way of correction is to teach true the Scriptures.
The only way of correcting is for churches to learn and to
teach and to proclaim the Word of God as it was intended. And
for us to quit trying to meddle in the business of becoming the
Holy Spirit, to manipulate people's thoughts and minds, and to stop
trying to massage people into a moral, ethical position that
looks Christian, but more that we preach the truth that's foolishness
and silly and ridiculous. And God, in His sovereignty and
through His power, brings people to life. What caused the riot,
the near riot in Ephesus? It was not an all-out, polemicist
war against idolatry. It was an outright proclamation
of Jesus Christ, who is the God of heaven, has died on the cross
and been raised from the dead. God brought people to life and
their idols died with them. When they were born anew and
their flesh died with Christ, their idolatry died with Christ.
Did you hear that? That's what changes the world. So in this, Paul begins to say,
do not be shaken. I know there was a lot there
for just that phrase, but do not be shaken. Do not be led
away. Do not believe them. He says,
for that day will not come. Look at the next text there.
For that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. And
the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. Now let
me go ahead and say what I'm about to teach is going to be
very focused on this text without trying to go out and establish
a traditional point of view. from Daniel and Revelation and
Matthew and all these other places and try to put a name, a date,
a face, or a person on this text. I don't think that's the point
of it. Well, there's a the and there's this and there's that.
Okay, I appreciate that. But tear this letter out and
give it to the people of that day and what did they know? There
was hardly any Jews at all in this church, if any. You think they had an understanding
of Daniel? You think the Spirit of God gave
them clear understanding when they received these letters based
on the teaching of Paul? I bet they had an understanding of
Daniel in the context that Paul taught it to them through the
New Covenant. Paul was a Jew of Jews. Why is
it the apostles had to be Jews? Because they had the oracles
of God. Can you imagine? What it would have been like
if there was no Old Testament? The New Testament wouldn't make
sense. And without the New Testament,
the Old Testament would not make sense and didn't. The day, what
is this day? For the day, let's just take
this piece by piece. The day will not come. The day is the
judgment of the Lord, the last day. The day where Christ returns
and brings recompense on all wickedness. He sets everything
correct, puts all things under His feet. and restores and redeems
and glorifies the elect. I use the term elect because
it is what Paul likes to use in the context of speaking of
the church. Those who have faith in Jesus Christ are called the
elect, not just in Romans. It's everywhere. So the day of judgment of the
Lord, His second and final coming, 2A coming, and then 2B coming,
and all these other things. You say, what are you talking
about? Well, good, and you haven't been wrought with error. Jesus
is not coming back three times, four times, and coming through
the drive-thru on the last run. He's coming back, and He's setting
all things under His feet. So this day has not come yet
and will not come unless the rebellion comes first. What is
this rebellion? Well friends, this is where I
could really just spend another hour and show you all sorts of
parallel verses out of all sorts of places throughout Scripture
that talk about the same type of language. However, the context
I think is key here, that these people had been told that Christ
had returned, and they had missed the day of judgment, and Paul
was saying, it's not happened, it's obvious, look. You see that? Let me show you it hasn't happened.
Why? Because the judgment of the Lord is only coming after
the rebellion comes. So what is the rebellion? It
depends on who you listen to, but if you just read this text.
What if I tore 2 Thessalonians out of the Bible and dropped
it in the middle of a field? It's just one page front and
back. And what if I dropped it in the middle of the field and
you were actually picked it up and read it? Would you get it?
I think you would if you read it in context instead of with
all this other stuff. The rebellion. What does this
mean? The leaving of the faith. The running away. The rejection
of the gospel. The abandonment of the truth.
The apostasy of the church. The day of rebellion. What is
rebellion? This isn't talking about a war. There's not going
to be a war against Jesus. Y'all, that's ridiculous. You
think Jesus is going to come down and set up troops and sit
here and listen to men mock Him and taunt Him? Do you think the
God of heaven is going to allow His creation to set up a military
stance against Him and His angels with the word of His mouth? He
goes, no. And it's all gone. This is the abandoning of the
gospel. And beloved, this is not just
those who are obviously unbelievers. These are the people who are
in the church, in the proximity of the church, and who stand
as congregants, and pastors, and elders, and overseers, and
all in between, who are leaving the faith and going after other
doctrines. Listen to that. Going after other
doctrines. This man of lawlessness, this
man of sin. Do you know that Gentiles were referred to by
Jews as the lawless ones? Those who are lawless are those
who are known for their sin. Those who are known for their
sin are those who have the mark of their father in the way they
think, in the things that they do. The mark of the beast on
their hands and their forehead. Other way around. Hands and forehead. They're known for their sin.
They're fleshly, they're worldly, even among the brethren. These
can be ones who trust in the flesh. But here, this language
is clearly marking the one or ones who are opposed to everything
God has said is good. Look at what they call Him. The
Son of Destruction. The Man of Lawlessness. In John
17, Jesus says that Judas was the Son of Destruction. So who's
He talking about? I think he's talking about the
essence of all those who apostate, who say they're with God, but
they reject the gospel of Christ. They reject the truth. The man
of lawlessness is going to be the recipient of destruction
here. He's not the one who brings destruction. He is the one who
will be destroyed. That's the identifier. He is
the son of destruction because he is going to receive his destruction. Matthew 7.13, it talks about
this idea of destruction. Enter by the narrow gate, Jesus
says, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to
what? Destruction. The son of lawlessness, the man
of lawlessness, the son of perdition. This is the one who leads others
to the destruction of God's judgment that happens on the day of judgment.
And those who enter by this gate that is wide are many." Romans
9.22. What if God then, desiring, Paul
asks, to show His wrath and make known His power, has endured
with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Vessels of wrath. prepared for
destruction. 2 Peter, Peter writes, but by
the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored
up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the day
of destruction of the ungodly. So whoever He is, or whatever
they are, or whoever they are, they are going to suffer the
judgment of God in eternal destruction, which is not annihilationism,
but is absolute, continual recompense and wrath forever. Consider this. If Jesus had already returned,
if the second coming had already taken place, if the day of judgment...
Paul is arguing, do you think you'd see all this wickedness? The revealing of the lawless
one is the day when God makes known the judgment of the lawless.
Doesn't that make sense? You see, some of us can't get
past all this other stuff we've learned. That is the simplest
reading of this text. The day of the Lord has come,
look around you! When Christ comes back, there is no more
mystery of lawlessness and evil. We're no longer going to have
to look at our neighbor and wonder if they're a wolf, because they'll
be in the lake of fire. We're not going to have to look
at the governments of the nation and wonder, are they our saviors?
For they will no longer exist and all of Babylon will be in
the lake of fire. And you know what? Governments
are not buildings, they're people. And we may be a government of
laws, but it is people who will receive judgment, not our papers. When God brings His final judgment,
there is nothing left but righteousness. Evil will eternally be assigned
to hell, the lake of fire, suffering the winepress of the fury of
the wrath of God. So what does this sinful one
do? How are we identifying these
who are the man of lawlessness? Those who, look at verse 4, oppose
and exalt himself against every so-called God or object of worship.
I mean, think about that for a second. He opposes all gods,
not just the God of heaven, not just the one true God. All gods,
all religions, all things. He opposes all gods in the world. He exalts himself against all
objects of worship. Don't give glory to that, give
glory to me. Don't give glory to that, give glory to me. Friends,
and I'm not going to play with this text because I've been teaching
not to do that, but this thought came into my mind this morning.
Does that not sound like every human being in the world? It's all about me. And I moved
it. It's all about me. It's about
what I want. It's about what I care about.
It's about what I feel. It's about what I think. It's
about what I know. It's about me. I want my church to be the
way I like it. I want my family to run the way
I want it to be. I want my stomach... What does Paul say? That their
God is their belly. What does that mean? that those
who are not in Christ live for the pleasures of the flesh, for
the pride of life, for the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of
possessions. This is the fruit of the man
of lawlessness. And he is at work in the world,
and he is at work in all those who are not in faith, are in
Christ by faith. Period. There is not three groups
of people, the neutral zone, Christ's people, and the devil's
people. All who are in Christ are not in Satan. And all who
are not in Christ are in Satan. This is what the Scripture teaches.
Sheeps and goats. There's no butterfly fences in
the economy of God's righteousness. We don't get to sit and think,
well, where am I? Well, if you are not in Christ, you are certainly
the man of lawlessness. And we are hostile. Well, will
there be this great man in the end? It could be, but the Bible
doesn't teach us that there. We don't see that in this text.
Quit using this as a proof text that there's some type of person.
Now for the Thessalonians, oh boy, they had a list. They knew
who Paul was talking about. Why? Because they were falling
into serious persecution. God always gives thanks to you,
brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly
and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.
He keeps on going and says, Therefore we ourselves boast about you
in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all
your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. These people were thinking, man,
he's right. We are really suffering, the
men of Lawlessness. And they have probably all sat
around in their churches and said, oh, here is the name of this
guy. We know who Paul was talking about, but what about us today?
Who is it? Who are they? There are many. John would say the Antichrist
is coming and is already in the world, and in fact there are
many Antichrists. The Antichrist is the ones who
do not believe Jesus Christ has come into flesh, do not believe
that Jesus has come from God, and those who would not say that
Jesus is Lord. He exalts himself against all
objects of worship. He exalts himself as God of worship. taking his seat in the temple
of God. Now friends, we know good and well that Paul was not
teaching the Thessalonians about an earthly temple. That does
not make sense. Where is the abode of God? In
the heavens. Where is the temple? We are the pillars of the temple.
Jesus Christ is the temple. We are the body. We are Friends,
I believe that Paul is saying, listen, it's not necessarily
those from without, it's also those from within. It's also
those who come to a place where they will set themselves up as
kings, as gods. Now, what specifically? Did Paul have in mind a person
in some sense of historical future? He could have, but he's not teaching
that explicitly here. But he is teaching that there
is this way There are these ones. There is this One who is the
root of all these things. And He exalts Himself as the
God of worship. This is not a worldly temple, but taking the very way
to God, the very object of heaven and making Himself that way.
He wants to be the One to whom all gaze and point and look and
glory in and worship. He wants to be the end and the
means. Who does that sound like? Satan. Satan has not wanted to kick
God out. He's not that stupid. He just wanted to share. And
God hurled him with the Word into the abyss, into the earth, into
the created world. And listen, his first act on
the day of creation of man was to come into the garden and set
himself up as God. How did he do that? Surely God
did not say you would die. Surely the gospel is not that
narrow. Surely the path is not that tight. Surely it's easy to believe and
get to heaven. Surely it's easy to escape damnation. Surely it's
easy to live a good life. Just do that. Not everyone who
says to me, Lord, Lord, but all those who do the will of my Father
who is in heaven." See, the devil would say, that's a proof text
for just doing what's right and trying your best, and God will
understand. This man of lawlessness is not
easily seen by all, for God has given many over to a delusion,
verse 11, that they might believe. Could this be the church of the
present day? Could it be congregation after congregation? Could it
be pastors? I know our Reformed brothers back during the 16th
century thought it the Pope. It certainly did apply. And throughout
all of Christendom, we see many people who have labeled, oh,
we know who this is now, and is continually seeing it. Well,
friends, if the shoe fits, wear it. But sometimes we look too high
instead of looking straight in the mirror. Sometimes we look
to the lofty ones who are really just edging their way into the
flame of hell and go, yeah, I see them, without seeing clearly
if we are not with them. Could it be a governing authority
who leads in the name of Christ? Either way, he proclaims himself
to be God. Daniel chapter 11, we see the
words of the prophet here, "...and the king shall do as he wills.
He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and
shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods. He shall
prosper till the indignation is accomplished, for what is
decreed shall be done." He shall pay no attention to
the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women. He
shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify
himself above all." So who has done these things
in history? And who does them now? Many. And many of our neighbors are
also exercising that same type of authority. People who say,
I will not believe, and you're God? They set themselves to be
God. People who said in other oppositional,
I'm going to believe in what I believe in and I'm going to
look at these doctrines that I hold dear and I'm going to
practice them the way I want to practice them. They're making
their own sets of rules for worship. They've made themselves to be
God. Many have led this rebellion by offering approval for wicked
things like abortion. like homosexuality and so-called
gay marriage. Gambling. Look at the list. I remember as a kid in high school
and the lottery was the most devastating thing we could think
of to ever come to Georgia. Oh, how we'd love to have ten
lotteries over that which has come now. I'm not a proponent, I'm just
saying, in comparison. They offer approval for wicked
things. Many have led this rebellion as they exercise self-righteousness
over wicked things. Well, I'm not like them. I'm
not like that. I don't buy this. I don't drink
that. I don't look at that. I don't touch, taste, or see.
Not me. Not me. People led this rebellion by
passing laws to support both evil deeds and evil hearts. Wicked debauchery and self-righteousness. The embodiment of wickedness
will draw many from the faith, beloved. Those who have not believed
but are in proximity of the church, they have endured the teaching
of sound doctrine until now. Paul tells that to Timothy. There
shall come a time when people will not endure sound doctrine.
Do not forget, Paul says, I've told you of these things. Do
not, verse 5, remember that when I was still with you that I told
you these things. How often, how quickly we forget. But the
question then, when and how does all of this take place? Verse
6, and you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed
in his time. Whatever, whoever, they, is,
he, are, is being held at bay so in his time God will have
him revealed. Scripture teaches that evil is
dominant in the world. and that God purposed it from
the beginning, and that God is sovereign, and He rules over
all evil. Therefore, God will use evil
for His purpose, and then He will be glorified in His damnation.
Evil people and evil angels. And God has the plans of evil
in His hands, and in the grasp of His rule, and evil will do
what it will do when God is ready. Look at verse 7. 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 when 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 since
before the creation of the world in the garden. tempting the very
first people. And God uses all sorts of means
to restrain evil. He uses angels, He uses His Word,
He uses His Church, He uses governments, even evil people, to restrain
evil. God uses natural men, supernaturally,
to execute His decrees. Pharaoh, evil. Moses, not. Saul, Solomon, David, Goliath,
Joshua, Cyrus, Ruth, Rahab, Judas, Peter, Pilate, John? God will reveal the lawless one
at judgment. Look at verse 8. The lawless
one will be nothing when he appears. When he's revealed, he will be
nothing. Even the people who follow Him are not going to go,
yeah, I'm a leader. Boy, we had it good for a couple of days,
didn't we? Man, we caused havoc. No, they are not. No one's ever
going to be able to glory in Satan. No one's ever going to
be able to bask in the power and the presence of God's authoritative
rule in evil. God will shut it down. It will
be done. The lawless one will be nothing when He appears. The
Lord will kill him with the breath of His mouth, His Word. and bring
to nothing when He comes. This evil monster has nothing
and is nothing, and He will be revealed in the day of judgment.
Much speculation, as I've already said numerous times, has been
made here, but I say that Scripture says simply what it is meant
to say, and it should be understood. And what is not here is a message
of mystery to be decoded, but a message of glorious power and
mercy and rule and authority by the Lord who is the victor
and the victor of His people. So who is it and who is behind
it? The last thing we'll see today in closing. Verse 9. The coming of the lawless one
is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and
wonders. This is the work of Satan. The
lawless one are those who work for Him, those who are in Him,
those who do the work that He does. The work of Satan, the
leaders of the world, the leaders of the churches, the leaders
of our homes, the leaders of businesses, who continually,
without their knowledge, are used by the enemy of God as puppets. And there may be one last overall
grand pooh-pah of evil, but friends here, We need to see and we need
to understand that there is no evil in this world that is going
to do anything apart from God's holy decrees. So all that are
not in Christ are in the devil. And as we look at this text over
the next few weeks, the question is to you, where are you this
day? Is your heart the embodiment
of worldliness? Is your mind loving the world
and the affections of the flesh? Do you give approval to wickedness
and to evil? Oh beloved, let me tell you,
only the gospel of Jesus can change those things. We can decree
this very day and stand and have a grand service of commitment.
And everybody here could raise their hand and sign a piece of
paper and fall on their face and run outside or do whatever. We can manifest great things
and say that they are from the Lord. But beloved, when it's
all said and done, there is only, there is only grace, there is
only Christ who can change evil. And we sit here today, not because
we, in some point in history, saw the evilness of our heart
and said, wow, I'm going to change. But we saw the holiness of God
first. Because God birthed us anew through
the hearing of the Word. And when God birthed us anew
and we saw His holiness, we immediately saw our wickedness. And with
that wickedness is the inability to do anything about it. And
the gospel of Jesus preached to our hearts and to our souls
and to our ears by the grace and mercy of God through the
Spirit brought us alive and our lives are a continual holding
fast to Jesus Christ. That is saving faith. That is
belief. That is hope. He is our hope. For all the evil of this world,
for all the evil of the elect of God, Jesus Christ put it all
on Him, and God destroyed Jesus instead of destroying us. Beloved,
that's how you sit here saved today. Because what God has done,
not because what we have come to, not because what we have
responded to, but what God has done in Christ. Are you in Christ
this morning? Do not let the sin of pride overpower
your thoughts. I pray that God would take away
self-sufficiency and self-righteousness in our hearts today, that you
might believe on Christ alone, for only in Him do we have life. Let's pray. Father, there is
nothing, there is absolutely nothing that I say that could
do any better than what You've said. So Lord, let Your Word be true.
And as we look to finish this text next week, this portion,
Father, I pray that we would see, not with fear, but Lord, with passion, that
your coming is a glorious thing and that you will put right the
evils of this world in due time. Lord, help our children who have
sat here this day hear and heed the good news of Jesus. And Father,
open our hearts and minds that we may, who are yours, not only
continue to hold But Father, to celebrate and to worship and
to take this gospel to the world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.