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. I'm glad
you could join us today. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of 2 Thessalonians. I'll give you time to get there.
The second epistle of the Apostle Paul, as the Holy Spirit inspired
him to write, to a church in the city of Thessalonica. And
2 Thessalonians, chapter two, is dealing with the events that
will take place just prior to the second coming of Christ.
And I'm going through this whole chapter. I've already preached
several messages. We're gonna begin looking at
verse four, talking about the man of sin, the son of perdition,
and I've entitled this message The Great Deception. This is
part two of The Great Deception. And that's what's going to happen.
The apostle had told the Thessalonians that before Christ would come
again, and none of us knows that time or that day, but we know
that we're getting closer to that time and day, and believers
are to live constantly in expectation that Christ could come anytime.
And incidentally, I didn't mention this last week, but I have in
prior messages, that his second coming is not going to be a secret
rapture. That doctrine of the secret rapture
didn't even have legs until the early to the mid 1800s. Nobody
before in the history of Christianity preached that. The Bible says
that when Christ comes again, it's with trumpet sound, with
the angels, he's going to bring those who have gone, the believers
who have gone to be with him, they're coming back with him
very publicly. But be that as it may, what I want to talk to
you about is this great deception. And Paul wrote here that before
Christ comes again, there'll be a falling away, that's an
apostasy, and that's a falling away from the truth. And basically
what I've taught that that is, is that is those who come claiming
to be Christians or Christian, but who deny the truth of Christianity,
false Christianity, false gospels. And if you read Matthew 24, the
part that's dealing with the second coming of Christ, you'll
know that the greatest sign of the nearness of Christ coming
again is false Christianity. And that's the great deception.
People believing they're Christians, claiming to be Christians, but
they're not Christians because their Christianity is not biblical. It's the doctrine of men, the
doctrine of devils, actually. And I read this in the book of
2 Timothy, when he said that, when Paul wrote to Timothy that
there's coming a time when they will not endure sound doctrine. They'll be religious, they'll
be sincere, they'll be moral, and we're gonna read later on
in 2 Thessalonians, they'll do many wonderful things in the
eyes of men. But they don't want to hear about
the true doctrine of Christ. They don't want to judge by doctrine.
I showed you last week in Galatians 1 where Paul said, though we
or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than that which
we have preached, let him be anathema. You see, that's the
issue. And so when we come to this second
thing, when he talks about in verse three that the man of sin,
the son of perdition, antichrist, And as I said, I don't believe
it's talking about one man who's gonna arrive on the political
scene. I think it's talking about a spirit and succession of people
who preach a false gospel. That's what antichrist is. If
you look at every term, every place in the New Testament where
the term antichrist is used, that's what it's talking about.
Those who deny the person of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God in human flesh without
sin, God-man. What did He accomplish? He put
away the sins of His people and secured their salvation. He brought
forth an everlasting righteousness by which God has justified His
people. He has forgiven their sins, and
He has declared them righteous in His sight, and that righteousness
is the source and power. Christ is the source and power
of the new birth, the giving of spiritual life, which includes
faith, repentance, perseverance. The Bible says it, for by grace
are you saved through faith, but that's not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast,
for we are His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them." Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. So think about that. And
so here's why the people of God for whom Christ died, what does
the Bible tell us about them? That God chose them before the
foundation of the world and gave them to Christ, imputed their
sin to Christ. laid it to His charge, His account.
He became responsible, a surety for His people. And it means
that He sent Christ into the world to die for their sins.
Christ had to pay the debt. As our surety, He had to actually
pay the debt with the price of His blood. And by that, He secured
our salvation, the salvation of His people. God cannot charge
His elect with their sins. How do I know that? Romans 8.33,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justify. God has
charged their sins to Christ. God has charged Christ's righteousness
to them. And how do you know who they
are? He will bring them to the new birth. He will bring them
under the preaching of the true gospel, not a false gospel, not
another gospel of a different kind. But the true gospel, the
gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe.
Therein is the righteousness of God revealed. And so what
you need to be concerned with today, whatever church you're
going to, am I hearing the true gospel? Am I hearing about the
righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ freely imputed to me? and received by the power of
God by faith. For with the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. That is, he looks to Christ.
Now, in verse four of 2 Thessalonians 2, it talks about this man of
sin, verse four, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all
that is called God or that is worshiped. Now, what does he
oppose? Well, he opposes God's word.
Now, he claims to be sin of God. Well, again, now, don't get bogged
down in insisting, well, this is just one man coming on in
the future, or if it's a succession of men, like I believe, what
do they preach? What does he preach? He opposes
God. He exalts himself above God.
How? By preaching a false gospel. He opposes God's way. of saving sinners. He makes salvation
conditioned on the sinner, whatever the condition is, and not on
Christ and him alone. Do you understand that? He believes
that man can choose his way or work his way into God's favor
and be saved. You know, the Bible says in 1
Corinthians 2.14 that the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. Who's the natural man there?
It's all of us by nature. Do you know that if left to ourselves,
to our own wills, none of us would come to God. None of us
would believe God. None of us would receive and
follow Christ. If left to ourselves, the Bible
teaches that. Let me show you a passage that
teaches that plainly, Romans 3. And look at verse 10. This is the conclusion. I call
this the great indictment, where Paul's bringing the evidence
against all of us, including himself, by nature. That is,
as we fell in Adam into death and sin, and as we are born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. And he says in verse 10, as it
is written, there's none righteous, no not one. Now he doesn't say
there there's none religious, no not one. He doesn't say there's
none moral in the eyes of men. The Pharisees were moral in the
eyes of men. They were righteous in the eyes
of men. It's why Christ said, except your righteousness exceed
theirs, you can't enter the kingdom of heaven. There's none righteous,
no, no. There's none of us who by nature, by choice, or by works,
who have a righteousness that equals and answers and measures
up to God's requirement. You say, well, that doesn't seem
fair. Let me tell you something, friend. This has nothing to do
with fairness as we naturally see it. This is the way it is. If God were to judge me based
upon my best efforts to keep the law or to be obedient, he
would find me falling short of the righteousness. All have sinned. and comes short of the glory
of God. Where's the glory of God? In
Christ and His righteousness. And God's gonna judge the world
in righteousness by Christ. Acts 17 31. So you see there's
none righteous, no not one. Now that's why salvation is by
grace. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life, but not by our works or our choice, by Jesus
Christ the Lord. Romans 5.21. We need a righteousness
we can't produce. And we won't choose God's righteousness
by our own free wills. If left to ourselves, we will
insist, like old Cain of old, bringing our works. to God. We think we can be good enough
or we can decide something that'll help. Verse 11 of Romans 3, there's
none that understand it. Now what is it they don't understand?
Now this is how we understand this man of sin, this son of
perdition who opposes God. By nature we don't understand
God's way to His glory in Christ's salvation, conditioned on Christ
who fulfilled those conditions. You see, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. There's none that understandeth,
there's none that seeketh after God. Romans 3 11. Now notice
he doesn't say there, there's none that seeketh after a God. Man by nature is religious. He's
gonna seek a God. And normally it's a God likened
to himself. It's a God who, I'll say it this
way, man reasons from the ground up instead of from heaven down. You see, what does God say about
himself in this book? If you're seeking what God says
about himself in this book from Genesis to Revelation, then you're
seeking the true God. But if you're just seeking tradition,
what you've been told from your youth up, you're not seeking
the true God. There's none that seeketh after
God. Verse 12. Romans 3. They are all gone out of the
way. What way? God's way. Christ said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. There are people who call themselves
Christian today. They believe that their way is
good, but others are good too. There's other ways to God. Well,
they are all gone out of the way. There is a way that seemeth
right unto a man. It's the way of death, Proverbs
tells us. Christ spoke of it in Matthew
chapter 7. He said there's the straight
and narrow way. Few be there that find it. There's
the broad way that leads to destruction. Many there be that go in after
that. You see that? The great deception
inspires sinners to go on the broad way that leads to destruction. But now, the truth of God, revealed
by the Holy Spirit, brings sinners on the one way, which is Christ. There's one God, not many gods. There's one mediator, not many
mediators, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
the God-man. And so he says, they're all gone
out of the way, they're all together become unprofitable. You see,
if you go any other way but the gospel way, the way of Christ,
the way of grace, the way of the cross, the way of the blood,
the way of righteousness, by Him, not by me, but by Him, it's
unprofitable. It will not profit you. And He
says, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. That is good. Now listen to me. He's not talking about there's
nobody on this earth, no people on this earth who are charitable
and kind and giving. No, religious and sincere. He
says there's none good according to God's standard of goodness.
We all fall short. What is God's standard of goodness?
Christ is. You say, well, I try to love
everybody. But your love always falls short of what Christ's
love was. and is. Mine too. You say, I'm trying
to be the best I can be. Well, your best will always fall
short. You see, if it doesn't, if your best did not fall short,
if your love did not fall short, let me tell you something. You
don't need salvation. You don't need grace. You don't
need forgiveness of your sins. You don't need a righteousness
you cannot produce. You're already righteous. But
the Bible tells us there's nobody on earth like that. Only Christ. Now the great deception, go back
here to 2 Thessalonians 2. This man of perdition, which
I believe is the spirit of Antichrist, which was present in this day,
not just our day, but this day, is a preacher, a succession of
preachers, a religion, a denomination that opposes God's way. and exalts themselves above all
that is called God. How do they exalt themselves?
Well, anybody who denies God's word and goes by their own word
is exalting themselves. You understand that? If I'm preaching,
listen to me, and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, listen, I am not
God. I'm a sinner saved by grace. But if I'm preaching to you the
truth that is revealed in God's Word, by the authority of God's
Word, and you walk away from this program saying, I don't
believe that, I believe this, you know what you're doing? You're
exalting yourself above all that is God, and that is to be worshiped. If you worship God, if you believe
in the true God, if you're looking to Christ, You're going to say,
let God be true and every man a liar. That's Romans 9. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Understand that. You see, if
God is Lord, if God is God, if God is King, if God is the authority,
His word stands and we bow to His word. So this man of sin,
whoever he is or whatever he is, he's going to deny the word
of God, whatever it is, it might be God's sovereignty, it might
be God's election of grace, it might be the redemption that
God has freely and fully provided for his elect, it might be the
new birth, it might be whatever, it might be the righteousness
of God. I've read articles this week by people who deny the doctrine
of the imputed righteousness of Christ. You know what they're
doing? They're exalting themselves above
God. They go another way. Romans 4, 6 says this, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
Now that's what God's word says. Now somebody says, well, you're
missing the translation there. No, I'm not missing the translation.
If you want to study the Bible, study it in God's Word. Study it using the right rules
of interpretation. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth. What does the word imputeth mean?
It means that God accounts, charges, reckons them to be righteous
without their works. Their works aren't involved in
this righteousness. What is this righteousness? It's
Christ, the God-man, dying for the sins of His people on the
cross of Calvary, working out a perfect righteousness that
God imputes to His people. And God is a just God, a righteous
God, a holy God, as well as a Savior, a loving Savior, a merciful Savior. You see, The true gospel tells
you how a sinner can be made right with God, can be justified
with God, can be forgiven of their sins, made righteous in
God's sight, and all based on a just ground, the imputed righteousness,
the blood of Christ. That's what the blood is. You
say, well, I've always talked about his blood. Well, did you
understand what his blood meant? If you've talked about how His
blood was shed for everybody without exception, but it did
not seal and secure the salvation of anybody, unless they meet
a condition, you've denied the blood. Because His blood equals
righteousness, and His righteousness demands the salvation of every
sinner for whom He died. You say, well that doesn't seem
fair. I'm not talking about that right now. I'm telling you to
seek the Lord. Don't listen to this man of sin
or this spirit of antichrist. That's a great deception. Look
back at verse four again of 2 Thessalonians 2. Who opposeth and exalteth
himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so
that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God. Now think about this. If somebody
rose up on the scene and he claimed to be God. You
know, there's been people in the past who rose up who claimed
to be the Messiah. They say, well, I'm Christ or
I'm Christ reincarnated or something. And granted, they fool some people.
but they don't fool the vast majority of people. And I'm sure
you would sit there and say, well, they're not going to fool
me. What if somebody rose up on the political scene, the economic
scene said, now I'm God. Well, I don't believe this great
deception is going to run that way. And when he talks about
sitting in the temple of God, Granted, there's a lot of people
today who believe that's talking about a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. I don't believe that's what it's
talking about. And I'm going to tell you something. You need
to study the history of those kinds of beliefs because there
was nobody in the true Christian church who stated that or believed
that before the early 1800s, around the middle 1800s. That's
a relatively new doctrine. It has caught on like fire. but
I believe it's part of the great deception. The temple of God
in the New Testament is the church. And I mentioned last week, there
are local bodies of believers. And then, I didn't mention this,
but there is the true church collectively, which is made up
of all true believers in every generation. The church, in the
book of Acts chapter 20, it's called the church which Christ
redeemed with his own blood. Now that's talking about the
church universal. Not everybody who calls himself
a church, and not every denomination, and not every local body of believers,
but only those who preach and believe and promote the true
gospel. and Christ died for their sins.
He established righteousness for them. Now how do I know if
the local church that I go to and support is part of that universal
church that Christ redeemed with His own blood? What do they preach? What is their doctrine? Remember
I mentioned how Paul mentioned to Timothy there's coming time
they won't endure sound doctrine? I've even heard of churches.
I know a couple up north who are true believers and they were
searching for a true church and they went into one church and
they wanted to talk about the true gospel and the doctrine
and the preacher told them this. He said, well, we don't promote
doctrine around here. Well, right away. That's a false
church. That's the spirit of antichrist. That aligns with the man of sin,
the son of perdition. The Bible, listen, the Bible
is a doctrinal book. Let me show you something in
Romans chapter six. Listen to what Paul says here
in verse 17 concerning the believers in Rome. And he says in Romans
6, 17, but God bethanked that you were the servants of sin.
Now let me tell you what a servant of sin is. It's not just referring
to immoral people. Because Paul, back over in Romans
1, 18 through chapter three, he had brought in the whole human
race as sinners who deserve nothing but death, including the religious
Jews. Religious Gentiles, immoral Gentiles. Religious Jews, immoral Jews.
They're all sinners who deserve nothing but death and hell. That's
me, I'm a sinner. That's what I deserve in earth.
That's why my salvation's by grace. So when he says you were
the servants of sin, you know what he's talking about? Unbelievers.
If you're an unbeliever, you may be religious, but you're
still a servant of sin. Sin's missing the mark here.
That's what it is. It's the same word for sin in
Romans 3. In verse 23, all have sinned
and come short. What that teaches us is that
no matter how much we try to improve ourselves, we still miss
the mark. Which means this, our only hope
of salvation is Christ. He never missed the mark. I always
miss the mark. But he never did. Lord, if thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, who would stand? Not me. But
there is forgiveness with thee. Where's that forgiveness to be
found? In Christ, by his blood. So you were the servants of sin,
but look at it, but you have obeyed from the heart. Now that's
the new heart, in the new birth. That form of doctrine, which
was delivered you. Literally, which you were delivered
to. God brought you under that form of doctrine, the truth,
the gospel. And verse 18 says, being then
made free, liberated from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.
What is it to be liberated from sin? It's to be not guilty. It's to be not condemned. It's
to be righteous in God. It's to be forgiven of all my
sins, based on the blood of Christ. It's to be righteous in God's
sight. What is it to be a servant of righteousness, rather than
a servant? It's to be a believer. So back here in 2 Thessalonians
2, those who sit in the temple of God, showing themselves that
He is God, is a false preacher, false leader, who claims to be
Christian, claims to be part of the temple of God, but denies
the truth of God and goes by his own word, that's what it
means to show himself that he is God. In other words, if I
deny God's word and go by my own, I'm putting myself up to
be God, whether I realize it or not. That's the great deception.
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 1-1-0-2-3. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
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today and may the Lord be with you.