Good morning everyone, good to
see you here. If you would be turning in your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. I'm going to bring part 1 of
a 2 part series today in which we're just going to look at this
chapter 2 Thessalonians 2 verse by verse. And today we'll be
considering verses 1 through 5, but I want you to look ahead
just a moment with me to verse 7. that begins with these words
for the mystery of iniquity. Some of you may recall when we
discovered some time back in our study of this phrase, the
mystery of the gospel, we talked about how it's a mystery, not
in the sense of being mysterious, as in that which is just beyond
our comprehension, but it's called a mystery in that it is something
that must be revealed to us. That is, it's something that
must be revealed to us by God's Spirit in the preaching of the
gospel. And so today I've titled this
two-part series, taken from this chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians,
The Mystery Revealed or Concealed. We could have entitled that Enlightened
or Deceived. Or I guess more to the point,
as we'll see clearly as we go through this whole chapter, saved
or lost. For we're going to glean from
these verses, he's speaking of two spiritual states. That is,
at any point, at any point of time in every generation, it
can be said of everyone in this world that either they have been
enlightened by God's Spirit, That is, a revelation has taken
place, a very specific revelation, and that's what we'll be examining
in this chapter, what that revelation is all about. As we've often
heard it described here from our former pastors, there's really
only two states that could describe everyone in this world. There
are sinners. And there are sinners saved by
grace. That is, there are those for
whom this deception, see, has been exposed, to whom this mystery
of iniquity has graciously been revealed. So we have that category. First of all, we have the category
of those to whom something has been revealed, who've been enlightened
of a mystery that previously was concealed to us. Referred
there in verse 7 to the mystery of iniquity. It's been revealed
to all those whom God the Holy Spirit has given spiritual life
and has delivered from a deception. I'm using words, I'm borrowing
language out of this chapter and you'll see as we go through
these verses. They've been delivered from the
lie, that's a phrase we'll see later in the chapter, to the
belief of the truth. using the language of verse 13.
That's speaking of the truth of the gospel itself, that Paul
told the Romans, in Romans 1, was the very power of God unto
salvation, he said, because therein something is revealed. And as
verse 17 of Romans 1 tells us, he tells us specifically what
is revealed, and it is the righteousness of God that is revealed. So we
know it's incumbent upon us to understand Exactly what this
righteousness is for that's what's revealed to those who God calls
by his gospel Unto a belief of the truth and then secondly we
have that other category that describes all others that is
the ones to whom this mystery remains concealed and Those who
remain deceived, that is, they remain in the darkness of unbelief,
a darkness that we all start out with, according to Scriptures,
at enmity with God, alienated from God, the Scriptures tell
us. But these who are lost, you see, they remain in the darkness
of unbelief, or unbelief of the truth, to use the language of
verse 12. That is not to mean they do not have a belief. a
faith, so to speak. It's just not the God-given faith
wherein this mystery is revealed. And as we'll see, to die in this
state, again barring the language from this chapter, is to perish,
as they remain deceived, so as to persist in believing the lie
that opposes the truth. Unaware of the sin that initially
deceives us all, what's called in verse 10 of our text, the
deceivableness of unrighteousness. That is, that which is anything
other than, not the righteousness revealed in the gospel. So I've
gone to great length here in introducing this message to just
set up this dichotomy because it's so clear throughout this
chapter, these opposites that exist. We have a truth that is
revealed, or that remains concealed. There are those who are enlightened,
or there are those who remain deceived. The saved, the lost. Those who believe the truth,
or they believe the lie. They're trusting in what the
scripture here calls a good hope, a good hope of righteousness,
or they have a false hope of unrighteousness. So I want you
to keep those opposites in mind as we study this passage. These are mutually exclusive
descriptions. We know that the Bible teaches
that God's people grow in grace and knowledge, yet here in this
passage we're speaking of a specific mystery that is either revealed
or concealed that identifies those who have been given spiritual
life, who have been born again, versus those who remain in darkness. And what could be more important
than what we're considering here? It pertains to the vital issues
of eternal life. We're talking about heaven and
hell. It's the vital issues that are
set forth in God's gospel, his way of salvation, in sharp contrast
to any other way that might pretend to the same end. So let's just
begin this verse study in verse 1 of chapter 2, where we read,
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and by our gathering together unto him. That word
beseech means that he's pleading with them, he's begging them.
And I believe the sense of this is he's saying, what I'm begging
you concerns the subject of the coming, the second coming. Christ
because that's when he will gather together all of the brethren
and I want you to make note That's who he's written this to is that
is to believers and in verse 2 he continues And he says now
here's what I'm pleading with you. Here's what I beseech you
that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by
spirit nor by word nor by letter as is from us as That the day
of Christ is at hand And that verse needs a little explanation.
I spent a great deal of time over the past few weeks studying
this, and I'll share some of my thoughts, some of which I'm
sure of and some of which I'll leave for your future study. But he says, I don't want you
to be troubled, first of all, by spirit. I believe there he's
talking about those who would preach or prophesy as if they
had a revelation like that that was unique to the apostles, that
is directly from God, the Holy Spirit. And he's saying, don't
be deceived by those who may come to you and speak to you
by word, as in preaching, nor by letter, as in that which they
write. And he says, as if written by
us. Some believe that he's referring
there to the fact that some were writing and pretending that Paul
himself had authored the writings. Others believe, and I think this
may be the sense just as well, that it's those who appear to
be who had given agreement with the gospel Paul had preached
to the Thessalonians, and they were of like mind, and he's sending
a letter to them as if me and Paul now were one and the same.
And he says, that last phrase is the one that has given me
cause to do a little digging, and that is, as that the day
of Christ is at hand, I want you to be turning with me, hold
your place here, and turn to 1 John chapter 2. Most commentators believe that
this is suggesting that these who would come and deceive you,
he says, now don't let them deceive you by these various means, and
he says they'll deceive you and they'll trouble you by suggesting
that either Christ's return, His second coming was imminent,
perhaps naming a day or a time, Or perhaps even that he had already
come. As we know most in our day who
major on the end times are the signs of the time that some call
them. They typically do so in order to relate a sense of urgency
as they know that this life is short and it is there. We should
have a sense of urgency. It is the scripture says it's
appointed on the man wants to die and after that the judgment.
But unfortunately most. do so, they are attempting to
encourage their listeners to act in accordance to whatever
their prescribed religion sets forth as that which the sinner,
you, should do in order to save yourself. Now, you need to do
that before it's too late, would be their message. rather than
simply communicating God's gospel that would have us to look to
Jesus Christ as the author and the finisher of the faith, rather
than to some decision, some action on our part. In other words,
their message is, you too can be saved if you will just do
something, if you'll just believe. Whereas the belief that God commands
in his word is to believe on Christ, not believe in your faith,
not think that your faith is what would distinguish you from
those who will perish, but rather to look to Christ to know you
must have what Christ accomplished in his life and death on the
cross and that alone. And so, whatever their denomination
sets forth as the prescribed requirement, or combination of
requirements, be it baptism, be it a profession before men,
in the quietness of your heart, accepting Jesus as your Savior,
whatever that is, these would suggest to you, you better do
it now, as the day of Christ is at hand. Interpreting that
phrase to mean Christ is about to come back, so you better get
busy. It is true that, and some, like
I said, believe that they were saying to them that Christ has
already returned. Frankly, either of those could
be correct, but I don't, that's not the take I have on that phrase. I believe Paul, rather, is simply
saying this. He's saying to brethren of like
faith, now, don't allow those who would write to you as if
it were us, that is, they make a profession to be like you. Like Christian faith don't let
them trouble you as they attempt to deceive you to shake your
confidence in the faith but rather be prepared for it because This
is the age in which we live the day of Christ is at hand The
literal Greek translation of that phrase says as that is present
the day of Christ Elsewhere in Scripture the day of Christ is
referred to as the latter days or the last times And that phrase
at hand, it can refer to something that is about to happen, but
it also may indicate that which is already present. There in
1 John 2, in verse 18, John writes, little children, it is the last
time. He's speaking in the present
tense. In his day, it is the last time. And as ye have heard,
that Antichrist shall come, even now. He's saying, in his day
are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time.
He continues, he says, they went out from us. There was already
a falling away, and we're going to see that in the next verse
of 2 Thessalonians 2. There was already that taking
place. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for
if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that
they were not all of us. Now, back in 2 Thessalonians
2, he continues there in verse 3, and he says, so look, don't
be shaken. This is the age in which we live.
That day of Christ, I believe, is referring to the time from
Christ's death and resurrection on the cross to his second coming. And he says, so let no man deceive
you, verse 3, 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." That day, I think there, is referencing
back to verse 1, where he did say, you know, the subject I've
come to talk to you about has to do with the second coming
of Christ when all of the brethren will be gathered together. And
I think he's saying that that day you'll notice that day shall
not come as in italics. It was added by the translators,
but I think it was it does help the understanding of this verse.
And I believe there he's saying, don't fear that this age shall
not end that day that is at the end of the day of Christ shall
not take place except there come a falling away first. This is
what is going to characterize this age. When you think about
that, you think of how much of the New Testament is written
to warn us of those who come in sheep's clothing, the wolves
in sheep's clothing, the beware of false prophets. If they come
to preach another gospel, he says, or if they come preaching
another Jesus, The New Testament epistles are just full of warnings
about current day religion and he says here let no man deceive
you by any means that they should not come except there come a
falling away. Now that that those two words
falling away come from a Greek word apostasy which means apostasy
and that's generally understood to be a defection from the truth. Apostasy can also mean, as Mark
has pointed out to me when we had a discussion on this, it
can mean a renunciation or an abandonment of any form of loyalty,
whether your loyalty was in that which was true or in that which
was false. And I'll come back to that thought
in a moment. But most believe here he's speaking of a general
falling away from the truth of the gospel. as in what many appropriately
refer to, I think, as the age of the apostate church. That
is, the church that comes in the name of Christ. And as we
just read in 1 John 2, John was addressing how even in their
day, the early church, some had already left the gospel who they
thought were of like mind. showing they were not really
true believers, that is, not with God-given faith, or else,
he says, they would not have departed. I want you to flip
just a couple of pages forward and look with me in 1 Timothy
4. Here Paul is writing to Timothy,
and he says there in verse 1, he says, Now the Spirit speaketh
expressly, that in the latter times, now keep in mind we just
read in First John, John says those last times are now. They
have already begun in their day. He says in the latter times,
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their
conscience seared with a hot iron. You see, if they speak
lies in hypocrisy, that means they're pretending to be something
else. Paul said here, as if I was writing
you that letter. They were coming in the name
of Christ, but their hope when unveiled is recognized to be
in something other than the hope of these believers who had been
called by the gospel Paul had preached unto them unto belief
of the truth. So this would certainly be this
looking there at 1st Timothy. That passage is in keeping, I
think, with a sense of an ongoing apostasy that had already begun
in their day. describing how those who appeared
and profess to be followers of Christ who gave mental agreement
to the truth as was set forth by Paul and the other apostles,
how they actually, in disguise somewhat, but they would promote
a lie that is opposed or contrary to the truth. And this would
certainly be troubling. You think about that in the early
church, how troubling that would have been. It's troubling in
every generation, including our own. There's two ways you might
think of that. You think of these in the early church. The the
those at Bethlehem, you remember, in Acts 17, we'll look at that
in a moment. He had gone there and he went
to the synagogue where the Jews were. Now, the Jews were looking
for a messiah who they thought had not come. And Paul preached
to them concerning Christ, who had already come and suffered
and rose again. Now you think of this, and they're
walking hand in hand with those who have been converted, so to
speak, under Paul's ministry, or appeared to be. And it would
be much like some of you men who I have great confidence in,
who I thought were walking one hand in hand, believing the gospel,
and all of a sudden I start sensing you're preaching hope that's
different from mine. That'd be troubling. That would
be troubling to all of us. We experienced that in this pulpit,
many of you will recall, where we called someone who we thought
believed the same gospel we did. And it was very much disguised,
and we had to deal with that. And that was troubling. It was
troubling to us. Also, think of this. In every
generation, when God's Spirit, under the sound of the gospel,
brings us to Christ, with that comes a recognition. And that
recognition is that multitudes who come in the name of Christ,
who use this same Bible, who claim to believe that salvation
is by grace, are actually promoting something totally opposed to
grace. And how do we recognize that? Because we did also, because
we were there. We know exactly what they believe,
and it's troubling. You think of that. To know that
so many remain deceived in darkness, the darkness that we groped about
in as well, but which this passage will show us God ultimately delivers
his people from. And I think that's what was troubling
these in Thessalonica. I will give you an alternative
viewpoint here because I'm not dogmatic about exactly what was
troubling them. But I'm only going to share alternatives
with you that I think fit with the context here of the message. If you consider, as I noted earlier,
that apostasy or falling away could refer to any renunciation
of a former loyalty, whether it's to the truth or a lie, then
perhaps what Paul is doing here is comforting these believers
with the certainty of salvation For all those, as he said in
verse 13, were chosen by God unto salvation, who the Spirit
sets apart, sanctifies unto a belief of the truth, verse 14, where
he calls them by their gospel, by the gospel. You see, as the
passage shows there, that is sure and certain to take place. He's saying this falling away,
perhaps, could be construed as what believers do in being apostate,
that is, to the natural religion of man. You see, the Scripture
says, except you repent, you shall all perish. So we know
there has to be a miraculous unveiling that takes place that
will cause us to reverse courses, whereas we all, born in darkness,
were heading down a broad road that leads to destruction. And
clearly all who come to God-given faith, they repent. They renounce
their former religion as an apostate to that false doctrine, turning
to the doctrine of Christ. Now, I just share that with you
because I'm not sure, obviously, which of those would be best
representative of the truth there. But I will share with you what
I am sure about. I lean toward the understanding
of verse 3 there to be referring to a general apostasy that takes
place in this day of Christ, from when Christ died to when
he shall come again. But not being dogmatic, I'll
leave that to your further consideration and study, but what we will talk
about is that which I am sure about, and that is the nature
of the deception, the lie that remains concealed to everyone
except those who are recipients of the blessings of eternal life,
having been given spiritual life which Christ alone purchased
for them in his obedience unto death on the cross. And that's
where we'll measure. He says there in verse 3 also,
he describes this and he says, and this day will not come now
except that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Most people
believe this is speaking of a one-person man who will appear in the future
that they call the Antichrist. There have been a multitude of
books written about this, as men speculate about this one's
an Antichrist and that one's an Antichrist. But I think the
fallacy of that notion's already been exposed in what we've looked
at today in 1 John. In 1 John 2, he said, even in
his day, there were many Antichrists. So, it can't be one person that
we're to look for to arrive on the scene who's going to be revealed
so we'll know it's near the very end. Also, he called it the son
of perdition. Perdition means destruction.
You may recall that Judas was called the son of perdition also
in scripture. This isn't referring to Judas,
so we know that it's not speaking of one man. Judas had already
killed himself by this point. That phrase man of sin means
a man of offense or a man of lawlessness. I want you to keep
that in mind because we're going to see that saying that that's
the definition of the Greek word for many of the descriptions
given, like in verse 80 speaks of the wicked one. We're going
to see that say lawless one. I believe and then perdition,
as I mentioned, is means destruction, a son of destruction. I believe
that this is referring to the personification of a lost man
or woman and or their fault religious system, who in their religion
they promote a lie, a lie that is symptomatic of the sin that
is committed by all of us initially, but a sin that will be revealed
in time to each and every one for whom Christ purchased spiritual
life. and the faculties to behold God
in the face of Christ. You see, sinners who are saved,
they are arrested, so to speak, just much like Paul on the Damascus
Road. As verse 13 will show us, they
are set apart, sanctified by the Holy Spirit as he calls them
by his gospel. As that mystery of iniquity is
revealed, a mystery that was previously concealed, and so
what do they do? They reverse courses. I often
quote Proverbs 16, 25, there's a way that seemeth right to a
man, but the end thereof is a way of death. Whatever seems right
to us by nature, that's the broad road that leads to what? Destruction. And so, in that sense, all start
out as a son of perdition, son of destruction. You see, that
way is characterized by our being deceived, as we'll see later
on, I think it's in verse 10. in unrighteousness. In other
words, a way of salvation that would deny righteousness. Now,
what is this righteousness? Righteousness speaks of the perfect
satisfaction made to God's law and justice. For justice to be
satisfied, it must be satisfied in precept. There must be a perfect
obedience rendered. Christ said on the Sermon on
the Mount that, except your righteousness succeed that of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.
How far must it exceed it? He said at the end of chapter
five in Matthew, Be ye therefore perfect. A perfection, a perfect
obedience and submission to God's revealed will must be rendered. And yet, and so as sinners, that's
impossible with us. We need a substitute. We need
a representative and Jesus Christ is the only man, the God-man
who walked on the face of this earth and rendered that obedience.
But he didn't need to do that for himself. He did it for a
people that God gave him. Those at verse 13 tells us that
were chosen unto salvation. And those people he did it for
were sinners such as you and I. And you see, the law demands
a penalty be extracted. And so he had to die a bloody
death for only the precious blood of Christ. Could pay the sin
debt owed before an infinitely holy God. Now that's righteousness.
And I digress there, I know. But you see, when we speak of
this man of sin, of lawlessness, it's to speak of what we all
initially imagined. That God will save me, see, in
spite of my sins. We think of his mercy as being,
he'll just look the other way. You see, it's a way where justice
does not necessarily have to be served, a way of lawlessness,
that is, without the law being satisfied. Think of it. Many believed, as I once did,
most probably in Christendom, that Jesus Christ lived and died
for all men. And I even used words like, He
paid for my sins, or He died to take away my sins. My understanding
was now in hindsight was vague, I suspect, about that as a young
boy. But think of that. Think of the
injustice to have imagined that the real difference of whether
I went to heaven or hell was whether I received Christ as
my Savior, whether I did this or I did that if I believed,
imagining that multitudes for whom Christ died and paid the
sin debt would perish anyway. What an unjust God. I imagined
him to be. That's the man of sin, a way
of lawlessness. So we see that this man of sin,
this son of perdition, would describe all of us by nature.
We have to look no further than even children who grew up under
the sound of the true gospel of grace to see what their thoughts
are when they get serious about religion. We all say, you know,
I want to go to heaven. What do I have to do? And what's
the first thought that comes to our mind? what I have to do. We simply, naturally imagine
there's something we could do to distinguish ourselves from
others. You see, we don't really have
to fall down pleading mercy. That's not mercy. That's just
you make the deal, you cut your end of the bargain when you get
ready. It's in your hands all the time,
and unfortunately that's the message that is prevalent in
this day of Christ is at hand, this day of the apostate church. So as you can see, I believe
those descriptions, along with the descriptions we're going
to see later in the chapter, verse 8 of the wicked one, verse 9
of the one who's coming is after the working of Satan, is merely
a personification of the entire realm Our system of false religion,
not just any false religion, but he's talking about one that
would deceive these brethren. That is, one that comes in the
name of Christ, Christendom, but denies the doctrine of Christ,
hence called anti-Christ. We'll continue with me in verse
4, and he's describing this system personified as the man of sin,
the son of perdition. He says, Who opposeth and exalteth
himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so
that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God. This is describing that false
system of religion that promotes the lie in opposition to the
truth. And be turning with me to Genesis
3, by the way. Notice, as you're turning, keep
in mind that phrase. He says, those that promote this
sitteth in the temple of God. Now, that refers to the fact
that he's talking about a decision that takes place inside the church
that comes in the name of Christ. And then that phrase, it says
they're showing himself that he is God That means he is setting
forth or operating as if he is God. He's not claiming to be
God outwardly or overtly. You see, that wouldn't fool,
that wouldn't fall in the context of this, because that wouldn't
fool any of us, and it certainly wouldn't take a miraculous work
of God's Spirit to reveal it as it would the mystery of iniquity. No, how does one, what it's speaking
of is how they operate as if they are God. In Genesis chapter
3, We have the discourse between Satan, Satan speaking in the
form of a serpent with Eve in the Garden of Eden. And in verse
1 we read, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of
the field which the Lord had made. And he said unto the woman,
Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden, But of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Now
we know from Genesis 2.17, this tree was known as the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. And so there in Genesis 3, continuing
in verse 4, it says, And the serpent said unto the woman,
Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof that your eyes shall be opened, and ye
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw
that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make her wise and make one
wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband Adam with her, and he did eat. That phrase in verse
5 when it says, and ye shall be as God's knowing good and
evil. That word knowing communicates
that you will be able to discern what is good and evil for yourselves.
That is, you determine the standard of good and evil contrary to
God's strict standard and listen, and in opposition to God's sovereign
authority to do so. This is man's rebellion here,
his independence from God. And so he's saying the devil,
Satan, in the form of the serpent, said, you can set the standard
as God's. And that is Satan's lie that
is set forth. And as Eve saw that fruit and
it was pleasant to her eyes, so do all those who remain deceived
take pleasure. in something other than righteousness,
God's standard, which he says in Acts 17 that he's going to
judge the world in righteousness by that man, the Lord Jesus Christ. As verse 12 of our text shows
us back in 2 Thessalonians 2 now, they take pleasure in something
other than or in addition to righteousness. That is something
that's not that perfect satisfaction that God requires. Which is why
he sent his son. That's what he came to do, he
said, to fulfill the law, every jot and tittle. They take pleasure,
it says there, in unrighteousness. And that, I believe, is how,
in verse 4 of our text, men show or set themselves up or operate
as if they are gods. And listen, that's where we all
start until we're brought under the sound of the gospel. And
God's spirit applies it to our hearts. And we discover that
the way that seemed right to us was a way that ended in death,
in destruction. Well, we see this prevalent in
the religion of our day that comes in the name of Christ,
as men refuse to acknowledge and bow to the fact that God
requires that which they cannot produce for themselves, a perfect
righteousness. Instead, we unwittingly Act as
if we were gods when we imagine that we could save ourselves
if we and we would promote that. If we'll just do whatever fill
in the blank. Satan's life is that something
other than or in addition to Christ's finished work must be
fulfilled in or by you. The center. And that's not I'm
not negating the necessity of faith, but God given faith doesn't
look to faith as the cause of our salvation, but rather the
fruit and the effect of what Christ accomplished for us. Look at verse 5 and we'll finish
up there. Verse 5 reads, Paul says, Remember ye not that when
I was yet with you, I told you these things. Turn quickly to
Acts chapter 17. Acts 17 is the only record we
have of what Paul told them when he visited Thessalonica. He may
be referring here to things not recorded, but we can only learn
from those things that are. So let's consider the description
of what he related to them at Thessalonica. In verse 1 of chapter
17 says, Now when they passed through Amphibolus and Apollonia,
they came to Thessalonica. where was the synagogue of the
Jews and Paul, as his manner was, he went in unto them and
three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening
and alleging that Christ must needs, underline those two words,
must needs, have suffered and risen again from the dead and
that this Jesus, to be distinguished from any other, this Jesus whom
I preach unto you is, and there is a definite article there in
the Greek, is the Christ. Not the Messiah you Jews have
been looking toward, but this is the Christ, the one who must
needs have suffered and risen from the dead. As we studied
that passage in the past, some of you will recall, we noted
how the necessity of Christ works. You see, the fact that it's necessary,
that negates any notion that salvation is ultimately conditioned
or determined by something done by you or in you, the sinner. It negates the notion that men
could set up a standard contrary to God's standard of perfect
righteousness, a standard that we as sinners could somehow meet. In understanding that Christ's,
see, must needs have suffered and risen again, we understand
that righteousness, the very perfect satisfaction to justice,
that Christ alone rendered in his obedience unto death is necessary,
and it must have been made mine. I must have that righteousness
in order to be reconciled to a holy God, me a sinner. And
that's contrary to the lie that suggests there remains something
to be done in or by me other than the imputed righteousness,
that is, the righteousness that God graciously charges to the
account of those he chose and gave to Christ in eternity past. You see, that's the mystery of
iniquity. That's the deceivableness of
unrighteousness that we, frankly, are oblivious to when we imagine
that something other than that one righteousness will recommend
us unto God. We're going to stop here and
we'll pick up next week, beginning of verse 6. Just consider for
a moment, in summary, what these first five verses have clearly
set forth. We know from other scriptural
testimony and our own experience that we're all sinners. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, the scripture tells
us. The question is, are you a saved sinner? Well, next week,
and I use saved in the context there of regenerated, convergent,
given spiritual life. Next week we'll delve into these
detailed descriptions a great deal more. But from these first
five verses, consider this. Paul has communicated clearly
to us first that there is indeed those who will deceive us. There
is a prevalent and pervasive false religion that goes by the
same name. sitting in the temple so-called
Christian church they call themselves Christian and misleadingly and
deceptively use God's Word unwittingly use issues God's Word as many
of us did they calling their way of salvation to be the way
that set forth in Scriptures. And they call it salvation by
grace even you say I know I did We use the words of Scripture
when in reality we were promoting a lie that indicated that the
determining factor of my eternal destiny was in my hands, was
something, me, the sinner. That's not grace. You see, that's
not grace and that's not mercy. That's a system of works that's
just simply disguised and called grace, but it's only grace in
name only. as we imagine, as so many imagine,
that we can merit salvation for ourselves. Secondly, he says
here clearly, to the brethren though, and this is the good
news of the gospel, this false system, this spirit of antichrist,
this system called the man of sin, the son of perdition, it's
exposed for the brethren. They have been convinced of a
sin. John 16 talks about that being the work of the Spirit.
being convinced of the sin that previously they were oblivious
to. There's a revelation that takes place under the sound of
the gospel of God's grace, wherein his righteousness is revealed.
And thereby we discover how sadly mistaken we had been. And in
God-given faith and repentance, we see what? The necessity. How
he must indeed have suffered and risen again. That very resurrection
attesting to the fact that that's what got the job done. For righteousness
demands life just as sin demands death. So when God-given faith
and repentance, the brethren, such as Paul is addressing here
in this passage, they come to see their need for pure, unadulterated
mercy. They truly are at the mercy of
God. And if that's revealed to you,
the good news is you are an object of His mercy. If you must have
that very perfect righteousness, Which, as sinners, we discover
we cannot contribute one iota towards meriting. That which
the Savior alone merited for us. That righteousness which
is graciously imputed or charged to the account of every sinner. And who are those sinners? All
those sinners to whom this mystery is revealed. So how about you? Does this mystery remain concealed
or has it been revealed? Has God revealed to you the necessity
of possessing this righteousness, that perfect satisfaction He
alone established in His life and death on the cross? You see,
that's His standard of judgment. Well, that's what's revealed
in the gospel of God's grace, the gospel Paul said was the
power of God unto salvation. And I pray that God will be pleased
to so reveal this mystery to someone who hears this gospel
message. And may God so richly bless you.