Let us open our Bibles today
to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering
together unto him, That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be
troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as
from us, as at the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive
you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there
come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition. who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God. Remember you not that when I
was yet with you, I told you these things? And now you know
what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For
the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now
will let until he be taken out of the way. And then that wicked
be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish. because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 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 salvation
through sanctification of the divine. Where unto he called you by our
gospel? To the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether
by word or our epistle. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. I said three weeks ago that in
reading this short letter of 2 Thessalonians, we see that
the apostle had three objects in mind as he wrote it. Number
one, to encourage this young church in the midst of troubles,
persecution for the gospel sake. Number two, to correct a mistake
about the Lord's coming, which it appears they had by misunderstanding
something in his first letter. And number three, to exhort them
to take notice of those in their number who were idle, busybodies. And we say this is a way that
the letter was divided into the three chapters. The last two
weeks, we have looked at the apostle's first objective by
considering the words, to you who are troubled, rest with us. Today, we will look at the correcting
of a mistake about the Lord's second coming. We saw last week
in the message that our Lord's coming will be personal, it will
be sudden, and it will be glorious. We know this is what the Word
of God teaches us. But they had received the first
letter from the Apostle Paul And evidently they read into
it something that was not so. If you turn back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4 and verse 13 to the end of this chapter, there was a question, no doubt,
in the church at Thessalonica that some of the believers, some
who had been saved by the grace of God, had passed away. And
so there was some question. about their condition, their
position. And so here in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4 and verse 13, he says, but I would not have you to be
ignorant. You know, to be ignorant of the truth causes God's children
much trouble, much discouragement. and hinders much confidence and
assurance. The word of God, the truth, is
so important. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep. And this is the New
Testament word for death, for believers. It's always sleep.
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. That's a very gentle word. A very kind word, no one is afraid
to go to sleep. And that's what death is for
a child of God. We go to sleep here and we awake
in the presence of the Lord. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, And a person who believes the gospel
believes that. We believe that Jesus died, he
died for our sins and he rose again. God declaring that his
satisfaction, his sin payment was accepted and God's people
are justified. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. It may be that Paul's use of
the word we in verse 15 and verse 17 is what allowed these false teachers,
at least, who came to Thessalonica to trouble the believers. Because you notice in verse 15,
he said, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of
the Lord. And then in verse 17, then we
which are alive and remain. It sounds as though Paul was
saying that he himself would be alive when the Lord Jesus
Christ came again. In other words, that his coming
was imminent, that he was going to come in that time, in that
day. So as we look at the second chapter
of 2 Thessalonians, let's keep that in mind. And I have four
points I want to make. First, Satan will use untruths
to shake the minds and trouble God's people. If you will, in
verse 2 of chapter 2, that you be not soon shaken in mind and
troubled. Satan will use untruths. Untruths. Remember, an untruth
has some sense of truth. In other words, if it was an
out and out lie, it would be easily detected. But because
there's some semblance of truth in an untruth, many times God's
people may be troubled, may be troubled by what they hear, and
that was the case here in the church at Thessalonica. God's children must realize,
and I say this to you and me today, We learn this over and
over. But we must realize, if we've
been saved by the grace of God, we have three very real enemies. The flesh, the world, and Satan. And these enemies are always
active. Always active. Now Satan, it
is true, is not I'm not present. He's not like God. He's not all
powerful like God. But he has a number of demons
in the world who are under his authority. But Satan is always
active and he is a real enemy to the children of God. And if
he could, if he could, he would want you to do something. He
would, he would tempt you to do something that would bring
reproach upon the name of Jesus Christ. And the flesh is the
same. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit. When a person is born of the
spirit of God, he has a new nature called spirit. Our Lord said
that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born
of the spirit is spirit. He said that in the context of
telling Nicodemus that man must be born again. There must be
a spiritual birth. And that which is born of God
the Holy Spirit is spirit. But that which is born of the
flesh is flesh and it will remain flesh until we leave this world. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. What was the untruth
that caused these believers to be shaken in mind and troubled? It was that the day of Christ
was at hand. Notice that in verse two. that
you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit,
nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, that the day of Christ
is at hand." Now remember this was written 2,000 years ago. 2,000 years ago. They were troubled
because Evidently, Simon was teaching them that Christ is
coming today. Christ is coming soon in their
lifetime, in that first century. Remember, as I said, this was
written 2,000 years ago, and we should always consider what
Peter said. about God in time, that one day
with the Lord is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is one day. In
other words, God is eternal, there is no time. It's always
now with God. But if we take that and think
about it, 2,000 years ago, when Paul wrote this word, that's
only been two days. That's not very long, is it?
It's only been two days. The untruth was that the Lord's
second coming was at hand. And this troubled them. This
caused them to be shaken in their mind and troubled. There are
three things that every believer, every child of God should remember
to help us not be troubled over things that we experience and
things that we see in this world. Number one, God has chosen a
people from before the foundation of the world and given them unto
his son as his bride. And that will never be undone.
That will never be unchanged. Those whom God chose will always
be the chosen of God. Number two, Christ redeemed those
chosen people and His redemption will never be undone. And God
the Holy Spirit calls out these that were chosen and redeemed
and once called, it will never be undone. No one is a child
of God today and lost tomorrow. We come into this world, as the
scripture says, dead in trespasses and sins. But if the Spirit and
when the Spirit of God quickens a person, gives them life, they
will always have life. That's never going to be undone.
Any more than God's sovereign election will ever be undone,
or Christ's effectual redemption will ever be undone. So the work
of God the Holy Spirit and regeneration shall never be undone. Now Paul, I want you to notice
that he beseeches them not to be shaken and troubled by any
of these three things. Notice again verse two, that
you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, first of all,
by spirit. Now what does that mean, by spirit? It simply means that men might
come among them, maybe already had, and claim to be speaking
by the spirit of God. Claim to have a message from
God. Now remember John wrote this,
He said, Beloved, believe not every spirit. And he's talking
about prophets. Those who come and claim to be
a prophet of God, have a message from God, believe not every spirit. But try the spirits, try the
spirits, try the prophets, whether they are of God, because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. And how is it that
believers are to try the spirits, try the message of men who come
and speak and claim to be speaking for God and have a message from
God? How is that to be done? How are
we to try the spirit? With the word of God. If they
speak not according to the law, there's no truth in them. You say, well, did these people
in Thessalonica, they didn't have a New Testament. It wasn't
written, it wasn't completed when Paul wrote this. How were
they to try these spirits? Well, they had Paul's word. If
you notice what he says in verses 3 through 5, let no man deceive
you. By any means, for that day shall
not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin
be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God." Now notice, remember you not? How were they to try
the spirits? Remember you not that when I
was yet with you, I told you these things? They had Paul's
word, and they were to use that. Towards the end of the chapter,
he speaks about that which they had received by word and by letter,
the tradition. We are to follow the tradition.
That doesn't mean that there's some traditions that we don't
have that we are to follow. They had Paul's word that he
had spoken among them when he was with them, and now they would
have his written word. And you and I, we have the written
word of God. It's amazing, my friends, how
many people are troubled, believers, I believe, sometimes are genuinely
troubled because they listen to some false prophet. Somebody
claims to have a message from God, and it doesn't even come
close. to the word of God. Try the spirits. Number two, he says, word. Look at that verse again, verse
two. That you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither
by spirit. Next, by word. What does that
mean? That means human reasoning. Denying
that the Lord said, but of that day no man knoweth. Now, I've been around for a while, and I've seen over the years,
and I know many of you have too, these men, and I think some of
them were genuinely sincere. They set a date for the coming
of Christ. When the Bible, our Lord clearly
said that no man knoweth the day nor the hour. And I saw this
happen several years ago, man. I could call his name, there's
no need. He's since passed away, lived in California. He had quite
a following out there. And many of those I preached
to when I preached in rescue and other places in California. God used that man. But his ministry
was completely destroyed by him setting a date. And of course,
what happened? The Lord didn't come. And so
what did he do? He did what every one of them
seemed to do. He went back to the drawing board
and came up with another date. And that day came and the Lord
didn't come. But what does that do to the
people of God who have listened to that, who have believed that?
Some of them sold their possessions. They were convinced this man
was telling them the day the Lord was coming back. What does
it do? It discourages God's people. As Paul says, it shakes people's
minds and troubles them. So he says, neither by spirit
nor by word. And number three, by letter. Notice, as from us. If you receive
a letter, he's telling this church, and at the very end it has Paul,
Paul. and it's saying something different,
don't receive that. And then if you notice in chapter
three of 2 Thessalonians, this is interesting, because this
is something that was taking place early in the life of the church. That is, men would decide they
wanted to write a letter But they knew if they just signed
their name, probably no one would read it, no one would pay much
attention to it. So let's just sign Paul's name.
Let's sign Jane's name or John's name. These spurious letters,
they're called, were being sent among the churches in those early
days. But notice in 2 Thessalonians
3, verses 17, what Paul says, the salutation of Paul with mine
own hand, which is the token in every epistle, so I write,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now, if
you receive a letter And it does not say, the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all. It's not for me. That's what
Paul is saying. It's not for me. And if it doesn't
have my handwriting, my signature, it's not for me. Now, there would
be, Paul says, there's going to be two things. And he said,
I told you this when I was among you. Two things are going to
happen. First of all, there's going to
be a falling away. of falling away before the day
of the Lord. Now when he says that, he's not
saying that there would be believers, true children of God, who would
fall away, who would lose their salvation. He's not saying that.
But he is saying that many who profess to be believers, you
know there's a difference between professing and possessing. And men may profess to be what
they're not. And men may be deceived themselves.
And I would just remind us that in the parable our Lord gave
of the sower, you remember there was four types of soil which
received the seed, the same seed. And in some of those types, the
word produced a plant that sprung up. but it did not bring forth
fruit. And in each of those three cases,
after a while, it falls away. Those who are truly born of the
spirit of God will persevere. They will persevere because they
will be preserved. But Paul tells the church before
the Lord comes again, there's going to be a great falling away. Number two, He said the man of
sin would be revealed. Now the last of the apostles
to die, the apostle John, when he wrote his first epistle, he
said this, little children, it is the last time, and you have
heard that Antichrist shall come, even now, even now are there
many Antichrists whereby we know it is the last time. Now John
Gill commented on this passage of scripture, the man of sin
is not an individual, but a succession of men is here of men. And for him and Calvin and many
of the reformers, it was a whole hierarchy of Rome. The papacy,
this is what he had reference to. Now number two, second. The mystery of iniquity was already
at work, Paul says, verses 6 through 12. It was already at work, but
it could not advance to its full potential of evil until he be
taken out of the way. Notice that, verse six, and now
you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time,
for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now
letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. Who was it who would be taken
out of the way? It was the Roman emperors. The
Roman emperors. As long as there was a Caesar,
an emperor in Rome, The mystery of iniquity was already at work,
but this man of sin could not be revealed until that emperor
was taken out of the way. Constantine, we know in 325,
I believe it was, he was an emperor of Rome and he moved the capital
of the Roman Empire from Rome to a new place called Constantinople
after himself. And what that did, it allowed
or it caused a vacuum there in Rome that had always been the
seed of authority and power over the Western part of the world. It allowed the Bishop of Rome
to begin to usurp authority. And this is what the apostle
is speaking of here. Now I thought that Robert Hawker
had a most interesting comment on this expression. If you notice, it says here,
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. With all
deceivableness of unrighteousness, verse 10, in them that perish. Let me give you his comment and
kind of comment on his comments as I do. He said, mark this expression
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish. He asked
this question, did there need the church should be told that
unrighteousness would end in destruction? Did the church need
to hear that? That Christ is not a savior from
sin? That those who live in unrighteousness,
that yes, they're going to end in destruction. Did the church
need to hear that? Did there need the church to
be told that unrighteousness would end in destruction? Remember
Paul said that in 1 Corinthians and also in Galatians, be not
deceived. When man practices these things,
he gives us the works of the flesh, he's not going to inherit
the kingdom of God. No matter what he said, no matter
what he's professed, if his life is not changed by the grace of
God, by the power of God, I don't mean he's perfect, I'm not saying
that, but he's certainly walking in a new way, in a different
way. Then Hawker went on to say, certainly
this could not be Paul's meaning. Neither in the common sense and
acceptation of the word unrighteousness could never deceive a man that
hopes of being saved by it. Could anyone believe that by
being unrighteous, being as wicked as I possibly can, that that's
the way I'm going to be saved? No one ever believed that. But,
but, If a self-righteous Pharisee, fancying himself righteous before
God, now listen, makes his own good deeds and prayers and alms
and ordinances a part Savior, a part Savior, all of which are
unrighteous before God, Here is a fallacy indeed, deep and
wretched, and this will well suit the name of all deceivableness
of unrighteousness. And that is the jest of all false
religion. It teaches men to trust in their
own willpower, in their own works, in their own righteousness. There's only one Savior. And
He's a complete Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. And men who
look to anything else or try to add anything else to Him will
find in the end they have believed a lie. This is what all false
religion teaches. All right, let's move on to the
third point I want to make. the church by giving thanks for
them in verses 13 through 15. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation 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. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the tradition which you have been taught, whether
by word or by our epistle." Paul comforted the believers in this
church. We're bound always to give thanks
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. And as you look at
verse 13, I suppose every misrepresentation
of the truth concerning election is answered in that verse. You
know, most of so-called Protestant religion today denies the truth
of God's sovereign election. Now that's just so. And just
about every argument against God's sovereign election may
be answered in that one verse. Because people will say, you've
probably heard it, well election, yeah, the Bible speaks about
election, but that has to do with the Jews. That has to do
with the Jews. Doesn't have anything to do with
us. I beg your pardon. Are you saying that all the members
in this church at Thessalonica were Jews? We know that's not
true. It was a Gentile church. And
then there are those who say, well, election, you know, it
doesn't have to do with salvation. It has to do with being chosen
to certain offices in the church. Some are elected to be pastors.
Some are elected to be deacons. Well, are you saying that everyone
in this church at Thessalonica was in an office? was a pastor
or deacon or whatever? Of course not. That's what men
say. But what does the Word of God
say? It's right there before us. God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. That's what God's Word says.
And I want you to notice It says that God's election is to salvation. Election is not salvation. It
is to salvation. Now it's true, of course, everyone
who is elected will be saved. I'm not saying that. But the
question a person asks himself if he's concerned about his soul
is not, am I one of God's elect? That's not the question. The
question is, Do I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he
my Lord and my Savior? Am I depending entirely upon
him and his accepted finished work to save my soul? Notice
it is election to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. Sanctification of the Spirit
is the new birth. That's when God the Holy Spirit
regenerates. And you notice it comes before
belief of the truth. We, you and I, we have lived
in a generation for some time of people who have taught what
is called decisional regeneration. That is, you make your decision
and then you are regenerated. That's not true. Can a dead man
make a decision? Of course not. No, it is sanctification
of the Spirit first, and then belief of the truth. If you believe
in Christ, it is because God the Holy Spirit has sanctified
you, you've been born of the Spirit of God. You have faith. Christ is the author of faith. He's the finisher of faith. And notice it says, you've been
called by our gospel. That answers those who say, well,
If men are going to be saved, they're going to be saved no
matter what. No need to preach the gospel, no need to send missionaries,
no need, no, yes, God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching
to save those who believe. And yes, God uses his word. And a preacher is nothing, Paul
said, we have this treasure in an earthen vessel. A clay pot,
that's what he's talking about. Do you have any clay pots at
your house? You may have some china pots, you may have some
silver or pots, you know, made of silver or something like that
are precious. Nothing precious about a clay
pot. There's nothing precious about
the preacher, but all the treasure, the gospel that the pastor brings
to the people. God's chosen to use that. God could save and call his people
using someone like me or any other man. I don't care how gifted
he may be. The glory always goes unto the
Lord. Always. Now I'll close with the
last thing. Paul prayed for the church's
specific needs. You know, He began by saying
that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled. I want you
to notice that when He closes, He prays that these two things
be met. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ, verse
16. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God, even our Father. If anyone would even think of
questioning the deity of Jesus Christ. That one verse should
answer it. Notice he's mentioned first. When we talk about the Trinity,
and we always, they call it the economic Trinity, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, but we must be careful that we do not assume
by that that one person in the Godhead is somehow above the
other two. That's just not so. God is God,
each person in the Godhead. It's just that the Son is the
one who became flesh, took upon Him that holy body that was prepared
Him by the Holy Spirit so that He might be our Savior, might
be born of our bone, flesh of our flesh. Now the God, now our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God even our Father which hath
loved us given us every lasting consolation and good hope through
grace. Well, there's a message right
there. I'll have to save that for another time. Good hope through
grace. And that word hope means expectation. A good expectation through grace. Only through grace. Only. Comfort your hearts. establish
you in every good word and work. And that's a lesson for all of
us who teach pastors, teachers, parents who teach the word of
God. After sowing the seed, after
sowing the seed, water the seed with prayer, with prayer. That's what Paul did. He sowed
the seed and then he prayed that God would bless the word. I pray
that the Lord would bless this word, all of us here this morning.