All right, 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. We begin in verse 1. Paul says,
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and by our gathering unto him, that ye not be soon
shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word,
nor by letter, as from us, as that day of Christ is at hand.
Now, you'll remember in Paul's first epistle to the Thessalonians,
he taught us about the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And he comforted the hearts of God's people by reminding us
that our loved ones who died in the faith, they're not destroyed. Their souls are not asleep. They're
living with our Lord Jesus Christ. And when Christ returns, everyone
who has died, they're going to be resurrected. And he also taught
us we don't know when the Lord's going to return. We know he is,
but we don't know when he'll return. His return is going to
be sudden. like a pregnant woman when she
suddenly goes into labor with that child. The Lord's return
will be sudden and unexpected like the thief who comes in the
night. Now, we know our Lord will return. He said he would.
He told his disciples in John 14, I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. After
our Lord ascended, the angels told the disciples this same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come
in like manner as you see him go into heaven. We know the Lord's
coming back, and when he does, he's going to gather his people
to himself, to be with him. And that would be so wonderful.
I can't wait, but we don't know when it will be. And Paul made
a point of telling the Thessalonians and telling us that just because
the Lord's coming again someday, and it may be soon, that doesn't
mean we're to sit on our hands while we wait for his return.
We're to be active in the Lord's service. The fact that we know
he's coming doesn't make us lazy. It makes us active in his service. Look back in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. Verse 6, Therefore let us not
sleep as to others, but let us watch and be sober, be active
in the service of the Lord till he comes. Verse 8, But let us
who are of the day be sober. putting on the breastplate of
faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." He goes
on to tell us, comfort one another, encourage one another, know them
that labor among you, know your pastors and your elders, and
be sure they know you. Verse 14, he says, "'Now we exhort
you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded,
support the weak, be patient toward all men.'" That sounds
pretty active to me, doesn't it to you? "'Be active in the
Lord's service.'" Now, some may have misunderstood Paul's instruction
to us about the Lord's second coming. Some may have either
intentionally or unintentionally, maybe they misrepresented Paul's
teaching and they were saying that the Lord's going to return
at any moment. And Paul's writing to correct
that error. We think that some, even at this
time, just not very many years after our Lord's resurrection
and ascension, that even then they were predicting days and
months and seasons when the Lord would return. It even appears
someone forged a letter when Paul says don't be troubled by
spirit or word or by letter as from us. It appears someone forged
a letter from Paul predicting the time of the Lord's return
and probably having another doctrinal error that Paul is writing to
correct. Now, there are several problems.
with trying to predict a time, a season, a date of the Lord's
return. And first, and this is most important, that's just utter
foolishness. No man can know when the Lord
will return. It's not possible. Our Lord said,
only my Father which is in heaven knows that time. So it's impossible
for us to know, so we're just wasting our time to try to predict
it. When that prediction doesn't
come to you, but you go out there and you publicly enough and you,
you know, throw enough facts and figures, you know, dazzle
people with spreadsheets and stuff. Somebody's going to believe
you when you make a prediction of when the Lord's going to return.
And when that prediction does not come true and it won't. Then
they're going to be shaken. Maybe they'll think, well, the
Lord's not even going to return at all. Then, you know, if he
didn't return now, this is just all a hoax. He'll never return.
Or maybe they'll doubt other truths that are taught in God's
Word. So don't trouble people like that. Don't make a fool
out of yourself and don't make a fool out of them. Just leave
this matter alone of when the Lord will return. But this thought
also, it looks like it came up in Thessalonica. Some people
may quit doing their daily responsibilities because they thought, well, the
Lord's going to return next month. Why go to my job? earn money
to pay the mortgage and stuff. Why bother with that? The Lord's
coming back next month. Now, he might. The day of Christ
is at hand. That's what Paul says. It may
be today. It may be a few days. It may
be a few years. It may be many years. We don't
know. Now, remember this. When Scripture
talks that it says the day of Christ is at hand, it sure sounds
like he's coming any moment, doesn't it? Sounds like that. But that time frame is relative
to God, not you and me. To you and me, the Lord ascended
2,000 years ago. And He's waited, the way we count
time, 2,000 years to return. I mean, that seems like so long,
thus we can't even comprehend 2,000 years. Delta, the Lord
hasn't even been a weekend yet. A thousand years is a day, so
the Lord just hasn't been two days. He hasn't even been a full
weekend yet. This is this time frame that talks about is relative
to the Lord, not to us. And just because the Lord could
return at any moment, that doesn't mean we're to quit our jobs and
quit the responsibilities that we have in this life. And just,
you know, well, I'm just going to study the word and just, you
know, wait for Christ to return and not fulfill my responsibilities
in this life. That's contrary to scripture.
Wayne, you've got a wife and daughters to support. Go do it. You and Tara got two dollars
to raise and teach. Well, be active in it. Do that.
Teach them the fear of the Lord. We've got responsibilities here. Look back in Luke chapter 19. The way you watch for the Lord
is by doing whatever service he's given you to do. And every
once in a while you check to see if he's arrived yet. Look
here in Luke 19, beginning in verse 11. As they heard these things, he
added, and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and
because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately
appear. He said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country
to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called
his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto
them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and
sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to
reign over us. And it came to pass that when
he was returned, that he was coming back, and he eventually
did return, having received the kingdom. Then he commanded these
servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money,
that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then
came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.
And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant, because thou hast
been faithful in very little, have thou authority over ten
cities. And the second came, saying, Thy pound hath gained
five pounds. And he said likewise to him,
Be thou also over five cities. Then another came, saying, Lord,
behold, here is thy pound, which I kept laid up in a napkin. For
I feared thee, because thou art an austere man. Thou takest up
that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.
And he said unto him, out of thine own mouth while I judged
thee, thy wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere
man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did
not sow. Wherefore then gavest not thou
my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required
my own refusery? And he said unto them that stood
by, Take from him that pound, and give it to him that hath
ten pounds. See, this man sat on his hands.
He knew the Lord was coming back. And he sat on his hands and did
nothing. And our Lord called him a wicked servant. I'll give
you an example of this. Of course, we just read it in
Scripture, but I thought of this. About looking for the Lord's
return. Janet occasionally should go out of town. She'll go up
to the girls for a few days or should go visit her mom for a
few days. I'm left at home. Well, I always know the very
day she's coming home. I always know the very day. But
now I don't know what time. Usually it's going to be later
in the day, but I don't know what time. Well, the day she's
to return, I don't sit on the porch looking down the road,
you know, seeing if her car's coming down the road yet. I don't
do that. I get to work. I work on my message or my lesson.
I got to load the dishwasher because that ain't been done
since she's been gone, you know. Maybe run some laundry through
or pick up the house a little bit because none of that's been
done since she's been gone. And every once in a while, I look
out the window to see if her car's there yet. That's how we're to
look for the Lord's return. Be about the business that your
father's given you to do. And keep one eye out looking
if he's come, if he's arrived yet. You see, each of us has
responsibilities that the Lord's given us. Well, don't be weary
while doing. You know, let the Lord find you
so doing and never use the Lord's return as an excuse to be lazy.
That's just irresponsible. Instead, just the opposite. Our
Lord's return should rouse us up with a desire to serve him.
And that's what Paul says here. Now, brethren, I beseech you
by the coming of the Lord. You believe the Lord's coming
back. So if you love his return and you rejoice thinking about
his return, you hope in his return, then you pay close attention
to what I'm about to tell you. So you won't be in error about
this business. He says in verse three, now let
no man deceive you by any means. For that day shall not come,
except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition." Now, there's no use in looking
for signs of the season that's going to predict when the Lord
is going to return. But we are told this, that before
the Lord returns, there's going to be a general apostasy. Now,
apostasy is not just people who don't believe the truth. Apostasy
is when someone claims to believe the truth, they act like they
believe it, they act like they love it, but then they leave
the truth and they deny the truth. It's just like a dog returning
to his vomit. They say they believe salvation
by grace, but they leave it and they go, they turn to salvation
by works or salvation by a combination of grace and works, which is
salvation by works. They claim to believe and love
that salvation is by the sovereign will of God. But something happens
and they turn from that. And they turn to salvation, a
decision that a man makes instead of what God makes. They leave
justification by faith. They claim to believe it, but
they leave it. And they turn justification into
something that happens by knowledge of facts and doctrines instead
of by the new birth. You know, they leave total depravity. So suddenly the new birth is
something that can happen to the flesh. You know, light just
gets shined on the flesh or something. And if that can happen, the flesh
is not totally depraved. That's why I said they left total
depravity. The new birth is not the miraculous
birth of a new man born by the will of the Holy Spirit, but
by the will of the flesh. And they leave all sound doctrine. Paul told Timothy, that day is
coming. when they'll leave sound doctrine.
And you know, every generation will see it. This is not something
that's new to our day. You know, we think, boy, look
at all this. This means the Lord's coming back. This is not new.
Every generation sees this happen. The very first generation in
Israel born in the promised land, the first one turned apostate,
left God and turned to idols. The first generation has been
that way ever since. Now, these apostates are still
religious, but their religion is anti-Christ. Their religion
is opposed to Christ and his glory. Look what he says here
in verse 3, at the end of verse 3. And that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition, 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. Now, this man of sin, the son
of perdition that Paul talks about, is the Antichrist. And
he's the one who's leading men into this apostasy. Now, the
Antichrist is not one person. It's many people. It's a whole
system of religion that's opposed to the person and glory and work
of Christ. Look in 1 John 2. Now, they look
like prophets. They're religious. But they are
Antichrist. they're opposed to Christ. In
1 John 2, verse 18. Little children, it's the last
time. And as ye have heard, that Antichrist shall come even now,
are there many Antichrists? He's not just one man, there
are many, whereby we know that it is the last time. And look
over in chapter 4, verse 1. You know here in verse 1, when
John talks about the spirits, he means preachers. Beloved,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they
are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the
world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist. See, not just one man, it's the
spirit of Antichrist. Well, you've heard that it should
come. And even now already, is it in the world? See, this spirit
of Antichrist being in the world, this is no new thing. The religion
of Antichrist has always been the world. It wasn't new in John's
day, but it existed in his day. And it still exists in our day.
See, he's not one man. Antichrist is not the Pope, although
the Pope is Antichrist. But it's not one man, it's every
false prophet, every false professor, every system of religion that
is opposed to the person and work of Christ, that's opposed
to Christ getting all the glory. And this is a very serious warning. This warning is made to people
who claim to believe the truth. Now, this is not just a warning
to the masses out there who've never believed the truth, never
heard the truth, never claimed to believe it. This warning is
made to people who claim to believe the truth. And if it were possible,
the Antichrist would deceive the very elect of God. Now, we
know it's not possible, but if it's possible, he would. That's
why Paul says, let no man deceive you by any means. This warning
is to us. So Paul is going to tell us how
to identify the system of religion that is Antichrist so that we
can avoid it. Look at verse four. who opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped. The Antichrist opposes everything
that gives Christ all the glory and salvation. He opposes particular
redemption. He says, now Christ didn't just
die for the sins of his elect so that they'd be eternally saved.
Christ died to give everybody a chance to be saved, and it's
up to them whether they are or not. See, that's opposing the
glory of Christ. That is anti-Christ. Anti is
glory. The Antichrist opposes the blood
of Christ as the sinner's only hope of atonement. He opposes
the truth that Christ's blood was shed as payment for the sins
of his people. And because God accepted the
precious blood of Christ as payment for the sins of his elect, then
the sin of his elect is gone. And it's not just like they don't
exist. Those sins actually do not exist
because the blood of Christ blotted them out and they're gone. And
the antichrist says, no, that's not the truth. That's not what
the scripture teaches. The antichrist says that the
blood of Christ gives man a chance to be saved and they have to
decide whether to accept the blood that's shed for them or
not. And here's the big mistake in that. And he accepted it as payment
for the sins of his people and the Holy Spirit applies that
blood to the hearts of his people. But the antichrist opposes that
because he's anti, he's against the glory of Christ. The antichrist
opposes God's electing law. He says God didn't choose a people
to save and pass everybody else by. God loves everybody. Yeah, He's going to send people
to hell anyway, but He loves everybody. You see how that's
anti-Christ? That's anti-the glory of Christ. We talked about this Wednesday
night. That makes the love of God a bitter, inglorious, unholy
thing. It's anti-Christ. And the anti-Christ
opposes all these truths of God and salvation because he wants
to bring God down from His glory. and exalt himself into the place
of God. And this false religion, this
Armenian anti-Christ false religion does exactly that. And I'll make
good on that. The one who's in control of salvation
is God. Isn't that right? I'm in control of my salvation.
I'm the one that's got to make a decision. Then I'm God. If
it's up to me, then I'm in control. And I'm God. But you know that's
not so. But if God decides whether I'm
saved or lost, if God decides whether I'm saved or damned,
then God's God. And everything else, everything
is antichrist. Now, the Antichrist, he's not
easy to recognize. He looks like a prophet. He's
not some two-headed beast that looks like a dinosaur. He's all
these weird colors. He's got this big tail. No. He's a preacher. And if you look
in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, I'll show you why that is. It's
no wonder. It's not surprising. He looks like a preacher. He
sounds like a preacher. He carries a Bible. 2 Corinthians
11 verse 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, making themselves look like the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. Therefore it is no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end should be according to their worst, but they look
like they sound like ministers of righteousness, but they make
that righteousness something you do, not Christ our righteousness. And God's faithful preachers
will point out this error to be faithful to point this out
to you. Back in our text, verse five. Remember ye not that when
I was with you, I told you these things? God's preachers are faithful
to point out this error so that we're warned and be watchful.
So the Antichrist, he doesn't appear to be against God, he's
religious. But you'll recognize that he is against God by his
message, by his preaching. He's not going to bring in a
ceramic idol for you to bow down and worship. That's too obvious. If you claim to believe the truth,
you won't fall for that. But his preaching will be against
God's glory. Now it'll sound like he's preaching
righteousness, but it'll be against God's glory and it'll promote
the glory of men by giving men something to do. Giving men some
credit, some glory in this thing. And I'll tell you a sure phrase
that you can identify the Antichrist with. Anytime somebody starts
out, God wants to, shut them off. Just plug your ears and
quit listening. That is a sure sign of the Antichrist. You listen to me. God doesn't
want to do anything. Ever. God wills it. And it's
done. Now that applies to salvation. And that applies to every event
of providence. So you know what that means?
That means that the Antichrist arises. He has power. He has
some authority. He has some influence. He has
a following. Because God allows it. It's not happening outside
of God's will. God's allowing it. And the Antichrist
is actually working out God's will and God's purpose for this
world. The Antichrist can only go As
far as God allows him. Just like Satan's on God's leash. The Antichrist is too. He can
only go so far. And the only reason the Antichrist
hasn't taken over the whole world is God just hasn't let him yet.
He hasn't allowed it. And it seems like he has, doesn't
it? It seems like he has taken over the whole world. But there's
a few spots. And thank God, right here's one
of them. Thank God. The only reason the
Antichrist is not in this pulpit this morning is God hasn't allowed
it. Oh, I'm thankful. I'm so thankful. God's holding
back. That's what Paul says in verse
6. And now you know that what withholdeth, what restraineth,
that he might be revealed in this time. God's going to reveal
this spirit of Antichrist to the whole world one day. He hasn't
yet, but he will one day. When Christ returns, everybody's
going to see Christ as he is. No one will be able to deceive
anybody because everybody's going to see him as he is. Nobody will
be deceived. because I'll see him as he is.
You won't be able to deny his glory, because every eye is going
to see it. Everybody is going to see the
preeminence of Christ in that day. But verse 7, until then,
for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now
letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. Now this
religion that is in opposition to Christ, They don't have some
good things and some bad things. You know, they're not just good
people who are slightly mistaken. You know, they're not people
who mean well, but they're just off in a few minor areas. What
does God call it? God calls it iniquity. Then that's
what it is. It's iniquity. False religion
that opposes the glory of Christ and the person and the work of
Christ is iniquity. In verse 10, God calls it with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness. It's unrighteous. Anything less
than the perfect righteousness of Christ is unrighteousness. So, and certainly anything that
opposes Christ's righteousness is unrighteous. And God's going
to send people to hell for it. Now this is why they're going
to perish. And the iniquity and the unrighteousness of the Antichrist
is at work in the world right now. It's not something we're
waiting on. It'll happen in the final moments
of the history of the earth. It's at work in the earth right
now. And God's only going to let it
go so far. But you know it won't always
be that way. One day God's going to let it loose. He's going to
let it loose for a time. And then Christ is going to come
and destroy it. He's going to take it all away.
You know how He's going to do that? the same way he delivers
his people out of false religion right now. How did God deliver
you from false religion? How did God deliver you from
self-righteousness? By his word. By the preaching
of his word. By the revelation of his word
to your heart. Look at verse 8. 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. Just like God's consumes self-righteousness in His people
and reveals Christ our righteousness, God's Word is going to destroy
the Antichrist in that day. Just like God's Word consumes
will-worship and gives a heart that does worship Christ. Just
like God's Word dispels darkness by revealing Christ, the light
of the world. That's how Christ is going to put the Antichrist
away. By His Word. By the power of the Word of His
mouth. Christ's Incarnate Word returns.
Everything that is anti-Him will be destroyed by Him, by the word
of His mouth and by the brightness, the glory of His person. Now
again, it's not that these fellows, you know, they got some good
doctrine and some bad doctrine. No, it's all wicked. All of it is. Look at verse 9.
I'll show you where they got it from. Even Him who's coming
is after the working of Satan. with all power and signs and
lying wonders. They got their doctrine from
Satan, so it's wicked. Now, let's forget about these
fellows, you know, working miracles of healing in tongues. You know,
everybody sees past those snake oil sales, at least all of you
do. So let's talk about these men, these preachers that people
are impressed by, because this is the problem. Someone says,
oh, now, you know, this preacher, man, he's powerful. delivery
is powerful in his manner. He must be of God. And you remember
this. You can't tell God's preachers
by the powers of speech that he possesses. You can't tell
God's preacher by signs and different evidences like that. You know
how big of a crowd he's got or, you know, whatever. I always
think of John Chapman saying, you know, the size of the crowd
don't matter. Billy Graham's got a huge crowd. He don't preach
the gospel a bit. You can't tell by that. You can't
tell God's preachers by the wonders that he claims he knows or has
experienced. You know, you're probably lying
about them all anyway. You can only tell God's preacher
by his message. That's the only way. If his message
is Christ alone, not things about Christ alone, Christ alone. than he's of God. And if his
message is anything else, I don't care what it is, anything else,
he's after Satan. He's a son of Satan. And he's
a deceiver, which he got from his father, Satan. Look at verse
10. With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. See, the problem is that they
don't know the truth. Now remember, we're speaking here of those
apostates. But one time claimed to believe
the truth. They know the truth. Now they've got a head knowledge
of the truth. Absolutely they do. And at one
time they acted like they loved it. They acted like they agreed
with it. And now they deny it. They leave it and they hate it.
They had a head knowledge of the truth. But they do not love
the truth. That's the difference. They don't
love Christ who is the truth. So they leave him. You don't
leave somebody you love. Why'd they leave him? They don't
love him. They don't love the truth. So they leave it and they're
damned. And God gives them exactly what
they want. Look at verse 11. And for this
cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe
a lie. Once they leave the truth, the dam's broken. I mean, you
don't know how far this thing's going to go. That they all might
be damned who believe not the truth. but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now, when we talk about this
day of general apostasy and a prevalent spirit of the Antichrist, we
sure think it sounds like our day, don't we? These are some
of the things why so many people think, well, the Lord's coming
back in my lifetime. But just be careful about that. I wish
he would, but I don't know when he's coming back. The Thessalonians
thought the same thing. They saw so much of this apostasy
and this spirit of antichrist. They thought the Lord was coming
their day too. So you can't look for these signs of the times
to determine if Christ is coming back anytime soon, you know,
by our calendar, the way we calculate time. So what should we do? We should keep on in the service
of our Lord, in the service of his vineyard where he put us.
We should keep preaching Christ. and holding forth Christ who's
the word of truth. That's the way to dispel this
apostasy and dispel this spirit of Antichrist is preach Christ. Hold forth the word of truth.
I tell you how to dispel the darkness of our day. Hold forth
Christ, preach Christ who's the light of the world. That will
dispel the darkness of our day and the darkness in our hearts.
That'll dispel it by preaching Christ. And when apostasy happens,
as much as we do preach Christ, as much as we hold him forth,
there will be an apostasy. And when it happens, be broken
hearted about it, shed a tear over it, but don't be shocked
by it. Don't be shaken by it because it'll happen. It's just
going to happen. But the best way to guard against it is preach
the word. Preach Christ and hear the word.
If you want to guard against apostasy happening to you, hear
the word preached. That's the best remedy for it.
It's the only remedy for it. And be kind to one another and
loving to one another and forgiving one another and encourage one
another with Christ. Encourage one another in him.
Speak of him often. You want to comfort somebody?
Speak of Christ. You want to encourage somebody?
Talk about Christ to them. That will help them and that's
the best, the only antidote for this apostasy and spirit of antichrist
that is very prevalent in our day. God bless that to you.