2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse
1. Now we beseech you brethren by
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled,
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as
that the day of Christ is at hand. 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, 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, Remember ye not
that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And
now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in
his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth
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, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not
the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. I think it's quite obvious from
the reading of these verses that this is an important prophetic
chapter from the pen of Paul the Apostle. And he's writing,
as we've noticed in recent weeks, to the church a second letter. So this is the second epistle
of Paul to the Thessalonians. And in writing to the Thessalonians,
he has by them written to us all. And the Holy Spirit has
blessed us with the retaining and maintaining of this letter
for the benefit of the whole church in every age. The Apostle
is talking here about the day of Christ and this is the subject
that he has in mind. He's talking about the day in
which the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth as he promised. The Lord came with his incarnation
and he lived and died and rose again and ascended into heaven
and as he was going he promised his disciples, he promised his
church and people that he would return again as did his angels. So let us be sure, let us be
clear, let us be confident of this, that our Lord Jesus Christ
is coming back to this earth. He is coming. He is coming soon. He is coming as he promised. He is coming to gather his church
to glory and to judge all evil and all who have no faith. There is a little lesson perhaps
here, occasioned by the mistaken view of the Thessalonians that
they were living in the immediate last days of the world. and that Christ's return was
imminent, that Christ was just about to appear. And it may be
that there was just some confusion in the minds of the church. It
may be that there was some mendacity on the part of some people trying
to cause trouble, trying to cause strife, trying to sow the seeds
of confusion. But Paul's purpose was to correct
the teaching concerning Christ's return and to contradict those
who perhaps thought and taught that there was little point in
working or little point in preparation, little point in planning for
the future because the Lord Jesus Christ was soon to come back. And if indeed that view, that
thought had continued for any length of time, then it would
have brought the testimony of the church at Thessalonica into
disrepute. It would have given the church's
enemies opportunity to speak against believers and harm the
testimony of the gospel. So it appears that the apostle
was quick. He wrote this second epistle
to the Thessalonians quite promptly after the first letter, having
ascertained in some way that there was this element of confusion
that had crept in, as I say, either accidentally or purposefully
because of some troublemakers. What we can see from this is
that the Lord's people have always had a knowledge that Christ was
coming back and they've always had an eager expectation that
his return was imminent. And yet Paul is also teaching
us here that the times of Christ's return and the judgment of the
church's enemies, remember that these Thessalonians were under
dire persecution, so they may well have been getting up every
morning saying, I hope today's the day that our enemies will
be suppressed and our blessings will be bestowed. But Paul is
here telling us that the judgment of the church's enemies, their
persecutors, the timing of those judgments is in the hand of the
Lord and according to his purpose. And that there yet was to be
a period of enduring for the church at Thessalonica and indeed
for many other churches and believers as well. so that while we do
look expectantly for Christ's soon return, it is wise to be
confident in the fact of his return without being too dogmatic
about its timing. And here the apostle informs
his friends in the church there in Thessalonica that before the
Lord returns, there is a need for several things to occur. There will be a falling away
and that man of sin, the son of perdition, shall be revealed. Now let me just deal briefly
with the first of these two, this falling away. This falling
away does not mean that there will be a falling away of God's
elect. I remember many years ago, being
in an environment where there was no confidence that people,
once they were saved, were saved for eternity, but that they could
be saved and then they could be lost and this was the great
thing that people would get converted but then they would fall away
and that As the Lord's return grew closer, there would be more
and more converts would fall away and not maintain their testimony
and maintain their salvation. Well, this falling away does
not mean that there will be a falling away of God's elect. or that
Christ's redeemed people will ultimately be lost, or that some
of those whom the Holy Spirit has quickened to eternal life
will not actually have eternal life, but will in some way give
it up by their lack of faith. Let us be emphatic, let us state
the truth that that is not possible. All those who are chosen in eternity
will be saved in time. All those cleansed by the blood
of Jesus Christ are justified and reconciled with God and no
one will ever pluck them from his hands. Not anyone else, nor
they themselves could jump out of his hands. That was what they said in those
Arminian days. No, no one can pluck you out
of God's hands, but you could always jump out. Well, no, I'm
afraid you can't. All who are bestowed with faith
are already possessors of everlasting life and they can be assured
of it without fear. What Paul is speaking about is
those who fall away from a mistaken profession of faith, who claim
to be believers or claim to be Christians or have an assumption
that they're Christians, but in truth are unregenerate and
void of all experience of grace. And there is a sense in which
there have been in the past times when whole countries have claimed
to be Christian countries. There have been kings and queens
who have ruled on Christian thrones and governments who have built
on Christian principles but whose Christianity was not true faith
but merely a legal or a cultural or an outwardly
religious and ultimately hypocritical way of life. even perhaps a method
of control. And under such regimes, every
child that was born was assumed to be a Christian citizen by
reason of their nationality, or their church baptism, or their
social standing. Now there's no doubt that biblical
morality makes for good social values, but it is not in and
of itself true faith. And while it does appear that
there have been times when true gospel preaching has reached
the souls of greater numbers and true churches have thrived
and converts have been more plentiful, Today, it certainly appears as
if, at least in this country, in the United Kingdom, there
is greater cynicism towards Christianity, greater opposition and more open
rejection of gospel truth than perhaps there has been down through
the more recent ages. Today it seems as though fewer
are being called into the true church by the Lord's appointed
means. It appears that this is a day
of small things and few believers and perhaps that gives us some
insights into what the Apostle Paul is here referring to as
a falling away. The other thing that is specified
in this little passage, these verses, is the appearance of
that man of sin. And this does not appear as if
it is Satan per se, because we're told that this man of sin, his
works follow the works of Satan, as if to say that he is living
in a way that is following after the wicked ways of Satan. So it distinguishes this man
of sin from Satan. nor does it seem to be a single
individual because there's reason to identify this man of sin as
antichrist and John tells us that there are many antichrists. Historically, at least since
the time of the Reformation onwards, the Church of Rome has been identified
as most fully and completely exhibiting the evil and wicked
characteristics that are listed here by the Apostle Paul. or
the papacy perhaps to become a little bit more definite. And I see no reason to doubt
or second guess that designation. But let me say this. We would
be wise not to limit it exclusively to the papacy or indeed one particular
denomination. Paul gives us a list of crimes
that are perpetrated by this anti-Christian heresy and that
man of sin. He is said to oppose and exalt
himself above all that is called God or all that is worshipped. That is, he claims worship for
himself. And in a sense we can easily
identify certain churches as having done that and exalting
themselves over indeed the whole world. And yet we might also
say that humanism exalts mankind over God at a very basic and
personal level. Another characteristic of that
man of sin is that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God. He lets it be understood that
he holds the power of God, the power to grant grace, the power
to forgive sin. And again, we have seen that
so-called power exercised by some churches and some men in
the past. He claims signs and wonders,
lying wonders, and he comes working the works of Satan with all,
and here's a very interesting phrase, with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness. He deceives under a pretense
of righteousness. That's what that phrase means.
Just let me say it again. He deceives under a pretense
of righteousness. And Paul adds to that, that the
followers of that heresy, they take pleasure in unrighteousness. And in addition, God brings on
them and makes them subject to strong delusions. And this is very obvious, I think,
for those of us who have a grasp of the gospel of free and sovereign
grace. We look back in many respects
on bygone days and we identify some men and women that we might
in inverted commas, called heroes of the faith. And we see that
there are those who have laboured for the gospel and they've struggled
for the truth and their testimony resonates with us. And then we
look around about us and we see that really there are so few
who seem to understand these truths today. And yet there are
so many who believe all manner of foolish things and strange
things and unreasonable things that we have the true gospel
as we understand it from the word of God And yet there is
great popularity in the false nonsense that seems to swamp
the age in which we live. And I believe that that's what
Paul is referring to when he says God brings upon this age
strong delusions. And here I think we can perhaps
learn another lesson. It's not simply one individual
like a Pope or one denomination like the Roman Catholic Church
that is to be seen as satisfying these criteria, but every religion
and every ethical and moral framework that aspires to please God outside
of Christ. trying to be acceptable to God
with anything other than faith, the faith of Christ, because
it is only faith that pleases God in a sinner. And these people
take pleasure in unrighteousness. Now that could mean that they
indulge themselves in all manner of lust and promiscuity and wickedness
and self-promotion and self-satisfaction. It could mean that. That they're
joyfully indulging in sin. But it could also mean what we
said a little bit earlier. that they are clinging to a form
of righteousness as being acceptable, which God the Lord has condemned
as unacceptable and condemnable. So taking pleasure in sin is
saying, no, we are able to please God by the things we do. We are
able to please God by the things we say and think and aspire to. when in fact the Lord has said
there is but one way of eternal life, there is but one way of
acceptance, there is one mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And these are the words of Christ
telling us of that unique way of acceptance. While outside
of Christ, Every other man and woman harbours this notion of
self-righteousness and acceptance based upon their own views and
their own criteria of what is righteous and what is not. This
is what man-made religion is promoting and doing all the time. Without faith it is impossible
to please God, So, while I'm content to acknowledge and accept
Roman Catholicism epitomises that man of sin, even to the
point of sitting in the place of God and showing himself that
he is God, and by being able to forgive, or claiming to be
able to forgive sin, yet I say this, that all free will works
based religion, by whatever name, is inherently trying to replace
Christ. is inherently trying to displace
the cross and to climb up another way, as do thieves and robbers,
to gain access into the sheepfold of Christ. And while the Roman
Catholic Church openly claims to forgive sins, so do many other
denominations who tell those attending funerals that the deceased
is in heaven, and claim to be able to know that regardless
of the life that that person has lived. Being subject to strong delusion
is a fearful state and yet do we not see the whole works-based
system of religion whether so-called Christian religion or non-Christian
religions or no religion at all, mere humanism, do we not see
that that is essentially anti-Christ righteousness? Our only ground
of acceptance with God is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
because outside of Him, The law of Moses was the highest standard
ever given to man. Outside of Christ, the law of
Moses and every lesser man-made law system, every neonomian imposter,
is simply the product of strong delusion and an example of taking
pleasure in unrighteousness. Paul has set up a great contrast
here in these verses. There is damnation and destruction
coming upon all wickedness and unrighteousness. And there is
salvation bestowed on all those who have a love for truth. This love for the truth is a
love for Christ. It is the spiritual fruit of
spiritual grace and it comes through faith to and upon all
who believe in Jesus Christ. All believers love Christ because
he first loved us. And there's no question that
this world is a wicked place. There's no doubt but that strong
delusions, a love of sin and pleasure in unrighteousness is
the product of a heart estranged from God, a heart incapable of
loving him. But our hope is in having been
loved of God, having been enlivened and enlightened to see, trust,
and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to have the confidence that
strong and fearsome as our foes might appear, the Lord our God
is coming soon to judge the wicked and destroy that man of sin.
and all who take pleasure in unrighteousness. Amen.