For several weeks, we've been
in the second chapter of Thessalonians only because these portions of
scripture are so important to understand in terms of the framework
of the theology. If we don't get the framework
right, we can't benefit personally, nor can we benefit as a church.
And where we are now, I'm hoping I can make some headway at least
into the closing of verse 12 verses 6 through 12 is kind of
where we're going to kind of develop a little bit more framework
of the language and and then maybe next week we can move on
into some of the more clearer explicit phrases about God's
mercy in the saving of his people we've been dealing with the tribulation
period we've been dealing with the concept of tribulation we've
been dealing with those things that tribulation the life of
God's people serve as an harbinger of and I the way that I want
to frame it tonight is to say this There are two things that
God would have us to understand will occur before Jesus comes
there are two things that God would have us to understand two
events a that God would have us to understand will occur before
Jesus comes. So at the top of your outline,
it says the process before the Perusia. You guys see that? The
process before the Perusia. And the process really has to
do with the two events. So I really want to try to make
this simple. With the previous studies, it
should clear itself up. The subject of 2 Thessalonians
is the coming of Christ, right? It's the coming of Christ. Appearance
his coming his final entrance into this world to set everything
straight That's the subject. However, what we are told in
verses 1 through 4 1 through 3 rather is that certain things
will take place Necessarily before he comes and that's the thought
that I want to put in your head We all who are Christians desire
Christ to come. I His coming will resolve every
problem. You guys do know that, right?
And listen, I told our ladies this last night in theology class,
ain't nothing getting fixed until Jesus comes. So, you know, I
don't care what kind of gifts God gives you, what kind of skill
sets you acquire, what kind of position you find yourself in
in the world to be influential in any capacity, ultimately for
the Christian, correction comes when Christ comes. That's very
important to know because for us we have been called to live
in an unsatisfied state until Jesus comes. And I think all
of us get in trouble when we think that we can satisfy ourselves
in this life on any level when in fact providence and the purpose
of God tells us we are most suited to live in an unsatisfied state. simply because the hope of the
believer is the return of Christ, the resurrection, the making
of all things right. Now, when you and I are able
to know that things will not be made right until Jesus comes,
then we don't have to buy into notions or agendas or purposes
that are not based in reality. If I know that there's only so
much I can do in terms of my walk with God, in terms of my
influence in the church of God, maybe my influence in the world.
If I know that there's only so much I can do, then what I really
want to be able to do in my little lot, my calling, my accountability,
is simply do the best I can in that little bitty lot and leave
the rest to God. If I fail to recognize that reality,
then I will fall prey to people's agendas whose agendas may not
comport with scripture. So what I want to share with
you are things you already know, but we're going to work it through
our outline that there are two events that cyclically occur
within the framework of human history for which the believer
has to be settled with the believer has to be settled with certain
events happening in their lifetime in the lifetime of their children
or what have you to events and the first of those events is
given to us verse 2 and then verse 3 let no man deceive you
by any means for that day shall not come that is the Lord's coming
except there come a falling away what do you see that word proto
first so I want you to understand as we work through the outline
that there are two things that the Word of God tells us occurs
in the life of the Christian there are two things that occur
If you live out a basic Old Testament generation, which is about 40
years, which means we've had 50 generations since Jesus, our
master's day to now, right? If we take 40 times 50, we've
got 2000 years. So 50 generations have transpired
where believers have lived according to the hope of glory. Within
the framework of those 50 years, I guarantee you one of two things
has transpired. Within the framework of every
40 year period, 40 years, this is the term in the scriptures
for a generation. That was definitely true in Jesus'
day. It's a little bit longer in our
day, but 40 meaning within the framework of 40 years, one family
can produce a second family. You understand what I'm saying?
By the time we're 20 years old, we're moving into the development
of a family, so to speak. By the time we're 40, we've got
a second generation already on deck to start its process. What you can be sure of in your
lifetime is there will be a falling away, a falling away. I want you to get that in your
head. Because that is probably the biggest challenge that you
and I face. The apostasy that occurs in the
world cyclically every generation. How come this subject of the
apostasy or the falling away is so important for us to understand? Well, because it's like a river.
I want you to get this. There's a momentum that has the
capacity to sweep away everything that's not rooted in it. I want
you to hear what I'm saying. This is so critically important.
When you come to a knowledge of Christ, when the gospel is
revealed to you and you come to realize that Christ is a solid
rock and your joy is rooted in the immutable, unchangeable counsel
of God, you rejoice in the fact that God saves so securely based
upon the merits and righteousness of Christ. And you're walking
around happy and enjoying life because you are saved. You are
a child of God. You love him. You enjoy his word.
But there's a time that lapses and over time you find out how
rooted and grounded you are in Christ based on the trials that
come into your life. Am I making some sense? And then
you realize that this matter of being rooted and being grounded
cannot be taken for granted. because of the momentum, the
momentum of this river flow of apostasy that takes place in
every generation where certain ones who appeared to be grounded
all of a sudden are uprooted and swept away with the river
of apostasy and tribulation that takes place every generation. So what was Paul doing? He was
saying as he addressed the issue of Christ's return and the errors
that had been inherent in the writings that were given to the
church at Thessalonica, he says, let no man deceive you, that
time won't come until there first comes a falling away, a falling
away. The second thing that will occur,
he said, is the man of sin reveal, the man of sin revealed. Those are two expectations that
the church of Jesus Christ is called to look for and recognize
when it occurs. So now let me say this, the first
one, the falling away, this one here is cyclical and it is in
every generation. The man of sin being revealed
that sort of climax is the end result of the many cyclical apostasies
are falling away that take place every generation from the time
of our Lord's ascension into glory to where we are now. In
other words, if I were to try to describe it, here's what I
would say. Apostasy takes place every generation. Every generation,
people are falling away, there are men and women coming to Christ,
churches are being established, they're growing, they're maturing,
and then those churches are compromising, and then they go apostate, and
then they actually become anti-Christ systems, and they grow, And over
time, in God's mercy, depending on what country the gospel is
in, like the gospel started in the Middle East and in the East
during the days of Jesus, and it moved and made its way through
Rome all the way to Europe. And when it got to Europe, it
flourished and the world became Christianized. But over time,
it went apostate just as well. And finally, the gospel has made
it to the West where we are. And we ask the question now,
where are we? in terms of these cyclical events,
which are common to the Christian church. And I doubt if I would
find anyone in the room tonight who would tell me that when you
look at the church overall around the world, more particularly
here in America, but this is true around the world, I would
doubt if anyone could tell me that we are not in another stage
of falling away. I would doubt very seriously
if you have an objective, informed understanding of what the state
of the church ought to be, that you could tell me that the church
is alive and well and doing fine. I doubt that very seriously.
I doubt it very seriously. Now, in light of that, there
are some things that I also want you to see in your outline that
are critical to know. Because this is, what I'm talking
about is really what our Lord taught in Matthew chapter 24.
In Matthew chapter 24, go there. I just want you to see a few
verses again. And then I'm going to just follow my outline. There
are three major points in our outline that I want us to touch
on in light of the expectancy of apostasy or falling away from
the truth, which takes place in every generation of which
our Lord speaks. What are we as the people of
God to know? How are we to establish and prepare
ourselves for these times. In Matthew chapter 24, I'm gonna
give you the context that immediately links itself to 2 Thessalonians.
And I'm gonna start over here in verse 10, and I'm going to
go all the way through verse 14. Are you there? And then shall
many be offended. Do you see the word offended?
That's the word that precipitates falling away. That's the term
that precipitates falling away. The reason people depart from
the gospel is because they are offended by what the gospel produces. Watch what I'm talking about.
We'll develop that. And then shall many be offended
and shall, here's the word, are you ready? Betray one another.
And shall, what? Hate one another. And at that
time, watch this, many false prophets shall rise and shall
do what? Deceive many. And here's the
net effect of that. And because iniquity shall abound,
what? The love of many shall wax cold.
Do you see the process? Here it is. And I don't wanna
belabor this text because we've done this a lot. I'm just kind
of laying a framework. When the gospel goes into a culture,
What the gospel does is reveal the glory of God in terms of
all of his attributes. It reveals the person and work
of Jesus Christ in terms of his objective of saving sinners.
And the gospel is a message that causes the world to be offended. The gospel is a message that
causes the world to be offended. Let me make sure that you hear
that. This is a critical truth. The
gospel does not make natural man feel good. The gospel is
not designed to cater to or make the natural man feel good about
himself. The proposition of biblical truth
naturally cuts against the grain of all of us as human beings
until we come to know the sweetness of its saving power. So when
you and I are privileged to share the gospel in any form whatsoever,
we must settle it in our heart that we are going to be by virtue
of our message and the one we represent offensive to this world. Did you guys get that? You have
to settle that in your heart that the gospel is going to offend.
Now here's going to be the challenge. Are you ready? The challenge
is going to be staying faithful to the gospel to the end. The
challenge is going to be staying faithful to the gospel to the
end. I've got your attention now.
And I want you to understand that when you are taught properly
the nature of the kingdom of God, that God invades this fallen
world, this dark world with his light. that the shedding of gospel
light into the darkness of humanity is not something that human nature
immediately receives. John 3 verse 19, men love darkness
rather than light. They will not come to the light.
So wherever you are privileged to share the gospel, the truth
of Christ, count it ever so wisely. Frame it ever so carefully. Construct your proposition, your
exhortation, your desire to share the gospel with a man or a woman
or a family or your colleagues or your co-workers or your schoolmates
ever so sensitively. Be a seeker-sensitive gospeler,
if you will. If you actually tell the truth,
it's still going to cut against the grain. Now, I want you to
understand this. Now, don't be an offender with
the gospel. Don't be offensive with the gospel.
But because the gospel has inherent in it a two-edged sword, it's
going to cut anyway. It's going to cut anyway. And so what Jesus says to his
genuine, authentic followers, we're going to talk about that
in a moment, Do not be offended by the offense of the gospel. You do not be offended by the
offense of the gospel. You know, that's the warning
that our Lord gave to the disciples, right? If any man will be a follower
of mine, he must be ready to deny himself, take up his cross
and do what? Follow me. What was he saying?
You have got to be ready to allow yourself to be the ridicule,
the offscore, the object of hatred and antipathy on the part of
people who are not going to like the message. They didn't like
it when I brought it, they won't like it when you bring it. Now,
see, that mindset right now, be honest with me, is so countercultural,
isn't it? The way in which I am actually
framing how the gospel is to be delivered Right now, according
to the sociological conditions of our culture, is so antithetical. Our world is not tolerating a
mindset like that. Now, now that I know that this
is true, here's what I want to say to you and those listening
to our exhortation. You and I are in some very dangerous
days. We do not have the majority willing
to hear biblical truth. Secondly, not only do we not
have the majority of just common people like you and I, not hearing
biblical truth, but there is daily and weekly and monthly
an effort on the part of politics and powers that be to frame legislation
so as to snuff out the gospel, both in the realm of secular
politics, as well as in the realm of religious politics. So if
you were in the know, if your ear was close to the ground and
you were listening to the grapevine dialogues and discussions in
the synod and in governments around the world in terms of
their global agenda, the one thing that our present postmodern
pluralistic relativistic culture wants to do is annihilate anything
that believes in what we call absolute truth. The one thing
that the whole world government is going to seek to do because
it believes that this is the problem. Anyone who would dare
to assert that they know the truth becomes a problem. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So, they have worked now for
decades upon decades upon decades developing theses and constructs
and whole suppositions, whole books and whole agendas to eradicate
the notion that we can know objective, immutable, unchangeable truth.
And this here is dominating the world in which we live. It will
swallow up our children if we don't teach them the truth. They
will buy into the lie that one can have mutually opposite views
and both views be true at the same time They will buy into
that notion which is designed to cancel out I want you to hear
what I'm saying now because this is gonna open up the door to
our present-day relevance around the gospel what pluralism is
designed to do is destroy any attempt on the part of the church
to evangelize and I want you to mark that. You're gonna hear
this in the near future. The world will tolerate you,
Christian, as long as you keep your mouth shut. The world will tolerate you,
Christian, as long as you are willing to hold at a higher standard
and value getting along with people rather than telling the
truth to people. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So I want you to get this because this incipient doctrine,
this worldview, this mindset is going to be everywhere present. It will be like the police officer
on every street corner, on every job, in every school, among every
authority. And they're going to be monitoring
any of us who would even dare assert that we know absolute
truth. Because they'll realize that
absolute truth is a threat. to their idolatrous notions.
They'll realize that. And they have an agenda of a
one world global peace agenda that's designed essentially to
eradicate any notion of absolute truth. See, the way that your
progressive movement and progressive ideology is alive and well in
the church today Also, the way the progressive movement sees
it is that all of your factions, all of your tribal battles, all
of your conflicts, all of the world have always been as a consequence
of small groups of people believing that they have the right doctrine,
the proper truth. and that in their attempt to
assert that truth and oppose it upon everybody, they assert
and allege that that has been the basis of all the wars and
all the conflicts. Now, what they've gotten right
is this, that people have drawn conclusions that they are right
and therefore want to impose their rights on people, but that's
not confined to merely religion. Political ideologies are just
as radical as religious ideologies. And so what I'm getting at is
political ideologies and religious ideologies can be within the
same framework operating on under the assumption that they are
right and everybody else is wrong. And what we have to be as Christians
is clear enough to delineate between political ideologies
that are radical and absolute and the Christian gospel that
must remain radical and absolute. So now in the light of that basic
insight that I'm sharing with you, what I'm letting you know
is if you think that periods of apostasy where people depart
from the gospel is something that you're going to be able
to kind of just, you know, breeze through, you've got another thing
coming. You've got another thing coming when you have loved ones
who you begin to see vacillate in their understanding of biblical
truth. And then yet and still other
loved ones who you see become militantly hostile against absolute
truth. And yet other ones still who
are going off on just this, this leap in the dark that because
there is no absolute truth, they're going to do whatever they want
to do. And they're going to be a scandal to everybody. And all
of these categories are going to be a challenge for all of
us as Christians. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So I'm saying that to help you understand that God
knows that when he sends us out as lambs into this world filled
with wolves, that we are going to be in very difficult circumstances
for which he has made provision. And the believer has to know
God has made provision for those kinds of scenarios. I want you
to see what it says in verse 13 and 14. And because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. That's verse
12, right? And I want you to mark the word iniquity. See the
word iniquity? We're going to see that when we go back to 2
Thessalonians 2, verse 13. But he that shall what? Endure. See it? He that shall
endure to the end, the same shall be saved. So there's an endurance
for which the believer has to manifest in this difficult time. Verse 14. Now watch this. This
here is Christ's modus operandi this here is his chief objective
and this will not be thwarted and this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations and then shall the end come you guys see that whatever
the scenario whatever go back to your text now let's work this
through whatever the cultural conditions, whatever the sociological
mindset, whatever the streaming thoughts that will be running
through our world as fast as the internet will allow it, whatever
hostilities, whatever groups will correlate their objectives
to dissuade people of objective truth, whatever the battles are
on the front that's coming, what Christ says is his gospel will
still be preached. The question is, is will we have
been privileged to be a part of it? Because verse 13 says,
he that endured to the end shall be saved, right? And those kinds
of indicatives, that's an indicative. He that endured to the end shall
be saved is an indicative that underscores a responsibility
on our part to make sure that we stand in the gospel. Are you
hearing me? To make sure that we stand in
the gospel. And so I say that to let us understand that difficult
times are coming if they aren't already here for some of us.
And we need to be prepared in your outline. The first thing
I want to call your attention to, therefore, is protection
of true worshipers. Do you see that protection of
true worshipers? Now, I would love to just wax
eloquent and speak you know, from the heights of total confidence
without any sense of trepidation around that particular statement.
I would love to just simply say, boy, we're going to be all right,
because God says he's going to protect us. And that's the way
that it is. But I want to say, while that
is going to be the way that it is, it is going to be essential
that you and I understand what it is that God uses to preserve
us. What does God do to preserve
His people during these difficult times? Go with me in your Bible
now to Ezekiel chapter 9. I'm going to show you a few things
around that. The proposition is legitimate.
Those of us who understand the gospel, we know this. We know
that all that the Father gives Christ shall come to Christ,
and they that come to Him, He will in no wise what? Cast out.
Perish the notion if you ever entertain it for like a nanosecond
that God could fail to save those for whom Christ died Perish the
notion if you ever think it once if you ever think for once I
had a guy called bless his heart Chris the Catholic called called
me on Monday on our Monday show wanting to Persuade me that God
starts to save you but if somehow you jump out of his hand you
can be lost and Well, you know, the Catholic doctrine of salvation
has no guarantees, because it's a works religion. It just does
not guarantee you anything. But that's the way it is with
all works religion. Wherever salvation starts with
you, there is no guarantee that you will make it. Listen to me
very carefully. At any point in the scheme of
redemption, in the area of justification, in the area of sanctification,
Certainly in the area of glorification if it depends upon you then the
possibility of you failing to obtain salvation is credible
but if salvation is totally from justification to glory and sanctification
in between the work of a sovereign God Then salvation is secure
for everyone for whom Christ died. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? This is critical. However, as I've also said before,
the security of the gospel is the predetermined purpose of
God that's rooted in God himself, his own counsel, which he established
before the world began. But God uses means to bring things
to pass. Just like if you are now saved,
he chose you in Christ before the world began, but in time
he called you to himself. Am I telling the truth? There
was a day when you didn't know him. And then all of a sudden
you came to know the Lord of glory. Isn't that right? Well,
that didn't happen by osmosis. Listen, you didn't just wake
up one day and become a smart fella. You're still pretty dumb.
Do you understand that? Revelation of the glory of God
and the truth of the triune God is something that God has to
do. In the world of theology we argue what is called monergism
versus synergism Synergism is your works religion sort of system
that's held by your Armenian and your man-centered Humanist
who thinks that salvation is partly what God does his energy
and then partly what you do your energy But that's a lie when
it comes to who actually does the saving Monergism which is
one energy, single energy application, is the work of God in actually
saving you. If God saved you, then God will
keep you. If God helped you save yourself,
then you are always in danger of being lost. Am I making some
sense? Now, this is also critical because
even as we work through the mechanism by which God brings us to glory,
it's still going to be difficult Please understand, salvation
first is impossible, then it's hard. The word is difficult. Through much tribulation will
we enter into the kingdom of heaven. Okay, I got a few saved
folk in the house tonight, right? Okay, so I wanna ask the question,
since God saved you, has it been easy or hard? Hard. Yeah, you
better tell the truth. You better tell the truth. You know, and you know, you and
I haven't even went through the waters of Jordan yet. And some
days we wake up wondering if we're saved. Isn't that right?
And the only thing that assaulted us was our own stupid, sinful
notions. We haven't even, we haven't even had a trial with
one of Satan's rank angels yet. And we're still wondering, are
we saved? And yet by God's grace, he keeps us. He keeps us. He keeps us. And I want you to
see how this works. It works objectively, it works
subjectively, and it works perfectly. It works objectively, it works
subjectively, and it works perfectly. Now, Ezekiel 9 is going to correspond
with our parody study over the last couple of weeks in the book
of Revelation. Remember what we learned in the book of Revelation?
For all those who will perish, they will have received the mark
of the beast, the number of his name, and his name in their foreheads
and in their hands. But those who will be saved will
have been sealed sealed Sealed and the father's name imprinted
on their foreheads. Remember that I want you to see
how in the Old Testament that model is set up And I want to
talk about it briefly as we talk about God protecting His true
worshipers in the midst of trials Ezekiel chapter 9. Are you there? Here it is. I'm gonna read in
Ezekiel 9 as I developed this just a few verses to underscore
it and And he cried also in my ears with a loud voice, saying,
Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every
man with his destroying weapon in his hand. God is about to
destroy Israel. And behold, six men came from
the way of the higher gate, which lies toward the north. Every
man a slaughter weapon in his hand, and one man among them
was clothed with linen, a white linen, that's what it means,
with a writer's ink horn by his side. You see the vision? So
you got soldiers who are ready to destroy Jerusalem and the
people in there. And yet you got this one fella
with a bottle of ink and a white robe on. That's strange, isn't
it? Well, follow the language. And they went in and stood beside
the brazen altar, which would be the temple. And the glory
of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon
he was. Verse three underscores for us what we call the apostasy.
We talked about that, remember? In the Old Testament temple,
which is a type of Christ and a type of the church, the presence
of God was represented by the Shekinah glory. the Shekinah
Glory abode on the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant
is a type of Christ who is our propitiation and our atonement. When God abode on the Ark, He
was letting Israel know there is still forgiveness of sins. When the Shekinah Glory lifted
up off the Ark and removed away from the Ark, God was saying
to Israel, I will forgive your sins no more. Now Israel is under
judgment because the God of glory has left the Ark. Are you guys
hearing me? He has left the Ark. The Holy
of Holies is a farce now. It's empty. God has left it and
they are open to judgment. Now this happens where apostasy
takes place. To understand Ezekiel 9, you
must understand Ezekiel 7 and 8. where rank idolatry started
with the highest leaders in the church and went out among the
people and the spirit of jealousy, which whom God calls himself. I, the Lord your God, am a what? Jealous God. And as a jealous
God, he will not tolerate the idolatrous gods coexisting and
challenging him for his authority. So he gave Israel time and finally
he departed from the holy of holies. Their religion now is
a shell. They're going to church, but
God's not there. Now watch what it says. The glory
of God of Israel was going up from the chair where upon he
was at the threshold of the house and he called to the man clothed
with the linen, which had the writers in corn by said now watch
the Saints. The decree is to go in and to judge all of Israel
for their iniquities. But God says something must take
place before he destroys. Verse 4. And the Lord said unto
him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of
Jerusalem. Here it is. Watch this. And set
a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry
for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof.
Do you see that? Do you see that? See, that mark
is a foreshadow of the work of the Spirit of God sanctifying
and setting apart all of God's elect. Now, mark the attitude
and the disposition of those persons who are chosen to be
protected in this judgment. They sigh and they cry for the
abominations done in Israel. This is how you can know God's
elect. God's elect are not comfortable with apostasy. God's elect are
not comfortable with compromise of the gospel. God's elect do
not live comfortably with men and women defying and defiling
and rejecting the glory of God in Christ. God's elect sigh and
cry wherever the truth is not exalted. Wherever Christ does
not have preeminence wherever the sovereignty of God is not
reigning over all things in the preaching and the teaching in
the ministry It is the natural disposition of every believer
to sigh and cry Look at the attitude Are you with me so far? And here's
the thing. I want you to get this because
this is so rich in the parable of the prodigal son God cares
about your heart and concerning him. God cares about your heart
concerning him. Listen to the pathos. Observe
the pathos here, the passion of God. Go through the city and
mark out everyone who has been crying and sighing because of
the condition of the church. They've been telling people,
they've been warning, They've been admonishing. They've been
trying to open the scriptures and share with people. And they
now are just, they're beside themselves with grief. Because
no man is telling the truth. Just the flesh dominates the
whole of religion today. And their attitude is such as,
woe is me! Woe is me! Look at Israel! Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? Sighing and crying. Now watch
this. Sighing and crying. for the sins
that are dominating the religious folk who's supposed to know God
and sign and crying for the sins that dominate their own life.
Did you hear what I just said? See, this is not a self-righteous
pharisaical sign and crying. This is the sign and crying that
comes with knowing that if Christ has departed from the church,
if the Spirit of God has left the church, if the gospel has
no more power, they can't be saved and I'm a wretched mess.
See, I need the gospel to comfort me. I need it to strengthen me,
to invigorate me, to empower me, to encourage me, to correct
me, to sanctify me, to build me up, to utilize me. And if
the gospel's not there for that, I'm in almost as bad a condition
as they are. See what I'm getting at? Are
you good? See, in other words, what I'm saying is you and I
should not be wanting or looking forward to wholesale apostasy. That's going to be bad for all
of us. We need the presence of the Lord. We need the manifestation
of his glory. We need the word of God preached
in power. We need that. We need that. And where it's not taking place
now, we are operating out of our priestly mode. See, we have
two roles in the church, prophetic What priestly those are the two
dominant roles in the church prophetic? We tell people what
God says and priestly and we see God's face on the behalf
of infirm sinners Don't we and when the priestly role is not
functioning because apostasy is taking place in the church
the other role that I'm sorry the prophetic role the other
role that must take place is the priestly role of falling
on our faces saying Lord have mercy on us and This is why the
two witnesses in Revelation chapter 11 were clothed in sackcloth. They were clothed in sackcloth.
In other words, while they preached to the whole world, they preached
from a state of grief because of the condition of the church
and the world. Am I making some sense? This is the attitude and
disposition we have to have. We have to be very careful to
be jealous for the glory of God. not only merely for God's glory,
but for the welfare of the church and for the welfare of sinners
as well. That's the right attitude to
have. So notice what it says. Notice what it says. He says,
go through and mark, put a mark on the foreheads of the men that
sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in Israel. And
to the others, he said, in my hearing, go ye what? After him. through the city and smite. Now
I want you to hear the comprehensive totality of this judgment because
this here is a foreshadow of what we are dealing with in Second
Thessalonians and certainly what we are dealing with in terms
of the culmination of human history right before Jesus comes. Listen,
let not your eyes spare, neither have ye pity. Slay utterly old
and young, both maids and little children and women. That's bad. Is that bad? Okay, so now right
now I hear the I hear the poor soul that just can't get with
God doing something like that I was talking to our women's
theology class about a brother that I'm working with right now
Who struggles with eternal damnation? He struggles with eternal death.
He also struggles with what we call original sin. People do.
People struggle with these things. Like, how could God be just and
send people to hell for all eternity? So I'm going to help you understand
the problem with that kind of thinking in short order. Here's
how this goes. You and I will think that way
about God's explicit testimony of justice and holiness vindicated
by sending men and women to hell for all eternity when we have
a low view of God. If your view of God is low, you
cannot understand why he must punish sin the way that he does. So your view of God must be adjusted. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? If my view of God is too low, then I'm going to complain
about God in his own right and prerogative of sending men to
hell. Because to me that would be severe and overbearing and
it just doesn't seem just. But at this point I have lost
my mind because I have made myself at least as wise as God to sit
on counsel and bring God into judgment for what he has chosen
to do. Have I lost my mind? My brother said totally. But in all honesty, we have people
that think like that. Isn't that true? I'm not coming
to Jesus because I don't like the fact that God's sending people
to hell. Well, that's not a good reason not to come to Jesus.
Just because you don't like it doesn't make it wrong. And it still doesn't solve your
problem, sinner. Because you're going to find
yourself experiencing that justice of God if you don't receive the
remedy that he lays out to men and women in the gospel. The
other proposition that he says troubles him is the fact that
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God through one
man sinning unto the world. Death passeth upon all for all
have sinned. What did he do? He exalted man too highly, didn't
he? He assumed that every individual
born into the world is all right until somehow they get into some
trouble. That Adam's sin did not contaminate
everybody else in such a way that the very rebellion that
Adam committed, we commit also. He's under the assumption that
somehow some of us must be all right somewhere in the world.
But the testimony of scripture is none of us are all right.
Isn't that right? There's some other what we call
ancillary doctrines that flow out of that that I have to work
with them on, but I've left them with two things. Your view of
God is too low and your view of man is too high. That's what
we call humanism. See, the humanistic doctrine
will cause you to fail to see the glory of God. So here, let
me just share with you a little insight just in case you are
still struggling with God throwing, you know, destroying old men
and little babies and children. At least it says little children.
I could get into the grammar. I don't want to, I don't want
to deviate there. I want you to understand, however, when it
says that he's destroying these people in total, can I share
something with you about why God would do something like that?
It's because God sees the end from the beginning. Omniscience
allows God to act in such a way that you and I, who are finite
creatures and don't see everything the way God sees it, we have
no right to question God. God will act according to his
omniscience. Are you hearing me? And in his
omniscience, what he knows is that bastion of people that he
is about to annihilate, if he were to leave them on planet
Earth, they would wreak so much havoc on the world. that it would
be better for him to put an end to their life now than for them
to create more mess and contaminate millions and millions of more
people down the line. That's called a just God. Am
I making some sense? Am I making some sense? It's
very important to know that. That's one device you can use
with people. Suppose you are able to read
and see this is what God does. Am I boring you? Can I talk to
you a little bit? Because I'm just trying to... I'm giving you tools
to help people because you got a reason with people, right?
God created you and I in His image and in His likeness, didn't
He? And He gave us the enormous capacity of discovery. Science
is a wonderful discipline when it's rooted in a moral ethical
construct where we respect God but Intelligence and logic and
reason and rationale are all components by which we discover
truth and God shows us a lot of things about ourselves when
we labor and Through science and technology. We have been
able to penetrate into the human genome genes gene pools. And
we can see pathology of behavior patterns in people groups based
on their genetic makeup. Is that true? So now here's the
moral and ethical challenge we have with that. Because we now
can see the propensity, not the certainty, but the propensity
of a child growing up to be a sociopath. That power of prescience was
given to us through science. Now we have the responsibility
of curtailing that evil by working with that child or developing
whatever type of technology necessary to reshape his propensities. And at the same time, we are
accountable to watch him just in case that evil does break
out so that we can stop him in short order. Those are the responsibilities
of the human race when it comes to the human family. Am I making
some sense? That's very important. Very important.
So I just wanted to make sure you didn't stumble over this
notion that when God said in verse 6 slay utterly old young
maids little children women, but come not near Come not near
Any man upon whom is the mark? Do you see that? We call that
the preservation. That's the preservation or the
protection of the true worshipers The true worshipers are protected
from annihilation The true worshipers are protected from annihilation.
Now, this was done in the Old Testament context of a theocratic
system. That means that death was taking
place in terms of physical destruction. But to carry it over in the spiritual
dimension must be understood. When we talk about God protecting
his people, we are not talking about God protecting us from
physical harm. You guys understand to be sealed
with the Holy Spirit Ephesians 1 14 2nd Corinthians chapter
1 verse 21 Revelation chapter 7 revelation chapter 15 to be
sealed with the Holy Spirit does not mean that you and I can't
be physically hurt by mortal foes the church has experienced
horrific physical assault from the beginning But what we have
been protected from ladies and gentlemen is a departure from
Christ in the midst of being assaulted by the gospel. You
know what I love about this concept of God's electing love and his
preserving grace is that he has chosen to allow us to struggle
with difficulties to demonstrate his capacity to keep us and to
show us that our salvation is by grace alone. What comes to
my mind as we just deal with this one point is is Peter brother
Peter and this in your outline You remember when the Lord Jesus
was about to go to Calvary Matt Luke 22 He was headed to go to
the Garden of Gethsemane and he had his boys with him He had
his boys except for Jesus here and his boys. He was hollering
at him. Tell him. Hey, I'm getting ready
It's getting ready to go down get ready go to have Peter said
man. We getting ready to throw down. I I'm just letting you
know now. Lord, we're getting ready to
throw that. You think, you think we're gonna just let you go down
like that? You know that's Peter. Now listen, I would have, I'm
telling you I would have been right there. Yeah, Peter, let's
get down. That's just the way I would have been. I ain't, we
ain't letting you go down like that. No, dog, we ain't going
down like that. Okay. So, the Lord Jesus see
here's here's what Peter did and you bet I'm making a caricature
out of this but the reality is you would have done the same
thing do you know what this is called self-preservation are
you hearing me now Peter was pretending to be concerned about
Christ but he was concerned about his own tail first please believe
it for which Christ said get behind me Satan for you are not
savoring the things of God, but the things of men. So he pierced
through Peter right at the devil who cares for the flesh because
the objective of the devil is to get us to misprioritize who
we are and to preserve the flesh versus preserve the spirit. The
gospel tells us to lay down our life, not to preserve it, Peter
was simply acting out of the carnal framework of if I can
help it. I'm gonna stop this crazy scheme
What our master told Peter was Satan has already asked to sip
you as we Because you are going to be for a moment one of the
biggest apostatizes among all my people Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? See, for a small window, this
is why you've got to understand, ladies and gentlemen, if your
hermeneutic is going to be right, if your gospel is going to be
right, it must be Christ-centered. Christ himself is the key to
all the scriptures. The first coming of Christ and
the ministry of Christ gave us the model of the gospel. The
same way it worked with Christ and the disciples is the way
it works through church history. If they hated him, they're going
to hate us. Our gospel is not going to ever be any more successful
than Christ's gospel was. but he has made provision in
the gospel that we are able to suffer the trials that come because
of the glory that follows the suffering. Now, here's the thing
that I want you to understand in this equation about the falling
away. Peter stands for us as an example
of the fact that if God does not keep us, we will fall away
also. Did you guys hear what I just
said? Peter is one of the elite apostles. James and John and
all of them. James wasn't there, the brother
of Jesus, but the rest were. And they all said, Lord, we'll
go with you to death. And he plainly said, no, you
won't. It's not in you to keep yourself. You don't have the
capacity to stand against the evil threats of mortal harm. You just don't. Have you figured
that out yet? Do you know how many times a
day you betray the Lord Jesus Christ for a nickel or a quarter
or a dime? Don't you realize how weak you
are by nature? All I need is one witness. You
raise your hand. You're going to heaven, my sister. So, the comfort of the gospel
is that God would take the chief of us and allow our weaknesses
to be manifested as he did with Peter to show us how he is able
to keep even the chief of us and to give us insight to the
fact that even the chief among us is just as weak as the lowest
among us apart from the grace of God. So the idea of being
marked out or preserved or kept is the idea of God keeping you
in total. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? In total. Don't entertain for one moment
that you are keeping yourself. For one moment you are not keeping
yourself. If you're thinking a right thought
about God, God did that. Only God can cause you to think
right about God. and and so peter serves for us
as a model of what would happen now let me just ask the questions
just make sure anybody is under uh delusions of grandeur we'll
we'll open the table in a few minutes for comments and questions
do you think you would have responded any different than peter when
the lord was taken and crucified and the disciples scattered and
that little bitty servant girl came up and looked at you and
said I heard him talk and he sound like one of those cats
the Lord was hanging out with in South Richmond. I could just
tell by his dialogue. I could tell by his dialogue.
Can you tell? I can tell by his dialogue. Aren't
you one of those guys that was hanging out with you? No, not
me. You see what I'm getting at?
You see what I mean? See, it's important for you to
understand that if you esteem yourself too highly, you diminish
the glory of God. and you have a flawed view of
yourself. Being kept is the work of God. It's the purpose of God
to keep us. We are kept objectively by God's
determination. All that the Father giveth me,
John chapter 6 verse 37, shall come to me. And he that cometh
unto me I will in no wise what? Cast out. That's John 6 verse
37. That's the determination of God.
Now, the subjective power by which you and I are kept is given
to us in the epistle of Peter. Go with me to 1 Peter. I want
you to see how you and I are subjectively kept. How does God
mark his people out and how does he keep them so that even in
the midst of difficult times, even in the midst of falls, even
in the midst of temptations, even in the midst of sin, even
in the midst of difficult, difficult time, both from without, as well
as from within. How does God keep us? Listen to what Peter says in
1 Peter chapter 1. I'm going to read verse 3, 4,
and 5, and it's given to us in verse 5. Are you there? Here
it is. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercies
has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and
that fades not away, reserved for you where? Now watch this. You who are what? Kept. Now watch this. You who are kept by the power
of God. Watch the next clause. Through
what? Now parking right there Peter
has already comforted the Saints scattered abroad in Rome He called
it Babylon, but it was wrong and he says you guys are going
through fiery trials But you already knew that Jesus told
you you're gonna go through trials. Don't think it's strange But
God's keeping you God's keeping you him. He in fact spoke in
what is called the past tense you who are kept Now here's how
God keeps us. He keeps us by his power by his
power, the word is dunamis, he keeps us by his power through
what? Faith. Are you guys hearing me? So now moving into a more subjective,
dynamic instrumentality of how we are kept. You and I are kept
by the power of God through faith. Now faith is the same thing as
believing. Are you guys hearing me? Faith
and believing are two sides of the same coin. The reason I have
faith is because I'm a what? Believer. And those who are believers
have what? Faith. Now watch this. How is
it that faith in the life of the believer is the mechanism
by which they are kept through the power of God? Are you ready?
Faith comes by what? And hearing by what? Come on
now tell the truth. Don't you and I need to hear
the gospel every day? Don't we need to hit a word of
God every day? Don't we need to be reminded constantly over
and over and over and over again of the person and work of Jesus
Christ of the finality of the cross work of Jesus Christ of
the Absolute certainty of our eternal glory in Jesus Christ.
I need to hear it over and over and over and especially Watch
this now when I fall especially when I fall and also
when I'm tempted and More so when I'm weak When I'm inclined
to look to myself, which is what I do a lot So you so do you by
the way, and I need to hear the sufficiency of Christ redeeming
work over and over and over again to settle my soul down and and
to know he who hath begun a good work in me will perform it unto
the day of Jesus Christ Philippians 1 6 that's a good promise isn't
it he who hath begun a good work shall also perform it unto the
day of Jesus right now watch this my boat is floating on this
water and it ain't feeling good at all but what he is telling
me to do is stay in the boat isn't that what he says stay
in the boat stay in the boat boy don't get out that boat i
told you remember peter there you go again the lord walking
on the water demonstrating that he's lord over the trials the
water represents our trials he didn't put us all in the boat
all the disciples in the boat the boat is the church is where
the gospels preach but peter decides he want to separate himself
from his brethren have you ever done that So Peter sees the Lord,
he says, Lord, can I come out? And the Lord said, come on, good.
I need to use you as another object lesson. So he climbs out
the boat, right? And he starts walking on the
water. And just when he was about to turn back at his boys and
say, look at me, this is what we call look at me phase. Hey,
fellas, look, look at me. He started sinking, didn't he? And the Lord let him sink. You
see, it was the same Lord that let him walk on the water that
allowed him to sink so that he would not misappropriate the
gift of faith. Faith is not about you. And faith is not designed to
separate us from the body and to distinguish us from the body.
Are you guys hearing me? As soon as he recognized that
it was not about him, he prayed the fastest salvation prayer
message anyone ever heard. Lord, save me. And immediately the Lord reached
down and pulled him up and they both got back in the boat. I
teach this message all the time and it hasn't changed for me
over the years because I understand the instrumentality of God's
word. I tell us this all the time. The origin is God. There's an instrumentality. The
aim is glory. The origin is always God. God
is the first cause of everything. Never deny that. But God uses
means, like He used your mama and your daddy to bring you into
the world. It would have never happened any other way. And he
used the gospel to bring you to Christ. It would have never
happened any other way. And he used a preacher of the
gospel to bring the gospel to you that you might be brought
to Christ. It would have never happened any other way. And you
and I will get to glory because of the purpose of God through
the preaching of the gospel, which will keep us until the
day we see him face to face. face to face and so he put Peter
back in the boat and he got back in the boat with Peter and he
said Peter the whole church is gonna make it to glory together
did you hear what I just said together so the text says and
immediately they were at land Great lesson for you and I to
understand. You and I are kept because God
purposes to keep us. You and I are kept because God
has deposited in the church the word of God. You and I are kept
because he has purpose to keep us through faith. Now faith is
the substance of things what? That's, listen, this is so critical.
What keeps the believer, as I said when I started the message, is
the fact that you and I must understand and resolve that in
this life things will not be right. For us, our hope is in
glory. Our hope is in the resurrection.
Our hope is in the return of Christ. Our hope is not Christ
somehow fixing this sad state of affairs in which we live.
Our objective is to simply honor him in the gospel until he calls
us home. and then when he decides to come,
he can fix it all by himself. Are you guys hearing me? So the
first point in our outline that's critical for you to understand
is he protects his people. So I'm gonna read through these
four and I'm gonna go to the second one, I'm just gonna crack it
open and then obviously we gotta come back and deal with this
more specifically. Protection of the true worshipers,
the witness of the true witness, the persecution of the true worshipers,
The resurrection of the true worshipers. We talked about all
that. You guys got that? Our job is to witness to the
truth. It's going to result in persecution, but our hope is
the resurrection. The power of God to be able to
raise us from the dead. In your outline, I have this
term, the present ecumenical movement. You guys see that?
The present ecumenical movement. I think I'll talk about that
next week. I am bothered by what I see is a wholesale ecumenical
movement. I am bothered by it. And it's
wholesale, and it's actually creeping in more, the momentum
is more insidious than I thought. Because I do, you know, political
talk radio, I get resources all over the place. So I actually
have a very broad periphery of the state of the church around
the world. And the way the church is operating right now on the
part of the evangelical church, on the part of the Catholic church,
on the part of the Protestant church, all three are in very
compromising places. Compromising! Compromising. Ecumenism is a term that means
We can all live under the umbrella of unity without dealing with
our distinctions. Are you guys hearing me? Without
actually facing the truth of the radical contradictions that
each of our systems of religion actually possess. Now when you
accept an ecumenical frame of reference, I want you to hear
this because this is going to test you. It will make you feel
good To not want to have to sit down and say I don't agree with
your position To be able to just say simply say we love one another
kumbaya You know, let's just go bill hutch and you know, let's
go let's go, you know, dig wells and Let's let's let's love one
another but our theology Is radical hostile towards each other that
if we were to be honest, Catholicism in its fundamental tenets does
not have a unity or a harmony for the Protestant theological
tenets. Catholicism is totally variant
to Protestantism. And if the two don't actually
deal with those radical variants, we are simply proponents of hypocrisy. And then Islam has been brought
into the equation. I've told you about this a while
ago. I'll expand on this next week. One of the biggest proponents
of it right now is Rick Warren with his peace agenda. He is
right now working with a lot of your major liberal churches,
Catholic and otherwise, in getting together with Islamic groups. Somehow asserting that we worship
the same God and that we can just love one another and get
along and leave our differences behind. But here's what I want
you to understand about that very dangerous doctrine. Here's
what I want you to understand. If you buy into ecumenism, you
will have to give up the gospel. Ladies and gentlemen, do you
hear me? And see, we've been practicing this under what is
called the dialectical process for decades now. The dialectical
process is the process of taking two opposing groups and bringing
them under the same roof and telling them they've got to get
along. You got that? That's called a dialectical process.
And so you take Lutherans and you put them in the camp with
Baptists, or you take Protestants and you put them in the camp
with Pentecostals, or you take Catholics and put them in the
camp with Charismatics, and you tell them, somehow y'all work
it out. Well, if they're going to be faithful to their doctrines,
watch this. They can't work it out. Did you
hear what I just said? You can't work it out. Either
I'm right and you're wrong, or you're wrong and I'm right, or
you're right and I'm wrong, but we can't both be right. Now,
if we really believe our system is a wholesale set of biblical
truths, then compromise is out of the question. But if somehow
we think that compromise is more noble and more integral than
us holding to what we believe to be true, then we can sit around
now and hodgepodge a whole new religious system. We can now
reframe a gospel that allows all of us to fit under that umbrella.
Am I making some sense? This is what we call compromise,
or at best, syncretism. Syncretism. And it's interesting
because the Wycliffe translators are right now targeting major
Arab countries with a Muslim-friendly Bible by which they are asserting
that you don't have to acknowledge the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
as the true image of the triune God, because that's a major sin
in Islam. That's the sin of shirt, attributing
partners to God. You guys know that, right? Attributing
partners to God. As if somehow Christianity asserts
what we call polytheism. The mystery is still not unraveled
on the part of the Muslim mindset with regards to the three persons,
but they would assert that we are assigning partners to God.
And so for them, that is blasphemy. Now, how is that getting solved?
That's getting solved by changing the term from Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost to Father, Messiah, and Spirit. our Father and Savior
and Spirit. So you know what that does? It
diminishes the second person from his deity and it subordinates
him. And subordination is just what
the Jehovah Witnesses and all of the other cults hold to. So
you see, again, the target is the person of Christ. Are you
hearing me? And the evangelical church and
Protestant churches are ready to do that. Now, it's quite amazing
what's happening. Wycliffe was one of the pre-Reformation
brothers whose objective it was to get the scriptures in the
hands of the common people. And yet today, they are ready
to contaminate scripture for the purpose of compromise. Now,
I share that with you because it's coming to America soon too.
you guys understand what I'm saying? It's coming here soon
too. And you will have to ask yourself, not only do I have
the mental, emotional, and intellectual predisposition to stand on biblical
truth, but you know, when it, when it comes, am I going to
be ready to suffer the consequences of standing on that truth? That's
really where we're going to be probably in less than 10 years.
probably in less than 10 years. So now I'm going to read one
other portion. I'm going to open the floor for questions and then
we'll close in a little bit in a prayer. Here's the portion
that I want to read. Go back with me to your text
now. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. Then we'll come to 6 and 7 and
then we'll come back next week and we'll start right here with
the restrainer of the mystery. The restrainer of the mystery. This is what Paul says, and this
is quite interesting. I want you to meditate and ruminate
on this between now and next week. Verse six, and now you know what
is withholding that he might be revealed in his time for the
mystery of iniquity doth already work only he who now holdeth
will until he be taken out of the way see verse six and seven
so here's the vision that I want you to capture in the economy
of the gospel since the days of Christ resurrection and ascension
in the glory there has been a cap placed on evil all around the
world up to this present hour Since the days of Christ, there
has been a cap placed on evil. Not that evil is not present,
not that evil doesn't wreak all kinds of havoc. We have many
other passages that are certain. But evil has not been unleashed
in all of its full or fury because it's capped. Are you guys hearing
me? And so that capping has a design
and a purpose. It is designed to restrain the
ultimate manifestation of wickedness. It's designed to restrain the
ultimate manifestation of wickedness. Now, when that restrainer is
removed, wickedness will be so fully manifested, no one will
be able to deny its presence. But that removal will only take
place when the Lord sees fit. that removal will result in the
manifestation of this enormous entity of wickedness at which
time the Lord Jesus Christ will begin to come to intervene. The time will be so horrific
that it will require the personal intervention of Jesus Christ. Are you guys with me? So next
week what we're going to do is talk about how the scriptures
depict the restraining work of God all through the narrative
of scripture and then what the text actually asserts about this
evil breaking out right before Jesus comes. All right, the floor
is open for questions. We got about 10 minutes before
we wrap it up. Anybody got any questions? Any questions here? No questions? No observations?
You guys ready to go home? Right there. Can you, we got,
it's got to go in the mic. Are we on that? Are we on with
our mic? There we go. When you talk about Jesus coming, are you talking
about coming for rational saints or to come slay the wicked
at the end of the tribulation. That's a good question. I had
that question rendered to me. You can take the mic. I had that
question rendered to me a couple weeks ago in the form of this.
What does it mean for Jesus to come? Does it mean for Jesus
to come in terms of just merely rescuing the church like in a
rapture scenario, which will precipitate a seven-year tribulation
period in the midst of tribulation? No, I believe that a faithful
explanation of the scriptures is that Jesus' second coming
will be the removing of the church out of the world, but immediately
preceded by him bringing the world into judgment. So that
the tribulation that we are talking about taking place will be, will
have already culminated before Christ came. Yeah, that's a post-trib rapture
position that I hold. that I don't already have asserted
several times that I do not believe in like a seven-year tribulation
period and then in the middle of the tribulation the church
taken out so that the world goes through three and a half years
of tribulation and then what might occur is a millennial reign
for a thousand years and then Christ final culmination. No,
I hold to a amillennial position which asserts that the tribulation
will increase and become intense God removes the restrainer and
the man of sin takes his place in dominating the world whether
that man of sin is a system or whether he's an individual we'll
talk about that but when Christ comes the second time based on
all kinds of other passages of Scripture he's coming to put
an end to things he's coming to put an end to things and hopefully
we'll be able to get into some of that somebody else somebody
else anybody any other question okay ladies the next over here
Erica you got to raise your hand he can't see you there you go can you explain what is the mystery
of iniquity yeah that's what we're going to be dealing with
over the next couple weeks yeah that's part of our text the mystery
of iniquity is the term that he says is already working while
the restrainer is in place So I want to explain that over the
next week or two for us to understand what Paul means by using that
terminology. Wickedness is already manifesting
itself, has since the early church. And in fact, I'll give you a
little token of it, okay? The mystery of iniquity manifested
itself in Judas Iscariot. He was an iniquitous person in
the ranks of the apostles, capped by the purpose of God for three
and a half years. God restrained him. And then
God took his hand off of him right before the Lord's Supper
to allow him to go into perdition for which his name was called
in John 17, the son of perdition. This is why I'm saying the gospel
is the model for the church. so that we can believe also this
nomenclature or this terminology, the man of sin, son of perdition
that we have in our text will actually have to do with someone
that is high in rank and close to Christ in terms of the church.
Okay. Somebody over here, right here.
Start with Maya and then we'll go back. Hi, pastor. You had mentioned that evil has
been capped since Calvary. Can I understand that to be since
the foundation of the world? Not in the same way. So we'll
develop that. Yeah. It's not to say that God
has not restrained evil in time. You know, we'll be able to demonstrate
from Genesis chapter six restraint. We'll be able to demonstrate
from Genesis 20 forms of restraint. But there was a radical capping
that took place at Calvary that we have to actually recognize,
okay? Somebody back there. Hey, Pastor. Thank you so much. You know,
I always have a million questions. The big confusion, or I don't
know about confusion, but the revelation that I've been given,
if you can explain the concept of what responsibility do I,
me, we, us have? And what I'm understanding is
really, we don't play any part in our salvation at all. It's
all given to us. And basically, I'm coming to
understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, is we're just supposed
to sit back and strap down our seat belts and get ready for
a ride. I'm just wondering, what responsibility do we have, do
we play? Well, if you read your outline,
yeah, you didn't get that quite right. And I understand that.
It amazes me how difficult theology is to process. But I guess it's so. Like in
the area of the gospel, I find my brother in exercising what
I consider these extreme positions. Either we hold that Christ is
saving us by his grace, and because he's saving us by his grace,
then we don't have to do anything. Are we hold to, you know, well,
we got to do something and because we got to do something, then
we're saved by works. Both extremes misrepresent the
gospel. Do you guys hear me? They both
misrepresent the gospel. When we say that salvation is
totally of the Lord It does not mean that God is not working
in us the will and to do of his good pleasure In order for him
to accomplish through us in this world what God wants to accomplish
This is why I tell our church about this threefold perspective
that you got to have on the nature of God You got to understand
origin that God is the first cause so we you know from praise
God from whom all blessings flow Then you got to understand instrumentality
Instrumentality has got God works through means to save so let's
say if you guys have heard me say that You didn't get saved
by osmosis. You got saved through the preaching
of the gospel, right? Well an angel didn't preach to you It
was a human being and that human being was part of the church
So the instrumentality of salvation on a practical level is the church
for which you and I are called to be witnesses in this world
And that concept of witnessing covers a broad gamut, a broad
gamut. But what it really is, is simply
you being you as you are in Christ wherever you are. Am I making
some sense? It's just you being you as you
are in Christ wherever you are so that what Paul said was, I
am what I am by the grace of God. And the grace of God that
was with me worked mightily in me because my objective is to
want to glorify God in this world while I am here. And I know what
God's plan is. Preach the gospel to every creature.
So if we want to reduce what we're here for, it's to see to
it that the gospel gets disseminated everywhere. and then Jesus will
take us out when it's our time or he will come and intervene
during the time in which he has chosen to intervene. And those
of us who are still living will be interrupted happily by his
return. But please understand, if you
are living and breathing in here, you have a purpose. But don't
mix that up, my brothers and sisters, with works religion
and the motive of your living for God's glory based upon you
seeking merit before God. But we certainly never want to
do what the Pharisees did. The pharisees tied mint ruin
coming but they left off with the weightier matters of the
law So jesus condemned them by saying these things you ought
to have done But to not have left the others undone So I want
us to be able to understand the full or ministry of the gospel
and engage in it till jesus comes So you are saved by grace But
you are also graciously saved to live for god's glory somebody
else I've just got a question about
the falling away when you talked about the apostasy. When Jesus
was talking about the Beatitudes, was that a form of falling away? The Beatitudes was the remedy
to the persecution that comes for sharing the gospel. If you
want an ethic for sharing the gospel successfully, knowing
that the gospel is going to have you persecuted, the Beatitudes
is your ethic. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
The beatitude is your ethic. It's the mindset and framework
for which you and I will be able to share the gospel knowing you're
going to be persecuted. Blessed are ye when you are persecuted
for my name's sake for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed
are the poor. Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God. And so the language of what is
called the beatitudes the predisposition of the heart of the child of
God because he knows that by nature he's nothing and that
God would be pleased to use us to share the gospel with people
is a great privilege for which when we are persecuted by them
what we understand is I'm being persecuted for Christ's sake
and for Christ's sake and II wish that you and I, that's a
great corollary to our whole lesson because what's going to
help you get through persecution and tribulation is you're taking
a humble position of being thankful that you're saved. Somebody else. We got a few more
minutes. No more hands. Oh, okay. We're at where you Hello. Isn't one of the signs
of the end time that Israel will rebuild the third temple? In
fact, they're already assembling the materials already in storage,
ready to put it together. That's propaganda. That's propaganda. Well, let
me say it like this. With regards to, you guys hear
me teach this all the time, so I want to say categorically that
I am not a pro-Israel Palestinian end-time eschatologists. I do not believe that the Bible
teaches what is prominently taught in your evangelical churches
today about an ethnocentric close of the age. There are too many
implications and so you need to study, you need to study the
implications of the rebuilding of a temple, the reestablishing
of a priesthood, the reestablishing of the old covenant, the reestablishing
of an Aaronic priesthood, the reestablishing of the center
of worship being a temple in Jerusalem versus the finality
of the gospel. See, here's the problem with
the evangelical church, which is, which, you know, causes me
to rue the day. The evangelical church has already,
based on its preponderance for a premillennial dispensational
paradigm, given up the gospel. It's given up the gospel. You
are going back to an Old Testament system when you buy into that.
In fact, I was reading an article today by a premillennial dispensationalist
who said the same thing. He said that Once the temple
is established, God will re... He will re-initiate the old covenant. He will re-institute the old
covenant because the old covenant is for the people of Israel.
It's the same assumption then that He will build a third temple.
And I would... I would beg the question, where
in the Bible does it say He will build a third temple? then also
where in the Bible does it say there will be a seven-year tribulation
period I would love for people to demonstrate that that will
take place those are the assumptions that are that are that emerge
out of texts of scripture that I believe are misinterpreted
the basic text from which they build this complete scheme is
Daniel chapter 9 verse 26 and 27 so you can go there not now
you can go there and y'all and look at it and ask the question
does this actually teach the this wholesale elaborate eschatological
scheme which has been plopped on the American church and on
the European church which is a wonderful system that aids
and abets national Israel on a political socio-economic level
like I don't know what but it does it to the loss of the gospel. Can I say this just to let you
know? I believe one of the signs that we are moving towards the
end of time is that the American European propaganda machine along
with the church is becoming hot for war against those who are
opposing national Israel. Hot for it. This is why I warned
us about this black hat white hat ideology that's dominating
and blinding warmongering Christians That somehow the Iranians and
the Arabians and all Muslims and all people in the east are
bad and Jews are good That would militate against the gospel It
was for that very reason Christ was crucified, because he would
not allow his own Jewish people to believe that they were superior
to anybody else. And I'm saying that that ethic
does not change. The ethic of the gospel does
not change. It does not change. It will not
change when Christ comes. It does not change. So what that
does is modify our understanding of eschatology. So be very careful
about understanding implications of certain doctrinal teachings,
because that to me, that particular construct is actually the ushering
in of the Antichrist. Somebody else. Yes, Pastor, can you tell me
about the as in the scriptures where it says in us, second Peter,
chapter three, verse 10 about, but the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night. Can you explain that? We've talked
about that before that comes out of first Thessalonians chapter
four and five. Paul made it very clear for the
non-elect Christ coming will be a surprise for the elect. For those who are truly saved.
It's not possible for Christ coming to be a surprise because
not because you are super bright are super intelligent. Okay. but because you're in Christ.
To be in Christ is to be in the light. To be in Christ is to
be children of the day. To be a child of the day means
that you and I do not walk in darkness. Living for Christ,
being committed to the cause of the gospel, knowing God qualifies
us to be ready when Jesus comes. You guys understand what I'm
saying? In other words, if I were to buy into the notion that we
have to reach a certain intellectual echelon in order for us to be
secure when Christ comes, I would actually be teaching an intellectual
legalism. Do you understand what I'm getting
at? An intellectual legalism. But if my brothers and sisters
all around the world who can barely read, who get saved because
of the preaching of the gospel, they are just as secure as I
am for the coming of Christ because they have been placed in Christ.
The light has been placed in them. The hope of glory is in
them. And they're not looking with physical eyes or an intellectual
apprehension. They are looking by faith to
the return of Christ when he comes. and that time for them
they don't have to worry about because it's part of their new
nature. Am I making some sense? All right, I'll take one or two
more and then we're done. Any questions? All right, get
on over there, Jan. Don't have a heart attack while
you're running, brother. Jan go ask for his check after
this and then he go quit. Thanks, Pastor. I've got a couple.
You've got to put it to your mouth. We're not on the golf
course. OK. How's that? Is that OK? No, I don't do that. I mean, golf cutter. OK, how
many parousia is on the New Testament? I can't hear you. How many parousia
is in the New Testament? One. OK, how do you treat the
scripture where it says, I guess the proper hermeneutic would
be who, what, where, why and when tells the apostles or the
disciples, you will not go to all the towns of Israel before
the center man comes. So he's talking to them. They're dead,
aren't they? And the other one, two people will be grinding meat.
One will be taken, the other left. Two people will be on bed. One will be taken, the other
left. That's Matthew 24. And then two people will be in
the field. Same text. Okay. You're saying
that's the church, not the church, but that'll be the rapture? That has nothing to do with the
second coming? In fact, the two words are different in the Greek.
The term that you're using is the Greek term, Erkomai. Erkomai. And it's a Greek term for coming,
but it's not bound to the physical coming of Jesus. Like we talk
about the coming of Christ in several dimensions. Like Christ
comes in providence in the life of people every day to take them
out so that they wake up one day facing God in judgment. He
comes in providence when he saves you through the preaching of
the gospel. That's Acts chapter 3 verse 4. Then he is coming
in his in his mercy and his goodness through the preaching of the
gospel on a daily basis When he changes your life or he delivers
you from your sin Christ comes in many ways in the dimension
of his sovereign omnipotence and omniscience around the world
But then he will actually come. We call it the word parousia
in his physical ultimate coming on the last day when he's going
to make everything right. So the word Erkomai is a word
that has multiple meanings. For instance, a great way to
understand what I mean by what I just said is Revelation chapter
1 through 3 warns the seven churches of the obedience that they must
render to him as Lord with the exception of two who were faithful.
Jesus said, If you do not repent, I will come and do nothing. So right as Revelation 2 and
3, he wasn't talking about coming at the end of time. He was coming
talking about coming and sovereign power to either discipline that
church or remove the candlestick from that church or kill the
false prophets in that church in that term to is the term Eric
oh my which is a very broad use of the term. Where you see the
word parousia, it is virtually always used in the sense of his
physical coming. But the text that you described
in the Gospel of Luke and Matthew, where he says, I say that to
some of you that you will not have gone through all the cities
of Israel until the Son of Man comes. He was speaking about
his death, burial, and resurrection. the coming in the power of the
gospel as those disciples would be the means by which all Jerusalem
Judea and Samaria and the other most parts of the world would
hear the gospel so you remember the gospel first went to where
Jerusalem and then it spread from Jerusalem to where Samaria
and then from to Judea and then from Judea to where Samaria and
then from Samaria to the other most parts of the world and that
was seen comprehensively in the book of Acts Acts gives us the
the the the the spreading of the gospel in that form very
clearly for us One more. Okay, some of you standing here
today will not taste death and to see a son of man Coming in
his father. Yeah glory. Yes, same thing same
same exact thing. I want you to this is what's
beautiful about the gospel You can read this in 1st John chapter
5 Jesus came Jesus' coming is preeminently manifested in three
ways. In His incarnation. His incarnation
was a tremendous coming into the world. He came into the world
and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Tremendous coming. Tremendous coming. This is why
it says in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, and the
Lord shall suddenly come to his temple. Then Jesus came by his
death on calvary's tree That was a coming a coming. This is
he who came by blood and water Not by blood only but also blood
and water and what john is teaching is that jesus? Total coming in
terms of his work of redemption was finalized by his death on
calvary's tree if I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me
He was veiled, he was hid, he was obscure in his incarnation. He became more manifest in his
preaching ministry, but he was fully unveiled when he hung naked
between heaven and earth on Calvary's tree as the sinner's substitute. And the centurion pierced his
side and out came blood and water. And that is the Savior to whom
we look to redeem our souls. He rose again on the third day
and he told his disciples and us I'm coming again. Is that
okay? All right, let's stand for prayer. Father we come to you in the
name of the Lord Jesus and we do thank you for an hour and
a half of being able to focus in your words. Some of us have
been encouraged. I hope all of us have been encouraged
to know that you are on your throne. And even though evil
times are coming, evil times will never thwart your purpose
to save your people. You have already determined to
mark them out and to call them to yourself and to preserve and
to keep them that no flesh should glory in your sight. And we thank
you that you saved by grace and that you saved through faith
and that you have stripped us all of pride of grace and pride
of race. and pride of face, that we are
all nothing and we're everything. in the Lord Jesus Christ. From
every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, Lord, be so gracious
to continue to save men and women of the poorest of the stock,
of the weakest, Lord, of the most despised of humanity. Draw them to yourself, even as
you yourself came, poor and despised and rejected of men. Save such,
Lord, as call upon your name. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercies, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you.