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 today.
I'm glad you could join us. It's always a blessing for me
to be able to bring to you the Word of God and preach the gospel
of God's grace in and by the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I try to do in each
of our messages here on this program. Today I'm going to continue
preaching where I started last week in 2 Thessalonians 2. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, 2 Thessalonians 2. I'm going to preach through
this chapter. It concerns the second coming of Christ. what
the Apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to reveal to the
believers in the church at Thessalonica, what's going to take place before
Christ comes again. And last week the message was
entitled, The Day of Christ, which is the day of His return. Christ came the first time to
put away sin, And then he died, he was buried, he arose again
the third day, he ascended into glory, seated at the right hand
of the Father to make intercession for the people of God, to stand
for his people, believers, the elect of God. And he's coming
back again, and that's gospel truth. Christ is going to return
sometime in the future, we don't know when, and that's the day
of Christ. Well, today I wanna talk to you about this subject,
the man of sin. That's the title of the message.
Now, if you didn't hear last week's, I urge you to order the
message or listen to it on our website. We have those messages
on the website you can listen to. You can download them. You
can order them on CD or DVD on our website. Get that message
and study the Word of God. This is important. And so what
the apostle is doing here in this chapter, he's setting things
right. He's correcting the people, the
believers in the church at Thessalonica concerning the coming of Christ. Now, no one knows when Christ
is coming back. We just know that he is coming. And all true believers are to
live in the anticipation that He could come any time. And when
He comes back, He's coming one time publicly, not secretly. He's not going to sneak in stealthily
and just take believers out. That's not what the Bible teaches.
That comes from a fallacy, an untruth that began somewhere
in the early to mid-1800s. But the Bible teaches that He's
coming with the shout of a trumpet, the sound of a trumpet, the shout
of the archangels very publicly. and he is going to rapture his
church. That means he's going to take
them up unto himself. He's coming, those who have died
and gone before, who are with him, they're coming with him,
and he's going to raise his church from the dead, those who have
died, and their spirits, and then he's going to capture, to
rapture all of his people unto himself, gather them together,
and then those who died in their sins, will be resurrected unto
damnation, the scripture says in the book of John chapter 5.
And they will be judged by the standard of the perfect righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's something that you
need to think about. that you really need to emphasize
in your thinking and in your theology and in your study of
the scripture. People argue about a lot of the
details of Christ's second coming and the judgment and all of that.
Here's what you need to be concerned with. When you stand before God
at judgment, final judgment, what is the standard of judgment
by which God will judge the people? And the answer is found all over
the scripture, but the verse that I always quote in light
of that is in the book of Acts, chapter 17, verse 31, which says
this, that God has appointed a day. Now listen to this very
carefully. God has appointed a day in the
which He will judge the world in righteousness. What is righteousness? You know,
people, sometimes I get ridiculed because I preach righteousness
all the time. But that's the standard of judgment. God's people have already been
judged in Christ. But all who come before him at
judgment The standard is righteousness. So what is righteousness? How
righteous do I have to be? Righteousness is more than human
morality as we see it in this earth. Now, we as human beings
are responsible to be moral, ethical, responsible people. But our morality, our best efforts
at morality, our best efforts to be ethical, our best efforts
to be responsible, our best efforts to be religious, to be dedicated,
to be sincere, do not equal righteousness. Why? Because God has appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath appointed. Now there's a man whom God has
appointed who is the standard of righteousness. And who is
that man? By that man whom he hath appointed,
in which he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead." That's Christ. In other words, my righteousness
must equal Christ's righteousness. And there's no way that I can
make that happen by my works or my efforts. Somebody says,
well, I do it by faith. Well, we believe in Christ by
faith, but our faith, our believing in Him does not equal the perfection
of righteousness, which can only be found in Him. If we're honest,
think about our faith. I have faith in Christ. That's
a God-given gift. But I still have the flesh that
grapples with my faith. It's called the warfare of the
flesh and the spirit. And I have moments of doubt and I have to
fight that doubt so that my faith is yet imperfect. In glory, faith
will give way to sight. Because faith in itself as we
operate here on earth is yet imperfect, even though it's a
gift of God. It's not imperfect as God gives it, but it's imperfect
as it comes through me, a sinner saved by grace. So here's what
I'm saying. At the judgment, we have to have
a righteousness that equals and answers the demands of God's
law and justice that can only be found in Christ. And that's
why I preach the righteousness of God. That's what's revealed
in the gospel. That's the imputed righteousness of Christ. Now
that word imputed means that it's His righteousness, His work,
His merits, His value, charged to my account. In other words,
reckoned to me. In the book of Romans chapter
four and verse six, the apostle writes, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. So I stand before
God right now, as the Bible uses the metaphor, clothed, if you
will, in the righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have a righteousness that equals
Christ's righteousness because it's His charge to me. You understand
that? The Bible says, with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness. We look to Christ for righteousness.
We believe in Him. He is my righteousness. Now I
said all that because I want to show you something here about
this issue of the man of sin. But here's what's happening here.
The Thessalonians, some of them anyway, were so convinced that
the Lord Jesus Christ was coming back in their day before they
died, and many of them quit their professions, their jobs, and
they went and lived in anticipation of the coming of Christ. As time
went on, they got hungry. They got cold, and that's why
Paul in 1 Thessalonians tells them if a man doesn't work, he
doesn't eat. They need to come back and live their lives. And that's what we need to do.
And I mentioned last week about a man out in California who thought
that he'd figured out the day that Christ was coming back and
he wrote a book about it and he was wrong. And then he retracted
that and then come up with another day and he was wrong. We don't
know the day. We don't know the hour. He'll
come like a thief in the night. Not meaning he'll sneak in and
steal. It means he'll come when we don't
expect him to come on a given day. I could say, for example,
he may come back today. I don't know. Hope he does. But
we don't know. Only he knows that. And so only
the Father knows that, he said. But Paul said here, he said,
don't be shaken in mind, verse two, that you be not soon shaken
in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by
letter. In other words, don't let something
shake you emotionally, psychologically, as if, as that the day of Christ
is at hand, as if he's coming back on this given day before
you die. He may, he may not. But we don't
know, he's coming. And you are to live looking to
him, anticipating that, expecting that, but you don't know the
day. So don't be stirred up on this. And he says in verse three,
let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not
come, except there come a falling away first. Now that's the first
thing, a falling away. What is he talking about? He's
talking about a falling away from the truth. That's what he
means. He's not talking about falling
away from error, because you can't fall away from error. That's
what we're in naturally. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned and understood and received. But what he's talking
about is the truth of the gospel. The truth of God's word. He said
there's going to be a great apostasy, if you will. A great falling
away from that truth. And I'll tell you exactly what
that is. He's talking about the church
here on earth. Now, as it exists here on earth,
Generally speaking, what is known as Christianity, quote, unquote,
if you will, or you might use the term, the historical term
is Christendom, but what is generally known or claimed to be Christian
will be Christian in name only because they have fallen away
from the truth. And that, for example, do you
call yourself a Christian? Do you claim to go to a church
that is Christian? Well, do they believe and profess
and witness the truth of God's gospel from the word? Now you
may just automatically assume that they do. And it may be appalling
to you to think, to even think or have somebody like me mention
that that might not be the case. But I'm telling you right now,
this is the pervasive tenor of religion up until the time of
Christ's return. And it's gonna get worse and
worse and worse. There's going to be more churches
who claim to be Christian, but who deny the doctrine of Christ. The doctrines of the Bible. And
you know people, they claim that doctrine's not important. I think
about over in the book of 2 Timothy, chapter four. when Paul was writing
to Timothy about the last days. And remember last week I told
you the last days range from the first coming of Christ, his
resurrection, his ascension, all the way to his second coming.
John, I'm gonna show you a verse in a minute where John said that
the last days are here. We've been living in the last
days for about 2,000 years. And those days will end, those
last days will end when Christ comes again. But he told Timothy,
listen to these words. This is 2 Timothy chapter four,
verse one. And he's gonna be talking about
the last days. Listen to what he says. He says,
I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and
his kingdom. That's when he ushers in the
glorious kingdom at his appearing. Verse two, preach the word. That's Genesis to Revelation.
That's what he's talking about. Now, all the New Testament had
not been brought together then, but it would be, and Paul knew
that. Preach the word, he says in verse two. Be instant in season,
out of season. In other words, be ready at all
times. That's what that means. Don't just pick a certain time. You say, well, I'll be ready
on that day, but another day I won't. Don't be ready at all
times. And he says, reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. All perseverance
and doctrine. This is what we're to do until
Christ comes again. And look at verse three. Now
listen to this. This has to do with this falling
away, this great apostasy. Verse 3, for the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine. They won't endure it. If I preach something from the
Bible, that's sound doctrine. And you say, well, a lot of people
preach from the Bible and say different things. Well, that's
why it is impending upon you to learn how to interpret the
scriptures rightly. Plus the fact, and this is God's
business, He's got to reveal it to you. That's why I wrote
a book concerning the rules of interpreting scripture. There
are rules of interpretation. The book's called Rightly Dividing
the Word. And that's what he's talking
about when Paul wrote in 2 Timothy chapter two, I believe, or yeah,
2 Timothy two, that we're to study, to show ourselves approved
unto God, workmen that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. So there are rules of scriptural
interpretation. It's not just you going to it
and getting what you get out of it, me going to it, getting
what I get out of it. And so he says, they won't endure
sound doctrine. Well, that's talking about religious people
too, folks. Many who call themselves Christian,
they say we're Christian, we're following Christ, but they won't
endure sound doctrine. He says, but after their own
lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. You know what that is? That's
teachers who will tell you not what you need to hear, but what
you want to hear. I learned a long time ago when
I first began to hear the gospel and I didn't like it. I didn't
want it. I didn't believe it. When I first
heard it, I was against it. I could have easily, if God had
let me go on my own way, of my own will. People talk about free
will. If God had left this old sinner
to his own free will, I can remember when I heard the gospel, I would
have left because it's not what I wanted to hear. I would have
left and gone to find a preacher who'd tell me what I want to
hear. But you see, God taught me that what I didn't want to
hear at that time is what I needed to hear. It's like a person who
has a terminal illness. You don't want to hear that you've
got a terminal illness. I don't want to hear that. But
as soon as a doctor can tell me that I've got that terminal
illness, that's what I need to hear to seek the cure. So understand
that. And he says, that's what they'll
do. He says in verse four of 2 Timothy
four, they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall
be turned unto fables. Myths. Now he's not talking about
Aesop's fables. He's talking about religious
fables concerning how God saves sinners, how sinners are made
right with God. How does God save a sinner? through
the, by his grace, through the blood and the righteousness of
Jesus Christ, because of what he accomplished on the cross.
In verse five he says, but watch thou in all things, endure, he
says, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make
full proof of thy ministry. You see there now, the falling
away has to do with those who claim, mainly, those who claim
to be Christian and who fall away from the truth, the doctrine
of Christianity. And so what we need to do is
we need to study the Bible, preach the word, Paul said. We need
to get back to the Bible. I don't believe there's a time
when self-examination is needed more than in this day
and age because we're approaching the days of His return. I don't
know when He's going to return now. It may not be in my lifetime,
maybe a hundred years from now, maybe a day from now, but we're
approaching those days. And false religion that comes
in the name of Christianity is abundant. Satan has been loosed
to deceive the world and he deceived, we're going to see that in coming
messages here. So that's the falling away. Well
look at verse 3 again of 2 Thessalonians 2. He said, let no man deceive
you by any means for that day shall not come except there come
a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition. Now, most people agree that this
man of sin is what they call the Antichrist. And I'm gonna
give you some scripture to start off with, and then next week
I'm going to deal in more detail with this. But most people will
talk about, well, who is the man of sin? Who is the Antichrist? And as you know, the general
thought of the day is to look for one person who's coming in
the future, who rises up on the political, the economic, maybe
even the religious scene, and who deceives everybody, that
one man that they all follow, and he's got the number 666,
which is talked about in the book of Revelation. Well, this
verse here doesn't say Antichrist. But it's apparent that that's
what he's talking about. And as I said, the man of sin,
because of this language, that man of sin, many people believe
it's talking about one man who's coming. But a lot of people believe
that it's not talking about one man, but it's talking about a
spirit of antichrist. Now let me show you why that's
common among believers. The term antichrist is only found
in the Bible four times, I believe. Now let me give you the four
scriptures that that's found. I'll read them to you. The first
one we look at is in 1 John 2. This is speaking of the term
antichrist. What does antichrist mean? It
means against Christ. Against Christ. Anyone, now listen
to me. Anyone who preaches a false gospel,
a false Christ, a false Christianity is Antichrist. Now whether you
think one man's coming in the future or not, that's the spirit
of Antichrist. Let me show you that. 1 John
2 verse 18. John writes, little children,
it is the last time. Now this is in John's day, a
couple thousand years ago. It's the last time. And as you
have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many
Antichrists, not just one man, but many, a spirit of Antichrist,
many false preachers, you might say, whereby we know that it
is the last time. It even began back in the early
stages of the New Testament church. Verse 19, they went out from
us. They fell away. You see where
the falling away comes in? They fell away. It seems that
these were people who claimed to be believers in the truth
at one time, but then they left the truth. They apostatized. They fell away. They went out
from us. Well, what happened? Did they
lose their salvation? Well, no. Look at what he says
in verse 19. They went out from us. but they
were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out, that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. They
only revealed, when they fell away, they only revealed what
they always were, false professors, antichrist. Let me show you another
one. First John chapter two, just
right down the page from this one, verse 22. 1 John 2.22, who
is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He
is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. If you don't
believe in Christ, if you don't believe in Jesus Christ to be
the Messiah, the Son of God incarnate, the Lord our righteousness, the
only righteousness by which I can be right with God, justified,
forgiven, that's antichrist. You don't believe in the Father
or the Son. You deny both. And that's antichrist. Here's
another one. 1 John 4 verse 3. Now listen to this. This is where
he says test the spirits, test the preachers. He says, and every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God, that the Messiah has come. That's what he's talking
about. And this is the spirit of antichrist, where you have
heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the
world. Antichrist is already here, John
said. It's those who deny that Jesus
has come in the flesh, that He's God and man in one person, that
He by Himself established the only righteousness by which God
could justify sinners, and that His blood, His death on the cross
seals and guarantees the salvation of all for whom He died. And
then one more, 2 John 1 verse 7. There's only one chapter in 2
John, so it's 2 John 7. For many deceivers are entered
into the world, deceivers, who confess not that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Now do you see that? So understand
now, the gospel is the preaching of the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is, God in human flesh.
What did he do? He saved his people from their
sins. Any other message, any other
gospel is false, it's deceptive, it's anti-Christ. That's who
this man of sin is, and I'll give you some more details on
that in the next message, The Man of Sin. 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 by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.