Alright, if you'll recall, in
verse 7, a couple weeks ago, we talked about the loosing and
destruction of Satan. So I want to continue that, and
I want us to go to 2 Thessalonians 2 here in a few minutes. Because
that's the parallel passage to Revelation 20. He's been talking
about the thousand year reign of Christ, which is his reign
from heaven through his church on earth during the last days,
the last age, the time period between his first coming and
his second coming. Thousand being a symbolic number. And then it says at the end of
that age, as we draw closer to the end of the age, as we get
closer to the time of the second coming of Christ, of which time
we don't know, We don't know when he's coming. There are signs
that we who believe the gospel live in expectation of Christ
coming. We don't know he could come today,
he could come tomorrow, he could come a hundred years from now.
We don't know. But we live our lives in expectation of his coming. And our hope in that is that
we stand in him. That's the main thing. Whatever
you think about the details of his second coming, and there's
a lot of different views. Some views deny the gospel. But
whatever view you hold, I hope it doesn't deny the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. But here's the thing. When Christ comes, think about
it this way. Either we're going to die physically
and go to be with the Lord in spirit, or we're gonna be on
this earth when he comes again, right? One of those two. So whichever
way that we go to meet him or he comes to meet us, our concern
is what Paul expressed in Philippians chapter three, when he said,
to know Christ and to be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith or
faithfulness of Christ. the righteousness of God by faith.
In other words, my hope is to be found washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness. And that's to be our main concern.
That's to be our main message. That's our evangelism. That's
our life. That's our motivation for obedience,
whatever we're talking about. In any given scripture, that
right there is the heart of the gospel. that I be found, that
you be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless
to stand before the throne, that I stand in Christ in his righteousness
imputed. But as we get closer to his second
coming, here's what he says, and I'm gonna read through the
verses on this lesson, and then next week, Lord willing, we'll
conclude Revelation 20 with the great white throne judgment,
and we'll talk about that next week. But let me just show you
verse seven, when the thousand years are expired, okay, when
they're coming to their end, that's what that means. Somebody
says, well, that means then they're over and then this happens. Well,
when they're expired, coming to their end, Satan shall be
loosed out of his prison, Satan set free, he's been bound, he's
been limited, that's what that means. Now, we're gonna look
at that in just a minute in 2 Thessalonians 2. And verse eight, he shall
go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters
or corners of the earth. He's going to deceive those who
are left to themselves in their own ways, their own wills, Satan's
deception. And the main deception now, we've
talked about this, how Satan's main deception, you know how
Satan wants to deceive, his main tool of deception is the deception
of false religion to hide the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4, we looked
at that a couple weeks ago. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel should shine unto them. See, that's Satan's main tool,
deception. And it's the deception of false
religion. That's his deception now. And
he says here he's going to go out to the four corners of the
earth. He's going to cover the earth. This is the cursed earth. And he uses the term Gog and
Magog. That comes from the book of Ezekiel,
where Ezekiel used those terms. Gog seems to refer to a person. Magog means the land of that
person. Gog, the land of Gog. And Ezekiel
used those as names to describe symbolically the unbelieving
Gentile nations that were coming against Israel. What this name
means now, it's Satan and his followers. That's what it's talking
about. Gog and Magog. Satan and his
followers, and he's going out to gather them together to battle,
the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. Remember, that
describes the mass of people in unbelief. That's what it describes.
Back when it was used in Abraham's time, when he talked about Abraham,
where Abraham was going to have his descendants would be as the
sand of the sea, it always added there's a remnant. that will
be saved. And that remnant is God's elect.
So in other words, that's going to be the greatest number of
the unbelievers. Verse 9 says, they went up on
the breadth of the earth. They circled the earth. This
is not a physical army that is just in one location now. And
they compassed, they surrounded the camp of the saints about. What is the camp of the saints?
Well, that's the church. where the gospel is preached,
and he calls it the beloved city. Whenever we think about the beloved
city, we think about Jerusalem. This is the new Jerusalem, the
Jerusalem which is above. We'll see a description of it
in Revelation 21. But look over at Galatians chapter
four with me. I wanna show you something here.
The heavenly Jerusalem, which again is the people of God, the
church. Look at Galatians chapter 4.
Here in Galatians 4, the Apostle Paul, by inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, is warning the Galatian believers against Judaizers. You know what a Judaizer is.
A Judaizer in the New Testament was a Jew who claim to believe
the gospel, who claim to believe in Christ, but who wanted to
bring Gentiles under the law, get the male circumcised and
bring them under the law for salvation, for righteousness,
or to be more saved. And that was a Judaizer. Paul
calls him the concision in Philippians 3. That means the mutilators. In other words, you remember
he said, he made this statement in Galatians chapter five. We're in Galatians four, look
across the page there in verse two, Galatians five and verse
two. He said, behold, I, Paul, say
unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
You know what he's saying there, don't you? He's saying if you
submit to that legalistic circumcision, thinking that it will save you,
or recommend you unto God, or keep you saved, or make you holy,
or make you righteous, you're denying Christ. Even though you
claim to be a believer. See, these Judaizers claim to
be a believer. So Paul shows them the reality
of the law that these Judaizers were trying to bring them under.
This law is something that curses them. He said, cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. So he says, look at verse 21
of Galatians 4. He says, tell me ye that desire
to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? You
know, a person who desires to be under the law does not know
the law. They've watered it down, they've
perverted it, they've lightened it. It's the law light. And they don't know what it says
because I'm telling you, if you want to be under the law, then
you've got the whole thing to do. And you can't do it, neither
can I. The law exposes our sin. So he
says in verse 22, for it's written that Abraham had two sons, the
one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. Now he's talking
about Hagar the bondwoman and Sarah the free woman, Abraham's
wife. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, that's Hagar who had Ishmael. But he
of the free woman was by promise, that's Sarah who had Isaac. Remember
the child born of miracles, the miracle of God's power. And through
that line, Christ came. Verse 24, which things are an
allegory? This is symbolic, see. For these
are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, that's the
conditional covenant that centers, that Israel could not keep, which
gendereth the bondage, which is Agar. What is the bondage?
Salvation conditioned on the sinner. That's what bondage is. If salvation is conditioned on
you, you're in bondage. And then he says, verse 25, for
this Hagar, that's Hagar, is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth,
now listen to this, that word answereth, it means it corresponds
to Jerusalem, now keep in mind what we're talking about, this
heavenly city, this city, Hagar in bondage. The law, conditional
salvation, corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is. That's Jerusalem
in the present day of Paul. And is in bondage with her children.
Now think about that. He doesn't connect Jerusalem
in its spiritual state at that time with Abraham and Isaac. He connects it with Hagar in
bondage. Why? Because they denied Christ.
They rejected Christ. They rejected his righteousness.
Romans chapter nine, why did Israel not attain righteousness?
Because they sought it not by faith in Christ. They didn't
seek righteousness in Christ, they sought it by works of the
law. But look at verse 26, but Jerusalem which is above, that's
the heavenly Jerusalem. And Paul speaks of it as a present
reality, not a future aspiration. He doesn't say here, but now
boys, you just wait till the future millennium when Jerusalem
comes. No, he said, but Jerusalem, which
is above is free, which is the mother of us all. Who's the all
there? All believers, all free persons,
not bond persons, but free persons. Now who's free? What did Christ
say in John chapter eight? He said, the truth will set you
free. The truth of what? the truth of salvation by him.
Verse 27, for it is written, rejoice thou barren, that bearest
not, break forth and cry, that travailest not, for the desolate
hath many more children than she which hath a husband. In
other words, the desolate, that's unbelievers, a far out number,
those who are free. Verse 28, now we brethren, as
Isaac was, are the children of the promise. Now go back to Revelation
20. That's the beloved city. We're
citizens of the beloved city if we're in Christ, if we're
saved by grace. And what's the evidence of a
citizen? You know, we're involved a lot
now today in our situation politically and about citizenship and illegals
and all of that. Well, a person, who claims to
be a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, but who denies the
Lord Jesus Christ is an illegal alien. Put it to you that way. That's right, they're making
a claim. It kind of be like, you know, we talk about the Muslims.
A person who claims to be a citizen of the United States, but who
denies our constitution in favor of Sharia law, that's an illegal
alien. Because if you're a true citizen
of the United States, you submit to the Constitution of the United
States. If you're a true citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, you
submit to Christ as the Lord your righteousness. And if you
don't submit to him, your claim is illegal. It's wrong. It's deadly, actually. So understand
that now. That's the beloved city. Now,
Satan is attacking the church from within. And it says in verse
10, well look at verse nine, it says, the beloved city, it
said, fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
God's gonna win the battle. The battle's already won. Satan
doesn't know it. There comes a time in the end
where he realizes that his days are numbered and he becomes more
ferocious. But God's gonna win the battle. And verse 10. And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, those are emblems
of God's wrath against sin, against Satan, where the beast, that's
the beast that come out of the sea, that's political governments,
the anti-Christian governments, empires, kingdoms, and the false
prophet, there's the beast that come out of the land, the cursed
earth, you see, You ever wonder why the beast comes out of the
land? You know, God cursed the earth back in Genesis chapter
three. Where did Cain's offering come
from? The cursed earth. See? Where does false religion
come from? The cursed earth. And that's
why the false prophet is the beast that comes out of the earth.
Because it's man-made, human, conditional salvation religion
that denies Christ. The reason the beast that comes
out of the sea describes ungodly nations is because the sea represented
the nations. The sea represented the whole
world. This is the whole world being deceived. And the false
prophet serves the beast and serves Satan. And it says, and
shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So there's
the destruction of Satan, the loosing and destruction of Satan. Now, I understand now. Go to
2 Thessalonians 2 now. I understand. Now, that clock
stopped back there, so y'all thank God I brought a watch.
According to that clock, I've preached here or taught here
one minute. And boy, I'll tell you, I'm good
if I can do all that in one minute. But look at 2 Thessalonians 2.
Debbie says, I'm glad you looked at that clock. 2 Thessalonians 2. Understand,
now this battle that they're talking about, we've talked about
the battle, it's not a physical battle. It's a spiritual battle.
It's fought in the minds and hearts of men and women. Our
weapon of warfare is the gospel. That's right, it's the gospel.
But let me just read through this. And in 2 Thessalonians
2, I started it last time. Verse one, we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him. They talk about the second coming
of Christ here, right? He's gonna gather his people.
People talk about the rapture, okay? That's okay. That's just the gathering up.
Christ, when he comes again, he's going to gather up his people
to himself. The saints that have already
gone on, Paul calls them in 1 Thessalonians, the saints that are asleep in
Christ, their spirits have gone to be with the Lord, they're
coming with him, and he's going to gather his true children up
unto himself, and that's the rapture. And so he's also going
to judge the world. We'll talk about the great white
throne judgment next week. Paul says in verse 2 that you
be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit
nor by word nor by letters from us as That the day of Christ
is at hand people in every generation have thought well Christ is coming
back in our day Again we don't know when but
false preachers had been writing letters forged letters they've
been Speaking of things like this and telling the church at
Thessalonica that Christ is coming you better get ready. He's coming
in our day And Paul says now don't be don't let that upset
you Don't let that move you all right Verse 3 let no man deceive
you by any means for that day shall not come now Here's here's
some some of the signs of his second coming Except there come
a falling away first. That's an apostasy You've heard
the term apostasy. Now what that refers to is one
or a person or a group of people that had a profession of faith
in Christ, but then fell away from it. Totally forsook it. We're not talking about true
believers who fall into sin, as Paul mentions over in Galatians
6. If a man be overtaken in a fall,
that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about persons
or groups who at one time claimed to believe the true Christ and
then fell away from that, apostatized, turned against it, and totally
deny Christ. The book of Hebrews deals with
it. In Hebrews chapter 10, for example. Hebrews chapter 6. John dealt with it in 1st John
chapter 2 when he talked about how you've heard that Antichrist
shall come. Well, the spirit of Antichrist
is already here. They went out from us. They were
at one time with us, but they did not continue with us. If
they had been of us, if they'd been truly saved, true children
of God, they would have remained with us, but they went out that
it might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Okay? So he says, 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 man of sin is the same
as the false prophet in Revelation 20. People argue about this. Is this talking about one person
who's going to come in the future and rule, take over the temple
in Jerusalem and all? I don't believe the Bible teaches
that. First of all, he's not a political leader, he's a religious
leader. What I believe this is talking
about is the false prophet, the followers of Satan. It's a symbol
of every, now listen, it's a symbol of every false preacher who stands
in a pulpit preaching a false gospel. The son of perdition. The road to destruction. Anybody
who doesn't preach the true Christ from the Word of God and true
salvation by the work of Christ as revealed in the Word of God.
And it's a false gospel of salvation conditioned on men and women.
Conditioned on their works, conditioned on their wills. In other words,
it makes man the focus of salvation, man the one who makes the difference.
And he says in verse four, who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God. In other words, what God says
is not the issue, it's what the preacher says. Or what the denomination
says. Or what the majority says. Or
what makes me feel good. You see what I'm saying? Listen,
any preacher, now think about this, any preacher who denies
the Word of God or ignores it is putting himself in a place
above God. Because God's the authority.
I'm not your authority. The Word of God is. And as long
as I preach God's Word, then we're to bow to it. And he says,
above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that
he is God sitteth in the temple of God. In the New Testament,
what is the temple of God? The church. Now what he's saying
is that the church on earth is going to deteriorate. There's
going to be a falling away. There's going to be an apostasy.
In other words, what is known generally in the world as Christianity
is false Christianity. They come in the name of Christ,
but they deny the doctrine of Christ. Now you see that At the
beginning of the book of Revelation in the seven churches, you have
the church at Ephesus, they lost their first love. Then you go
on through to the different churches till you come down to Laodicea. And these were churches that
began in the gospel. I think there's only what, two
churches that he doesn't have an admonition for there. We won't
go back over all that. But it says in verse five, remember
you not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things,
verse six, and now you know what withholdeth that he might be
revealed in his time. You know what's withholding all
of this? In Paul's day, it wasn't God's time. There's a time appointed
by God, known only to God, when all of this will come down and
begin to happen. And until then, Satan is being
restrained, this man of sin. So he says in verse 7, for the
mystery of iniquity doth already work. Mystery of iniquity. You
know what a mystery is in the Bible, don't you? It's something
that you and I cannot see and understand and recognize on our
own, by nature. It has to be revealed. It has
to be uncovered. God has to show it to us. Now
man by nature, the book of Romans chapter two tells us that man
by nature has a conscience. Now it is true that there are
people who spend their lives or time denying their conscience
to the point that they become what we might call legally insane.
They don't know the difference between right and wrong. Their
conscience becomes a reprobate, that's what it says. But here's
the thing, for the most part now, man by nature can recognize
right and wrong as it pertains to us here on this earth. Relationships. If somebody goes out here and
murders somebody, just about everybody in this
town knows that that's a sin and it's wrong. Now I know people
have a tendency to justify themselves and all time make all, but we
know that's wrong. People may deny it, but they
have a conscience that says that's wrong. Whether they're believers
or unbelievers. You don't have to be a believer
to know that it's wrong to murder, to steal, to harm. But here's
an iniquity. That's a mystery. Now we don't
know by nature, it has to be revealed. Now what is iniquity?
That means it's inequitable, it doesn't balance out, it doesn't
equal the requirement. What's he talking about? He's
talking about false religion. that comes in the name of Christ,
that we can't recognize unless God shows us. Here's a person,
and this is something, these are issues of faith and repentance. We were talking about this last
week. Here's what people can't understand about the Bible. You
take an individual that you know maybe, who is one of the kindest,
most generous people that you could ever meet, but they don't
know Christ. Are you willing to say that that
person is lost and that all their deeds are iniquity? Here's a
person doing their best trying to make themselves righteous
before God by their works and their efforts. Just, you know, somebody who
you, a model of society that everybody loves and speaks highly
of. but they don't know Christ. They've rejected his righteousness
and are going about to establish one of their own. Are you willing
to say that person's lost? If you are, that means the mystery
of iniquity has been shown to you. I preached on that this
morning on TV. You tell people this, and it
kind of shocks them, I think. Listen, my efforts, my preaching,
my prayers, my efforts to worship do not make me righteous. And
if I think they do, what does the Bible call it? Iniquity. Mystery of iniquity. And look
here, look at verse seven. It doth already work. Only he
who now letteth will let until he is taken out of the way. God's
allowing this to go on now until it's removed. Verse eight, and
then shall the wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth. You see, it's the word of God.
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, that's his second
coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying or deceptive wonders. Things
that will impress the world, see. Things that are impressive
to people, that cause them to conclude that this is a man of
God or a woman of God. But it's not because they don't
preach Christ. They don't preach the gospel. In verse 10, and
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, there's an unrighteousness that's
deceptive. That's false religion. And then
that's perish. And what's the problem? Because
they receive not the love of the truth that they might be
saved. Salvation is receiving the love
of the truth, God's word, God's gospel. Verse 11, for this cause
God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.
That's the judgment of God upon them for their continued rejection. Verse 12, that they all might
be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Again, false religion. But here's
our hope, now look at verse 13. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvage. There's the election.
Through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.
There's the new birth, regeneration. I'm gonna talk about that this
morning in the drawing power of God. God set you apart by
the spirit under the preaching of the gospel and draws you. How? Verse 14. Where unto he
called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which you've been taught, whether
by word or our epistle. Don't go away from the word of
God, from the doctrine of Christ. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts, establish you in every good word and word. Okay.