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
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for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching in 2 Thessalonians, chapter two. This is the epistle that the
Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write to the church at
Thessalonica. And in this chapter, it concerns
the second coming of Christ and the signs of his coming, what
will take place before he comes again. And the title of this
message is The Man of Sin. This is part two. I began this
last week. I began preaching a couple weeks
ago in 2 Thessalonians 2 concerning this issue of the second coming
of Christ. He is coming again. And how Paul
was correcting the Thessalonians on this issue. And he tells them
that before Christ comes again, There are two things that have
to happen, and it's in verse three of 2 Thessalonians 2. And by the way, I urge you to
get the messages that I preached on this. You can order them on
CD or DVD or you can listen to them on our website on the second
Thessalonians. The first one was the day of
Christ, the second one was the man of sin part one, and now
today, the man of sin part two. And I'm gonna continue through
this chapter because it talks about things that we need to
know. If we claim to be Christian,
These are things that we need to know leading up to the second
coming of Christ. Now, nobody knows the day and
the hour and the time that he's coming back. I can't tell you
that he's coming back tomorrow, the next day. Anybody who tries
to tell you that they know when the exact date or when Christ
is coming again is a liar because nobody knows that. And in that
sense, he will come as a thief in the night, the scripture says.
Now when it says that, it doesn't mean that he's going to sneak
up on everybody and come silently or stealthily and take believers
out of the world. No, when he comes again, and
Paul wrote about this in 1 Thessalonians, When Christ comes again, he's
coming with a trumpet sound, with a shout, the archangels. He's gonna be very public, and
he is gonna gather his church, rapture his church unto himself,
and then he's going to raise those who died in their sins
unto judgment, the judgment of damnation. And as I mentioned
last week, the standard of judgment is the righteousness of Christ
revealed in the gospel. That's the merits, the worth,
the power of His obedience unto death, His work on behalf of
His people to save His people from their sins. And so we preach
the gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed by pointing
sinners to Christ for salvation. By God's grace. That means you
don't earn it, you don't deserve it. It's not conditioned on you
or me. It's all conditioned on Christ
and He fulfilled those conditions. But Paul writes here in verse
3, let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall
not come except there come a falling away first. Now I described that
falling away in the last message. That's a falling away from the
truth. Basically what he's talking about here is that there'll be
a majority of, let's say churches, but not true churches, a majority
of churches that claim to be Christian, but they've fallen
away from the doctrine of Christ. They claim that they're following
Christ, but they're not following his word. And you'll see that
today. A person came to our church one
time and she had left her former church and she told me she said,
she said, I'm leaving because they believe in progressive Christianity. And she asked me if I knew what
that is. And I've heard of progressive
Christianity. And what that is, is these are
Christian churches who believe that there are other ways of
salvation. Other ways to God. Well, my friend,
that's a denial of the doctrine of Christ. That's a falling away. You understand that? Christ said,
I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh
unto the Father, but by me. That's John 14, six. Peter preached,
he said, there's none other name under heaven given among men,
under heaven, whereby we must be saved. Christ is the only
way. God's grace is the only way.
The way of the cross is the only way. The way of his righteousness
is the only way. There's one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So if you're going
to a church and they're preaching to you that there are other ways
of salvation other than the Christian way, the true Christian way,
All salvation conditioned on Christ, based on His righteousness
imputed alone. If they're preaching any other
message other than that, they've fallen away. That's what he's
talking about. There must first be a falling
away. Now the second thing he mentions in verse three here
is that the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Now this
is in accordance with the falling away. And this man of sin is
what most people refer to as antichrist. And the majority
of people who call themselves Christian today are talking about
one man they're looking for in the future, one man's going to
come. and rise up in religion, in economics, in politics, and
he's going to deceive everybody. I don't believe that that's talking
about one man. I believe it's talking about
a spirit of antichrist revealed in false preachers, false Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
of this, he said in Matthew 24. Now let me read you something
in Matthew 24, beginning at verse 24. And this is important. Now here, in Matthew 24, Christ
talks about two future events. He first begins talking about
the destruction of Jerusalem. Now that took place in AD 70,
when everything was just totally obliterated in Jerusalem. That
was God's judgment upon the unbelieving Jews. And so Christ speaks of
that. But then he goes on to another
future event, which is his second coming. And listen how he describes
the days prior to his coming. In Matthew 24 and verse 24, he
says, for there shall arise false Christ, false messiahs. Now we've seen that in our day.
Many people, you know, some people who claim to be the messiah,
And not many people are fooled by that necessarily, but he says,
in that day, there shall arise false Christ. But he says, and
false prophets, false prophets, false preachers. Now, to me,
this is where many, many, many people are deceived. You find
a preacher or a prophet, as you may say, and the prophet is one
who told forth God's word, claimed to, But they're false prophets. How do you know a false prophet?
They preach a false gospel. They don't abide in the Word
of God. They don't abide in the doctrine
of Christ. They preach salvation conditioned
on sinners. not salvation conditioned on
Christ and on him alone. Christ who fulfilled those conditions,
Christ who secured the salvation of all for whom he died. They
preach a God of unfulfilled desires. God wants to do this, God wants
to do that. God is not willing to do this
or not willing to do that, but you won't let him. You have to
cooperate. Their message is a message not
of salvation by sovereign grace, but a message of cooperation.
If you'll just do what you need to do, whatever that is. They
deny the justice of God. God loves everybody, Christ died
for everybody, it's up to you. And if you don't do that, you'll
go to hell even though he died for you. That's a denial of the
justice of God, friend. They preach salvation based upon
the works and or the wills of men. But the Bible teaches that
man has no desire or will to come to God. I quote this verse
all the time, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. The natural man, that's
us by nature, as we are fallen in Adam and born dead in trespasses
and sin, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. Neither can he know them, they're
spiritually discerned. You will not come to me that
you might have life, Christ said. Romans 3 in verse 10, there's
none righteous, no not one. And it goes on down there and
says, there's none good, no not one. There's none that seeketh
after God, no not one. In other words, if God doesn't
seek me and find me and give me life, you must be born again.
I won't seek him. If God came down here and the
whole human race had fallen in Adam and said, now how many of
you will choose me? None of us would choose him. That's what
the Bible teaches now. Hear me well on that. That's
the total depravity of man. So he says in Matthew 24, there
shall rise false Christ and false prophets, false preachers. Now
listen to this, they shall show great signs and wonders. These will be impressive thing. These will be impressive people.
They will claim to do wonderful things. And you see that in a
lot of the modern charismatic movements where people claim
to heal the sick and raise the dead, speak in a heavenly language,
all of that. But here's the key, no matter
what they claim to do, do they preach the true gospel? of God's
sovereign grace, that God chose a people before the foundation
of the world and gave them to Christ, conditioned all of their
salvation on Christ, and sent him into the world as their representative,
their surety, their substitute to die for their sins. And in
that he died, he put away their sins. He satisfied the justice
of God. He secured the salvation of every
sinner for whom he lived, died, was buried, and arose again the
third day. And he was buried. He was risen
from the dead because he redeemed his people from their sins. He
established the only righteousness whereby God could be just and
justify the ungodly. He established the only righteousness
from which God gives life to his chosen people, sinners spiritually
dead in their sins. Christ said you must be born
again. Where's that new birth coming from? It's not coming
from you. It's not coming from me. It's coming from God, born
from above, born of God. That's what he's talking about.
And then, Those who believe the gospel by God-given faith are
brought to repentance of dead works and idolatry, everything
they highly esteem, because they see the glory and the power and
the beauty of Christ. Anything that I used to have
confidence in as my salvation is nothing but dung, Paul said,
because now I see Christ. I see the power of his blood,
the beauty of his righteousness imputed to me. And those who
believe the gospel and are brought to repentance, they persevere
in the faith because God won't let them go. They can't be lost
again. You go to a church where they
priest, you can be saved one day and then lost another day.
You can be saved and then lost after that. That's a falling
away from the truth. That's anti-Christ. I know people
don't want to hear that, but I'm just telling you the truth.
Read it in the Bible. So, but they will be impressive. There'll be great signs and wonders,
and we'll talk about that later on in 2 Thessalonians. He talks
about in verse nine. Well, let me finish Matthew 24,
and then I'll get over there and show you. But he says in
verse 24 of Matthew 24, there shall arise false Christ, false
prophets, they shall show great signs and wonders in so much
that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect. You say you don't believe election,
many do. Well, here's what, he's talking
about the elect here. He's talking about the elect.
And here's what he's saying, that in the last days, these
false prophets and false Christ, they will be so impressive that
if it were possible, And it's not, the Bible tells us, and
we'll see that later on in 2 Thessalonians 2. If it were possible, they
could deceive the very elect. Now, all of us start out life
deceived. But at some point in time, God's
gonna reveal his true self, his true character, his true way
of salvation through Christ, the true Christ, to his elect.
They're not going to continue being deceived. They're not going
to end up being deceived. They're going to have the light
of the truth. They're going to believe the gospel. But he's
telling us here in these last days that these false preachers,
these false Christ, anti-Christ, and I believe that's right with
the man of sin, be revealed, he said, the son of perdition,
that if it were possible, they could deceive the very elect.
But look at Matthew 24 and verse 25. He says, Behold, I have told
you before. Verse 26, Wherefore, or for this
reason, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert,
Christ is here, go not forth. He said, don't follow. Behold,
he's in the secret chambers. Believe it not. In verse 27,
For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even
unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man
be. So understand now, you'll run into all kinds of false preachers
in the last days and they'll tell you, oh, Christ is here,
Christ is there, come with us. He said, don't believe them.
Test the preachers. I read to you last week in 1
John 4 when John is telling believers to, when you hear a message,
don't believe everything you hear. Now, he's not telling us
to be skeptical. And He's telling us to be like
the noble Bereans in the book of Acts. Test them by the Word
of God. Are they preaching according
to this Word? Isaiah dealt with that in his
days in the Old Testament. Isaiah 8, 20. To the law and
to the testimony, if they speak not according to this Word, there's
no light in them. Test me by the Word of God. If
you run up against a preacher, test him. Put him to the test.
Be critical. Now that doesn't mean listen
to find fault. That means listen critically
according to the scriptures. The test of the validity of any
person's message is the Word of God. The Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Now with that in mind, go back
to 2 Thessalonians 2. Now, here's this man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition. Now, let me say this to you.
Now you may not agree with me that this man of sin is not one
person coming in the future, with the number 666. And by the
way, that number 666 is a symbolic number. that symbolizes the sin
and evil and false message of man. It's put on the forehead,
which means the mind. If a false message of salvation,
conditioned on sinners, or salvation by the works and the wills of
men is sealed into your mind, that's the number 666. And it's
put on the hand, that means the works of man. It's all evil. So, if you insist that this man
of sin is one man, well, here's what you essentially need to
know. You need to know, not necessarily who he is, but you need to know
what he's saying, what he's preaching, because that's the issue. Listen
to this. He said, verse three, that the
man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Now look at verse
four, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called
God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the
temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Now let me ask
you a question. If a false preacher came along
in your perspective church and said, now I'm God, you follow
me, how many people do you think that would fool? Not many, I
don't think. Now you may find a political
figure who is revered, which is wrong. We shouldn't revere
any man. Holy and Reverend is God's name.
But you may find a political figure in the United States or
in somewhere else who becomes revered by a lot of the world,
even by people who call themselves Christians. I submit to you,
and when you talk about this number 666, I mean, if I was
walking around here with a 666 on my forehead, or even on top
of my head under my hair, which is not very thick these days,
or if I had it on my hand, that wouldn't fool anybody. What Christ
is talking about is a deception. Now let me show you that in 2
Thessalonians 2, and I'm gonna get to this in more details later
on. But listen to what he says in
verse seven. Now I'm gonna deal with these
verses before this, but just to make this point. He talks
about, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Now Paul's
telling the Thessalonian believers, the mystery of iniquity is already
working in his day. And it's working in our day.
Well, what is the mystery of iniquity? Well, mystery in the
Bible, as you know, is not something that we have to look for certain
clues to figure out. It's not like a Sherlock Holmes
mystery or anything like that. You may be a mystery lover. You like to read mysteries and
you go through the book and you look for clues so that you can
figure out what the answer, who the culprit is. That's not what
a biblical mystery is. A biblical mystery, is something
that can only be known to us as God reveals it. That's what
a mystery is in the Bible. In other words, you're not gonna
know this unless God reveals it. And what is the mystery of
iniquity? Well, it's an iniquity that we
do not recognize as being iniquity until God reveals it to us. Now
a great example of that is in Matthew chapter seven, verse
21 through 23. That's where false preachers,
standing before Christ, and you remember he tells them, he said,
not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he that does the will of my father. Now what is
it to do the will of the father? It's to believe on the son. That's
what the will of the father is. That's what his revealed will
by way of commandment is. to believe on the Son, to believe
in Christ, to plead his blood, his righteousness alone. And
he says, many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in your name? We preach not in our own name,
but in your name. Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? And then in verse 23, it says,
and then I will say unto them, depart from me, ye that work
iniquity, for I never knew you. Now, a lot of people look at
that Matthew 7, 21 through 23 passage, and they'll look at
those preachers, and they'll say things like, well, they weren't
sincere enough, or they preached, but they lived immoral lives.
The Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says they're standing
before Christ at the judgment. And last week I made this point.
What is the standard of judgment at that judgment? It's righteousness. Righteousness that can only be
found in Christ. And so if you stand before God
at judgment and plead anything preaching, casting out demons,
wonderful works, anything other than the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness imputed to us, it's not gonna
equal out. It's not gonna balance out. You're
gonna be like that Old Testament king in the book of Daniel. You're gonna be weighed in the
balance and found wanting, lacking. It'll be iniquity. And I've often
used this analogy. The works of believers are the
work of God within them. But they come through this old
broken pot, this broken vessel, the flesh, and they are contaminated. And that's why when presented
to God, the only way He can accept them is through the blood of
Christ. That's why Christ is our intercessor. And so, when
I pray to God, He accepts my prayers because I pray through
Christ. See, He's the one mediator. If I didn't have Christ, my prayers
would be iniquity. And it's not that Christ makes
up where I leave off. It's all Him. He's passed through
into the heavens. So what I'm saying here is this
is an iniquity, this mystery of iniquity is something we don't
recognize. We think it's good until God
reveals it in light of the glorious person and finished work of Christ.
And then down in verse 10, now look at 2 Thessalonians 2 10. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness. Well what is that? That's an
unrighteousness that men are deceived by. What's he talking
about? The works of men. Men by nature think it's good
enough if they work hard and are sincere and go to church
and do this and do that, that that's enough to equal out righteousness,
but it's not. And that's what this son of perdition,
this man of sin promotes. whether he's one man or a spirit
or a succession of men. Look back at verse four of 2
Thessalonians 2. He opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God or that is worshiped. He'll point
you to worship himself. He'll point you to worship other
things, icons, idols, men. And let me give you a subtle
way that Satan uses this kind of opposition. It's not necessarily
that people say, worship me, but it's when they say, take
what I say, not what the Bible says. That's the man of sin.
Now, I'll continue with this in detail as we go through 2
Thessalonians 2, but you need to understand, he sitteth in
the temple of God. He infiltrates the church. That's
what that's talking about. It's not talking about a building
built in Jerusalem. And again, I'll talk to you more
about that next time too. but the temple of God showing
himself that he is God, he's the supreme, he's the authority.
Well, he's not. Christ is in God. 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 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.