Open your Bibles with me to 2
Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I'm going to talk to you this
morning concerning the subject of light overcoming darkness. And of course this passage here
is speaking of the second coming of Christ. And if you'll look
at Verse 8, he speaks of this, talking about a wicked or a wickedness
to be revealed. I'll be talking about that. And
that's speaking of that spirit of Antichrist in the last days,
false gospels, false Christianity. And it says, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth, that's his word, and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming." That's the light
that comes from the word. And when Christ comes again,
there will be an effulgence of his appearance that will wipe
out all darkness. And that's why I entitled this
Light Overcoming Darkness. But I want to show how that applies
to each believer, too. One of the reasons that I had
Brother Mark read John chapter 12 is because there's so many
parallels there concerning the issue of light and darkness.
But also, if you look back at verse 3 of 2 Thessalonians 2,
I dealt with these first four verses last time, but he's talking
about the second coming of Christ. And Paul says here, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, that that will not happen until certain
things come about. He says in verse three, let no
man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come,
the day of his return to destroy this world and to gather his
people unto himself, except there come a falling away, falling
away from the truth, falling away, an apostasy, That's going
to happen first, and that man of sin, that's the spirit of
Antichrist, be revealed. Now that revelation is to the
people of God. That's not revealed to everybody
without exception. That will be revealed to the
true church. And he's called the son of perdition,
the son of damnation, or the son of destruction. In John chapter 12 there that
Brother Mark read, Christ made this statement first, talking
about his crucifixion. He said, now is the judgment
of this world. Now is the prince of this world
cast out. And that's talking about the
binding of Satan. You know, in the book of Revelation
and other places, we talk about the binding of Satan. Throughout
the Old Testament, Satan was loose to deceive the nations. Very few believers, most of them
in Israel, not all. Very few Gentiles, but Satan
was loose to do whatever he wanted on earth. And of course we know
it was all according to the purpose, sovereign purpose and plan of
God. But at the crucifixion, Satan was bound. And what that
means is his power to deceive was limited, and the gospel began
to be preached in Judea, and then it spread out through the
Gentiles. At some point in time, we don't
know the exact time, and it's not important that we do know,
in the last days, the days that we're living in, Satan was to
be loosed to deceive the nations again, just like he did in the
Old Testament. I believe that has already happened,
and we're in the process of it now. This falling away, the Lord's
return will not come before this falling away. And it's identified
in this way, what is generally called today and known as Christian,
quote unquote, has fallen away or apostatized from the truth.
There's a lot of people who call themselves Christian, but they
don't know the truth. A lot of churches who claim to
be Christian, but they don't preach the gospel. You understand
what I'm saying? I call that the visible church.
I know a lot of people don't like that term, but what I mean
the visible church is what you see with the physical eye. You
go up and down the streets of Albany or any city, you'll see
church upon church upon church, denominations, everyone claiming
to believe in Jesus. And the question you have to
ask yourself is do they believe in the Jesus of the Bible? Because
there are counterfeits. And we read about that last week.
You can think about Galatians chapter one, where Paul talked
about those professing Christians who preached another Jesus, another
of a different kind. In 2 Corinthians 11, he talked
about those who corrupt the simplicity that's in Christ, the singularity,
the singleness of our salvation all in Christ, his glorious person,
his finished work, his blood and righteousness. and they move
people away from that, they seduce. First John speaks of it. And
so he says, that's going to happen before Christ comes again. And
he says in verse three, and that man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition. Now that's antichrist, you've
heard the term. It's popular in Christian bookstores,
as they say. Some say this is one man. Others say it's a succession
of men. But I believe it's a spirit of Antichrist, an evil spirit
spawned by Satan that reveals himself, reveals itself in false
preachers standing in pulpits preaching false gospels. John
mentions the term Antichrist, I think it's four times. In 1
John 2, 18, he says the spirit of Antichrist is already here
in his day, that's the Apostle John. and he mentions it in chapter
four and then in 2 John 7. This Antichrist, in fact, turn
over here to 2 John 7. I wanna show you something here.
This Antichrist is not a political figure, but it's a spirit, not
one man who is a political figure, but it's a spirit of false religion
promoted by false preachers. Now, where do I get that? Well,
look at this, for example, in verse 7 of 2 John, just one chapter,
this little book of 2 John. In verse 7, John says, for many
deceivers are entered into the world, many deceivers, who confess
not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. We don't know exactly
what doctrine they were hiding or saying, but it had something
to do with the glorious person of Christ, who is God manifest
in the flesh. We know it has something to do
with the work of Christ. What did he accomplish when he
died on the cross? And he says, this is a deceiver
and an antichrist. You see that? And he says in
verse eight, look to yourselves that we lose not those things
which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Don't
leave the gospel. That's what he's saying there.
God has given us a glorious message. The greatest message that he
could ever give to sinful people like us. How he can be just to
justify the ungodly. When we talk about Christ, we
talk about him as he's revealed in the scriptures. who he is,
when we talk about his righteousness, we know what that is, it's his
righteousness imputed to us, and from which we have life.
Don't lose those things, he says. And look at verse 9. Now, remember
what I said, this Antichrist, this spirit of Antichrist is
not a political thing. It's a religious issue concerning
false doctrine. And here's what he says in verse
nine. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ, the doctrine of his person, the doctrine of his finished
work, the doctrine of his church, they have not God. And he that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. Well, that's the spirit of antichrist. Back over in 2
Thessalonians 2, in verse 3, he says that falling away, the
man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Later on he calls
him the man of lawlessness. The man of sin, look at verse
three. He says, that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
A lot of translations say the man of lawlessness. Well, that's
okay. But what is a man of lawlessness?
Now, when you think about that term, what do you think about?
You think about bank robbers? You think about murderers and
all that? Well, they are lawless. They disobey the law. But the
man of lawlessness, the man of sin, is any person who denies
the person and work of Christ. If you wanna talk about the law
and lawlessness, what does the Bible teach us? It teaches us
that Christ is the end or the fulfillment of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. Now anything less, anybody who
claims to preach Christ, and who preaches that sinners can
be made righteous in any other way. But the imputed righteousness
of Christ, that's a man of lawlessness. Do you understand that? You think
I'm being too harsh on that? Of course not. People claiming
to keep the law are people of lawlessness when they don't preach
that perfection can only be found in Christ. The righteousness
of the Lord. His blood and His righteousness
is our whole salvation. And you know, here's the irony
of it. People will sing hymns that state
that, while the preacher afterward gets up and preaches against
that. I mean, when I was in false religion, we used to sing the
solid rock all the time. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me holy? This is
all my hope and peace. This is all my righteousness.
So understand this. This ungodly, unholy spirit will
prevail throughout the world under the guise of Christianity,
but denying the doctrine of Christ. False gospels. And they're known
by their false doctrine. That's why Paul in Galatians
1, 6 through 9, you remember what he said? If they come preaching
any other gospel, than that which we have preached. Let them be
anathema. They'll be known by their converts. Turn to Matthew
7. Look at this. In Matthew 7. And you know this
is the Sermon on the Mount. And when I say they're known
by their converts, Here's what I'm saying. The people
to whom they preach do not know the gospel either. Their audience
who follow them, they don't know the truth. Look at verse 13. Enter ye in at the straight gate,
for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction
and many there be which go in therein. There's a straight gate
and there's a broad road. Straight is the gate, narrows
the way, which leadeth unto life, few there be that find it." What
is that broad road that leads to destruction? It's false gospels.
The way of salvation by works, the way of salvation by the wills
of men, it brings it down to what I said about false religion.
They make salvation conditioned on man rather than on Christ.
and they always judge holiness and righteousness on a sliding
scale, and they measure up at some point on that scale in that
way, and that's the broad road that leads to destruction. There's
only one way of salvation. There's only one way of righteousness
and holiness, and that's Christ on the cross, dying for the sins
of his people, being raised again because righteousness has been
established. There's no other way. No other
way, it's totally by grace, conditioned on him. And so in verse 15 of
Matthew 7, he says, beware of false prophets. And look at what
he says about it. They don't preach the gospel.
He says, they come to you in sheep's clothing, appearing to
be sheep. Now what is a sheep in the scripture?
That's one of God's elect. One who is justified based upon
the imputed righteousness of Christ, one who believes. He
was a lost sheep. Christ found his sheep, brought
his sheep home. Christ died for his sheep. And
so these false prophets disguise themselves as such so that they
appear to be what they're not. And he says, inwardly they're
ravening woods. He says in verse 16, you'll know them by their
fruits. And the fruits he's talking about is the product of their
preaching. He says, do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. That's the
preaching of the gospel and the power of the spirit. That's the
good fruit that God produces. Christ said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches, the branches bear fruit from the vine. John 15. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. If I stand before you preaching a false gospel
and you believe what I'm preaching to you, that's evil fruit. Is that understandable? A good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. That is, the gospel preached
in the power of the Holy Spirit cannot bring forth evil fruit.
The result of the gospel preached in the power of the Holy Spirit
will always be a sinner saved by grace, a believer. Neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. So keep that in mind. Go back
to 2 Thessalonians 2 now. This spirit of Antichrist is
called the Son of Perdition. Now people will say, well why
does he speak of it as if it's one man, one son, and all that?
It's a spirit. Just like we're children of God,
sons of God. It's a spirit. And that Son of
Perdition, you remember Judas was called the Son of Perdition.
Is this Judas? No. It's anyone who follows the
way of Judas, follows the way of false preaching, and perdition
means destruction and death. You see, again, Christ is the
only way of righteousness in life. Now this spirit of antichrist
is the spirit of darkness. It's the spirit of deception.
Christ is the spirit of truth and light. And in the case of
the kingdom of God, This is our comfort. In the case of the people
of God, light will always overcome darkness. And that's what Christ
was showing back in John chapter 12. He's the light. Live in the
light, brothers and sisters. Don't give way to the things
of darkness. Look at verse four, he says,
this spirit of the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God or that is worshipped. This is
a spirit of opposition. Now what does he oppose? He opposes
the light. He opposes the word of God. Remember
over in John chapter 3 and verse 19 he said this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men loved darkness
and hated the light because their deeds were evil. That's what
he opposes. It's not somebody who who in
the eyes of the natural man is immoral in the eyes of men, as
men judge him. But it's one who opposes the
gospel, who opposes the true preaching of Christ, who opposes
his righteousness as the only ground of salvation. And he exalts
himself as he claims final authority. In other words, I know what,
it's like this. They say, well, here it is in
the Word of God, but I'm not gonna preach that. I'll preach
something else. I've heard preachers say that.
Well, they're exalting themselves above God. Why do you say that? Because this is God's Word. And it's there to be preached
to God's people. And God's people love it. That's
why. We love the light. We love the
truth. And so anyone, for example, who
claims that the gospel of freewillism, the gospel of conditional salvation,
the gospel of righteousness attained by works or by character transformations,
that's the darkness. It's not Christ. Remember, we
read. in 2 Corinthians 11 last week
about those who seek to draw people away from the simplicity
that's in Christ. And you know what? It's just
too simple for the natural man. I mean to say everything that
we have, everything that we are, everything that we're going to
experience in glory, it's all of Christ. It's all of grace. There's not one inkling of salvation
that we can attribute to ourselves. Think about that. Not one, not
one blessing, not one benefit. It's all of grace based upon
the righteousness of God's son. And anybody who seeks to draw
people away from that is trying to corrupt the simplicity of
Christ. Well here, in verse four, he
says this antichrist, this one who exalts himself, sits in the
temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Now, again, Paul's
not speaking of one individual here, but he's speaking of a
kingdom that was to be seized by Satan for the purpose of setting
up a seed of abomination in the midst of God's temple. Now, what
is God's temple? Well, the New Testament tells
us that the temple of God, after the cross, is the church. The church is the house of God. The church, true church, where
the gospel is preached, is the family of God. The true church
is the kingdom of God. The true church is the temple
of God. Now before the cross, there was a temple in Jerusalem.
And it was built. And there was the worship of
God. There's the revelation of God. But all of that was a type.
A picture. And it was destroyed. It was
abolished by way of fulfillment. Christ said it's finished. The
veil was written too. The priesthood, that earthly
priesthood is gone now. That which is old waxeth away. It's all fulfilled in Christ.
He is our high priest. He is our altar. He is our sacrifice. And he fulfilled it all. He's
not talking about here of a new physical temple to be built in
Jerusalem and to be occupied in that way. This is the church. And all of this, Christ, think
about, let me give you this to think about. Antichrist. inspired by Satan. Christ, the
true Christ, is God in human flesh. Antichrist is Satan in
the flesh. Christ is one person. Antichrist
is many persons. You see, Satan cannot be omnipresent. as the Lord is. Christ is wherever
his people is, by his spirit and by his word. Satan cannot
do that. The embodiment of Satan in human
flesh must take form in many, many persons. And they're carrying
out the works of their father, the devil. Remember Christ told
the Pharisees in John 8, 44, you're of your father, the devil,
and his works you'll do. So this temple is the church. Now, here's where we make the
distinction between the visible church and the true church. The
true church of the living God is the pillar and ground of truth. The true church of the living
God is the light of the world. That's what the Bible says. But
generally what is seen in this world, in what historians call
Christendom, That's the visible church, and the majority of that
visible church has forsaken the truth. Here's what I want you
to see, and we'll get to this later on, but look at verse 13. Well, then how can any of us
be safe? Well, look at it. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit, The true church, the true people of God, have
been set apart by the Spirit of God, and it's known by belief
of the truth, you see that, the gospel, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Just like in Israel in the Old Covenant, the Old Testament,
the majority of them rejected God's word, rejected God's prophets. But by God's grace, there was
always a remnant. What was generally known as Jerusalem
and Israel, they were not the people of God at all, spiritually.
And what is generally known as the church today, they're not
the people of God at all. But the true church, the elect
of God, the justified, justified persons, the elect of God whom
he will not impute sin. Those who are redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb, whose names were written in the Lamb's book
of life before the foundation of the world, those who are given
life from the dead, born again by the Spirit through the preaching
of the gospel, we're safe and sound and secure in Christ. And that's comforting, isn't
it? That's why he says at the end of this in verse 17, comfort
your hearts. Folks, we're living in hard times. Aren't we? And I'm not just talking
about politically and all that. I know that's hard. That's pretty
much always been hard. But we're living in hard times.
We're living in a time when I believe Satan has been loose to deceive
the nations. And he's doing the job. But look
at verse five. Remember you not that when I
was yet with you, I told you these things. Paul said, I'm
just telling you something I've already told you. I'm reminding you.
And he says in verse six, and now you know what withholdeth,
what holds back, that he might be revealed in his time. Now
in Paul's day, it seems as though Satan was still bound He was
being held back, being restrained. And who is restraining Him? Look
at verse 7. He says, for the mystery of iniquity,
and that's a term we need to understand. He said, doth already
work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out
of the way. He's talking about the Holy Spirit
holding back Satan's deception for a time. Not 100%, Satan was
still deceiving. but holding him back until he
be loosed and set loose like he was in the Old Testament to
deceive the nations. And that's happening now. Think
about this. What is this mystery of iniquity? Well, you know, a mystery in
the Bible is something that we cannot see naturally. If we see
it and understand it and it's exposed, it takes the Spirit
of God to open our eyes, to expose it. So this is an iniquity that
people by nature cannot see. It's iniquity that is deceptive. What is this iniquity? It's the
religions of man that are opposed to God's way of salvation. Remember
Matthew 7, 21 through 23? Haven't we preached in your name,
cast out demons, done many wonderful works, only to hear Christ say,
depart from me you that work iniquity? How can it be iniquity? It doesn't measure up to the
perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
That's how. So this mystery of iniquity is
prevailing. Let me give you this rundown.
Think about this question. Why and how will Satan prevail
against the church, the true church of God? Well, we know
it's God's plan to bring judgment upon this earth by loosing Satan
to deceive the whole world. That's God's judgment. Did you
know that? That's not God being taken by surprise. That's God's
judgment. And since the death of Christ,
Satan has been bound and the gospel's been preached throughout
the world to Gentiles and Jews, and I'm talking about since the
time of Paul here. And then he will be, Satan will
be loosed, which I believe he's already been, and he'll be given
the same power that he had in the Old Testament, as I said,
before the cross. He'll prevail in the visible
church here on earth as it will be overcome with lies, false
gospels, but God's elect will be safe and God will have his
witness in this world. But according to his plan, that
witness will be reduced to almost nothing. How many people do you
know that live in areas where there's no true gospel preach
to go to? And most of the visible church
will turn apostate, fall away from the gospel truth. And it's
in this way that the churches will be prepared to set up an
abomination of desolation in the midst of them, which again
is false preachers standing in pulpits preaching a false gospel,
a false Christ. It will seem like the true church
has been defeated for a while. Book of Revelation talks about
this, by the forces of Satan and the leadership of the spirit
of antichrist. But it will not prevail. Look
back here in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8. And then shall that
wicked be revealed, he'll be exposed to the people of God,
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth. The
word of God, the authority, the power of God's word. And he shall destroy this spirit
of darkness with the brightness, the light, the effulgence of
his coming. Verse nine, even him who's coming
is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and
lying wonders. Signs and wonders that will impress
the flesh, impress people. What do y'all do here at this
church? Well, we preach the gospel. Is that all? Is that all you
do? Well, everybody does that. No,
they don't. Verse 10, all deceivableness of unrighteousness. An unrighteousness
that is deceptive in them that perish, and it's because they
receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Now
let me close with this thing about the love of the truth.
And that's where we, I'm gonna pick up next week on this. Do
I love the truth? Do you love the truth? You know, there are people who
say they believe the truth, but they don't love it. Well, listen to this. He who
loves the truth, loves the gospel, loves Christ, searches the scriptures
to find the truth about Christ and His redeeming work. Here's
what I want to know, and here's what you should want to know.
When I stand up here to preach, and I preach Jesus Christ and
Him crucified, am I preaching the truth in God's Word concerning
Christ? Who He is, what He's accomplished,
or am I preaching another Jesus? I want to know that, don't you?
I don't want to be deceived. And whatever this book says about
Christ, who he is and what he accomplished to save his people
from their sins. Not that one, not that counterfeit
who's trying to save but cannot, or who died for all people, even
those who perish, but the one who saved his people. Is that
the truth I love to hear? Or am I okay with anything else?
He who loves the truth about Christ and his redeeming work,
he who loves the truth turns to Christ for all salvation,
pleads his blood, pleads his righteousness imputed, and forsakes
all else. And that's called repentance.
Am I like Paul the apostle over in Philippians chapter three?
Here's what he said. Here's a man who loved the truth.
He says, but what things were gained to me, and what was gained
to Paul? His religion, his heritage, his
works, his experiences, his dreams, his vision. He said, what things
were gained to me? Those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things
but loss For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do,
listen to this, do count them but dumb that I may win Christ. And be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith, the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. That's a man who loves the truth. Oh, you know, I know people who
claim to believe the truth, but boy, they cannot let go of their
past religion, their past experiences, like Paul, and call them dumb. That's what it was. And Paul,
you know, you can translate that Greek word however you want to,
but it means just exactly what you think it means. In light of Christ, it's all
dumb. He who loves the truth abides
in the truth. He won't leave it. You can't
leave it. You can't ignore it. You can't deny it. You can't
leave it if you love it. And we know the score, don't
we? The reason we can't leave it is because Christ won't let
us. He won't let us go. We're kept by the power of God
in Christ. No one shall pluck him out of
my father's hand, he said. We can't leave it. We're like
Peter, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. If you contracted cancer and
there was one doctor in town who had the one cure, would you
avoid him? Would you ignore him? Would you
deny him? Would you leave him? You'd be
on his doorstep day and night trying to get that cure. And
then he who loves the truth judges all things by that truth. There are a lot of nice people
in false religion, aren't there? I mean a lot of nice people.
Why can't we receive them as brothers and sisters in Christ?
because they know not the gospel. Our goal is that they hear it. And our prayer is that God brings
them to believe it. That's God's work. It's not my
work. It's not your work. Only God
saves sinners. Do we love the truth? Do we love
the people of God who love the truth? That's our fellowship.
That's our family, isn't it? Well, we'll pick up there next
week.