While you're turning to 2 Thessalonians,
let me tell you a story that illustrates how horribly, horribly
false religion gets hold on people. Several years ago, Brother Maurice
Montgomery was telling me about a house If you drive him down
toward his house where he and Sue and the family live on Choctaw,
right at the end of the street, there's a house on Choctaw Drive.
Some years back, a fellow tried to sell the house, and he couldn't
sell it. And he lowered the price, and
he couldn't sell it. And it sat on the market for
about two years. Folks would come, make an off on the house,
go through the process of buying it, and they'd find out that
the address was 666 Choctaw Drive. And they couldn't sell the house. Folks were scared to death it's
got something to do with Antichrist. He finally got the address changed,
sold the house next week. because people have foolish notions
embedded in their minds by a false representation of things revealed
in this book. That's exactly what had happened
to the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul gave
a word of comfort to God's people with regard to those who sleep
in Christ, those who have died in faith, assuring us of their
resurrection and ours when Christ comes again, in that day called
the Day of the Lord. He picks up the same theme here
in 2 Thessalonians, telling us that the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven at that appointed hour set by the Father. Now, before our Savior ascended
back into heaven, once he had accomplished our redemption,
once he had put away our sin, once he had brought in everlasting
righteousness as our substitute, just before he ascended into
heaven to take possession of heavenly glory as our mediator
and as our surety, he told us that before he comes again in
his glory, there would be a time of great tribulation. widespread
lawlessness and religious apostasy. He described it in horrific terms. One writer I read earlier put
it in these words. He said, The seams of society
would come apart. Disorders, violence and riot
would be so widespread that men's hearts would literally fail them
for fear of the things that were coming over the face of the earth.
Our Savior put it in these words in Matthew 24. Then shall be
great tribulation, great tribulation, not seven years of great tribulation,
great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. The Saints at Thessalonica
were enduring great trials, persecutions, hardships because of their faith
in Christ. Not just the ordinary hardships
and difficulties that we go through living in this world, but trials
and persecutions because they believed Christ, because they
would not worship with their neighbors at the pagan festivals
and the pagan temples that were surrounding them. So they were
constantly persecuted and harassed. In those days persecution was
common and it was powerful. And they appear to have been
convinced that this must be the time the Lord was talking about.
This must be the day. Paul was telling us the day of
the Lord. He was telling us to look for
it. This must be it. Someone had obviously written
a letter or come in amongst them and told them that Paul said
the day of the Lord is right here on us. Some of them even
quit their jobs. because they were convinced that
the Lord Jesus would soon appear. In these three chapters, the
Apostle writes this epistle to correct some very common errors
among many people that exist to this day with regard to Christ's
Second Coming. If you want a brief summary of
each chapter, in chapter 1 he tells us how we are to look upon
our trials in this world in the light of Christ's Second Coming.
In chapter 2, he tells us how we are to look upon the apostasy
and false religion of this world in the light of Christ's Second
Coming. And then in chapter 3, he tells us how we are to live
day by day in this world in the light of Christ's Second Coming. Then in the first chapter, Paul
speaks of our trials and of Christ's coming. He tells us that we are
to ever look upon our difficulties Our trials, our troubles in this
world, even persecutions for the gospel's sake, in the light
of eternity. Oh, God, teach me to look upon
those things that cause me so much trouble here in the light
of Christ's coming. What will they matter then? What
will they matter then? And this first chapter, the trials
and persecutions we endure in this world, are corrected when
Christ comes again, because everything will be set in order, and that
great day everything will be manifest in its proper light,
when God our Savior shall avenge and vindicate his own elect."
The Apostle over in 1 Corinthians makes a statement with regard
to those who would censor and judge him. He said, he's not
God's servant. He said, I don't care anything
myself. And he said, your opinion doesn't matter. The Lord will
set all things right. I'll wait for that day. He will
set everything in its true light. He writes to these Thessalonians
and begins his epistle with a very gracious commendation of these
Saints because of their obvious growth in faith and in grace,
and the growth for which he gives thanks to God. Look at verse
3. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as
it is me. It's right for us to. Because
that your faith groweth exceedingly, your faith continually grows
exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you toward each
other abounded, so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches
of God. This is everywhere I go, I tell
folks about the church, the Saints of Thessalonica. For your patience
and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure,
which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God,
that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which
you also suffer." Then in verses 6-10, he assures them and us
of our Lord's glorious second advent. He says, seeing it as
a righteous thing, it's just right with God to recompense
tribulation to them that trouble you. Not that Paul is encouraging
vengeance on our part. Let us be careful, let us be
careful. Don't seek vengeance upon those
who oppose you. Say something happened, aha,
I told you God was going to get him. I recall several years ago
I was passing West Virginia, found out I had cancer. Prior
to that, some of the preachers had a fellowship meeting and
they didn't much care for me. They got up one Sunday and started praying
for God to judge me. And when they found out I had
cancer, they had a party. They threw a party. God's wrath
on them. God judged them. And frankly,
that didn't bother me. But learn, don't behave so hellishly. No, no. What Paul is saying is
the righteous thing for God to avenge you, and he will. It's
a righteous thing for a man to care for his own, and God cares
for his own. And to you who are troubled,
let that be enough. Rest with us. Let that be the
end of your difficulty. Let that be the end of your conflict.
Rest with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty flaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory
of his power. When Christ comes again, we shall
be well recompensed for anything and everything We suffer in this
world in his name and for his sake, and because of the gospel
of his grace we believe. We shall be well recompensed.
The Apostle Paul said, I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
revealed in us. Back years ago when Shelby and
I used to take kids to camp every year for a week One year we had
invited a fellow to come and instruct the children and preach
to the adults as well in the evenings by the name of Bob Lucilius.
And we had taken great care to do the best we could to prepare
the best facilities we could in a campground for him. And
when he got there, nothing was as it was planned. And I was
apologizing. I was, you know, I was humiliated,
apologizing. because of the conditions and
circumstances which he was going to have to stay for five days.
And I never will forget, I don't believe what he said to me. He
said, Brother Don, quit fretting. All this and heaven too? All this and heaven too? Yeah. All this and heaven too. Turn over to 1 Peter 1. Let me
show you how Peter puts it. 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy,
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
that fadeth not away, reserved for you in heaven. For you who
are kept by the power of God through faith under salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried
with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ, the trial of your faith. Verse
8, Whom having not seen you loved, in whom though now you see him
not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your soul. Paul is reminding God's afflicted,
troubled, persecuted Saints, God hasn't forgotten you. He's
going to straighten things out soon. And that day when he sets
all things in order, those things that we suffer here in his providence,
particularly those things that we suffer because of our faith
in him, because of our consecration to him, they both demonstrate
that we are made worthy of the kingdom of God. And they declare,
soon we shall inherit it. Imagine that. Paul says here
in 1 Thessalonians that these things show that we are worthy
of the kingdom of God. Worthy of God's kingdom? I'm not worthy of citizenship
in this country, much less of God's kingdom. Oh, but I am,
because Christ has put away my sins. He has brought in for me
perfect righteousness, and he has given me a new nature. Soon
I shall drop this body of flesh and enter into heaven's glory,
not by the skin of my teeth, but shall enter into heaven's
glory triumphantly and confidently through the merits of Christ
the Redeemer, because I will have every right to be there,
and I know that my rights there are him who sits on the throne."
He is worthy of my praise, because he has made me worthy of glory."
This thought of how it ought to comfort and sustain our souls,
it ought to put a little bounce in our steps, it ought to strengthen
our backs, it ought to cause these weak hands that dangle
at our sides, because we run with willingness to be lifted
up with spitefulness as we walk in the path of obedience to our
God. He has made us worthy of his
heavenly kingdom, and soon shall bring us into that kingdom. Our
Lord's glorious second Advent will also bring about a day of
great, everlasting recompense to the unbelieving, to them that
obey not God, nor the gospel of God, to them who believe not
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, hear me, you who believe
not, who obey not the gospel. There is a day coming when God
Almighty will set everything clear, even in your eyes, when
he shall destroy you forever with the brightness of his coming." The second coming of Christ,
as is described in this first chapter and again in the second
chapter, isn't some kind of a secret thing. People talk about Christ
coming in secret to rapture the Church. This book doesn't know
anything about that. You can find it in notes somebody
else wrote. You won't find it in this book. It's not in here.
Our Lord will be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God and obey not the gospel. And you
will be punished with everlasting destruction. from the presence
of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. As heaven is indescribably glorious,
hell is indescribably horrible. You hear about fire and brimstone.
It's written in the book. You hear about the worm that
dies not and the fire that does not quench. It's written in the
book. If you hear about everlasting
darkness and the bottomless pit, it's written in the book. All
of those things are but symbols that don't come close to describing
what it is to be destroyed by God with everlasting destruction,
as you are everlastingly banished from all that is good and light. and glorious with the full consciousness
that you are so banished because you've earned it by your unbelief. For unbelievers, Christ's coming
will be a terrifying thing. But you who are believers, don't
ever let anyone, don't ever let anyone cause you to think of
the Lord's coming as something that's to be put off, something
that you'd be afraid of, something that, oh, one of these days God's
going to get me. No, God got me. He got me by
his grace and put away my sin by the sacrifice of his Son.
And for the believer, this which is terrifying to the unbeliever
is glorious. Christ is coming, and he will
cause us to stand before him in the glory of his grace. to
the everlasting praise of his name and admiration of his name
before wandering worlds. Look at verse 10. Our Lord Jesus,
when he appears, he shall come to be glorified not by, but in
his saints, and to be admired not by, but in all them that As the world sees the wisdom,
the power and the righteousness of God's great grace in the salvation
of his elect, our great God and Savior shall be forever glorified
and forever admired because of the exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Glorified by us,
yes, but glorified in us. Admired by us, yes, but admired
in us. Then in the last two verses of
this first chapter, Paul assures these believers of his unceasing
prayers to God on their behalf. Will you allow me to take his
words for my own as addressed to you? wherefore also we pray
always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this
calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness,
and the work of faith with power." God fulfill all the good pleasure
of your goodness in these that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, look at chapter
2. We live in a world full of darkness. we live in an apostate religious
age. Not just in this nation, around
the world. Around the world. The whole religious
world is engulfed in darkness. In darkness. The religion of
this age, and I'm not talking about the liberals and the cults.
I'm not talking about the I'm not talking about the nonsense
religion. I'm talking about the worst nonsense religion of what's
called conservative, fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity. I'm
talking about the folks who carry a Bible in their hands, sometimes
a family Bible, so you'll know how godless they are. I'm talking
about folks who recite scripture and write Jesus saves on the
rocks in the parks. We are living in an age that
the religion of which no more resembles what the scriptures
speak of, of Christianity and faith and the worship of God,
no more resembles that than an angel resembles a gnat. It's
not even close to it. If you want to waste your time
watching what's on television, listening to what's on radio,
reading what comes out in the papers or what's sent in your
mailbox, folks trying to raise money in religion, Try to find
anything like that in this book. Just try to find anything like
what's... I'll tell you what it is. When you get by this paper
here in our community, and we've got Sunday's religious schedule
on it, you read the titles and the entertainment that's going
on, any church in town, and please call me if you find one that
has anything in it that's related to what's in this book. It's
just not there. It's just not there. In chapter
2, Paul tells these Thessalonians that there would be a time of
great apostasy. He calls it a falling away, a
departure, a departure from the gospel that will engulf the professed
Church of Christ in utter darkness. Apparently, as I said before,
someone had written to the Church here or visited it and told them
that Paul said, The Lord Jesus is coming real soon. Look at
verse 1. Now, we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus and by our gathering together
unto him, that you be not soon shaken in your mind. Don't be
disturbed or troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by
letter as from us, that the day of Christ is on us, that the
day of Christ is at hand. In these two verses, Paul tells
us these five things, and I want you to get them. not he shall come, he is coming.
John put it this way, Behold, he cometh. Ever since he went
back to glory, he has been on his way back here for us. He's
only been gone two days. One day with him is a thousand
years, a thousand years is one day. He is coming again for his
body. No signs, no prophecies are yet
to be fulfilled before Christ comes again. I can't emphasize
this sufficiently. People tell you to look for this
and look for that, and, oh, this must be a sign of his coming.
You reckon this is a sign of the end? Anything anybody in
the world says about religion is wrong. Have I said that enough? Any thought you have naturally
about spiritual things is wrong. And anything that's embraced
by the world at large is wrong. It is not according to this book.
No, this book does not speak of signs and things that are
yet to come to pass before Christ comes again. He came here and
fulfilled the law and the prophets and fulfilled the signs of the
Old Testament, predicting his coming. Now we are to look for
him, the Lord Jesus himself. In fact, that's the third thing.
Our Lord never told us to look for signs. He said no sign will
be given to this generation, but always to look for Christ
himself. Fourthly, we should live every
day looking for him all the time, all the time. Oh, how I pray
that God will teach me more and more to live on the lookout for
Christ, for his coming. Fifthly, while our Lord may appear
at any moment, there is nothing to prevent that, nothing to be
fulfilled before he comes. We must never allow anyone to
dupe us into thinking that he knows when Christ is coming. He may return today, and he may
not return for a thousand years. This is what our Lord said. It
is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father
hath put in his own hand. Throughout the history of the
Church, there have been fellows who would spring up every few
years who would make a prediction of Christ's second coming, the
Lord's coming here, the Lord's coming at this time. The Adventist
church, Seventh-day Adventist church, was started as a result
of the folks up in New York going out in the field looking for
Christ to come, and it's coming tonight. Well, sort of he did, so he started
another church, another denomination of works. And there have been
things like that go on throughout church history. The fact is,
no one, not me, not you, not the greatest of theologians,
has any kind of an inside track on the purpose of God. Nobody
knows the day or hour when Christ shall come, or for that matter,
the month, the year, or the century. Nobody knows. Nobody comes close,
because there is not one word given concerning that time in
this book. That ought to be crystal clear,
but folks don't seem to get it. The fact is, our Lord Jesus Christ
will come at that day when the Father has appointed, and we
are to live continually serving him and looking for him until
that day. Now look at verse 3. Let no man
deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except
there come an apostasy, a falling away first, and that the man
of sin be revealed. Paul says, the day of the Lord is set according to God's purpose. But that day is not coming until
first there's an apostasy, a departure from the faith. What's he talking
about? What's he talking about? The
Holy Spirit here tells us that heresies must come. In fact,
they had already begun. Turn to 1 John 4. Let me show
you. 1 John 4. Even in John's time, they had
already begun. People want to know when Antichrist is going
to appear. He's already here. He's already
here. John said, Beloved, believe not
every spirit, but try the whether they are of God, because many
false prophets are going out into the world. Hereby know ye
the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is of God." Now, what does John mean by that?
Everybody who says that Jesus Christ, the real man, came in
the flesh, he's of God? No. Every spirit that confesses
that Jesus, that man of Nazareth, is the Christ, that he has accomplished
all that the Christ was prophesied to accomplish, he is of God.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus of Nazareth accomplished
everything the Christ of God is prophesied to have accomplished,
is not of God. Confess if not that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh, be not of God. And this is that spirit
of antichrist. Whereof you have heard that it
should come, and even now already is it in the world. The man of
sin must be revealed. Antichrist must be revealed. put out of your head everything
you've ever thought, read or heard with regard to what Antichrist
is, what it looks like. I've been a believer for 35 years,
and I've heard at least once or twice a year a different person
identified as Antichrist. I've heard all kinds of folks
identified as Antichrist. We see pictures and have an idea
of Antichrist having 666 written across his forehead. got on a
red suit, tail, horns, pitchfork in his hand, ain't an Antichrist. However, he is revealed right
here. The world will never know it.
Those whose names are not written in the book of the life of the
Lamb will worship it. But he is revealed to God's people.
Look at verse 4. Here he is. Who is Antichrist? He is that one who opposes and
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped,
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God." The Antichrist is not a single man. The Antichrist
is not a single religion, not at all. I have no problem at
all, and I'm not being the least bit bashful or backward here. Our forefathers in faithfulness,
most all of those men that I look at in past history and admire
as being faithful men, able theologians, able expositors of Scripture,
almost to a tee, all of them, said the Antichrist is Pope and
Roman Catholicism. Absolutely they are right. No
question about that. His unholiness to the Pope, whoever
he happens to be at the time, is Antichrist. The whole of Roman
Catholicism is Antichrist. Let no one misunderstand me,
but it is a serious mistake to limit it to Rome and the Faithful
City. Antichrist is that which John
describes as having already gone out into the world. Paul had
to contend with Antichrist at Colossae, Galatia, Corinth, and
in Jerusalem. And now he describes this man
of sin, this son of perdition, as one who opposes God, one who
exalts himself above God and all that is called God, one who
sets himself up in the temple of God, in the house of God,
to be worshipped as God, declaring that he is God. What on earth
can that be? What can that be? We won't turn
back there, but I encourage you to go back and read again Colossians
2. Paul speaks of it very clearly,
and speaks of many women who presume to think that somehow
they have something to do with the saving of their souls as
will-worshippers. Antichrist is whatever religion,
whatever doctrine, whatever sermon, whatever thinking puts man as
the centerpiece in God's purpose and in God's salvation, whatever
it is. It's called will-worship. So
that the whole trend of religion today, the whole, you read this
book, everything lifts up Christ. Everything lifts up the glory
and the greatness and the majesty of God. Pull out anything, go
down to the religious bookstore, pull out anything you want to,
pick it up and read it. Find me something that lifts up the glory
and the majesty and the greatness of God. You might find it on
the back of the shelf somewhere that couldn't get rid of it a
hundred years ago and is back there collecting dust. Stuff
coming out today? lifts up man, promotes man, exalts
man, deifies man, so that man is set at the center. And everything
revolves around man and making man feel good about himself.
It is the religion of Antichrist. I don't care what name it's called. I don't care what denomination
it is. It is Antichrist. Now let me
be understood. Those who teach that God's will
can be hindered, are thwarted by man's will, are will-worshippers
and antichrists. Those who teach that the merit
and efficacy of Christ's atonement resides in man's will, man's
decision, and man's faith are Antichrists, they are will-worshippers.
Those who teach that the gracious operations of God the Holy Spirit
can be resisted successfully by man's will and man's power
and man's decision are Antichrists. And those who teach that grace
can be forfeited or taken away as the result of something a
man does or does not do, are well-worshippers. They are antichrists.
Look at 2 Thessalonians 2.5. Remember ye not that when I was
yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what
withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery
of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now let it, or restrains,
will restrain until he be taken out of the way. Paul told these
Thessalonians that the Holy Spirit, now restrained, holds back the
power and influence of Antichrist. But he's going to turn him loose
on an unsuspecting age. And look what it says in verse
8. And then shall that wicked, as if to say, this is the sum
of all wickedness, this is the embodiment of all ungodliness,
that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the
spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan,
with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness, and them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.' They heard
the gospel, but they wouldn't receive it. until God sends them
this delusion that they should believe a lie. Now Antichrist
shall be revealed, he shall arise, he shall be consumed
and destroyed exactly according to the purpose of God. In other
words, while this is the thing about which you and I have great
reason to show grave concern for the souls of men. Oh, my soul, great concern. My greatest concern
for what our families and our children and our grandchildren
and our neighbors are exposed to is not the bottles and My greatest concern is that they
are exposed continually to the free will, works religion of
Antichrist, on every side bombarded with it. But these things come to pass
exactly according to God's purpose. Paul tells us here that signs
and wonders and miracles, Y'all have signs and wonders at your
place? Y'all believe in signs and wonders? I sure do. I believe
there are dead certain marks of Antichrist. Is that what this
passage we just read said? Just as surely as signs and wonders
and miracles were in the days of the apostolic era signs of
Christ's apostles and Christ's messengers, in these dark days,
since the apostolic era is over, when men come pretending to have
signs and wonders of the apostles, those men for certain are anti-Christ,
the commensal deceivableness of Satan. And the deception is
so great, so tremendous, that were it possible, even the elect
of God would be deceived. The religion of Antichrist. The
religion of Antichrist is the religion of your righteousness. It's the religion that promotes
your righteousness. and talks about your righteousness,
and brags on your righteousness, and promises you grace and salvation
for your righteousness. It's Antichrist, and God here
calls it unrighteousness. The reason for the delusion by which men fall every day is
because they willfully despise the truth of God. God shall send them a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Now, don't ever imagine for a moment that things are out of control.
When God sends a delusion, men are deluded. When God sends blindness,
folks can't see. And this is what God's done in
this age. And they shall eat the fruit
of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For you
see, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man. How many times
have you heard that? Well, it just stands for reason.
It's just right. But the end thereof are the ways
of death. Well, who is deceived by Antichrist? Who is it who shall be destroyed
by this strong delusion? John tells us in Revelation 17,
verse 8, that everybody in the world, everybody dwelling on
the earth, will fall down and worship the beast, except those
whose names were written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain
from the foundation of the world." Now can you imagine what The
shouts of hallelujah and praise of God, thanksgiving must have
gone up in the hearts of these Thessalonian believers when they
got to the next line here in 2 Thessalonians 2. The apostle
speaks of this apostasy, this great delusion, this horrible
damnation to come upon men. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvage, through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ." Several of you sitting here,
as a matter of fact, most of you sitting here, were once engulfed in the thick
darkness of Arminian freewill works religion of one kind or
another. And for all of you who believe
God, there is but one reason why you're not damned with But not for one reason, why you
don't worship a stump, or a little Jesus who's worse than a stump,
or Mary, or the Pope, or some shrine. Only one reason, because
God, before the world began, chose to save you. chose you
unto salvation, through the regenerating work of his Spirit, by the belief
of the gospel, chose you to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let all to sustain and strengthen
and rejoice your heart in this day like nothing else can. The
Lord God Almighty who chose us unto the obtaining of the glory
of Christ will bring us to that glory. He has given us everlasting
consolation and good hope through grace by the gospel of his free
grace. Now we go to chapter 3. In the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians,
Paul had told these Thessalonians how they were to be commended
for waiting for Christ's coming. But something had happened. Somebody
came amongst these Thessalonians and convinced some of them to
carry their thoughts concerning Christ's second coming to fanatical,
ridiculous agents. And some of these folks had become
fanatically obsessed with the thought of prophecy and Christ's
second coming. And I promise you, I promise
you, this won't cost you anything extra. When you're reading this
book, if Satan can get you sidetracked on something, it doesn't matter
how good that something is, he gets your attention and your
concern and your care off of Christ and the gospel, you will
chase that something to utter ridiculous ends. Focus your attention
on Christ and his gospel. That's what this book is about.
Well, these Thessalonians got to thinking about the second
coming. And I expect they got the Old Testament prophets out
and read them, and marked all the things down, marked the Bible
in different colors to know what was talking about what part of
the Christ's coming. And they had it memorized, and they, oh,
this is it, the Lord's coming, the Lord's coming! And you know
what they did? They quit their jobs. They said,
no use to work anymore, the Lord's coming. He said, well, Don, surely sensible people
never do that. You're mistaken. The error of
these saints at Thessalonica has been repeated many times.
Several years ago I knew some people who were duped by a preacher
who had persuaded multitudes across the country and around
the world that Christ was coming on September 4, 1994. I personally
knew people. I'm not talking about idiots.
I'm talking about smart folks. And I'm not talking about heretics.
I'm talking about folks who believe the gospel of God's grace, just
like you do. I know some who quit their jobs, sold their homes,
and gave their money to that preacher. And 1994 came and went,
and they didn't have a job or house or money. How come? Because they were duped. built
by a false notion of a false prophet concerning the things
of God. Now, that's exactly what happened
here at Bethlehem. Wait on Christ's coming. How
do we live in anticipation of his coming? I'm fixing to leave town, leave
early tomorrow morning. As you know, I'm gone a lot preaching
the gospel. And most of the time, Shelby
stays here, takes care of things. The Lord willing, I'll be back
here Monday night. And if you could be in the house
Monday afternoon, along about 4 or 5 o'clock, because I'm supposed
to be back here somewhere around 10 or 11 o'clock, you'd think
this gal behaved a little strange. She'll do her last things, cleaning
up whatever she can clean up, getting the house looking great.
Have the bed turned back. She'll take the bath, get all
dolled up. She'll have something on the
stove, my favorite meal. And she'll go look out the front
window. She'll go back and take care
of this, this one last little thing. Go look out the front
window. And if you were to call her up, just about time I was
supposed to get here, And she's just busy as she can be taking
care of things. And you ask her, say, well, Shelby, what are you
doing? Oh, nothing. I'm just waiting for Don. I'm waiting for Don. And she'd go look out the window.
And about that time, she'd see me driving up the road. I don't
care if President Bush were on the telephone. She'd say, I'm
sorry, I've got to go. Don's home. And she'd come running
outside to meet me. That's how we are to wait for
Christ's coming. Our Lord put it this way. Blessed
is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so
doing." We are to live here doing what our Lord has put in our
hands to do as responsible men and women every day, just as
though we were going to live here for another thousand years,
and our sons and daughters are going to be around for 20,000
years more. But we're to do it constantly, looking for Him. And as soon as He comes, we'll
hang up the phone and say,