By the words of verse 7, which
opened with this phrase, for the mystery of iniquity. And you who were here last week,
you'll recall I introduced this series by noting how throughout
the chapter, chapter 2 here, We have these polar opposites
set forth, these mutually exclusive ideas that can't be intermixed. That is, at any point in time,
it can be said it's either one or the other. For example, we
see that it speaks of a specific truth, the truth of the gospel
and the mystery of iniquity that is either revealed or it's concealed. We see that that That in concert
with that, there are those that have been enlightened by God's
Spirit in the new birth and under the sound of the gospel, or else
they remain deceived. We see more pointedly that there
are those who are saved, as verse 13 speaks of, those who are chosen
unto salvation. They're either saved or they
remain lost in our natural state of darkness. They either, they're
described herein as those that believe the truth, or they believe
the lie. The lie that opposes this specific
truth. So we see they're trusting, as
we'll see at the end of the chapter, in the good hope of grace, the
grace that reigns through righteousness, or else in the false hope of
something else, unrighteousness. Now, last week we covered verses
1 through 5, and so we're going to pick up where we left off
here in verse 6. And much of what we'll see, I
think this whole chapter is about this same subject of the truth,
the lie. And so we'll be seeing it, but
I hope you appreciate, as I do, the various ways that Paul sets
this forth in all of the verses throughout this chapter. And
notice that verse 6 begins with the words, and now. So that is
light of what he covered in those first five verses. And by just
a way of a brief review, remember he had told them now not to be
troubled, not to be shaken, but rather to expect the deception
inside the church that goes by the name of Christ. Indicating
that that's what's going to characterize this age. this age between Christ's
death and resurrection and his second coming. And I believe
that's what that phrase there called the day of Christ is referring
to. And in those verses we saw how
that Christ would not come again until a revelation, a revealing
takes place in each and every one that God has chosen unto
salvation. whereby God delivers them from
their own deception in this false religious system by that revelation. That system, that falsehood that
is personified in our text as we saw by the man of sin or lawlessness
or the son of perdition or destruction who operates in the apostate
church, the church that has fallen away that calls itself Christian
and operates as if it is God, or He is God, to use the personification,
presuming and promoting, see, that a sinner is saved according
to their own standard, that is, based on a condition or a requirement
that they presume to be able to meet, and that thought in
strict, totally opposite to, in opposition to, the truth of
the gospel, and God's strict requirement of a perfect righteousness,
that is, the merit of what Christ alone could and did accomplish
in his life and his finished work on the cross. So we pick
up here in verse 6, and it reads, And now ye know what withholdeth
that he might be revealed in his time. In other words, in
light of all I've told you, now you know. In 1 Timothy 2, verses
5 and 6, Paul writing to Timothy said, For there is one God and
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who
gave himself a ransom for all. And you know, that's the part
of those two verses we typically major on. That's a great passage
there. But notice that last phrase.
He gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. And I think that's what verse
6 back in our text in 2 Thessalonians is talking about, that there
is an appointed time or a season for all for whom Christ gave
himself as a ransom to be testified to concerning that work. A time
for God's revelation of himself in Jesus Christ to be revealed.
And I believe that that's the gist of what he means here in
verse 6. And he continues in 7 with a
thought saying, for the mystery of iniquity to already work.
Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of
the way. And then shall that wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
power and signs and lying wonders." Let's just pause right there
for a moment. Back there in verse 6 and 7, I think both of those
words, withholdeth from verse 6, and then ledeth from verse
7 means to restrain or to hinder. That is, this revelation of what
is called the wicked shall be hindered until the appointed
time in which God shall work in each elect center to expose
this mystery of iniquity that would continue to deceive us.
Keep in mind what we read last week in 1 John 2. John was writing. He said how even in their day,
the day that John called there the last times, that the many
Antichrists were already at work. Back in 2 Thessalonians 2.7,
we see Paul telling them, I think, essentially the same thing. He's
saying that the mystery of iniquity is already at work. and shall
continue to deceive us until the time that God has appointed
to reveal this mystery individually to each and every one for whom
Christ died in every successive generation in their due season."
This mystery of iniquity, see, like the mystery of the gospel
as it's called elsewhere, or referred to elsewhere. It speaks
not of something that is mysterious. I mentioned this last week as
well. In other words, beyond our mental capacity to even comprehend. But rather, it's a mystery in
the sense that it's hidden. It requires a divine revelation. It must be revealed to us. You
see, it's a mystery that we do not even know exists. We're not
even aware there's a mystery out there until that mystery
has been revealed to us, this specific mystery of iniquity
referred to here. Iniquity, that word there, is
translated or is defined as lawlessness. In other words, it's without
any regard to the law being satisfied. Without regard to righteousness,
which is the perfect satisfaction to God's law, that is, Christ's
perfect obedience to all of the Father's will. He was made under
the law, the scripture says, to redeem them that were under
the law. You see, he was put under the same jurisdiction.
It's why it took a God-man to be our suitable substitute representative. And he satisfied the law not
for himself, you see, but for a people. And those people were
sinners, and so the law had to be satisfied, and that the debt
due unto justice for their sins had to be paid. And it took the
valuable blood of the God-man to pay the transgression, see,
before a holy God. Now, that's righteousness. That's
what we must have. And so the mystery of iniquity
being lawlessness is without any regard to that righteousness,
to that satisfaction to justice being made. I believe that phrase
there, the two words of that wicked there in verse 8, is just
a continuation of the personification of this false system of religion
that is anti-Christ. That is, remember now, it's spoken
of here, the deception in this chapter is the deception inside
the church that comes in the name of Christ, but it is anti-Christ. How can that be? It's in opposition,
see, to the doctrine of Christ in promoting Satan's lie. Satan's
lie that says, no, as he told Eve in the garden, you shall
not surely die, but you can be as gods and you can decide. what's
good and evil, rather than God's strict standard of righteousness,
which Acts 17 tells us clearly, that's what we're going to be
judged by. It's interesting, I thought also, to look at that
word coming in verses 8 and 9. You know, we often, that word
often carries with it the connotation of a future arrival on the scene. And many take this phrase here,
the brightness of His coming, for example, to be referring
to the second coming of Christ. I'm not of that persuasion, but
I'll explain. That Greek word for coming there
can also mean a presence, a description of what takes place when He is
near or when His influence is brought to bear. We see that
clearly in the context, I think, of verse 8. Or excuse me, verse
9, where he talks about the personification of that false religious system
as one whose coming is after the working of Satan. There,
it being a noun, whose coming is after. You see, that's certainly
not speaking of some future coming there. And I'm inclined to believe
that that's what he's talking about in verse 8 as well, when
he refers to Christ coming to sinners in God's appointed time,
through the preaching of the light of the gospel. Notice it
says concerning that wicked that the Lord shall consume it. The
Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth. That is, I believe,
I believe it's saying that the Lord will destroy Satan's deceptive
influence upon his people by the proclamation of the gospel,
the spirit of his mouth. The gospel that sets forth the
righteousness that's revealed therein, so as to dispel what
we'll see in verse 10 is the deceivableness of unrighteousness. As God's Spirit, see, applies
it to the heart of the believer, the believer whom he's quickened,
given spiritual life to. So that that believer then, when
God-given faith, turns in repentance from the false, from the lie,
to the truth. of salvation conditioned on Christ
alone. And then look at that phrase
indicating that this deception shall be destroyed, it says,
with the brightness of his coming. That word translated there, destroy,
it means it will be annulled or brought to naught. Many believe,
as I say, that this is referring here to Christ's second coming.
But the context leads me to conclude here that he's referring to how
the Lord's just going to bring to null or annul that influence,
see, that is brought to bear by Satan, the one who's coming
is after Satan. He's going to annul in the minds
and the hearts of each and every one for whom Christ died Satan's
influence as that light of the gospel, see, dispels the darkness
of Satan's lie, the darkness that would hide the truth from
us. and have us to continue to believe the lie that salvation,
at least in some way, in some degree, if I can just hang on
to one little way that I can control my own eternal destiny,
you know, as naturally we'll do that. And that's what it is
to believe the lie that salvation somehow is determined by something
done by me or in me or through me, the sinner. As we find in
Colossians 1, verse 13, it speaks of God with respect to those
He saves. And it refers to God as Him who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness. And He hath translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son. And how does He do this? I believe He does it by the brightness
of His coming. By the Spirit. under the sound
of the gospel, the spirit. How does he put it? The spirit
of his mouth. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul
wrote, he said, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them who
are lost. And whom the God of this world,
that's Satan, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. But here now back in 2
Thessalonians 2 in verse 8, we see that God's sheep are healed
from this blindness as a revelation takes place in which Satan's
influence, you see, is annulled. It's brought to naught. Note
there in verse 9 it describes how this religion that promotes
Satan's lie is powerful in its deception. It speaks of its operation
as, with all power and signs and lying wonders. You know,
many are deceived. Listen, all of us are deceived,
unless God, by His grace, shows us different. Deceived by looking
at our physical circumstances, at least in part. Consider, many
of you, I'm sure, have heard these stories, as I have, of
people who were miraculously healed. from diseases that were
diagnosed, and the doctors could not give any explanation what
took place. And I do not dismiss all of those
stories. You know, in Luke chapter 17,
you'll recall the story where Christ miraculously healed those
ten lepers, but only one of them was granted spiritual healing.
You know, only one of them came back and gave glory to God. If you think about it, God has
truly blessed us in our circumstances, each and every one of us who
live here. We've often heard our former
pastor mention that you had nothing to say. You had no part in determining
you would be born in the United States of America versus some
third world country. Look, the sovereign of this universe
gave us our life, and he sustains our physical life, and yet We
know that does not equate with being spiritually blessed or
even healed spiritually. And yet those circumstances can
be very deceptive to us. So don't be deceived by such
power and signs and lying wonders. You know, they're called lying
not in the sense that they're necessarily not real. Those lepers
were truly healed, you see, but they weren't spiritually healed.
At least, not nine of the ten. So it's not, when it says lying
wonders, it's not saying that these signs, these circumstances
that impact on our thoughts, that they're not real, but they're
lying in that they deceive us. They deceive us into equating
that the wonder or the miracle or the blessing is a sign that
we're spiritually blessed. You know, many people think that
they're in this nation that many call a Christian nation, and
that means they're Christians. But that's not the case, you
see. Likewise, consider it's not the case that they can necessarily
equate that fact to deduct that they therefore are eternally
blessed. Likewise, think about how our
emotions are stirred by experiences that are very, very real to us.
I know when I first, when God first revealed to me His righteousness
in Christ and caused me to put all of my hope there, that good
hope of grace, I've tried to share this with many of my friends.
And I recall some of the conversations Others telling me, well, Randy,
I just know that what happened to me at this age or that age
when they presumed that Christ saved them. See, I know it was
real. Some would even go on to imply
to me that you just must not have had the same reality, almost
perhaps as if I were playing games. And I would take great
offense at that because, you see, I wasn't playing games. Those stirrings in my heart,
they were real. There was a spirit. I now know
it was a spirit of Antichrist, but I didn't recognize it at
the time, and it was just as real. And those things can fool
and deceive us, our emotions. You see, the lying wonders here,
they're lies because they lead us to a false hope. And that wouldn't be our hope
if we recognize them as lies. You see, they impress us and
then that adds to the deception. You know, this deception spoken
of throughout the New Testament, if you think about it, it is
truly something that should grab our attention. You know, in one
place it says that if it were possible, that it would deceive
even the very elect, those that, verse 13 of our text says, God
chose unto salvation. Of course, we know that is not
possible. You see, when I think of these signs and lying wonders,
I think of the mood and the tone of worship services with all
the beautiful music, and there's nothing wrong with beautiful
music, and all of the pageantry. And those things stir us. They
move us. And yet we know they can deceive
us. So it's imperative we keep in
mind that deception, that we be on guard. Recall what Christ
said in Matthew 7.21 there in the Sermon on the Mount. He spoke
of those preachers. He came to them and said, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied thy name and done many wonderful
works, cast out demons? These preachers were approaching
God. Listen, these preachers had been
empowered by God with the ability to do many wonderful works. That's
miracles. And to actually even cast out
demons. And they did so in the name of
Christ. And he said, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. That word iniquity
there, it's the same word of 2 Thessalonians 2.7, the mystery
of iniquity. You see, it means lawlessness,
wickedness, unrighteousness. Can you imagine a preacher who's
dedicated their life to preaching in the name of Christ and God
had even gifted with the ability to cast out demons, being called
wicked, unrighteous, lawless, That's what our Lord was saying.
And why did he do that? You see, it's because their plea
before him exposed that the mystery remained concealed to them, that
their plea was the work of their hand. What even God had truly
enabled them to do. Rather than that one righteousness,
Revealed in God's gospel and so he called them workers of
what lawlessness You're imagining you can be accepted by me by
way apart from the law see being fully satisfied and that by Christ
alone So we see the issue you see of the gospel is God's truth
the truth of the gospel and that versus Satan's fly that is opposed
to it and Anything else that we might look to, it can deceive
us and it will deceive. And the deceptive nature of this,
I think, is further amplified now as we continue in our text
in verse 10. He says, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness. He's continuing to describe the
operation of those whose coming is after Satan. And he says,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that
perish. because they receive not the
love of the truth, that they might be saved. That unrighteousness
there speaks of iniquity, of lawlessness, legal injustice. And so to be deceived in this
sense is to believe that we're saved, that we can be reconciled
unto God based upon something other than that perfect satisfaction
to justice, something other than righteousness. And that's why
it's simply called unrighteousness. So to be deceived there is to
imagine something other than or in addition to Christ's perfect
righteousness and that imputed to the sinner. would find me
accepted before God. You see, doesn't the scripture
say, it says of God's people that they're holy, unreprovable,
unblameable. How? Because they're accepted
in the beloved, in Christ. The merit of what he has accomplished
in his life and death, it has to become mine by imputation.
Note that it refers to it there as all deceivableness of unrighteousness. You see, this deception, it comes
in many forms. But all of these forms, think
of all the many religious denominations and sects, including those in
the context of our chapter that come in the name of Christ. But
all of those forms have something in common. It's works religion. It may be disguised, as our text
would suggest here, and be called grace, but it's grace in name
only for, you see, it has us look into something other than
or in addition to the one imputed righteousness of God that Christ
wrought out, whereby we might be found accepted before him,
his wrath removed and his favor gained. So whatever form it is,
If our hope, see, is not solely based on Christ and His righteousness
alone, what is it called? It's called unrighteousness. And if so, that is to be deceived,
if that's your hope. And that's to be in a state where
the revelation of God's gospel remains concealed to you. And
listen, this is how subtle it can be. If we imagine that we
acquire or we procure that very righteousness, I'm talking about
now the merit of what Christ alone produced. If we think we
get it in any way other than by God's free and gracious imputation
to us, then you see, that too is to be deceived in unrighteousness,
because righteousness is the meeting of the requirement before
God's bar of justice. And if we imagine that, as some
might suggest to you, yeah, you got to have that righteousness,
but God can't do the believing for you. as if your act of faith
is what would distinguish you and acquire the merit of that
for you, you see, you've set up another righteousness, another
condition or requirement whereby you can boast. God better do
the believing for us. For Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 tells
us, by grace we're saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, it's not
of works, lest any man should boast. You see, God's not going
to share his glory. Christ must have all of the preeminence. And so, we see in this text,
persist in that deception, you see, is to ultimately perish. Now, why do any perish? Is it
God's fault? Because God doesn't reveal it
to them? No. It's you know what we that that's
a natural thought for all of us to have when we first hear
of the gospel Is that just wouldn't be fair? You see we're so determined
But god says in romans 9 i'll have mercy on whom i'll have
mercy and i'll i'll have compassion on whom i'll have compassion
listen The the truth is that's our own independent rebellion
Saying you can't take away from me the determination of my own
eternal destiny." Well, the scripture here is real clear why they perished. It says, "...because they received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved." Many, as
we read in John, in John's day, they may profess to believe the
true gospel, and yet, he says, they really weren't of us, or
they would not have departed from us. That is, ultimately,
You see, all sinners who perish willfully reject the truth of
the gospel that's set forth clearly here in God's Word wherein Christ
meets every condition and requirement for a sinner's salvation. So
we ask ourselves, do you, do I, do we have a love for Christ's
person and work? How does that love for the truth
show up? Do you have to have that? Do
you have to have Christ and His righteousness alone? Or is there
another way? Will anything else really suffice? Is it okay if someone adds something
to it? You see, look what he says as
we consider the next verse. He says, and for this cause God
shall send them strong delusion, verse 11, that they should believe
a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth,
but had pleasure in righteousness. We see here that God ultimately
gives us just what we want. He gives lost sinners just what
they want. The only difference between the
saved and the lost is God changes the want. He gives us a new heart,
doesn't He? It says here He will give them
what they want even to the point of sending strong delusion that
they would continue to believe the lie. Here's where we see
that God would be just, you see, to damn us of all because of
our willful rejection of Him, which we would continue in, apart
from God's mercy and grace in Christ. You see, because apart
from His mercy and grace, we willfully reject the true Christ
and the truth concerning Him that's revealed in the Gospel.
And instead, what do we do? We take pleasure. We find our
comfort and our hope in unrighteousness. I believe here he is referring
to those who like those that Paul told Timothy in the passage
we looked at last week in 1 Timothy 4 verse 2. He said they speak
lies in hypocrisy. Why is it in hypocrisy? In the context of this chapter
it is under the guise of grace in the name of Christ. They're
speaking a doctrine that's in opposition, see, to the truth
that salvation is finished, conditioned solely upon the Lord Jesus Christ
and what he accomplished at the cross. That is, based upon that
righteousness alone. And as he said of these, you
may recall he said, their conscience is seared with a hot iron. Thereby,
see, they're sealed into believing the lie. and no longer able to
be reasoned with according to truth. It's interesting, in the
original Greek, there's a definite article there at the end of verse
11 preceding the word lie. In other words, it is the lie. And I believe it's singular regardless
of its many forms, its many, all deceivableness of unrighteousness,
for example, because it opposes the one simple truth, the truth
of the gospel. that has us look to Christ and
His imputed righteousness alone for all of our salvation. I know
I'm being very repetitive today, but I believe that all of this
is pointing us to that one simple truth. And here we see the simple
gospel. The concept of taking pleasure
in unrighteousness is not to be limited to outward acts of
immorality and sins that we normally would recognize, although that's
certainly included. But you see, it doesn't take
any special revelation from God. It's not a hidden mystery to
us to recognize those sorts of sins. That's not the sin that
would deceive us all. Remember in verse 4 now, it told
us that this deceit comes from religion. From those who sit
in the temple, in the church. And that's what I believe was
troubling to these Thessalonians here. Paul described that in
Romans chapter 2. In Romans 2 verse 8 he refers
to those who have an obedience of sorts. But he says they do
not obey the truth. But they do obey. They obey unrighteousness. which opposes the truth. You
know, we normally would think of one who, and certainly here
in the context of Romans 2, it is including outward acts of
immorality. But normally, we wouldn't call
that obedience, would we? Now, we'd call that disobedience.
But here, I like the way Paul put it when he says, they obey.
They obey unrighteousness. You see, they're going about
trying to please their idea of who God is under the false notion
that he's actually an unjust monster, though they don't recognize
it as such, for they imagine that there's a way without the
law being satisfied, a way of lawlessness whereby men might
be saved. To take pleasure in unrighteousness
is to find our comfort there, is to find our delight there,
our hope is there. It's to be comforted, see, in
the false refuge of lies, to use the language of Isaiah. We
either take pleasure, we find our hope and our comfort in righteousness,
or we find it in unrighteousness. We better find our pleasure,
you see, our delight in that which God is delighted in, because
ultimately His standard is the only one that matters. See, God
is a sovereign God who says whom He will. and he saves them by
the means that he's ordained, the very gospel that reveals
to us how he can be true to himself as a just God and still save
a sinner based on the righteousness Christ wrought out. As Jeremiah
9 teaches us, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory. That word glory means to boast
in, to place his hope in, to have his pleasure in, to take
his delight, find his comfort in. Let not the wise man glory
in his wisdom, neither let the money man glory in his might.
Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that
glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth
me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth." He's made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. And what does he say? For in
these things I delight, saith the Lord. So our pleasure better
align, see, with that which God takes pleasure in, that which
he delights in. And he tells us clearly he doesn't
delight in the wisdom of man who acts as God, see, in replacing
God's one way of salvation and standard of judgment, his righteousness,
with an idea that he can produce one of his own. man's righteousness. That's what it is when we imagine
that ultimately we can say Jesus died on the cross and I thank
God for Jesus and he died to take away my sins, but when we
imagine that the ultimate determining factor in my salvation that distinguishes
me from those who I imagine will perish is not what Jesus Christ
did for me, but really in reality is, oh, I believed. Or, I professed
Him and I'm in it. Now you see, that's unrighteousness. That's the deceitfulness of unrighteousness. God doesn't delight in the might
of man's effort. You see, in presuming that he
could meet some requirement or condition on his own. That's
what it is, the mighty man, glorying in his might. And he doesn't
delight or take pleasure in the confidence of Satan's operations
that we place, in other words, with signs and lying wonders
that would cause us to look to our own physical circumstances,
our what? Our blessings, our riches, as
an indicator that we're spiritually blessed or eternally blessed
by God. But he delights and that which
he exercises in the earth in the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the merit of his work alone. And there we see how he exercised
loving-kindness in providing a righteousness, you see, by
which he will judge the world. So we see these mutually exclusive
polar opposites here once again. In other words, right now, you
and I and every other sinner on the face of this earth, we're
either taking pleasure in unrighteousness or we take pleasure in Christ's
righteousness, for that's the only perfect satisfaction ever
rendered, the righteousness of God. And there's no in-between.
One is to be on the broad way that Christ said many go in there
at, but it's the road that leads to death, to destruction. That's
a religious road. The other is to be entering in
at the narrow gate, the way of eternal life that is revealed
by the brightness of his coming and the mouth of his Spirit,
under the sound of the very gospel you're hearing even today. Well, continuing in verse 13
and 14, Paul writes, but, here's great news. 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 salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Here Paul is consoling these
brethren. Remember, that's who he's writing
to in chapter 2 in Thessalonica. And he's consoling them in their
knowledge that a revelation has taken place in their hearts whereby
they can know that the mystery has been revealed, whereby they
came to a love of the truth. He's speaking to those, see,
for whom this spirit of Antichrist has been revealed. In our passage
now, this spirit of Antichrist has been referred to as man of
sin or lawlessness, the son of perdition, destruction. the mystery
of iniquity or lawlessness, that wicked or lawless one, and the
lie that is opposed to the truth of the gospel. And Paul says,
we're bound to give thanks and rejoice that God chose you unto
salvation. Now, how did Paul know that they
had been chosen unto salvation? That's something done outside
of us by God alone. Well, he tells us. It's evidenced
by their having been sanctified or set apart by the Holy Spirit
so as to believe the truth, the truth of the gospel wherein His
righteousness is revealed. It's really that simple. As one
who is no longer deceived by the sin that initially deceives
us all, the deceivableness of unrighteousness. When we thought
that something other than or in addition to Christ's righteousness
imputed to us shall merit our eternal blessing before God.
And how does that revelation unfold to us? Verse 14 says,
he calls us by the gospel. That gospel, Paul said, was the
power of God and salvation. For therein the righteousness
of God was revealed. And so therefore we obtain, or
we come into possession of the knowledge of the glory of God. in Jesus Christ, as we see what
Christ has merited for us. We read there in 2 Corinthians
4, I think it was verse 3, how his glory had been hid to those
that are lost. We see just a few verses down
there in verse 6. He says, For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. in the face,
the person and work of Jesus Christ. You see, we see how God
can be as God must be, not showing mercy at the expense of His justice,
but all of His attributes magnified in what Christ accomplished.
As the prophet Jeremiah said, He delights in this, that we
understand and know Him that exercises love and kindness,
righteousness and judgment in the earth. That's where He delights. So keeping in mind now the context
of the entire chapter, we see Paul saying, don't be shaken,
don't be troubled, for you're distinguished from those who
have departed from the truth and may have troubled you, but
you've been delivered from such. You wouldn't be troubled, you
see, if that were not the case. And it follows that all those
who are so chosen unto salvation in Christ shall surely be delivered
to God. for he cannot and he does not
fail. Christ himself said in John 6,
all, every one, that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven, not to do mine
own will, but the will of him that sent me, the Father. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him." Now, who are they? That is, those that the Father
gave him, that shall come to him, who are called, as 2 Thessalonians
2 taught us, by the gospel, by the power of the Holy Spirit
called unto the belief of the truth. Now these, he says, everyone
that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Now what assurance
and comfort. In verse 15, he continues in
2 Thessalonians 2, saying, Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold
the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word
or our epistle. He's telling them, look, Therefore,
having this deception, this mystery of iniquity exposed, stand fast
in what you've been taught. It's that simple. And he finishes
the chapter here with a prayer in verses 16 and 17, a prayer
we should all pray for one another, for those of like-minded faith. As he continues there, saying,
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 work. So I pray the same unto those
whom God has likewise delivered, to whom this mystery of iniquity,
this deceivableness of unrighteousness has been revealed. You see, for
the only everlasting consolation And good hope is indeed through
grace, grace which Romans 5.21 tells us reigns through what?
Righteousness unto eternal life. Whose righteousness? By Jesus
Christ our Lord. So I pray likewise that God may
reveal this mystery of iniquity unto others who hear this gospel
message. You see, for concurrent with
the revelation of this mystery of iniquity, this sin that initially
deceives us all is the revelation that Paul referred to in Ephesians
6, 19 as the mystery of the gospel. The gospel wherein that righteousness
is revealed. And that's the very gospel you've
heard this day. gospel that God uses to call
out his people by his spirit unto the belief of the truth. And may God so richly bless you.