Alright, in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2, let me just read verses 5-7 and then we'll go into it as
it is laid out in our outline for tonight. We'll work this
for about an hour and then we'll open the door for a Q&A. The apostle, having already spoken
to the Thessalonians now about the place and the central objective
of the man of sin, the son of perdition in terms of his goal
of controlling of the whole world, enslaving mankind under a false
worship of himself in whatever form that might be. That form
may take on the manifestation of a monarch, an individual ruler
who will have enough influencing control over a system by which
his will can be accomplished in the world. I'll talk about
why that is a tenable thought. Or it might be a mere system
that in its composite whole speaks to the oneness of fallen man
in his ultimate agenda to be worshiped as God. Let me say that again, the man
of sin and the son of perdition can either be an individual who
somehow through the providence of history, where nations are
brought into a state of union, such as we have been hearing
the term and understand that the movements of our governments
ultimately are seeking a global unity. If somehow things can
converge and as it were amalgamize, so that certain persons can have
such influence over the whole superstructure that his will
and his influence might be able to be imposed upon the whole
human race. Then we can see how that the scriptures can prophetically
depict a man of sin or a son of perdition by which his will
then is reflected in the masses of the people. If you struggle
with that concept, don't. Just think about the whole period
of human history where monarchs ruled. If you think about the
period where monarchs ruled, then you can understand how a
one single individual can have so much influence over a people
group, I mean even into the millions and even in some cases billions,
where his will be done. He becomes the object of worship.
He becomes the one after whom the nation now has to think and
live and have its being. I think about Korea, North Korea,
and the recent death of Mr. Il, as it would be, Kim Jong-il,
and the pictures that are pervasive all over North Korea, and how
the people are forced to pay him homage in their homes as
if he were God, because communism can impose that type of rigorous
imposition on the conscience. and threaten people with a mortal
fear and judgment if they should not comply with the wishes of
this totalitarian monarch. if all the nations were able
to gather together under a global banner and therefore come to
the conclusion that one man might be brilliant enough to be a vicar
or representative of the whole global superstructure, then his
ideas can begin to be permeated among the people group through
legislation or through brute of force, if you will. And that
all depends upon what happens between now and then in terms
of the continual breakdown of culture. in terms of a loss of
autonomy, in terms of a loss of will to fight against evil,
which we're gonna talk about tonight. Nevertheless, the idea
of the man of sin, the son of perdition as it is set forth
in the scriptures is an idea that is designed for the believer,
the people of God to know that the ultimate intelligentsia governing
the powers that be in this world is a satanic intelligence. It
is a satanic intelligence and it serves as an antithesis or
a parody of the intelligence of Christ. That in the celestial
realm, what we are dealing with is a warfare of which there are
two heads. The one who is the head of the
universe, by virtue of the church manifesting his will to the human
race. The other he is a fallen angel who has authority over
fallen humanity by power of deception of the masses and their own volitional
desire to live out their desires in accordance with his deceptive
will. These become the two opposing
entities that you know the scriptures lay out. So we do have a good
and evil theme that we must recognize as part of a biblical worldview. We're going to get to that here
in a moment and they are personified. So when you deal with personifications,
it actually makes it easier for you to visualize the battle instead
of merely dealing with principles or merely dealing with methodologies
or merely dealing with ideologies. Some people's eyes glaze over
when we use those sort of terms. But when you think about persons,
it becomes a little bit easier to grasp. Haven't you thought
about this? I want you to think with me for
a moment because I am so very sensitive of the transformational
nature of our fallen world system at this present time. I don't
know if you're watching the way the world is moving towards a
hyper-paganistic manifestation. I don't know if you see that,
but our whole world is moving to a greater manifestation of
overt and blatant paganism. I mean, your Neo-Roman paganism
of all of the false gods and the warlocks and these battle
gladiators that are hybrids of humans and animals and something
other. You see this in your movies,
you see this in your videos and even our children's games now
are permeated with them fighting these dragons. You guys understand
what I'm saying? This here is a new thing that's
permeating our culture. And whether you know it or not,
the enemy is using the methodology of what we call entertainment
to infuse our minds with a worldview that basically is systematically
removing a biblical worldview. See, because a biblical worldview
does not tolerate pagan ideas and mythical notions and this
hybrid of gods and men as you see it in pagan religions. Unfortunately,
because Christianity is as porous as it really is, it has opened
the door from generation to generation to allow pagan notions to enter
in. I don't know how often I have
to battle with Christians over ideas that are unbiblical when
it comes to their vision of angels. or their idea of visitations,
or how the demonic world works. I have to let Christians know
often that what you are visualizing and conceptualizing really doesn't
have its origins in scripture, but it has its origins in the
Fertile minds and imagination of blinded men and women who
have written these scripts for thousands and thousands of years
and played them out in theater or even in politics, certainly
in entertainment and have shaped our thinking, shaped our thinking. And so until you and I are determined
to constantly wash our thoughts in the Word of God, to determine
whether or not how we are thinking corresponds with Scripture, to
the degree that you are open to all of these pagan notions,
you are open to deception. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
To the degree that you are open to these pagan notions, You are
open to deception. I'm going to be dealing when
I address here tonight at least a three part phase of what it
means to bind and loose, what it means to bind and loose in
terms of a chronological relevance. Because of a question that came
up last week, I'm going to be addressing it in three major
epics in a biblical history that we have recognized in the scripture. And in the first major epic,
which we call the patriarchal period, the patriarchs starting
with Adam going all the way to Moses, we'll deal with that in
a moment, one of the areas in which I have had to labor for
years to, as it were, deconstruct the myth, uh, mythology that
has dominated many of our so-called Christian brethren is the idea
that angels and humans can have sex and therefore create these
hybrid creatures called monsters. See, if you accept that notion,
you have accepted a pagan notion of angelology. If you accept
the notion that angels in their ontological makeup have the capacity
to enter into conjugal relationships with humans which have their
own unique ontological component and somehow create a monstrosity,
a mix of an angel and a man, you have now bought into mythical
paganism. Because the scriptures do not
allow that kind of thinking. Are you hearing me? The Scriptures
do not allow that kind of thinking. No matter how difficult the language
may be for you in Genesis chapter 6, with regards to the sons of
God and the daughters of men, you don't have when you allow
the Scriptures to actually inform chapter 6, the premise for a
hybrid of angels. And we've dealt with that long
time ago about the implications that would fall out if we were
to buy into the notion that human beings can now morph into something
more than human beings and now become both human beings and
angels and that angels can now morph into something more than
angels and now become angels and something else. Well, if
we, if we can become angels and men, then we can become angels,
men and horses. are angels, men, and fish. Now
aren't we totally immersed in the whole pagan worldview? Are we not immersed in it? And
so what the Bible does is it puts parameters and boundaries
around that kind of thinking and tells us that those are lies
that the enemy inserts into your thinking to make you believe
those sorts of things to distract us. Be very careful. We'll get
back there in a moment. What I want you to notice, however,
in verse five through seven of 2 Thessalonians is the language
that Paul lays down about the present restraint evil the present
restraint on evil and it's given to us in verse 6 and Now, you
know, I'm sorry. Let me start at verse 5 Remember
ye not that when I was with you I told you these things and now
you know what you see the word withhold it in some translations
its restraints or holds down or keeps back and Now, you know
what withhold it that he might be revealed in his time for the
mystery of iniquity is already at work. Only he who is now see
the word let restrain it will continue to restrain until he
be taken out of the way. So here's the picture. There
is a restraint. Confining evil. For a period
of time, until God chooses to remove that restraint in order
that this man of sin or son of perdition, whatever it is, comes
into full view. So the restrainer is a containment
process on the part of God in order to keep this individual
or this ultimate manifestation of evil in check until a certain
time. There's a certain time in human
history appointed by God for this last epoch of evil to manifest
itself, but until then it will be restrained. However, underlying
this manifestation is an ongoing struggle of evil. Underlying
this manifestation is an ongoing struggle of evil. Listen to the way the language
is given to us in verse 7. for the mystery of what? Iniquity or lawlessness, the
mystery. Now, whenever we see that term,
mysterion, that mystery, it means it's something that is not known
until God reveals it. The mystery already is working
and the mystery that's at work is the mystery of lawlessness. It's the mysterion of animals.
Namost means law, lawlessness. And it's important for you to
understand that. The mystery of lawlessness has been working
from the beginning of time since the fall of the human race. So
let's define some terms, ladies and gentlemen, as we work through
the language. There is a difference between sin and iniquity. There's a difference between
sin and evil. Evil and sin are not synonymous. Are you guys following me? This
is very important to know. Evil is the byproduct or the
manifestation or the fruit of sin, but sin is its root. So we don't want to make sin
and evil synonyms. For to do that is to actually
confound the process. Now, you know that what I'm saying
makes sense when you have a biblical worldview of how things were
in the beginning. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth in six days. He also then created
mankind as the pinnacle of his creation on the sixth day. He
gave men dominion over everything and he told man to make sure
that he does not do one thing. Eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and sin. You got it? I want you to understand
then that when we define terms like sin, and we define terms
like evil and we define terms like good, we want to define
those terms based upon the scriptures or else we will actually find
ourselves holding a faulty worldview. So why I said that sin itself
is different than evil is because God said it was. That God had
planted a tree in the middle of the garden of which he called
the knowledge of good and what? Evil. Now, he told Adam and Eve,
do not eat of that tree. In the day that you eat of it,
you shall surely what? So, what Adam and Eve did was
called sin. What they experienced is called
what? Evil. Are you guys following
me? What they did in rebelling against
God was called sin. Sin, according to 1 John chapter
2, is transgression against God's law. Evil is what breaks out
on the human race because of what? Sin. So it's very important
for you and I to know that the origin of evil is rooted in lawless
acts. The origin of evil is rooted
in lawless acts. See, we have to talk like this
because in our present Christian generation, people are not rooted
and grounded in the fundamentals of the faith. In our present
evil world, the last thing that your society and mine wants to
admit is that you and I by nature are what? Sinners. Because to
admit that we are sinners is to admit that we are held accountable
to a God of law. If we can eradicate the root,
if we can get rid of the terminology called sin, then we can deal
with evil any way we want to. In fact, if we get rid of the
root called sin, we can actually turn evil around and make it
good. Isn't that what Isaiah says? Woe unto you that call good evil
and evil good. Now, once you begin to redefine
terms of good and evil, ladies and gentlemen, do you know what
you become? you become God. God is the one
who defines the terms. And it's very important for you
to know this. And I'll tell you again, I am watching our society,
the world in which you and I live, morphing into this absolute,
morbid, vile thing that is hard to even describe. Is anybody
seeing the world the way I'm seeing the world? And if you
are seeing the world the way I'm seeing the world, don't you
ask the question, Now, where is this thing going? And what
is the fuel which continues to drive it in this direction? Well,
the answer, the short answer is going back to the garden and
understanding that the moment that our parents ate that tree,
we opened up the Pandora's box of what is called evil. Evil. And in order to actually deal
with a symptom, you got to get to its what? Root. You cannot
solve a symptomatic problem by denying its root cause. And this
is why we say the remedy to the world's problem is not psychology. It's not sociology. It's not
civil justice. It's not economic prosperity. It's not political control. It's redemption. Redemption is
the only answer to the outbreak of evil that dominates our world. And so it's important for you
to know that what's taking place in our society is this sort of
boiling pot of evil in every generation all around the world.
And if it could, it would blow the lid off. But in God's mercy,
he restrains it. So now follow me in your outline.
I want you to see it in your outline. Under 2 Thessalonians
2, verses six and seven. Don't you marvel at how You see,
I mean just violence and perversion everywhere in places where sometimes
you just, you are surprised that it pops up. And can't you see
when you use a biblical prism, how that the enemy is really
trying to break off of this chain that he has on him in order to
just go into what we call full perdition manifestation. It's
called perdition. He's on the brink of it. He's
on the brink of it. In 2 Thessalonians 2, verses
6 and 7, notes that in your outline, point number two, 2 Thessalonians
2, 6 and 7, the Greek term is kateko, and you don't really
have to worry too much about it. It's a compound word, kato,
and echo, and it's a term that means to hold down, to hold down. which again means to restrain,
to hold down, literally to hold down. Now, what I want to do
with you right now is take you through three or four Bible verses
in the Old Testament all the way to the New, where the Bible
depicts God restraining evil. And it's very important for you
to actually have the narrative of this restraint process because
this restraint process is part of the progressive unfolding
revelation of God's will and purpose in the world. God takes
ownership for restraining evil. Not only does he take ownership
for restraining it, he takes ownership for permitting it.
God takes ownership of restraining evil and he takes permission,
ownership of permitting it since God is what? Sovereign. He rules over all things. One
of the, I had a very candid question raised to me, I think out of
our women's theology class, Maybe it was a women's theology class
or maybe it was just one of my sisters candidly speaking to
me We are developing such a cordial relationship. They just talk
to me any kind of way they want to And in any event one of my
sisters said it I don't know who she is she might even be
here tonight, but her question was so Fascinating that I actually
commended her for honestly saying it to me I mean, you know people
think these things but they won't say them, you know, you know
what she said she said if I God knew that Adam and Eve would
fall into sin and sin would contaminate the whole world. And here I am,
you know, tens of thousands of years after Adam suffering for
what he did. Doesn't God owe me something? Now, that may seem funny to you,
but the agnostic and the atheist In particular, your virulent
atheists argue against Christian presuppositionalism on those
bases. That if your premise is right,
that we have what is called the doctrine of original sin, having
its origin in Adam and Eve and then being passed on to the rest
of us in a traduciary way from generation to generation, the
sinful genetic predisposition of Adam flows through his seed
and flows through the woman's womb into the next generation,
then how can God blame five generations down the line for something that
Adam did? You guys understand that argument, right? This is
where our atheist friends and our agnostic friends are just
completely bent out of shape about the biblical doctrine of
federal headship. That's Romans 5. We acknowledge
that all things have their origin in terms of the human species
in Adam and Eve. And that as the parents are,
so are the children. Is that right? As the parents
are, so are the children. And this is where psychology
will knock you upside your head because it makes you feel so
bad, mama and daddy, because of how your children act. Psychology
makes you the root of their problems. Am I telling the truth? Oh yeah. What psychology dare not do is
take the root back to first causes. Because if it does that, then
everybody's culpable. You see what I'm getting at?
And if psychology were to take a theological route, what it
would have to admit is that our children, even if it had the
best parents in the world, still had the capacity within themselves
to break out of that pattern and live like hell. We know that
because we have both kinds of patterns given to us in the scriptures. How is it that you have evil
parents producing ostensibly godly children? Or how is it
that you have a good godly man who ends up having just hell
bound children that take on the whole Antichrist model? Because
without the restraining hand of God, we would all be that
way. We would all be evil as Hitler, all evil as Mussolini,
all evil as Jeffrey Dahmer and anybody else who has just broken
out of the range of human constraint and just let the vileness of
our nature take over. and it would be our fault. Even
though we inherited our fallen nature from our parents, we still
do what we do volitionally. Am I making some sense? We still
are accountable for our own actions. The point in which I am speaking
is about the evil that's in our world that troubles all of us. Go with me in your Bible to Genesis
6 now. I want you to see it. I'm going to run you through
four verses. The evil that's in our world troubles all of
us. You, me, my parents, my children,
my grandchildren, my brothers and sisters in Christ, my brothers
and sisters outside of Christ, my adversaries and my enemies.
We all have one thing in common, trouble. Job said it in Job chapter
three man is born into trouble like the sparks that fly upward
So you can you can start throwing the blame game all around if
you want to but we still have to admit We are in a matrix called
trouble What God's Word tells us is it is not as bad as it
could be Look at Genesis chapter 6 This is one manifestation of
the restraint factor. In Genesis 6, this is what God
says in verse 3. And I'll start at verse 1. And
it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the
earth, and the daughters were born unto them, that the sons
of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, beautiful,
good to look upon. And they took them wives of all which they
chose. This is the corrupting of this passage that is done
by your hybrid thinkers who suggest or argue that verse 1 is describing,
or verse 2 rather, is describing angels. And that these angels
somehow, not only did they just enter into sexual relations with
the daughters of men, but as I've talked to you before, if
we're going to be honest with the scriptures, these angels
didn't just go run up on women and have sex. They married them. Look at the text. That means
these angels had to go to mom and daddy. and say, can I take
your daughter to be my wife? And then they had to go through
ceremonies like we all go through ceremonies in order to enter
into covenant relationship with them, because the text said they
married them. They took them as their wives.
Right. To be a whole nother thing, if
somehow angels could just hijack women and rape them. But the
text says they took them to be their wives. So be very careful. Notice what it says. And they
took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said,
my spirit shall not always what? See that word strive. It means
to referee. It means to judge. It means to
set parameters on the conduct of the human race the same way
a referee judges a basketball game or a soccer game or a football
game and determines the penalties. and determines the advancements
and the regressions of either team. You know, judges have to,
umpires have to judge the game, determine what's right, what's
wrong, what's a strike, what's a hit, all of those things. That's
the nature of this particular word. And here's what God is
saying. When man rebelled against him, aid of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, what man said was, I don't want a relationship
with God where he talks to me directly and tells me what's
right and wrong. I want to discover what's right
and wrong for myself. That's called self-determination
of which they chose to eat a tree to acquire that knowledge at
the proposition of the devil versus listening to God. Now,
what makes the people of God, I'm talking authentic Christians,
different than the people of the world is that authentic Christians
do not eat at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil anymore.
We eat at the tree of the word of life and we allow God to tell
us what's right and wrong. See, we've been recovered from
the notion of thinking our thoughts after ourselves, or leaning unto
our own understanding, or being wise in our own conceit. Am I
making some sense? Now we are the people who, as
it were, have the Word of God to tell us what we are to think
and what we are to believe. No longer do we go to an outside
source represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. That becomes an experience for the human race of which God
says it can only result in what? Death. Seeking knowledge outside
of God, God says will only kill you. Seeking knowledge outside
of God, God says, will only kill you. Because you and I don't
have the capacity to define the terms. Only God does. God made
the universe. He made everything in the universe.
The seen things, the unseen thing. The governments, the structure,
the story, everything in our universe, God made. And if He
made it, we need to go to Him for the definition of what it
is that's in front of us, so that we might know how to function
with that thing accurately. If we define it, we're going
to set ourselves up for a fall because we're going to always
define things to cater to our predilections and our bids. Am
I making some sense? Because we've fallen into sin.
If you, if you and I become the judge of what's right and wrong,
we will always make judgments based on our own reason, reasoning.
And God says that judgment will be wrong. It will lead to death. Well, how do we know? Well, Eve,
Thought to be independent from god's statements as to how to
conduct herself in the garden and look at what we've got The
wages of sin is what? That's where we are. So here
is your first Act of what we call the restrainer genesis chapter
6 verse 3 the lord said my spirit See it Shall not always strive
with man. You know what that means? God
made man with a conscience He didn't make the animals that
way. And now we're getting back to biblical theology called anthropology. When he created man, he created
man with a conscience. On his conscience is written
the law of God. The spirit of God can speak to
man in a way distinctly different than he speaks to the animals.
God can speak to the animals too, but his relationship with
his animals is distinctly different than his relationships with us.
We are a unique creature able to relate to God intellectually
on the basis of propositional truth. God, when he created us,
created us with the capacity to communicate with him like
I'm communicating with you. He didn't train us. We were already
capable of doing it. As soon as he created Adam and
Eve, he began to give them assignments, didn't he? They were able to
understand God right away. God didn't have to give them
an interpreter. God didn't have to give them a tutoring system
by which they would come to understand God. They immediately understood
God and God understood them. This is the likeness or the image
of God that's in us that we have the capacity to hear from God.
God said, don't mess your conscience up. Don't mess your conscience
up by seeking to determine what's right and wrong for yourself
because that will kill you. So once man fell into sin, his
conscience became tainted, wasn't it? The first thing he did when
he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was what? Run
and hide from God. That's where we all are today.
Running from God. Running from God. Now we're in
the world that the psychologists call phobia. We're in the world
of fears. Rightly so, because we're mortal
creatures, we realize now that we're fallible, we're not omniscient,
we don't know everything, and we're subject to death. So our
choices are getting us in trouble. Why shouldn't we be afraid of
everything? We've been cut off from omnipotence and omniscience. We've been cut off from love.
We've been cut off from righteousness. We've been cut off from perfection.
We've chosen to go this course on our own. Why not be afraid
of everything the moment we come out of the womb? It is completely
consistent with our spiritual condition that when we come out
of the womb, we start crying. You ain't never heard a baby
laugh when he came out of the womb. Okay. The next time you see this
restraint is in Genesis chapter 20. Go there. Genesis 20. I just want to show you some verses
to help you understand. What did God do in Genesis chapter
6? He disclosed to us that the human race was in a mess. And
if you were to continue reading Genesis 6, what you would have
learned is that God described the whole human race as in a
state of perpetual evil. Remember the text? And God looked
upon the earth and he saw that the imagination of the thoughts
of men was only evil continually and that man had so corrupted
the earth that he repented God that he made him and he gave
him 120 years before he wiped him out. You know what that means?
The human race in the days of Noah had 120 years probation
where God strove with their conscience daily telling them what's right
and what's wrong. But because they had fallen into
an extramural sin and become what we call sinners, all they
could do was evil and their whole bent was to rebel against the
light that God had given them. So God finally destroyed the
world with what? Water, a flood. It was God's
judgment that humanity could not reform. They couldn't change.
They couldn't turn. And we can't turn by our own
nature. In fact, we don't even want to. Not that we can't, we
don't want to. If God doesn't turn us, we are
going to be destroyed. And so God had to restrain them
for 120 years until he set up a redemption plan represented
in the Ark with one family called Noah. And Noah preached to the
whole world and said, hey, if you want to escape the judgment
of God, you better get into the what? Ark. That Ark is who? Christ. It's the same message
we tell the human race today, isn't it? Christ is the only
escape from certain doom. God was striving with them in
their conscious by their deeds. God was striving with them in
their conscious by the ark, the preaching of the gospel. God
was striving with them in Providence. And finally, God gave them what's
the word up as Romans one. We'll get there. When the restrainer
is removed, men are given over to unbridled lawlessness. Genesis 20. Are you there, Abraham? pushing the envelope with his
wife, Sarah, headed down to Gerar, which is where the coast of the
Philistines were, right on the border of Egypt. God said, don't
go to Egypt. So he just stayed on the border
of Egypt. You know how we play with sin, right? On the border
of it. He thought he was smart. Look
at verse one. We're going to read verses one
through six. In verse six will be our next manifestation of
restraint. And Abraham journeyed from this
toward the south country and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur.
and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said unto Sarah his
wife, she is my sister. And Abimelech, king of Gerar,
sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in
a dream by night. Do you guys see that? God came
to Abimelech in a dream by night. Hence, Genesis chapter six, verse
three. Right? Notice what it says. Abraham said to Sarah his wife,
she's my sister. Did he tell the truth? He told
a half-truth, which is a lie. Right? He told a half-truth,
which is a lie. But God came to Abimelech in
a dream and said to him, Behold, you are but a what? Oh man, what
a dream to have. You know what surprised me today
in these false prophet ministries? God always comes with a good
word to these false prophets. When you read your Bible, God
comes even handedly with good words and evil words. Aren't
you ever curious sometimes that the prophecies y'all supposed
to be hearing aren't sometimes bad sometimes? Don't we do wrong
sometimes? Don't we need to hear the chastening
of the Lord sometimes? Shouldn't some prophet rise up
and say, the whole head is sick from the soles of your feet to
the crown of your head. The whole thing is sick. At least
the prophets of old talk that way. But today the false prophets
are all preaching peace, peace and prosperity, aren't they?
Not God. He came to Abimelech and here's
what he said. Behold, you're dead, man, for the woman you
have taken, for she is a man's what? But Abimelech had not come
near her. In other words, he had brought
her in, prepared her for marriage and was going to enter into the
consummation process. But the Lord did what? Intervened.
And said, Lord, will you slay also a righteous nation? Said
he not to me, that is Abraham, to Abimelech, She is my sister.
And she even, she herself said, he is my brother. See, she got
in on it too, didn't she? Now watch this. In the integrity
of my heart and in the innocency of my hands, have I done this?
You know what? Abimelech said to God, I did
not know. I did not know. And he was right. Remember, you and I are not omniscient.
This is the reason why we need to hear from God, because there
are times when you can get in trouble. Unwittingly, it might
be somebody else that set the trap and you find yourself getting
in trouble unwittingly. Now, God could have easily unpacked
a Bemelech life and showed him that he was a sinner through
and through and that out of his lust and greed, because he was
a king, he wanted yet another wife. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? And so he took this available,
beautiful, hot sister called Sarah to Abraham's chagrin. But what did God do? He protected
Sarah. He protected Abraham, even in
their sin. This is why we need God restraining
us. Watch what the text says. Verse
six, and God said unto him in a dream, yeah, I know that you
did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also, what's
the word? Withheld thee from sinning against
me. Look at God. Now, let me help
you understand your theology right, just in case you don't.
If it wasn't for God restraining us, we'd sin against him more
than we do. Get your theology right. You
don't do a good thing by nature. There's none good, no not one.
We don't even think a good thought without the grace of God. It's
God that works in us, the will and the do of His good pleasure.
It's God that sows the fruits of righteousness in us by Jesus
Christ. I can't even think right without the Holy Ghost, without
the Spirit of God. I can't think God's thoughts
after Him. I can't even remember the scriptures. Like David said,
remember the word unto your servant, O Lord, upon which you have caused
me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction
because your word has quickened me. You and I can never ever
do a right thing apart from the grace of God. So give Him the
glory when you think right. Give him the glory when you act
right and know this if God didn't in his mysterious way Restrain
me from my predilections in my bits in my natural propensity
out of curiosity and lust to do what I want I'd get in trouble
every day. That's good doctrine That's good
doctrine God keeps his people doesn't he? He keeps his people. So here's an act of restraint,
and I'm actually telling on myself here, but I want you now to go
in your Bible to the little book of 1 Samuel, chapter 25, verses
32 through 35. I'm gonna take you to three or
four more accounts, and then we're gonna go back to our text
and work it through. The reason why I'm micromanaging
this concept of the restrainer, and what I mean by micromanaging
it I could take, I could choose to simply deal with this on the
larger theological scale, but I'm dealing with this on the
minute and acute scale where it deals with you and I, because
I want you to derive from our study some redemptive benefits. Am I making some sense? That
when you go away from here, your relationship with God is honed
and recalibrated in such a way that you thank him for keeping
you for this day. Because I know that for the people
of God, frequently, we don't thank God enough for not losing
our mind today. Do you know some of our brothers
and sisters have lost their mind today? Somebody drove them crazy
and ran them to the nutty house. Are they drove themselves crazy?
We learned something like that last night with our sister Martha
and Mary. Martha was encumbered about with
all kinds of cares. Jesus said cares and troubles
and cares and troubles will drive you what crazy if it weren't
for the grace of God if it weren't for the grace of God Restraining
you from doing something that you would later on regret. Let's
look at it first Samuel chapter 25 I'm gonna read verses 32 through
35 now This is where King David running from Saul not yet the
king but on his way to the kingship runs across a very wicked man
named Abel Abel treats him really bad and
David's indignation rises up in him and he wants to what kill
Abel On his way to kill Abel he runs
across Abel's wife and listen to the language here I'm gonna
read, start at verse 30 and go through 35. I want you to meet
a very godly and wise woman whom God uses as a restrainer of sin
in the life of a believer. And it shall come to pass when
the Lord shall have done to my Lord according to all the good
that he has spoken concerning then shall have, I'm sorry, this
is where Abigail is actually petitioning David for this. Let
me see. Let me start at verse 23. And when Abigail saw David, she
hasted, lighted off the ass, fell before David on her face,
bowed herself to the ground, fell at his feet, and said, upon
me, my Lord, upon me, let this iniquity be. What is she doing?
She's interceding for her husband, right? Man, what a woman. Wouldn't
you want a wife like that, brothers? They would say, I don't want
a husband like Abel. And let thine handmaid, I pray thee,
speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.
Let not, my Lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial. Now,
she knows what he is, right? That's real rough language in
today's vernacular, whether you know it or not. Let not, my Lord,
I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal, for as
his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly
is with him. But I, thine handmaid, saw not
the young men of my Lord whom thou didst send. Now therefore,
my Lord, as the Lord liveth and as your soul liveth, seeing the
Lord hath withholding thee from coming to shed blood and from
avenging thyself with thine own hand, let thine enemies and they
that seek evil to my Lord be as enabled. Do you see that?
Now, you know what's operating here, right? Proverbs chapter
15 verse 1, a soft answer turneth away wrath. And another proverb
which says, with long forbearance is a prince persuaded. The wisdom
of the words of this woman Abigail turned the heart of David from
seeking to avenge himself. And if you read further on down
the line, notice what David says in verse 32. David said to Abigail
blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day To meet
me and blessed be the be your advice and blessed be you which
have what kept me This day from coming to what shed blood and
from avenging myself with my own hands. I For in very deed,
as the Lord God of Israel lives, which hath what? Kept me back
from hurting thee, except thou hast come to meet me. Surely
had not been. Surely they had not been left
upon Nabal by morning light, any that pisseth against the
wall. In other words, they were going to kill everybody, kill it, kill
all the males. But if you notice those three
verses, David says, you kept me back and God kept me back
through you. So I want you to understand how
the principle of the restrainer works. In Genesis 6, it was the
Spirit of God. In Genesis chapter 20, it was
the Spirit of God. In 1 Samuel chapter 25, it's
the Spirit of God, only now through an agency. All right, let's go
to another one now. Let's make our way to the...
New Testament, Acts chapter five. We're almost done with this part
of our study. Acts chapter five. Does God restrain sin in the
world? Yes, he does. He restrains it
on national levels. He restrains it on on levels
that have to do with smaller groups of people, whether that
be tribes or families. And he restrains it in the lives
of individuals. In fact, It has to be true that
if God doesn't restrain sin anywhere and everywhere, sin will go unbridled
and wreak havoc. I should actually be using the
word evil. He restrains evil. Evil. OK, evil. Acts chapter five. Notice what it says in verse
40. This is a time when the Sanhedrin are wanting to punish Peter and
James and John for preaching the gospel, but they now must
hear and heed the words of a wise counselor. In Acts chapter 5
verse 40, let me see here. Okay, let me start at verse 30.
Verse 37. After this man rose up, Judas... I need to get the context. Okay, verse 34. Then there stood
up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the
law, had in reputation among all the people and commanded
to put the apostles forth a little space. In other words, he said
to the leaders, can you separate these guys from me for a moment?
I need to talk with you. And he began to reason with them
about all of the false prophets who had come before these guys.
And essentially what he said was, gentlemen, if these guys
are false, this thing will come to naught. You don't need to
find yourself guilty of punishing innocent men. If in fact they
are guilty, it'll just come to naught. Please bear with me.
And those were the words that Gamaliel gave. We read it over
in verse 39. But if it be of God, you cannot
overthrow it. Less happily, you'd be found
even to fight against God. Those are good words, aren't
they? And to him, they agreed. Do you see it? When they had
called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they
should not speak in the name of Jesus. And what let them go. So you see here now a form of
restraint taking place by the mediation of a ruler among the
Sanhedrin, a form of restraint. We said, well, they were still
beaten. Yeah, but they weren't killed. They weren't killed. Now, I want to take you to the
more celestial examples. When we are dealing with the
concept of the restrainer of sin in the larger celestial realm,
the question is often asked, is Satan bound or is Satan loosed
today? Is Satan free to wreak havoc
on the world or is Satan bound in a pit until a future event
where he will be loosed? and go into absolute perdition. Well, I want you to understand
that when we use the term bound and loose for Satan or what he's
doing or what he may do, that terminology has to be understood
also in the epic of history. From the Genesis account all
the way through to where you and I are now in the age of the
gospel. God has been, as you see, what? Restraining sin. That's the proposition
I gave you as we open. But I want to share with you
four verses now to demonstrate the restraint on a worldwide
level that took place. It took place in the beginning
of time at the fall We see this in Genesis 6, we talked about
it. I didn't tell you that God exercised a form of restraint
in Genesis 9 and 10 when the whole human race was about to
build a tower to heaven. Remember that? The Tower of Babel,
so that they might make a name for themselves. And God intervened
at that time and destroyed that tower and scattered the human
race to the four winds and divided their tongues. That was a form
of restraint, a form of restraint. Now, restraining evil, restraining
evil does not mean that we have eradicated sin. You know that,
right? Which means sin is always, as
it were, flourishing and trying to break out. As a consequence,
God has always had to, throughout human history, use some type
of mediation to put a cap on sin. Prior to the nation of Israel,
that cap was God's spirit. It was his providence. Sometimes
it was his ecological judgments, the flood, the destruction of
the Tower of Babel. But during that time, sin was
dominating the world in such a way that all the human race
was living in abysmal spiritual darkness. The whole human race
was living in abysmal spiritual darkness. This is how much control
the devil had over the human race, that there were very few
true people of God anywhere on planet Earth. According to the
Bible, Acts chapter 17, God allowed the human race to go its own
way, and God winked at them. That is a term that means he
allowed them to live like they wanted to, gave them over to
their own passions, and it was a world filled with idolatry.
You know what the history books say. And in that world filled
with idolatry, men did every vile debauchery you can imagine. from worshiping totem poles and
idols made of gold, silver, and what have you, to the offering
up of their children in sacrifice, killing one another in just vile
murderous religion. And what it depicted was the
control of the adversary over the whole human race in their
abject ignorance of the God of glory. Now I want you to understand
that pagan culture prior to the nation of Israel was a dark,
dark, dark world. Were there any believers? If
there were, they were scattered and few, like Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob. Or in the days of Noah, how many
people on the face of the earth believe the gospel? Just Noah
and his family. Ladies and gentlemen, that's
a dark world. If you were the only believing
person in the world today, wouldn't you ask the question, Lord, what
in the world am I doing here? But what I want you to think
about before I share with you a few verses is what a world
ignorant of and absent of the gospel looks like. I want you
to think about that. What kind of world would we have
that's ignorant of and absent of the gospel? Well, you know
the answer. Look at your present world. Isn't our present world
a mess? But listen, that ought not to
surprise you. It's been that way since the
fall. Where on earth can we say that the human race has lived
in total as an aggregate whole any better in the past than it's
living now? No time. The human race has been
always at war. The human race has been always
going through upheavals, times of economic troubles, trauma
and stresses. The human race has been constantly
defrauding one another. The human race has been constantly
serving evil and idolatry since the fall. Is this true? Now,
here's my point. In God's purpose, what he did
to remedy the problem was to institute a plan of redemption
that would grow in its revelation from families, that's the patriarchal
period, right here. That's the patriarchal period.
Adam's family, Noah's family, right? Isaac's family, Jacob's
family. Then he moved into the period
we call the what? Law. That's the law period under
Moses where a whole tribe now becomes the depository of truth,
a whole tribe. Who is that tribe? The nation
of Israel. The sons of Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob now become the light bearers of God's revelation to
the whole human race. And God worked through that group
of people after bringing them out of Egypt in the year 1450,
1480 BC, And led them into the promised
land so that they would be a light to the world That the law of
god the revelation of god the truth of god would go out from
jerusalem by virtue of commerce and relationship And god's judgment
of israel and permeate the world with the light of the torah Inherent
in the torah was the message of the what gospel So that as
we learned two weeks ago in our ladies class, which we are just
thoroughly enjoying, our women's theology class, a sister like
the Queen of Sheba comes all the way from the south to hear
the gospel and take it back to her country. so that the gospel
gets spread around in the regions of Africa and Arabia and Yemen
and other places, even during that dark period when the vast
majority of the world are pagans. They still had heard about this
monotheistic God that the Jews worship called Jehovah. Am I
making some sense? And wherever the law of God now
is honored and accepted, I'm getting ready to come home now,
getting close to home. Wherever the law of God is honored
and accepted, There is restraint of evil. Wherever the law of
God is honored and accepted, there is a restraint of evil. The law restrains evil. God's law restrains evil. It shuts human beings up to boundaries
of right and wrong. The law says thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not break this and
break that and break that. If you do, there are penal judgments
for it, right? That's what the law says. And
the law is designed to restrain sinful bent on human beings. This is what Paul says. The law
was designed for transgressors, right? So that was the purpose
for which God instituted the law and he had it primarily directed
for Israel first and foremost. So that they might be a people
witnessing to the world that God's law was able to restrain
them from destroying them until Jesus came. According to Deuteronomy
chapter 6, you know what God said in Deuteronomy chapter 6?
that I gave you my laws, my judgments, and my decrees in order to preserve
you this day, to keep you so that I might fulfill all my promises
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The law of God restrained them,
you see. One of the laws was the law of
marriage. Today we're trying to annihilate that law. Not only
are we trying to pervert it and twist it and turn it into something
that is not, but we're trying to annihilate it. God gave the
law of marriage in order to preserve families and preserve children,
to restrain us from our unbridled passions, which would lead to
diseases that would destroy our culture. Am I making some sense?
That's what laws work. And this is why Paul so avidly
said, the law is good. It's good. We don't want a lawless
culture. But you see, the mystery of iniquity,
according to our text, is the mystery of what? Lawlessness.
So here's what I want you to get. In the Old Testament, before
Jesus came, the whole world was in a canopy of darkness. Go with
me in your Bible to Isaiah chapter 25. I want you to see it. Isaiah
25. Now imagine a veil, a canopy
over the whole human race. black dark covering so that no
one could see the light and that all men were walking in a sort
of ignorance to the true nature of their spiritual condition
and the true revelation of God Almighty in Isaiah chapter 25 God describes
a that state of the human race as he depicts what would happen
when Jesus Christ would come and put away the law and institute
a plan of redemption by which the gospel, the light of the
gospel, would go into every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Here's
what he says in verse 1 of Isaiah 25, and I'm going to read to
verse 6, and you'll see the allusions to the triumph of the gospel
in this. Oh Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you. I will
praise your name, for you have done wonderful things. Your counsels
of old are faithfulness and truth. Your counsels of old are faithfulness
and truth, for you have made a city a heap. Sounds like judgment,
doesn't it? A defensed city, a ruin. a palace
of strangers, to be no city, it shall never be built. The
context is chapter 24, you gotta read it. Therefore shall the
strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nation shall
fear thee, for you have been a strength to the poor. Do you
see? A strength to the needy in its distress, a refuge from
the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible
ones is a storm against the wall. You shall bring down the noise
of strangers as the heat in a dry place, even the heat with the
shadow of a cloud. And the branch of the terrible
ones shall be brought low. This is all your old prophetic
Hebraic symbolism that deals with nations in terms of ecology. And he's talking about bringing
the lofty down, the proud down, the arrogant down, verse 6. And
in this mountain, that's the kingdom of God. Contextually,
it would be Mount Zion, shall the Lord of hosts make unto all
people a feast of fat things. feast of wines on the leaves
a fat things full of marrow of wine and on the leaves well refined
now verse 6 describes a jubilant time of celebration doesn't it
God shifts from destroying to celebrating doesn't it because
the destruction that he was describing was the destruction of the enemies
of God's people Now for you and I, Calvary was a destruction
of the enemy of God's people. And for you and I, Calvary is
the basis whereby God can now celebrate with us as his people. Notice what it says in verse
7. And he, that is God, will destroy in this mountain the
face of the covering. See the word? Covering. Cast
over all the people now watch this and the veil that is spread
over what all nations now Saints here it is. This is very important
What God is describing is the spiritual condition of the whole
human race starting with national Israel he said that there was
a covering over his people and there was a veil over all the
nations and Well, what he's describing is the unsaved condition of the
whole human race, whether they were the covenant people of God
or whether they were the uncovenant Gentiles of the world, that there's
a veil over our eyes so that we do not see the glory of God
until he does what? Remove that veil. Now you know
that's true. Do you know that prior to Christ removing that
veil, you were blind to the glory of God? You know that, right?
You didn't know God, you didn't understand his word. In fact,
you lived in hostile rebellion against him until he removed
the veil. Now, I want you to see the parallels.
We're getting ready to have in the next couple of weeks what
we call Calvary Night. I look forward to it. It's the Friday
before Sunday, Resurrection Day, where we get to focus. intently
and keenly on the crosswork of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells
us the night that Christ was crucified and buried that God
rent the veil of the Holy of Holies from top to bottom so
that man no longer has a barrier between the glory of God in himself
by virtue of the death of Christ. Are you hearing me? The mediatorial
means by which Blind sinners are now made to see the glory
of God is the death of Christ the cross of Christ Now that
that act that took place 2,000 years ago was a veil that was
removed from the eyes of believing Jews and the eyes of blind Gentiles
you remember what paul said in second corinthians chapter three
he says now we all with open faces do behold in a mirror the
glory of the lord he was talking about true believers right he
used the word open face because he said prior to the gospel Moses
had a veil over his face so we all had a veil over our face
and he said also that the nation of Israel who have still yet
to submit to the crown rights of Christ has a veil over their
heart didn't that what he said and until that veil is removed
they'll remind remain blinded to the gospel now what do people
do who have the veil over their heart they live in hostility
to God's truth don't they Israel crucified Christ. Israel persecuted
the apostles. Israel, according to our text,
1 Thessalonians chapter 2, is against every man. Why? Because they have a veil over
their heart. Now, the reason why I'm saying this is that when
I talk to you now for the next 10 minutes before I open the
floor for questions, I want you to understand what happened when
Christ went to Calvary. That when Jesus Christ went to
Calvary, he actually cut the lights on, metaphorically speaking,
to the whole world. That from the time of Calvary
to the hour in which you and I are living, God has been pleased
to save multitudes of people from all over the world. Are
you hearing me? Now we play that down as if that's
a small thing, but what you must know is the only way that a sinner,
one sinner, or a family, one family, or a nation, one nation,
can be saved is by the power of the gospel having removed
the veil from that unregenerate heart and made them a new creature
in Christ. Christ uses the metaphor of a
strong man being bound And thus his house plundered in order
for that to occur. Go with me in your Bible to Matthew
chapter 12. I want you to see it. I probably won't be able
to conclude with all of the examples that are in our scriptures concerning
the restrainer tonight, but I will at least be able to bring you
to the central thought of how important the preaching of the
gospel is in our generation. And today with the technology
that we have all around the world, if we are to have any hope for
a state of God's judgment. As you look out in your world,
Matthew chapter 12, as you look out in your world today, don't
you worry about how bad things are getting? I do. I am extremely
concerned, ladies and gentlemen, about the evil that is just escalating
in our world. I was talking to my wife last
night, sitting by the fireplace, just talking to her about how
bad I feel concerning the perversion that is dominating our culture.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one preaching this. I know
that I'm not. But there are very few men who are actually telling
the truth about what's going on in our world. Very few. Because
most preachers are distracted by prosperity and blessings instead
of telling the truth. But one of the things I told
my wife was, as I've told our church this, the Bible uses the
theme of women as representing either good or evil. Like the
godly woman, Versus the ungodly woman as we saw in Revelation
12 that glorious heavenly woman clothed in the Sun Moon under
her feet 12 stars on her head and she bore the Christ child
and the children that come after her that represents the Church
of God That's a godly virtuous woman, right? But that's not
the depiction that you get in your magazines and on your commercials
anywhere in the world today Neither in your schools or on your jobs
or or your institution of learnings or in Washington DC. What you
get is that whore of Revelation 17 everywhere. Am I telling the
truth? Everywhere. How keen is the word
of God to warn his elect that this is the way the devil works
all the time. How keen is God to warn his people
that the way the devil works is through two means? Persecution
and seduction that the devil either persecutes you right out
with a frontal attack against the gospel, and that comes through
the propagation of their ideology. Remember, he's been given a great
mouth speaking great blasphemies against God. This is what you
get in your legislature. This is what you get in your
politics. This is what you get in all your sitcoms. They just
blaspheme God all over the place, don't they? Don't you get tired
of listening to it because they just they just ridicule your
God and I mean they just they just blaspheme him They scorn
him they make mockery of him, but he said they would the other
thing they're doing unendingly relentlessly is Seducing the
people of God you and are constantly suffering seduction at the hands
of this perverse culture Now what is evil? Evil is a byproduct
of what? Sin. What is the byproduct of
evil then? It is the destruction or the
perversion of morality. Moral ethical norms, right and
wrong are perverted and corrupted and twisted because of an evil
heart. So that what we know is decent
is now made to be utterly indecent. What we know is right and should
be protocol for everybody. The things that establish what
we would call, you know, private issues are now made public. And
what the devil is doing is just throwing it in our faces in order
to target and entice the fallen base nature of the whole human
race. So he can get his hooks in you
and tow you in ever so slowly to buy into this corrupt culture.
Am I making some sense? And here, listen to me, child
of God. God already told us we've got to fight that battle. I don't
care what you say. You've got to fight that battle.
Are you going to lose that battle? You're going to lose it. You're
going to capitulate to the standards of the world if you don't determine
to put on the whole armor of God and fight against the wiles
of the devil. It just won't. Listen, I see
casualties everywhere. I see casualties among the women.
I see casualties among the men. I see the casualties in marriages. I see the casualties all over
the place in my young teenagers, my adolescents and young adults.
They are so blind and driven by their hormones. It's not even
funny. Constantly enticed, constantly
driven by this pseudo syrupy, sugary stimulus called perversion. Am I making some sense? And see,
you have to see it for what it is and call it what it is if
you're gonna be men and women that walk in the truth. You and
I, having been born of God, are not made to wallow in that stuff. Remember what we learned last
week in Ezekiel 9? Go through the city and destroy
everything. Men, women, and children, Ezekiel
9. But before you do it, put a mark
on the forehead of everyone that sighs and cries for the abominations
that are done in Israel. Isn't that Ezekiel 9? And what that does is it gives
us an opportunity to examine ourselves whether or not God
has given us a heart after himself, which hates evil. Ye who love
the Lord, what? Hate evil. Now, the only way
you can hate evil is to see it out there and to see it in here. Did you guys hear what I just
said? You can't hate evil by merely seeing it out there. The
only way you can abhor evil is if when you see it out there,
you recognize it in your own cesspool of a heart. And then
because you have a new nature and you love christ and you despise
the things you used to love you hate evil in total You must You
must grieve You must be repulsive Even lot in all of his weakness. You remember how weak he was
He chose the land of sodom and egypt and yet lot having been
born of god was vexed with the filthy conversation of the ungodly
every day. Am I telling the truth? Every
day. And see, in our new natures that way, don't you just have
to just cut that thing off? I'm talking about whatever it
is, radio, iPod, television, cut it off. Sometimes the only
safe place is silence. Am I telling the truth? Sometimes
the only safe place is silence. Sometimes the only reprieve from
the thoughts the storms the barrage of evil in images and visions
is silence Just shut up For five minutes give a brother
a break, right Such a person God loves Blessed
are ye that mourns Blessed are ye that hunger and thirst for
righteousness Are you hearing what I'm saying? I hunger and
thirst for it because it's not out there and it's not in me
It's in him Now I'm in him and so I have it but I desire it. I Desire I hate being enticed
with evil Don't you? I hate being enticed with evil. I know I'm not called to that.
I'm called to walk in my liberty, which is in Christ Jesus. I'm
called to rejoice in the Lord. Watch this, always. And again,
I say rejoice. I'm called again, once again,
to think his thoughts after him, to meditate on his precepts,
to rejoice in his statutes, to focus on Christ and then crucify,
to live in the principles of the kingdom, righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost. But I'm in a battle. Is there
anyone that feels like I do? Anybody? Listen to it. Matthew chapter twelve. I'm almost
done. Here's the I'm going to set the context and then we're
going to come back next week and close out on the biblical
concept of the restrainer. Now, no one has ever done what
your lord Jesus Christ did. When he came to this earth, and
took on the ministry of the gospel. Listen to me, ladies and gentlemen,
no one, no one has ever performed as many miracles, as many healings,
as many exorcisms as this one man. No one has ever preached
a perfect gospel. No one has ever lived a perfect
life. No one has ever borne a perfect
testimony to the true and the living God with impeccable accuracy
But this man Jesus Christ Christ was full of grace and truth And
everywhere he went it poured out from him on those who needed
him when he healed he healed legitimately thousands upon thousands
of people There are texts which said, and they came to him all
day long to be healed. And he healed every one of them. I'm talking about the real stuff.
I'm not talking about this shenanigan, this wicked, ungodly, phony miracle
stuff that's going on where you got a headache and he lay hands
on you and your headache is gone. I'm talking the real deal. No
one has done it like Jesus then or since. Even though God gave
the apostolic age great capacity to do miracles, even though God
still does supernatural things today. And I'll talk to you about
the difference between miracles and supernatural things down
the line. Only the God man, Jesus Christ, the one unique, authentic
Messiah came into the world, having possessed the spirit of
God without measure. And watch this now. Watch this
now, he cleaned up all of Jewry. He cast all the devils out for
three and a half years. Are you hearing me? For three
and a half years, those people had the opportunity of enjoying
the presence of Emmanuel, the great prophet, priest, and king
in their midst. They had at their availability
an inexhaustible resource of grace. It was a happy time. The only problem was there was
a group of ungodly rulers who couldn't stand Christ getting
all the glory. Why shouldn't he get all the
glory? He did all the work. Listen to it. Listen to it. Verse 24. But when the Pharisees
heard it, they said, this fellow, Death cast out devils, but by
Beelzebub you see it the prince of devils and Jesus knew their
thoughts and said unto them every kingdom divided against itself
is brought to desolation Every city or house divided against
itself shall not stand If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided
against himself. How shall then his kingdom stand?
Verse 25 and 26 teaches us the principle of logical syllogism.
It tells us that the gospel is rational, never buy into irrational
rhetoric. He used rational argument suggesting
that no man who is seeking to build his own kingdom does it
by tearing his kingdom down. He uses logic, doesn't he? Because
he's called the Logos. Don't ever buy into irrational
babbling propositions that make no sense. God doesn't do that
to you. Listen to what he says in verse 27. Verse 26 and follow. And if Satan cast out Satan,
he's divided against himself, how shall then his kingdom stand?
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children
cast them out? Whoa, that's politically incorrect. Therefore, shall be your judges. You know what verse twenty-seven
and seven, can I satisfy your curiosity with that? He was saying
to them, you are accusing me of two things. First, casting
out devils. But you're also accusing me of
casting out devils by devils. Now, I want to just ask you one
question. Which one of y'all have ever cast out one Because they never have. They
never have. Which made them unqualified judges.
Listen to what he goes on to say. But I, if I cast out devils
by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come to you.
See it? If what I am doing is truly the
work of God, then God is in your midst. As my forerunning cousin
told you, the kingdom of God is at hand. As I told you, the
kingdom of God is at hand. You've had all of the credible
testimony that you need for you to bow the knee and acknowledge
that I am the Messiah, right? But now here's what he says,
and this is what I want you to get. or else, this is verse 29, here's
our argument. I want you to see that Jesus
is going to use this analogy to demonstrate what it means
to bind Satan. Or else, how can one enter into
a strong man's house? Do you see it? And spoil his
goods? Except he first, what? Bind the
strong man and then he will spoil his house. Every time A hell-bound
sinner is saved from the destruction of his soul. Satan has been bound
and Christ has plundered one of his former subjects and brought
him to himself. Are you hearing me? Every time
a sinner is redeemed from darkness, it's a testimony that Satan has
been bound And Christ now is plundering. This is why I said
to you, what happened from the days of Calvary 2000 years ago
to the present with a history of Christianity permeating the
world and the gospel spreading all over the world and the gospel
right now being preached in your very ears right now is a testament
to the bounding of Satan and the plundering of his kingdom
by the gospel of God's power in the person of Christ. See,
if you and I were either prior to the cross or in that dark
period to which I am afraid we are headed, either you would
hate the gospel I am preaching to you now, or you wouldn't even
hear it at all. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Where you and I can be confident that God is still working today,
according to Matthew 24, is the fact that the gospel is still
being preached. Wherever the gospel is not being
preached, there Satan rules. So I'll close with this picture
and open the floor for questions for a few minutes. You notice
what the devil had to do to stop the gospel in the days of the
Jews? The devil had to work through
the rulers of the church to bind the Son of Man. When they bound
Him, the gospel was stopped. Are you hearing me? Bind the
strong man and you can plunder. They thought that they were permanently
binding Him, only to find out on the third day He rose again
to set the Gentiles free, which means you and me. Are you hearing
me? We'll come back and deal with
angels being used to bind Michael, the Lord Jesus, and what that
all means in relationship to this end time that we're in.
The floor is open for a few minutes for questions. Anybody have any
questions, any concerns? Anybody? No? Any hands? Michael? It talks about the woman. In
the beginning, it talks about the woman. Oh, thank you. In
the beginning of Proverbs 9, it talks about the woman, how
she prepares the wine and... Right. Proverbs 9 is a picture
of false religion and a seduction of the man void of understanding.
To be a person void of understanding is to be a person who does not
understand the gospel and therefore you are set up to go into churches
that don't preach the truth but are seductive in nature and basically
lead you to the pit. That's Proverbs chapter 9. Okay? Does that help? The whole imagery
there is that of illicit sexual relationship, which is what I
told you. False religion will give you pleasure, but it can't
give you life. All right, anybody, any other
questions? Right over here, this is Erica.
Head on down, Erica. So in 2 Thessalonians, when it
talks about the man of sin and the son of perdition being revealed
that has personal implications for the body or the members of
the church at least. Because when it says the mystery
of iniquity does already work for the restrained the son of
perdition will be taken away that does that have personal
implications for the members of the church or people does
that mean like personally people people who profess to be believers the restrain will be Taken apart
taken off of them and they will be Proven to be not believers
or they will be proven to be sons of perdition. Yeah. Well,
there you go. I'll take I'll develop that I
think you didn't frame it correctly, but remember what we said we
said prior to the man of sin being revealed There must be
a falling away first That's the personal implication so what
the church does is gradually falls away from the true because
of the mystery of iniquity that's already working that's the argument
that Jesus gives us in Matthew 24 and following see to it that
no man deceives you for there shall come many false prophets
in my name saying that I am Christ and will deceive many's doing
signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the very elect.
So a precursor to the ultimate manifestation of the man of sin,
son of perdition, is the falling away of religious people to a
secular, seductive, rural religion that is basically carnal in nature.
were one who was caught up in that, who had fallen away, would
you realize it or would you not realize it? I don't know. You
can give him a microphone because those implications go on and
on and on. Here's how this goes. The scriptures
are clear that my sheep hear my voice and they know me and
I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life, which means, and we'll get to this in verse 13, but
thanks be unto God who hath himself chosen us unto salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth so that
we won't fall prey to that apostasy. Apostasy is what manifests people
who are merely religious and not legitimately and authentically
believers. However, it can have psychological
and emotional ramifications for all of us. Just think about it.
Just think about loved ones that you care about ending up manifesting
themselves to just not know the truth and not love Christ. That's
hard on all of us. All right, next. Anybody else? Oh, we're good. OK, then if nobody
else wants to, let's stand and pray so we can get out of here. Father, we thank you for your
time. We thank you for your word. We know these issues are sobering.
They are trying for our hearts, but we just ask that you keep
us from turning away our ears from the truth. Help us to receive
the truth as it is in Christ. Walk in the soberness and joy
of the hope of the gospel. Again, he is our only hope for
salvation. We rely totally and completely
upon all that he did and all that he is. Keep us from error. As your servant David said, and
from presumptuous sin, Lord. Watch over us, guard our mouth,
guard our heart, guard our minds, and guard our souls. Keep us
for Christ's sake, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. God bless
you guys.