Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program this morning.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles while I preach this message, I'll be preaching
from 2 Thessalonians 2. In the New Testament, Paul's
second epistle to the church at Thessalonica. I've been preaching
through this chapter and I'm going to go all the way to the
end in several messages. But this portion of scripture
is talking about the events that lead us up to the second coming
of Christ. And it's a real eye-opener. And today I'm gonna talk to you
about this subject from verse seven. It's called the mystery
of iniquity. The mystery of iniquity. Now
I urge you to go to our website or call or email us to get the
prior messages in 2 Thessalonians 2 because I'm not gonna keep
going back over everything here. But the Thessalonians had been
deceived by false preachers into thinking that the Lord would
surely come back in their day before they died. And I expect
every generation in the New Testament times has pondered that thought. We think that, that we know that
the Lord's second coming, His return, is nearer now than it
was back then. And some people think, well,
it's probably gonna come in our day or close to our day. We don't
know when the Lord's coming back. We know that He is coming back.
And we're to live every day in anticipation of that great event. We're not to be taken by surprise
as if we don't expect him to come. But the gospel message
includes, yes, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ,
but it also includes his second coming. Because in his second
coming, he's going to make the world anew. He's going to judge
the world in righteousness. He's going to gather His people
unto Himself. And this world will get worse
and worse, but the deterioration of this world is not in things
that people naturally think and expect. And one of the things
that he's brought forth here is that in the end times, as
we near the second coming of Christ, it will be a time of
great deception. And I preached on that in the
last two messages on this, the great deception, one and two.
Well, what is that deception? Well, he talked about antichrist
and I spoke of antichrist a little bit. And Paul writes in verse
five, now this is 2 Thessalonians 2, five, he says, remember you
not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things. So Paul had already taught on
this subject. And then he says in verse six,
and now you know what withholdeth, or holds it back, that he might
be revealed in his time. Now here's what he means by that
is, Everything is happening in the providence of time according
to God's sovereign purpose and will. The time has already been
set. The time of the revelation of
Christ's coming is already set. The time of the revelation of
the man of sin, Antichrist, is set. And he says that God is,
you know, the book of Revelation, for example, chapter seven speaks
of this with the four angels on the four corners of the earth
holding back the winds. In other words, they're commanded
of God to hold back those winds, and that's a metaphorical way
of talking about God's wrath, the winds, God's wrath being
rained down upon the world. Well, God is holding that back.
He's not waiting for man to do something. He's not waiting for
a temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem, a physical temple. He's waiting
until his appointed time. And so he says, look at verse
seven. He says, for the mystery of iniquity
doth already work. Now this mystery of iniquity,
whatever it is, is already working in Paul's day. Now it's working,
it's there, okay? And he says, only he who now
letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. And most
commentators agree that that verse is talking about the work
of the Holy Spirit in the world, doing his work of bringing God's
elect under the preaching of the gospel. The gospel which
is the gospel of Christ, the glory of his person, who is Jesus
Christ, God in human flesh, God manifest in the flesh, God and
man in one person, that glorious person, and what he accomplished
on Calvary as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his
people, and the preserver of his people, in establishing the
only righteousness whereby God could be just and justify the
ungodly. Now it's important to understand
the mystery of iniquity that I'm gonna define for you, that
you understand is that the gospel is the revelation, the unveiling,
the manifestation of the righteousness of God. Now that word righteousness
can be translated as justice, but what is the righteousness
of God? He says in Romans 117, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just
or the justified. Those whom God has forgiven,
those whom God has declared righteous shall live by faith, by looking
to Christ. And the righteousness of God
there is the merit Now understand what I'm saying. The value, the
worthiness, the quality of the person and work of Christ as
the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his people. He is
the righteousness of God. You understand it. And all righteousness
is to be measured by him. And so, the Holy Spirit is working
in our day to bring God's people under the preaching of that gospel.
Not a false gospel now. There are many false gospels.
And I've talked about that. In fact, one of the greatest
signs of the nearness of Christ's second coming is false Christianity. And that's why we have to be
on our toes. We have to go to the Word of
God And we have to make sure that what we're hearing, the
church we're attending, is a true gospel church that preaches this
gospel and not another gospel. And there's many ways you can
define and contrast the true gospel with false gospels. The
true gospel is the revelation of the righteousness of God.
The Bible tells us anyone who's ignorant of his righteousness
is lost. The true gospel says that salvation
has been conditioned on Christ and Christ fulfilled all those
conditions for every one of his people to ensure their salvation
under glory. To ensure that they're justified
before God, to ensure that they're born again and that they believe
the gospel, they believe in Christ, they cling to him. The false
gospels, in some way, place salvation at some stage, to some degree,
in some way, conditioned on sinners, whether it be their works or
their choices. You see, the false gospel of
universalism, which says God loves everybody, Christ died
for everybody, and now it's up to you, there's a condition on
you now, to me, in order to put that in effect, that's not the
gospel. And so, when he says, verse seven, only he who now
letteth will hold back until he be taken out of the way. There's
gonna come a time when the last one of God's people is brought
into the kingdom that the Holy Spirit will be taken out of the
way, his work will be finished, and that's the day that Christ
will come again. But he says in verse seven, now
listen to this, For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
Mystery of iniquity. Now first of all, understand
what a mystery is in the Bible. In the Bible, a mystery is a
truth, a reality that God must reveal to us. It's not something
that we naturally know. or it's not something we can
by our efforts intellectually or religiously find out. A mystery in the Bible is not
like a mystery book or a mystery movie that you read or watch
where you find certain clues and then you figure it out. No,
the mystery here is a truth that only God can reveal to sinners
because we don't know this by nature. I quote all the time,
1 Corinthians 2 14, the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're spiritually
discerned. And so if he's gonna know these
things, God must reveal it to him. So that's what a mystery
is. And then he says here in verse
seven, the mystery of iniquity. Now, what is iniquity? Well,
now, iniquity is one of the many words in the scripture that describes
the sin of man, the sinfulness. The most common word for sin
is found in verses like Romans 3, 23. For all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. And that word means we miss the
mark. What is the mark? The mark, now
listen, when it says, for all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God, what is the glory of God? It's Christ. And
what that verse is teaching is that no matter how good we try
to be, and this is the reality now, no matter how good we try
to be, we're going to miss the mark. Because the mark, the goal,
is the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. And it can only be given to a
sinner by God's grace through an act of imputation. God imputing,
charging, legally accounting Christ's righteousness. The payment
of the dead to us. And so, That's another word for
sin, that's the most common word. But another word is iniquity.
And what does iniquity mean? Well, it describes an inequality. In other words, it's something
that is not equal. It does not balance out. There's
a story in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel about a
king who took, who sinfully, took the vessels of the temple,
the Jewish temple, Solomon's temple, and took those vessels,
the cups and the dishes, which had been stolen when Nebuchadnezzar
destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, and they'd been brought to Babylon.
And this king, in the book of Daniel, threw a wild party, a
drunken party, probably an orgy, and When all their dishes were
dirty, he told his nobles to go get those vessels that Nebuchadnezzar
had stolen out of the temple. And he abused them. You see,
those vessels were to be used for one purpose and one purpose
alone, and that is the service of the Lord. But he used them
sinfully to help in his drunken orgy party. And so what happened
was, you remember the Lord sent a hand appeared and wrote on
the wall and wrote in a language that the king didn't understand
and his advisors could not interpret it. So is there anyone who could
interpret it? Well, one of his advisors talked
about Daniel and Daniel came down and he looked at it and
he said, king, this is what it says. It says, thou art weighed
in the balance You know how balance is. And found wanting, lacking,
doesn't balance, doesn't equal. In other words, you've sinned
against God. And that's what iniquity is.
It's inequality. And let me show you an example
of what I'm talking about. And this is an iniquity. This
is an imbalance, an inequality that men and women by nature
do not recognize. And that's why it's a mystery
of iniquity. If I understand what this iniquity
is, if I know about this iniquity, it is because God has revealed
it to me in his word. And so let me show you what I'm
talking about over in the book of Matthew chapter seven. Now this is a passage that I
refer to quite a bit because it's the closing words of our
Lord on the Sermon on the Mount and it is so instructive. He
talked about here in his conclusion of the straight gate and narrow
way as opposed to the broad gate, the wide gate. The straight gate,
the narrow way is the gospel way of salvation, the way of
Christ. the way of grace, the way of
the cross. And he said, few people find
it. Few there be that find it. The
broad road that leads to destruction. Well, that's the way of work,
salvation. You know, there's only one right
way. There are many wrong ways. And therefore on this broad road,
that leads to destruction, many there be that go with their end. Many people, but few find the
way. God has to reveal it. And so
then he mentions false prophets, false preachers, who appear in
sheep's clothing. They're deceptive. They claim
to be Christian. And they lead people on the broad
road that leads to destruction. you'll know them by their fruits,
the Bible says. That means they're converts.
They'll be people who think and believe and are assured that
salvation is conditioned on them and they believe they fulfilled
those conditions. Now anybody who believes that
is the product of an evil tree, a false preacher, a false gospel. But those who are the good fruit
are sinners saved by grace who know and believe that Christ
is their only hope, that He fulfilled all conditions, that He alone
is their righteousness before God. And they're the product
of the good tree, which is Christ and the true gospel. And so in
verse 21, now look at this passage. Listen to what the Lord says
here. He says in verse 21, not everyone that saith unto me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Now, just
because a person gives lip service to Christ and says, Lord, Lord,
that doesn't ensure that that person will enter the kingdom
of heaven, obviously. Who will enter the kingdom of
heaven? He said, those who do the will of his father, which
is in heaven. So you got to ask yourself, what
is it to do the will of his father? Well, there are a lot of people
say, well, you got to do good works. Well, my friend, salvation
is not by works, it's by grace. Now, should Christians, true
believers, should they work in the service of the Lord? Yes.
but that's not their entrance into heaven. You see, he'd already
talked about that. Straight is the gate, narrow
is the way. If a sinner could get into heaven
by his works, then why do we need Christ? Why do we need grace? Why do we need mercy? So to do
the will of the Father here, which is in heaven, is not to
work our way into heaven. To do the will of the Father
which is in heaven, it's what the Lord said in John 6 when
those fellows asked Him, what can we do to work the works of
God? He said, believe on the Son whom he hath sent. This is
the work of God. What he's talking about is a
sinner clinging to Christ for all salvation, pleading the merits
of his works, not our own. And so he says, not everyone
that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.
And then verse 22, he says, many will say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name
done many wonderful works? You see that? Now think about
this. They prophesied in his name?
They cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works. You see that? Now those are things
that men and women, by nature, would call righteous, would call
good. And he says in verse 23, and
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. Now what they call good, he calls
iniquity. Why? Because it doesn't measure
up to the standard of righteousness which God has set forth. It doesn't
measure up to what the Lord requires. And what is it the Lord requires?
He requires the perfection of righteousness that can only be
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It can only be found in Christ's
obedience unto death. It cannot be found in our works.
It cannot be found in our choices. It can only be found in Christ. Now, the Bible says we're all
sinners for we've all sinned and come short of the glory of
God. Aren't we all workers of iniquity? Over in Psalm five
and verse five, listen to this. It says, the foolish shall not
stand in God's sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Well, aren't I a worker of iniquity?
Aren't you a worker of iniquity? Well, here's the point. Is there
any way? And then the answer is yes, we
are sinners. We're all sinners. If we're not
sinners, we don't need salvation. And the question, the answer
is this. Is there any way that a sinner like me can stand before
God and not be judged and declared a worker of iniquity. And there
is a way. Look at Romans chapter four with
me. In Romans chapter four, he's
talking about Abraham and how Abraham was justified before
God. Now what is it to be justified
before God? It's to be forgiven of all my
iniquity. It's to be forgiven of all my
sins. It's to be declared righteous
in God's sight. Is there a way that I who am
a sinner can really and honorably and rightfully stand before God
and not be judged a worker of iniquity? Well, listen to this
in verse six of Romans chapter four. He's quoting from the Psalms
here, the Psalm that King David wrote in Psalm 32. And he said,
even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Saying, blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. And there's the answer. The answer
is to be found in Christ. washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness. The answer is to be standing
before God as a sinner saved by grace, whose iniquity has
been covered by the blood of Christ. Not just covered over
or hidden from view, but covered so as to be settled. The debt is paid. The redemption
price is paid. Sin has been put away, the scripture
says. and God will no longer impute
sin to his people. He imputed it to Christ. The
scripture says in Romans 8, 34, who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
is risen again, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
That's how God is just to justify sinners. The iniquity has been
taken away. The sin has been taken away.
Christ bore it away in his own body on the tree. You see, that's
why I need a savior. That's why I need a ransom. That's why I need a redeemer.
That's why I need a righteousness that I cannot produce. And when
he talks about the mystery of iniquity here, it's that iniquity
that man does not recognize mainly in his his intention and his
attempts to make himself righteous by his works. You know that Matthew
721 passage. Many people, they'll go to that
and they'll say, well, these fellas weren't sincere. And the
Bible says nothing about that. In the context, it tells you
what's wrong with these guys. They were claiming that the fact
that they preached in his name and cast out devils and done
many wonderful works was enough to make them righteous in God's
sight. But it's unequal with the righteousness
that God requires, which can only be found in Christ. There
is no way that anything we do, with or without the help of God,
can equal or stand up or balance out or measure up to the righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. And that's what faith does. God-given
faith pleads not my preaching, not my casting out demons, not
my doing many wonderful works. The God-given faith pleads the
righteousness of Christ as my only ground of salvation. I'm
a sinner. I need grace. Romans 5.21 says
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. He is the Lord our righteousness,
Jeremiah said. That's the righteousness we need.
And anything else, if you don't understand it and don't know
it and don't recognize it for what it is, it's the mystery
of iniquity. You understand this. What we
need is grace. We need the blood of Christ.
We need His righteousness imputed to us. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. That is, he looks to Christ and
rests in Christ for all salvation. Understand this mystery of iniquity. Don't be deceived by it. Listen
to the words of God in the scripture and interpret these things in
their context. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.