My text this morning is found
in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The
title of the message is The Fallen and the Faithful. The Fallen
and the Faithful. You can sort of mark your place
there at 2 Thessalonians 2, but before we get there And it might
just be just a little while, but don't get scared. You fellas
know that I don't go over time. I don't know why we're so worried
about that sometimes, but it is an issue, isn't it? But I
want you to go back to Matthew 13. Now this is where, you know,
I've been preaching through Matthew 13 on the kingdom parables. Parables
of the kingdom, where the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching his
disciples the nature and the reality of the kingdom of heaven,
the kingdom of God in the last age. The last age referring to
the time period that we're living in now, the time period between
his first coming, his work on the cross, his death, his burial,
his resurrection, his ascension unto glory, the establishment
and inauguration, we'll say, of the New Testament church at
Pentecost, all the way leading up to the second coming of Christ.
That's the, that's the last days. That's the new covenant, the
new Testament, the last time. And he's teaching his disciples
what the nature of the kingdom is. And as we go through this,
there, there are some subjects, there's some issues and some
truth that's not really pleasant to hear. And yet it's necessary
that we do hear it. Else the Lord wouldn't have put
it in his word. He wouldn't have taught it to his disciples. You
need to know this, he said. And he started out how the kingdom
of heaven is going to be like a sower goes forth and sows seed. That's Christ and his preachers
preaching the gospel. The gospel of God's grace. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. You know, not
many people today define the gospel that way, do they? They
talk about the death of Christ, the burial of Christ, the resurrection
of Christ, and certainly those are gospel truths, actual events
that took place in history. But they don't talk much about
what is all that about. Why did he die? Why was he buried? Upon what basis was he resurrected
from the dead? What does all that mean? What
did he actually accomplish on Calvary? And most people today
believe in some form or fashion that he died in order to make
salvation possible for anybody who would feel moved to cooperate. It's a gospel of not of sovereign
grace but a gospel of cooperation. And those who cooperate, they're
the ones who are saved and that's not the gospel. Paul wrote that in Romans 1 16
and 17, he meant what he said, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, not the righteousness of man or men. Salvation is not
is not the accomplishment of man in his decision or in his
works or in any way his will. In fact, the Bible teaches us
very plainly that if God just simply came down here, gathered
the whole human race together in one congregation and spoke
this way, now if any of you will accept me or receive me, I'll
save you. Do you know what would happen
according to what the scripture says? Nobody would be saved. Nobody. That's why I had Randy
read that passage. I was found of them that sought
me not. That's right. There's none that
seeketh after God, no, not one. And how many times have I told
you, don't read the Bible with the accept me syndrome. There's
none righteous, no, not one, except me. There's none good,
no, not one, except me. You see, God doesn't save sinners
because they make a decision for Christ. Sinners make a decision
for Christ because God saves his people. You say, well, why
is that important? I'll tell you why, because God
will not share his glory with you or with me. God's not going to allow his
people to think that they are saved based on something they
did or even that they decided over and above the rest of rebellious,
depraved humanity. It's all of grace. And whenever
we go into the scriptures and we read about people upon whom
the wrath of God falls, there's only one thing we can say of
ourselves. It is by the grace of God that
we're not right there with Him. It's by His righteousness alone.
And therefore, the gospel must be the revelation of God's grace
based on the righteousness of Christ, which not only secured
the salvation of His people, but actually demands it. Just as sin demands death, righteousness
demands life. In order to be saved, you and
I must be righteous before God. That's what the gospel teaches.
And by nature and by practice, there's none of us who are righteous
before God. And what's even sadder is that
by nature, we don't want righteousness God's way. We want it our way,
a way that gives us room to boast to glory. God won't have it. So here's the gospel seed going
out and it falls on different types of ground. That's the first
parable. The gospel is going to be preached.
Not everyone's going to believe it. But as you read in that passage
in Isaiah 65, there's a remnant. That remnant is described in
Matthew 13 in verse 23. He that receives seed into the
good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth. which also beareth fruit, and
bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." Good
ground. Think about that. The Bible tells
us that among us by nature there's none of us good. So who's he
talking about there? He's talking about a sinner saved
by the grace of God who is washed in the blood of Christ and clothed
in his righteousness. That's what goodness is in the
scripture. That's why Christ looked at the
rich young man when he did not recognize Christ to be God. He
said, well, why are you calling me good? There's nothing good
but God. Your standard of goodness is way too low. You say, well,
I know a lot of good people. In your sight, yes. In my sight,
yes. But what about in God's sight?
If you want to find goodness according to God's standard,
you have but one person and one place to look, and that's in
Jesus Christ, the Lord our Righteousness. Christ said you must be born
again or you cannot see, the meaning understand the kingdom
of God. This good ground here is the
one who understands it. What does that tell you? He's
been born again by the grace of God. He's been redeemed by
the blood and regenerated by the Spirit. You say, well how
do you know all that? It says so in the Bible. Don't
interpret Matthew 13 without reading the rest of it. I think
maybe it was you, Sue, I don't remember. It said, I'm like Paul
Harvey, I tell you the rest of the story. Read the rest of the
story. Brother Mahan used to call it
versitis. People get versitis, they pick a verse and they go
to town on it. Well, then he talks about the
wheat and the tares, all right. God's elect are going to hear
and believe the gospel. They're secure in His grace.
They're going to be saved. Don't worry about that, you see.
But as the gospel goes out here, the next parable is the wheat
and the tares, the wheat being the true children of God, evidenced
by being brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works and idolatry, submitting to Him as the Lord their righteousness.
But Satan is going to be busy. He's been out sowing his tares. False Christians. They're Christian in name only.
They claim to be saved by the grace of God, but they deny the
doctrine of Christ. They've interjected in some way
the works and the wills of men as making the difference between
saved and lost. That's what the false gospel
is all about. And then we come to these two
parables. The one of the grain of mustard seed, which speaks
of Christ dying, being sowed in the field, Christ, God the
Son, came to this world. He became God-man, the Word made
flesh. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
God with us. Every bit God, every bit man
without sin. And as God-man, he went to the
cross, he died like a grain of mustard seed planted in the ground
and dies. Remember John 12, a corn of wheat
falls into the ground and dies. And out of that corn of wheat,
out of that grain of mustard seed comes fruit, a great tree. And that's speaking of his church. He built his church. He's the
foundation of his church. He's the one seed from which
the whole church The redeemed of the Lord, the elect of the
Lord, the sheep of Christ come forth into a great tree. And
we see how that's happened in history. When Peter stood and
preached at Pentecost, 3,000 were converted. Later on, 5,000
were converted. Then persecution came and the
gospel was shot out into the world and there began to be churches
raised up, especially through the apostle Paul, but through
others where the gospel was preached. But he talks about the birds
of the air. You see, that's those birds of the air that lodge in
the branches. That's Satan attacking the church
from without. Satan has always, from the beginning
of the world, Satan has always opposed the seed of woman, Christ
and his people, the Messiah. That's not a new thing, is it?
Now, it's true in the Old Testament, and it's certainly true in the
New Testament. We see Satan's opposition heightened from the
beginning of the New Testament church, which was created in
time and arose out of the death of our Lord on the cross. That
grain of mustard seed grew into the tree. And you know, you see
in Scripture how the church is symbolized by a tree quite often,
isn't it? The tree that flourishes, trees
of righteousness, whose planting is of the Lord. Then the church,
as it began to be sorely persecuted by unbelieving Jews and the Roman
government, the gospel spread throughout the Gentile world
and in measure began to flourish. God's gonna save his people.
Christ said, my sheep will hear my voice. I know them, they'll
follow me. And then Satan, he'll attack
the church from without. That's the visible church here
on earth. Wicked rulers, governments, false preachers, false religions
come against the church. And then the next parable there,
the parable of the leaven and three measures of meal. Look
at it, verse 33. Now this right here, what I want
to show you in 2 Thessalonians 2, I believe is a commentary
on this one verse here. It's a more detailed commentary
on what is taught here. Read it again, Matthew 13, 33.
And another parable spake he unto them, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto leaven. Now what is leaven in the scripture?
It's a type of sin and false doctrine. Beware of the leaven
of the scribes and the Pharisees. That's what leaven is. And he
said, which a woman took, an unnamed woman. Remember an unnamed
woman in scripture symbolizes either a faithful church or group
of people or an unfaithful. And he says, this woman took
and hid this leaven in three measures of meal. The three measures
of meal symbolize the fellowship of God's people around the truth. Our fellowship is around Christ. It's not around anything else
now. And we may have some people here who have some common likes
and common dislikes, and that's okay, but that's not our fellowship. Our fellowship is around the
truth of the gospel in Christ. And that's the only thing that'll
hold God's people together. With all of our differences.
And that's what that three measures of meal represents. Well, this
woman, this unnamed woman, puts leaven in there. And it says,
till the whole was leavened. Till every bit of it was leavened.
And what she's saying here is this is Satan attacking the church
here on earth as the New Testament age goes along and gets closer
to the end. Satan's attacking the church
from within, bringing in leaven, bringing in false doctrine. Leaven
in three measures of meal, false preachers, false doctrine, infiltrating
the church until the whole was leaven. What does that mean?
Well, the church here on earth, as it appears to men, you may
have heard the term Christendom. Have you heard that term? That
kind of came into existence through Catholicism when Constantine
claimed to be converted to Christianity and brought the known world at
that time into under what he called the Christian faith. It
wasn't, it was a false Christianity, but it was all the government.
So what he's talking about, the church as it appears here on
earth to men will become corrupted by falling away from the truth
of the gospel. It's a gradual thing, it starts
out small like leaven and then it develops till the whole is
leaven, just like leaven in a lump of dough. It spreads all the
way through. The church on earth, in the process
of time, will become what the Bible calls apostate, fallen
away from the truth. And near the end of time, demonic
doctrines and evil men will infiltrate the pulpits of the church to
the extent that the true gospel dies down until it is barely
heard, and then the end will come. Now, does that mean that Christ's
true church will be defeated? Absolutely not. The gates of
hell will never, never prevail against the true church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You can bank on that. But as
God's judgment on an ungodly, unbelieving world, and here's
the way the book of Revelation puts it, Satan will be loosed
to deceive the nations once again as he was allowed by God in the
Old Testament to do. Remember that? Satan was allowed
to deceive the nations throughout the Old Testament. He was free
to roam up and down the earth. Remember Job 1? Where have you
been? I've been roaming up and down
the earth. He was free to do that. He deceived the nations.
There were some Gentiles, for example, who were saved in the
Old Testament, but very few. Because Satan was allowed to
deceive the nations. Incidentally, when God asked
that question, you do know he wasn't asking for information.
God never asked a question for information. Adam, where are
you? Adam, where art thou? The asking of the question is
for us. It's for our benefit. So, Satan was, in the Old Testament,
he was free to deceive the nations, but then he was bound up and
cast out into the earth, which the Bible calls in the book of
Revelation chapter 9, the bottomless pit. You do know the bottomless
pit is not a hole in the ground. I hope. You know what the bottomless
pit is? It's this unsaved, cursed, unbelieving
earth. It's the realm of darkness. That's
what it is. And it's a bottomless pit because
man's religion has no foundation, has no bottom to it. So we stand
on the foundation of Christ, the rock. My hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not
trust the sweetest frame, but holy lean on Jesus' name. On
Christ the solid rock I stand. We're not in a bottomless pit
that has no ending. That's what man's religion is.
That's what works and free will religion does for people. Puts
them in a bottomless pit, the realm of darkness. But Satan
was bound. Now when did that happen? When
Christ died on the cross, Satan was cast down upon the earth,
the bottomless pit, recognized by its false gospels, its false
religion, and even its immorality. That's what Christ said in John
12. Now is the prince of this world cast down, cast out. He was bound in a sense. And Satan was bound, and the
gospel went forth after the death of Christ in the beginning of
the New Testament, and the church grew into a great tree. But now
Satan has been loosed to deceive the nations once again. You can
read about that in Revelation 11. Just look over there, or I'll
just read it to you. Revelation chapter 11. Listen to this. Begin
at verse 7. It says, and when they shall
have finished their testimony, that's talking about the two
witnesses. Now, I'm not going to go into all the details about
that today. But that's, they're symbolic
of the church preaching the gospel. It says, when they shall have
finished their testimony. When is their testimony finished? Does anybody know? Well, Christ
said this in Matthew 24. He said, when the gospel goes
out into all the earth, Then what? The end will come. That's
when they finish their testimony. I believe we're getting close,
don't you? When the gospel goes out to all nations, when they
shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascended out of
the bottomless pit, now that's one of Satan's aims, shall make
war against them and shall overcome them and kill them, the two witnesses,
the church. And it says in verse eight, their
dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which
spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. You know about Sodom and
Egypt. And he says, where also our Lord
was crucified. He's not just talking about one
town here. He's talking about the earth as opposed to Christ. Verse nine. They of the people
and the kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead
bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer or allow
their dead bodies to be put in graves. They that dwell upon
the earth shall rejoice over them, make merry, and shall send
gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented
them that dwelt on the earth." How did these two prophets torment
the people of the earth? By preaching the gospel that
exposes their false refuge, their false hope. This is the condemnation,
light has come into the world and men love darkness and hate
the light because their deeds were evil. But look at verse
11 of Revelation, after three days and a half the spirit of
life from God entered into them and they stood up on their feet
and great fear fell upon them which saw. You see Satan, here's
what I'm saying, it seems like Satan has won a victory, but
it's not so. It's short-lived. It's short-lived. Satan's victory is short-lived. Satan will not have any victory
over God's true church. He will not have any victory
at all. And his victory is short-lived. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2 now.
Now he starts out here in the first
12 verses with the fallen. The fallen. And then the last
few verses from verse 13 to verse 17, he talks about the faithful.
And I want you to notice, I'm just gonna read through these
and make a few comments, but I want you to notice specifically
what made the difference or who made the difference between the
fallen and the faithful. You'll notice that. All right,
let's start out, verse one. Paul says, now we beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is an
assertion that Christ is coming again. We know this is sure.
What I'm about to tell you is so. It's an amen. There's no
debate here because we're just as sure of this as we are of
Christ coming back by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
came the first time to put away sin. to establish the only righteousness
whereby God could be just and justify the ungodly. That's how
he came, as the perfect God-man, having our sins imputed, charged
to him, going to the cross, and dying on our place, and working
forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value. And he's coming
again. and by our gathering together
unto him. We're here to worship him, we're here to serve him,
we're here to honor him and glorify 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. What's happening here is that
false preachers were telling these people that Christ has
either already come back or that he's coming back in their lifetime. They were like the date setters
of today. You've seen them. And he said, and some of them
would write letters to the church and sign Paul's name. That's
what it means, letters as from us. That's what they would do. That's how deceptive they were. Nor by word, he says, by preaching,
nor by spirit. Don't be troubled about this.
Now, you might notice, you remember, I think it's over in 1 Thessalonians,
you remember that's where you get the verse, you ever heard
the verse said, those who don't work don't eat? You heard that? That is in the Bible. You know,
there's a lot of sayings that people say are in the Bible that
aren't in the Bible at all. Cleanliness is next to godliness.
That's not in the Bible. That's a statement, actually
it's a quote from a false preacher. Now don't get me wrong, we ought
to be clean. Take a bath. But that didn't make you any
more godly. But now that one, if you don't
work, you don't eat, that's in the Bible, it's in 1 Thessalonians.
What was happening? Some of these people thought
that Christ was coming back in their lifetime and they quit
their jobs and went off to wait for him and he didn't come and
you know what happened? Lo and behold, they got hungry.
And they started coming to the other church people saying, will
you feed us? And Paul said, if they don't work, they don't eat.
That's where that comes from. Well, Paul's saying, don't be
stirred up by that kind of stuff. Verse three, let no man deceive
you by any means, however it comes, preaching, letter, whatever.
For that day, the day of his coming, shall not come except
there be a falling away first. An apostasy. That's what the
word is there. Now, who's he talking about?
He's talking about people falling away from the truth. It's not just, he's not talking
about all unbelievers in general here because many unbelievers,
the majority of unbelievers have never professed, never heard
or professed belief of the truth. This is something they fall away
from. It's kind of like what John spoke in 1 John 2 about
those who went out from us, but they were not of us. Had they
been of us, they would have no doubt remained with us. There's
going to be a great falling away. And he says, and that man of
sin, most people today will say man of lawlessness, and that's
okay. that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. That means
damnation or destruction. Now you know what everybody does
on that. Everybody right there, they build them a campfire and
camp right here and let's figure out who that son of man is. They
say that's antichrist. Incidentally, the term antichrist,
the only one who used that term was John, the apostle John. and this is Antichrist but I want to tell you something
now there are people, listen the issue of understanding this
passage of scripture and the little parable is not finding
out exactly who Antichrist is some people believe it's going
to be one person who arises in the future whether it's a political
figure or religious figure or both some believe that it's a
general spirit of the age i believe that's what it is that's what
john says it is but listen to me the issue for us is not who
he is exactly the issue for us is what does he say whether i know if it's one person
whether i know who it is or not i know what the spirit of antichrist
his message is he's a son of destruction Now
here's what I know, I know this, the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation, not destruction, not perdition. Any other message,
whether it comes under the name of Christianity or not, is a
message of damnation. Is that right? I know that a
person who comes along and preaches salvation all of grace, based
on the righteousness of Christ imputed, alone. That's a message
of life for a sinner. Any other message? Damnation,
destruction. I don't care if it's a central
political figure who resides somewhere or if it's just a general
succession of religious figures. I don't care. Whatever they preach,
if they don't preach this gospel, and come under the name of Christianity,
I'm going to tell you something, it's a spirit of antichrist.
And he says in verse four, who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God. Anybody who preaches a false
gospel does this, did you know that? God says this is the way
I'm going to save sinners. By his grace, based on the blood
and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. God says that
he can only be just to justify the ungodly through Christ. based
on his righteousness alone. Now anybody who says otherwise
is doing the same thing that Satan did back in the garden.
He's trying to be as God's. He's trying to take an authority
and a privilege upon himself that belongs only to God. God
is the one who sets the standard, who sets the way of salvation. Man does not have that. And anybody
who tries to is exalting himself above all that is called God. Or that is worshiped. So that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God. The temple of God there
is the church, folks. Read the New Testament. He's
infiltrating the church, showing himself that he is God. Anybody,
now, certainly if anybody came in to you and said, now I'm God,
you know, we'd see through that right away. But what you have
to understand is that anybody who speaks things that are contrary
to the Word of God is doing the same thing. That's why I tell
you don't believe it because I say it. That's right. If you can't find it in the Word
of God, don't believe it. So look at verse 5. Remember
you not that when I was yet with you I told you these things.
Paul had already told them all this. Verse six, and now you
know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
That withholding is a restraining. In other words, God is holding
all this back, his full wrath, his full manifestation until
his appointed time. And Paul says the appointed time.
Here's that great apostasy, that falling away. And then look at
verse seven. For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work. Mystery of iniquity. Now what
is that? What's iniquity? The word iniquity
is a word for sin that means inequity, doesn't balance out. And mystery is something that
has to be revealed or we don't know it. God has to reveal it. Here's an inequity, an iniquity,
an unrighteousness, a sinfulness that we do not know until God
reveals it. It's covered. It's deceptive. And then he says in verse seven,
only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of
the way. In other words, this restrainer is restraining, holding
things back until God moves him out of the way. I'm not going
to argue about who that is. Some say it's the Holy Spirit,
some say other, but that's not the issue. Verse eight, when
that wicked or that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth, what is that? His word. and shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming, his second coming, for him whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying or
deceptive false wonders." Miracles, things that impress people. How
do you know that it's a deceptive thing, a lying thing? Because
there's no gospel. I hear people talking about being
able to cure people. by miraculous ways and people
speaking in tongues, which is not the tongues of the Bible
anyway. What gospel do they preach? That's
the thing you need to understand. I don't care if they did raise
somebody from the dead or if they did really cure somebody.
What gospel do they preach? If it's a false gospel, It's
verse 10, the deceivableness of unrighteousness, a deceptive
unrighteousness in them that perish, and look here, because
they receive not the love of the truth that they might be
saved. You see, the love of the truth, the love of Christ and
his truth, his gospel. That's the issue. Verse 11, and
for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they
should believe a lie. We've been studying that in the
last trumpets of Revelation. God sent, this is God's judgment
upon them who receive not the love of the truth. Verse 12,
that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now that's the fall. 11 going
out. And the church that is called
and known generally as Christian is not Christian at all. It's
a false apostate church, mainly known by its gospel of works
and freewillism. That's right. Verse 13, here's the faithful.
Now look at the difference. Number one, but we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you. Who we thanking now?
God. Brethren, beloved of the Lord, hearing his love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you. That's election. Well, who made
the difference? God did before the foundation
of the world in divine, sovereign, electing grace. And through sanctification of
the Spirit and belief of the truth. What is that? That's the
new birth. God chose them. Christ died for them. The Holy
Spirit is going to set them apart in belief of the truth. What
truth? Verse 14, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the
obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel
of his free and sovereign grace in Christ. The gospel that we
defined earlier, wherein the righteousness of God, the righteousness
of Christ freely imputed and received by faith is revealed.
And he says in verse 15, what makes the difference? God's grace.
Christ's death. The Holy Spirit's work in the
new birth, not by the will of men, not by the works of men,
but by the will of God and the work of God. And therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which you've been taught, that's
the gospel of the prophets and the apostles, whether by word
or our epistle, whether we preach it or we write it, now our Lord
Jesus Christ himself in God, even our Father, which hath loved
us and had given us everlasting consolation, hope and assurance
and comfort and good hope through grace. Comfort your hearts and
establish you in every good word and word. That's the faith. If any of us are faithful, who do we thank? Not the preacher,
not the church, not even ourselves. We thank God. By the grace of
God, we are what we are.