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. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, today's message, I'm going to be preaching from
2 Thessalonians. You know, the Apostle Paul was
inspired by the Spirit of God to write two letters to the church
at Thessalonica. And this is the second letter,
and I'm going to be preaching from chapter two. I've got several
messages. I'm going to go through this
chapter. because it's really informative. A lot of people
misunderstand what it's talking about. The title of today's message
is The Day of Christ. The Day of Christ. Paul writes
in verse two there, the day of Christ is at hand. And mainly what he's talking
about in 2 Thessalonians 2 is the day of Christ's second coming. And he refers to that because
the Thessalonians had a wrong view of that. Some of them were
thinking that it was for sure to come in their time and they
were doing some really bad things that they shouldn't have done
to relinquish their responsibility to live in this world as believers,
as witnesses of Christ. And they'd been fooled by some
false preachers. But the day of Christ, is His second coming. Now, let me just say at the outset,
every true believer lives in anticipation of the Lord's return,
His second coming, where He will gather His church unto Himself,
and we will all be glorified, be changed in the twinkling of
an eye, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15. our glorified bodies, and
we will, the Lord will burn this earth up, he will create a new
heavens and a new earth, and we'll dwell, he says, wherein
we'll dwell with righteousness. in the new earth, and that's
where we'll dwell forever and ever in complete, perfect, uninterrupted
fellowship with God through Christ. There's a lot we don't know about
that state. I've written a book concerning
that issue. It's called What is Salvation?
and it divides salvation up into four realms. You have the eternal
realm of salvation, the legal realm of salvation, the spiritual
realm of salvation, and then lastly, the glorified realm,
in which that realm deals with the glorified state and all that
we can learn from the Bible about it. But there's still a lot of
questions. I always tell people when we talk about the glorified
state, how we will be in glory, living eternally, we can read
what the Bible teaches us about that, but when we're through,
we'll still have more questions about it than we have answers. The apostle John said in 1 John
3, he said, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
we'll see Christ as he is. and we'll be made like unto Him.
But Paul's talking about that. But let me say this. Every day
for a true believer, every day we live on this earth is a day
of Christ. Because in Him we live and move
and have our being. We're to live as witnesses of
Christ. That doesn't mean we're always
preaching or always confronting people with our gospel. When
we have those opportunities to tell the gospel, we do, we should,
we shouldn't shirk back. But every day is a day of Christ.
And we live in anticipation that he could come anytime. Now, let
me say this too. Nobody knows the day in which
he will come. And you know well, there have
been preachers in the past who claim to be Christian who think
they've figured out either the year, the month, even the day.
There was a man several years ago who wrote a book about it.
I think it was something to do with 1994, I think it was. and
he said that the Lord was coming back in September of 1994. Well, it didn't happen, so he
rearranged his doctrine. He said there were some things
he didn't consider and left out, and he put another day on it,
and he didn't come then, and the man, I heard that he's dead
now, but he went into despair. Well, the Lord said that nobody
knows the day or the time, and To be honest with you, there
are signs of the nearness of His second coming. That's true.
But we're not to be people who are constantly looking for signs. The Lord said, a wicked generation
seeketh after a sign. We're in the Word of God. And
just like if somebody asked me, said, if I knew the Lord was
coming this Sunday afternoon, what would I do? Well, I would
meet with our people on Sunday morning and I'd preach the gospel.
That's what I would do. And because that's what we're
commissioned to do until he comes again. And he said the gospel
was going to be preached in every nation before he comes again.
Has that happened? It could, I don't know. I know
this about his second coming. The Lord is going to return when
the last one of his sheep is brought into the sheepfold, brought
into the kingdom. The last one of God's elect is
brought in because he's not willing that any of them should perish.
That's talking about his chosen people now, not everybody without
exception. He's not willing that any of
them should perish, but all of them should come to repentance. And when that last one comes,
when he gives that last one the gift of faith and repentance,
the new birth, That's when he's coming again. But listen to what
Paul says here in 2 Thessalonians 2. And I wanna show you this
in light of the gospel now. The gospel wherein the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ is revealed. Because
that's the key to everything here. And the gospel which tells
sinners who Jesus Christ is and what he accomplished on the cross.
to save His people from their sins. That's what this is really
about. The reason that He's coming again,
the Bible tells us, is because in His first coming, He put away
the sins of His people. He brought in an everlasting
righteousness of infinite value, whereby God is just to justify
His people. That's the imputed righteousness
of Christ. That's the heart of the gospel,
folks. If you don't hear anything else in this message, hear that.
Look it up. The imputed righteousness of
Christ. That's the righteousness of God
that is revealed in the Gospel, Revelation 1, 16 and 17. That's
the righteousness in which all of His people stand before God,
accepted, justified. commune with, 2 Corinthians 5.21. Christ was made sin. The sins
of his people were charged, imputed to him as our surety. He died
for those sins. He paid that debt in full and
brought in everlasting righteousness whereby God could be just and
justify them, ungodly sinners. A just God and a savior. That's
what the gospel's all about, the glorious person. and the
finished work of Christ. And because this is the gospel,
the good news of salvation, it teaches us that all for whom
Christ died and was buried and arose again the third day, all
for whom He ascended unto the Father, all for whom He is seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for them, shall be saved. There won't be one sinner who
perishes in their sins for whom Christ died was buried in a rose
again. Now, who are they? Well, I talked
about it last week. They are those who believe the
gospel. God brings them to believe the gospel. They follow Christ.
They look to Him as He's identified and distinguished in the Bible. Now, it is also a gospel doctrine
that we anticipate and look for His second coming. He said, He's
coming again. The angel told the apostles,
he said, why stand you there looking? He who went up will
come back the same way. He'll come through the clouds
and he'll gather his people unto himself and glorify them so that
they can inhabit the new heavens and the new earth and he will
judge the wicked and cast them into outer darkness. It's what
the scripture says. Well, every generation since
the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, has thought, or some
in every generation has thought, well, the Lord's coming back
in our time. They say, well, the things are getting so bad.
Today, this is very common. Somebody says, well, the world
is so bad today because of the immorality of the world and what's
going on in the United States of America and all of this rioting
and looting. We're apprehensive now that our
government will change to the point that we will be shackled,
not literally, but in other ways by laws that will hinder us. And they say, well, it's worse
than it's ever been. In fact, it's really not worse
than it's ever been. It's always been this way. There
are some things that are worse, and I'm gonna talk to you about
that in these messages in 2 Thessalonians 2. So let's get right into it. Like I said, I'm gonna preach
several messages out of this chapter. But beginning at verse
one, and again, the title is The Day of Christ. Listen, Paul
writes, now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Not if he comes, not if it might
happen, but what I'm telling you is as certain as the certainty
of our Lord's return. You cannot believe the gospel
and not believe in the second coming of Christ. Now Paul dealt
with that over in 1 Corinthians 15 when false preachers had come
in crept into the churches at Corinth, the church at Corinth,
and they had taught against the resurrection of the dead. The
Bible says that in the end, all the dead will come forth, some
unto everlasting life and others to everlasting damnation. And
there'll be a judgment. We must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. The Bible teaches, Acts 17 31,
that God has appointed a day in the which he will judge all
people. And he's gonna do it by the righteousness
of Christ, he says. And he signified that by Christ's
resurrection from the dead. by whom all are going to be judged. And these false preachers, they
denied the resurrection of the dead. Well, Paul's reasoning
in 1 Corinthians 15 went something like this. He said, if the dead
rise not, then Christ did not rise from the dead. Because Christ
is the first fruits of them that slept. Christ's resurrection
signifies, number one, the success of His redeeming blood, His death
on the cross. How do I know that Christ put
away the sins of His people? He died for His sheep. How do
I know that those sins are totally absolved so that God cannot and
will not impute them to His people? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. All
right, who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
is risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for us. How do we know that those
sins were put away and cannot be charred to the elect of God,
to those for whom Christ died, to those who believe in the gospel,
that believe in Christ, believe the gospel? He is risen. How do we know that righteousness
has been established? A perfect righteousness. The
righteousness of God, imputed, charged to me, so that I can
stand before God and be accepted, commune with God, communicate
with God, be justified and given life. How do I know that I have
life from Christ? He's resurrected. He is risen. And so he reasons in 1 Corinthians
15 against those who denied the resurrection of the dead. He
said, that's impossible because Christ is risen. And if Christ
is risen, His people are sure to be saved and risen from the
dead. He's the firstfruits of them
that slept. That means that back in the Jewish
agricultural ways under the old covenant, God told them that
the firstfruits were to be given to God. The firstfruits, if the
firstfruits were good and accepted, the whole crop would come in
fine. And that's the way it is with
Christ. He's the first fruits. So when Paul writes here, back
in 2 Thessalonians 2.1, now we beseech you, we beg you brethren
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him. And I believe he's talking about
the fact that when Christ comes back, he's going to gather his
people unto him. People call that the rapture.
And incidentally, the rapture is not going to be a secret thing.
The Bible doesn't teach that. When He comes, He's coming with
a trumpet sound and with His people, the elect of God, His
people who have gone before. He's coming back in a very public
way. It's not gonna be people disappearing
and everybody wondering where they've gone. No, he's coming
back one time and it says here he's gonna gather together unto
him his people. And so Paul says, I beseech you
by the certainties of his second coming and our gathering together
unto him, verse two, that you be not soon shaken in mind or
be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as
from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." Now, what he means
by that, and what he's talking about, is that false preachers
had crept in, you know, in every church, every local body of believers,
They always have to struggle with false doctrine, false preachers
who creep in stealthily and bring in damnable heresies. And some
of these false preachers are very unscrupulous and they even
wrote letters and signed Paul's name to it. Peter's name, John's
name. And they'd hand it to these people
and they'd say, read this, this is from the Apostle Paul, and
it was a lie. And so Paul says, now don't be
shaken in your mind, don't be stirred up, don't be troubled
in spirit, in your mind, nor by word, nor by what they say,
nor by letter as from us, A letter that you think was written for
me, he says, as the day of Christ is at hand. Meaning that they
were telling them that Christ is coming back in their day.
Now, as I said, every generation has had some people who thought
Christ was coming back before they died. We today, we speak
of that. He may, but we don't know. When
the Bible says he's coming as a thief in the night, it doesn't
mean that he's going to sneak in like a thief. It means you
don't know when he's coming. You don't know the day and the
hour. You don't even know the year. I hope it's soon, to be
honest with you. And I prayed that, John prayed
that, even so come Lord Jesus. And in these days, when we see
so much turmoil happening, sometimes we'll pray, Lord, come on back
again. But we don't know. It could be tomorrow, it could
be 10 years from now. We don't know. I know the dispensationalists,
they have segments of time set out. But you know the Bible says
that a day with the Lord is as 1,000 years and 1,000 years is
a day. The Lord's not, he's not limited
to space and time. He knows when he's coming. We
don't know. But we're to live our lives in
anticipation of His coming. In the light of the surety of
His coming. He could come before I finish
this message. And that would be fine because
that's God's will. He could come next week. We don't
know. But Paul says this to the Thessalonians. Don't let that
upset you. Don't let that stir you up or
be anxious. Just listen. You're in this world. You're not of it. Do your jobs.
Take care of your families. Worship the Lord. Preach the
gospel. Keep on doing what you're doing.
In another passage, in 1 Thessalonians, the apostle found that some of
these Thessalonian people who claim to be believers believe
so strongly that the Lord was coming back in their day that
they quit their jobs. And they went off and lived in
like communes or caves or something like that to live thinking that
He's coming in their lifetime. And you know what happened? They
got hungry. They got cold. And they had the
gall to come back to the people of God who were doing their jobs
to ask for help and ask for money. And you know what Paul told them
in 1 Thessalonians? He said, they that don't work,
they don't eat. You say, well, that's cruel.
Oh, no. If you're capable, and I'd say that to people today,
if you're capable of working a job, then you need to work. And if you don't, you don't eat.
That's not being cruel. And that's what Paul told them.
He said, tell them to come back and get a job and work and act
like human beings, responsible human beings, and live in anticipation
of his second coming. Well, the day of Christ, as if
the day of Christ is at hand, coming in your day. Well, the
day of Christ is at hand, but not so as to say, well, I know
that he's coming before I die. I don't know that. You don't
know that. It may be another generation.
I don't know. But I know that it's near. I know that it's nearer than
it has been, because time moves on in our realm. So Christ is
coming again. But now let me show you one of
the signs. Now there are two signs that
he gives here. And I'm gonna be talking about
these in detail. But let me just give them to
you here. Verse three. 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 that's the first sign that
he says that it's got to happen before Christ comes again. There's
got to be a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition. Now there's all kinds of ideas
on this. Let me first Let me first deal
with this falling away. What is he talking about? Well,
he's talking about a falling away from the truth. A falling away from the gospel
truth, from biblical truth. And in that day, there's going
to be a lot of religion. And listen to me very carefully
here, this is important. In that day, there's going to
be a lot of religion that comes in the name of Christ, but which
denies the gospel, the truth, the doctrine of Christ. Now,
this man of sin, this son of perdition, people say, well,
that's the Antichrist. And a lot of people believe that
that's talking about one person who will come in the future and
be sort of like a political, or economic, or religious figure,
or all three rolled up into one. Well, I'm gonna deal with this
next week in more detail. But let me show you what the
apostle John said in his day in writing to the churches over
in 1 John chapter two and verse 18. Look at 1 John 2, 18. John writes, he says, little
children, it is the last time. Now the last time refers to the
time of the new covenant, which ranges from the first coming
of Christ and his death, burial, resurrection, and his ascension
from that time all the way up to his second coming. That's
the last days. That's the last time. And I'll
say more about that in coming messages. But he says, it is
the last time. And as you have heard, that Antichrist
shall come. Now this is one of the few times
that the term Antichrist is used in the Bible, and I'll show you
more next week. But he says that Antichrist shall
come even now, now listen to this, Even now are there many
antichrists. Not just one man, but many. What's he talking about? He's
talking about a spirit of antichrist. Now what does antichrist mean?
It means against Christ. Now who is against Christ? Well, anyone who does not preach
the true Christ. Anyone who does not preach the
true gospel. of salvation by God's free and
sovereign grace based upon the righteousness of Christ. That's anti-Christ, that's against
Christ. But I want you to see another
thing about what John says here. He says, there are many anti-Christ
whereby we know that it is the last time. Now pay particular
attention to verse 19. He says, they went out from us. From who? From the church, from
believers. They went out from us. They claimed
to be Christian at one time. They claimed to believe the truth,
but they went out. Or you might say they fell away.
He says, they went out from us, but they were not of us. They
weren't really of us. They didn't lose their salvation.
They were false believers, false preachers. He says, for if they
had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.
In other words, if they'd been true believers, if they'd truly
been born again, they would have remained. They couldn't leave.
A true believer cannot be lost. God will not let him be lost.
God will preserve him. He will persevere by the power
of God and the grace of God. So they went out from us, but
they were not all of us, for if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, they
fell away, that they might be made manifest that they were
not all of us. They fell away. So this falling
away that Paul's talking about here in 2 Thessalonians 2 is
a falling away from the truth. He's talking about people who
at one time As the early church started, they believed and preached
the gospel, but the church has fallen away to what it is today. And here's what we have today.
We have, generally speaking, throughout the world, in the
majority, what we can call the apostate church. And what that
is is that's churches who claim to be Christian, but who deny
the doctrine of Christ. They deny the gospel. And some
people believe, as I said, they believe this man of sin and this
son of perdition, that it's one man. Others believe that it's
many, a succession of people, a spirit. And that's where I
fall into that category. But I'll talk about that next
week a little bit more. But we're going to see that this
falling away, and this is why it's important that you and I
really examine ourselves and go to the word of God to see
if what we believe is true. 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. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.