Introduction:
When Things Are Bad and You're Starting to Freak Out (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12):
- Don't Be
Alarmed . (2 Thes 2:1-2)
- It's the Most Straightforward Understanding of the Bible.
- We Never See the Church in the Tribulation in Revelation.
- Before God Brings Judgment on Unbelievers, He Removes His People First.
- Don't Be Deceived . (2 Thes 2:3)
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins…
- Don't Be Forgetful . (2 Thes 2:4-12)
Five Things You Need to Know about the Antichrist:
- He's Blasphemous . (2 Thes 2:4)
Matthew 24:15-16 - So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
- He's Restrained until God allows him to be revealed. (2 Thes 2:5-7)
Matthew 5:13 - You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?
- He will be Destroyed . (2 Thes 2:8)
- He is Satan-powered . (2 Thes 2:9)
- He is Deceptive . (2 Thes 2:10-12)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:41-00:44
Open up your Bibles with me please to 2 Thessalonians.
00:46-00:47
Father, right now we are turning to your Word.
00:49-00:54
We believe that faith comes by hearing, hearing through the Word of Christ.
00:56-01:01
We believe that your Word does not return to you void, it always accomplishes the purposes for which you send it out.
01:03-01:06
Father, we believe that the Gospel is the power of God.
01:07-01:10
So Father, let us be faithful to Your Word today.
01:11-01:15
And we know that You're going to be at work.
01:17-01:19
We ask You these things, Father.
01:19-01:23
We praise You today, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
01:24-01:40
And all of God's people said, "Amen." You know, I'm just going to be honest with you here, because having a job where I have to, Every week I have to get up and speak to a group of people, right?
01:40-01:48
And we have people of all different kinds of backgrounds, and from different generations, and things like that.
01:48-01:53
So I try, I try to keep up with the latest slang.
01:56-02:00
And Justin, you were my go-to for years, but now you're a father of three.
02:00-02:05
I'm not sure how hip you really are to the newest slang.
02:05-02:07
"Okay, Justin says sorta, way much more than me.
02:07-02:09
"I'm not criticizing you, brother, I'm just saying.
02:10-02:24
"I understand you get to a certain point "that you start to lose track of the trends "because you're taking care of your little flock, right?" So here's my problem though, with like the latest slang and terminology.
02:25-02:25
Here's my problem.
02:26-02:41
By the time I hear the word and learn what it means incorporate it into a sentence so that the young ones will think I'm cool, it's outdated.
02:42-02:43
Anybody else?
02:44-02:45
Does that happen to anybody else?
02:46-03:02
I think I'm trying to impress the young people and I throw out some word and they're looking at me like, "Dude, that was like 2014." Like, "Oh." So in preparation for this, I actually looked some words up.
03:03-03:09
The other thing is I'm always afraid I'm gonna say something that has like a really like inappropriate meaning and I didn't know that.
03:10-03:16
So I looked these up and as far as I know, these ones are safe according to the websites that were telling us the latest terminology.
03:17-03:24
But for us, for those of us trying to stay relevant, here's some new slang words.
03:28-03:30
One I heard about this past week was the word drip.
03:31-03:32
How many people have heard drip?
03:33-03:34
I don't mean like out of the faucet, drip.
03:34-03:35
And what does drip mean?
03:37-03:38
Shout it out if you know.
03:41-03:42
I haven't known.
03:42-03:44
It's having cool clothes, right?
03:45-03:45
It's having style.
03:46-03:47
Now here's the thing I don't know.
03:47-03:53
Like a pastor friend was telling me about that because the kids in the youth group were using it, and I'm like, "So how do you use that?
03:54-03:55
Like you're covered in drip?
03:57-04:00
You're really dripping?" It's like, "Oh, sorry."
04:00-04:01
(congregation laughing)
04:01-04:03
All right, I don't know how to use it, right?
04:04-04:06
Apparently Evan can tell me later, all right?
04:07-04:09
Here's another one that I just learned.
04:09-04:12
This first time I just read this this week.
04:13-04:15
Situationship, how many people have heard of a situationship?
04:18-04:19
Exactly one of you.
04:20-04:29
All right, Sierra, what I read was a situationship is a relationship where you're more than friends, but you're not yet a couple.
04:29-04:30
Is that right, Sierra?
04:30-04:32
Okay, all right, you're more than friends, but you're not a couple.
04:33-04:38
There's like, I guess there's this gray zone where you're neither, that's a situationship.
04:39-04:41
But here's a word that really resonated with me this week.
04:42-04:43
It's the word chugi.
04:43-04:44
I think I'm pronouncing it right.
04:45-04:46
C-H-E-U-G-Y.
04:46-04:47
How many have heard of chugi?
04:49-04:50
Just a couple of you?
04:51-04:52
Okay, Dana, thank you.
04:54-04:58
I need to find out where you heard it, because I just, what's that, your daughter?
04:59-05:02
Okay, well, here's what I learned about Chugi.
05:02-05:03
And again, this resonated with me.
05:03-05:08
Chugi means out of date or trying too hard to stay relevant.
05:10-05:12
And I'm like, I feel that.
05:14-05:15
Chugi.
05:17-05:24
And those of you that don't understand, maybe from the older generations, maybe we could say it's, you're trying to be hip.
05:25-05:26
Remember hip?
05:27-05:29
You're trying to be hip, but you're actually a square.
05:33-05:36
Feel so old now, but here's one.
05:37-05:40
Actually, Brooke taught me this one.
05:42-05:43
It's FOMO.
05:44-05:45
How many of you have heard of FOMO?
05:46-05:52
Okay, Brooke taught me this one like a few months ago when she was working here, so it's surely out of date by now.
05:52-05:54
But FOMO is an acronym.
05:55-05:57
It stands for a fear of missing out.
05:59-06:02
And this term has become popularized thanks to social media.
06:03-06:12
You get on your newsfeed and you see all your friends are exotic places doing fun things and you're sitting at home eating Cheetos or whatever.
06:13-06:24
And you're like, man, I feel like there's stuff going on out there that I'm not a part of and I have this fear that I am missing out.
06:25-06:26
That's FOMO.
06:27-06:29
You're like, "Are you gonna get to a sermon?" I'm getting there.
06:31-06:40
Because you see, 2 Thessalonians was written because you could say in a sense that the Thessalonian church had a really bad case of FOMO.
06:42-06:49
They thought that the rapture had happened and the day of the Lord had arrived and they completely missed it.
06:52-07:01
Because there were some false teachers They were telling them, "Hey, you are living in the day of the Lord." That's God's judgment on earth.
07:01-07:02
We're going to talk about that.
07:03-07:10
And the reason we're going through 2 Thessalonians as a church is because we see the same types of things in churches today.
07:13-07:27
When it comes to end times and talks of what happens at the end of the age, Christians believe all kinds of strange and goofy and bizarre things that just aren't biblical.
07:30-07:33
And some would say, "Well look, Jeff, does it really matter?
07:33-07:34
I mean, does it matter?
07:35-07:35
Does it matter?
07:36-07:38
I mean, we got the gospel down, right?
07:38-07:51
Does the end time stuff really matter?" And I would say to you, absolutely it does, because hope is what motivates you to persevere in your walk with Christ.
07:52-07:57
And if you don't know what you're hoping for, what's motivating you to hang in there?
07:59-08:03
But sadly, a lot of Christians, you're like, "What happens at the end of the age?" It's like, "Well, I've never read Revelation.
08:04-08:05
"I'm not gonna read it.
08:06-08:24
"I think I'd die at some point "and go to heaven or something, "and we don't really know what's going to happen." But now, you see, and I've shared this with you before, I'm seeing more of an interest in end times things than I ever have in my entire ministry.
08:26-08:29
Because of all the stuff that is happening today.
08:30-08:31
Have you been paying attention?
08:34-08:37
Some of you may be asking, "We know, Jeffrey, we're in the tribulation now.
08:40-08:42
And if we are, what's going to happen to me?
08:43-09:00
What's going to happen to my family?" Well, some good news as we get to 2 Thessalonians 2, on your outline, the heading is "When things are bad and you're starting to freak out." When things are bad and you're starting to freak out, here's a word of encouragement.
09:01-09:17
If you sort of, excuse me, share the sentiment that Laura was sharing on the video, but for real, that you're like, "I'm starting to freak out, I see what's happening, and I look at the Bible and what do we do when things are bad and you're starting to freak out?
09:17-09:18
Number one, write this down, don't be alarmed.
09:19-09:21
We're going to start here, don't be alarmed.
09:22-09:27
Look at what chapter 2, we're looking at the first two verses.
09:28-09:52
Paul says, "Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come." Stop there.
09:52-09:54
He talks about being gathered.
09:55-09:57
He's talking about the rapture, right?
09:57-10:09
Now this is 2 Thessalonians and the letter he wrote them previously was called, okay, 1 Thessalonians, thank you Bible college students, just seeing who's still with me here.
10:10-10:15
But back in 1 Thessalonians 4, he taught them all about the rapture, right?
10:18-10:19
What is the rapture?
10:20-10:24
We've talked about this in the past time, we're going to run through it again.
10:24-10:25
What is the rapture?
10:27-10:58
for some and some of you who may be just started joining us recently this is gonna be some new information we're gonna get through it quickly what is the rapture the rapture is the future event when Jesus Christ descends from heaven to gather his people those who died and those living to be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air to receive their glorified bodies and to be kept From the day of the Lord.
10:58-11:03
You're like, "Wait, what's the day of the Lord?" Because I know he said that here in verse 2.
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What's the day of the Lord?
11:05-11:11
Well, the phrase is used four times in the New Testament, and used about 19 times in the Old Testament.
11:12-11:17
It's a time of God's vengeance and God's judgment on unbelievers.
11:19-11:24
It's the section of your Bible from Revelation 6 to Revelation 19.
11:25-11:28
period of time is called the day of the Lord.
11:31-11:36
It's a seven year period that's also known as the tribulation.
11:38-11:46
I believe that Jesus Christ will remove the church that saved before the tribulation.
11:46-11:48
That view is called a pre-tribulation rapture.
11:49-11:57
And I know that's not the cool theology nowadays, but I'm going to defend that quickly.
11:57-12:00
Why I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture.
12:01-12:07
Why I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, letter A, it's the most straightforward understanding of the Bible.
12:10-12:27
Revelation 3.10, Jesus says, "I will keep you from the hour of trouble that is coming upon the whole earth." There's never been a tribulation over the entire earth, but Jesus said there's one coming, and He's going to literally keep you away from that.
12:28-12:29
A global event.
12:30-12:33
And you read John 14, verses 1-4.
12:33-12:36
1 Corinthians 15, verses 51-54.
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1 Thessalonians 4.13-5.11.
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Those are just some of the passages.
12:41-12:47
When you read them straightforwardly, it seems that Jesus comes to remove His church before the tribulation.
12:47-12:49
It's a straightforward understanding of the texts.
12:50-12:55
Second reason I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture is this, we never see the church in the tribulation in Revelation.
12:57-12:59
In Revelation, it's interesting, we went through it.
13:01-13:04
And you get the first three chapters, right?
13:04-13:18
It's the church, the church, the church, the church, the church, the church, here to the church, here to the church, there to the church, here to My question is, where is the church during the tribulation?
13:20-13:21
It's not mentioned at all.
13:21-13:25
Not a comment, not the word, it's just not mentioned at all.
13:28-13:34
During the tribulation, and the book starts with so much about the church, why isn't it mentioned in the tribulation?
13:34-13:36
I believe it's because the church isn't here.
13:39-13:42
And then I'll let her see, why do I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture?
13:43-13:49
"Before God brings judgment on unbelievers, He removes His people first." That's the objection I always hear.
13:49-13:59
"Why do you think Christians should be spared from suffering?" "Why do you think we're spared? Why do you think we're exempt from suffering?" I hear that objection all the time when it comes to the pre-tribulation rapture.
14:00-14:06
Like, first of all, nobody's saying anybody's exempt from suffering in general, because we all got our share, right?
14:06-14:08
Anybody have a suffering-free life?
14:08-14:09
Want to stand up, give testimony?
14:10-14:11
We're all suffering with something, right?
14:12-14:28
But when it comes to this, all through the Bible, all through the Bible, when God is going to judge unbelievers, the first thing He does is get His people out of there first, right?
14:29-14:34
Remember Noah's flood? God said, "I'm going to flood the whole earth." It was God's flood, not Noah's, but you know what I mean, right?
14:35-14:38
Don't be that person. But God was going to flood the whole earth.
14:39-14:40
And what was the first thing He did?
14:42-14:44
Noah built a boat and animals and family.
14:45-14:49
That was the first thing he did, separate his people from those he's judging.
14:49-14:52
Remember when God was going to wipe Sodom and Gomorrah off the map?
14:52-14:53
What was the first thing he did?
14:54-14:54
Lot.
14:55-14:56
Get out of there, right?
14:56-15:00
What about Israel in Egypt during the plagues?
15:01-15:03
Somehow Israel was unaffected.
15:03-15:06
Israel was separated from the judgment that God was bringing on unbelievers.
15:06-15:12
What about the Israelites in the wilderness, like the rebellion of Korah and other events in the wilderness.
15:12-15:21
God always seems to separate His people from unbelievers when He brings judgment.
15:23-15:27
So if we're going to have a global tribulation, what's God going to do?
15:27-15:31
He's going to start by taking His people off of the earth.
15:32-15:33
So, back to the passage here.
15:34-15:55
Someone was obviously feeding them lies, And the church thought they somehow missed a rapture, they were in the day of the Lord, and somebody was convincing them, "Hey, you're experiencing the judgment of God, "and it's about to get a lot worse "because God is laying the hammer down." And the church was obviously very upset about this, like, "What are we gonna do?
15:55-16:04
"We're gonna be right in the middle "of the vengeance of the Lord." And Paul starts out here by saying, "Don't panic, all right?
16:04-16:05
"Don't be alarmed.
16:06-16:08
Ignore any information that you're hearing.
16:08-16:12
To the contrary, you are not in the day of the Lord.
16:16-16:19
Again, too many Christians are getting their information from bad sources.
16:20-16:23
They don't know what to believe, and the result is they're living in fear.
16:23-16:25
I'm starting to freak out!
16:28-16:30
You know, like this whole COVID thing, right?
16:31-16:33
We're so sick of hearing about it and talking about it.
16:33-16:35
You realize this is global, right?
16:35-16:35
You realize that.
16:37-16:44
And as much as people want to make it like an American political thing, this is happening all over the planet right now.
16:46-16:51
But what we are seeing, not just in our country, but in other countries, government overreach.
16:52-16:59
We're seeing violence in cities, and then all the worries about what about mandated vaccines and losing jobs and not able to travel?
16:59-17:01
What about all the supply shortages?
17:02-17:07
Do you know how many times I've been asked over the past couple years, "Is this the mark of the beast?
17:07-17:13
Is that the mark of the beast?" And I would say, "Church, this is why we theology, right?
17:16-17:34
This is why we go line by line through the Bible." And some might think, "Well, some of this stuff is boring." And that's why we're in the situation that we're in, because we don't really understand what the Bible says.
17:36-17:37
So get the facts.
17:38-17:40
First of all, he says, "Don't be alarmed.
17:40-17:43
Calm down." Paul is talking them off the ledge.
17:43-17:48
"Hey, calm down." Secondly, he says, "Don't be deceived." Don't be deceived.
17:48-17:49
Look at verse 3.
17:51-17:54
He says, "Let no one deceive you in any way.
17:57-18:10
So that day will not come, the day of the Lord he's talking about, that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction." Stop there.
18:10-18:11
The son of destruction.
18:12-18:13
He says, "Don't be deceived.
18:13-18:14
It's unmistakable.
18:15-18:23
The day of the Lord has a definite beginning." You're like, "Well, how do we know when the day of the Lord begins?" He tells us right here.
18:24-18:29
It's when the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist, has been revealed.
18:33-18:35
He ushers in the rebellion.
18:36-18:40
You're like, "Well, I'm seeing rebellion all the time." Well, not like rebellion in some generic sense.
18:41-18:43
He's talking about something specific here.
18:43-18:49
The rebellion, a specific rebellion, something that's not revealed until the Antichrist comes on the scene.
18:49-18:53
and he's going to talk about it here in just a few minutes, so hang on.
18:54-18:57
Like, wait, wait, wait, who's the Antichrist? Who's that?
18:57-18:59
Who is this man of lawlessness?
19:01-19:07
Well, we read quite a bit about him in the Old Testament, like in Ezekiel and Daniel and Zechariah.
19:08-19:19
1 John tells us that there are many Antichrists in the world, But ultimately, there is one final, ultimate Antichrist that's coming.
19:21-19:33
Daniel calls him "the little horn." Revelation refers to him as "the beast." Jesus Christ called him "the abomination of desolation." The Bible says he's going to rule the world.
19:34-19:37
And he's going to make a peace treaty with Israel.
19:39-19:53
And then halfway through the seven-year tribulation, He's going to break his treaty with Israel, and he's going to make himself the focus of all religious worship.
19:54-20:01
And the last three and a half years is going to be horrifically violent.
20:04-20:11
But Paul's whole point here is, "Look, church, we know we're not in the day of the Lord, Because the Antichrist hasn't yet been revealed.
20:13-20:19
And he comes into power after believers are taken away, after we are gathered together with Jesus.
20:22-20:50
So the final thing here, when things are bad and you're starting to freak out, he says, "Don't be alarmed, don't be deceived." But he says, "Don't be forgetful." Because the Antichrist kicks off the day of the Lord, Paul says, "Let me remind you who He is, so that you will take note that He's not here yet." I mean, He might be here physically on the earth, but He hasn't been revealed yet.
20:51-20:55
And when you recognize that, you recognize this, you didn't miss the rapture.
20:56-20:56
All right?
20:58-21:01
So, five things you need to know about the Antichrist.
21:03-21:15
Paul gives us a really short but really comprehensive reminder of what this ultimate man of lawlessness looks like.
21:15-21:17
Five things you need to know about the Antichrist.
21:17-21:19
Letter A, he's blasphemous.
21:20-21:21
He's blasphemous.
21:22-21:35
Verse 4, he says, "Who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
21:36-21:38
First of all, he's blasphemous.
21:38-21:43
He's going to set himself up in the temple and proclaim to be God.
21:44-21:45
You know, Jesus taught the same thing.
21:46-21:59
Matthew 24, verses 15 and 16, Jesus said, "So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place," he's talking about the temple.
22:00-22:02
And you're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on.
22:03-22:24
Question. What temple?" You're like, "I don't know if you realize this, Pastor Jeff, because apparently you're still working on Chugi, but you realize the Jews don't have a temple right now." But you know, the plans have been made for the temple, you know that.
22:25-22:30
And many of the furnishings and apparel have already been made for that.
22:30-22:32
You know that's happening right now.
22:35-22:41
And you're like, "Well, if they're making the clothes and the furnishings, what are they waiting for?" I'll tell you what they're waiting for.
22:42-22:43
You see, God has plans.
22:45-22:47
And nothing is going to happen until God allows it.
22:49-22:52
You know how quickly the temple can be put up?
22:54-23:21
You drive through Cranberry, you drive by one day, it's a farm, you drive by two days later, there's an entire housing complex there. And how many times do I say, "Where did that all come from?" The plans are there. And a lot of the furnishings have been made. But it's not going to happen until God allows it. And that's where the Antichrist is going to ultimately perform the ultimate blasphemy, right?
23:23-23:30
Letter B, speaking of things according to God's timing, Letter B, he's restrained until God allows them to be revealed.
23:32-23:34
He's restrained until God allows them to be revealed.
23:35-23:40
Verse 5 says, "Do you not remember that when I was with you, I told you these things?" Paul's like, "Hey, this is a review.
23:40-23:41
I told you this stuff, guys.
23:43-24:17
Just giving you a quick review here." Verse 6, he says, "And you know what is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way." Stop there. The day of the Lord cannot come until the Antichrist is revealed, but the Antichrist can't be revealed until what is restraining him is taken out of the way.
24:19-24:20
Do you get that?
24:21-24:35
He says something or someone is stopping the Antichrist from being revealed, and that day is going to come that that restraining influence is gone, and then he'll be revealed.
24:37-24:39
And I know what you're thinking.
24:40-24:42
What is the restraining power?
24:43-24:46
What is it that is restraining him?
24:47-24:48
Anybody else have that question?
24:48-24:59
Well, you know I did a lot of reading this week, and I read about 70 different theologians, and I found about 92 different opinions on it.
25:00-25:02
What is this restraining force?
25:03-25:04
I'm not going to bore you with my homework.
25:08-25:10
And you're like, "Well, what does the text say, right?
25:10-25:10
Isn't that what we do?
25:10-25:22
We go to the text?" Well, verse 6, Paul says, "You know what is restraining him." "Oh, Paul, I wasn't there when you taught that in Thessalonica 2,000 years ago." "No, I don't know.
25:23-25:26
He just tells the church, 'You know.'" We've already talked about this.
25:29-25:44
But if we really stop and think about it, every real Christian knows the real power that is sovereignly orchestrating world events, leading to the end.
25:45-25:48
Do you know who's really in charge? Do you know?
25:50-25:52
I mean, who's really in charge?
25:54-26:01
If you don't know who's really in charge, I will resign right now, because I have completely failed you.
26:02-26:04
Who's really in charge? Shout it out.
26:04-26:06
God is in charge, right?
26:06-26:13
He is in charge of every single detail, and every second, and every molecule in the universe.
26:13-26:14
God is in charge.
26:16-26:19
Specifically here, He's talking about the Holy Spirit.
26:21-26:21
Now think about that with me.
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The Holy Spirit, that's one of the things that He does, is He restrains sin.
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Like, well, how does He do that?
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Well, if you're a Christian, you know exactly what that means.
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Galatians 5.17 tells us that the Spirit prevents you from doing what you wish in the flesh.
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Can anybody give testimony that your flesh wanted to sin and the Holy Spirit said, "No, we are not going to do that.
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That is not who we are.
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That does not honor our Lord." So you're like, "You know what?
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I'm not doing that." Have you ever had that experience?
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If you haven't, you've got problems.
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Just as the Spirit restrains evil in Christians, He restrains evil in the world.
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Jesus said in Matthew 5.13, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?" You see, God's presence on earth is in and through His people, and that makes us salt.
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And because we're here as salt, just like salt on food, we preserve from decay and corruption.
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Someday the salt's going to be removed when we're gathered, when we're raptured, and on that day the Holy Spirit is going to let evil do all that it wants to do.
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That's the tribulation.
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You think things are bad now.
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You think things are wicked now.
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You think people are perverse and rebellious?
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This is kindergarten compared to what's coming.
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Now this doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is going to be gone from the earth, because during the tribulation, many people are going to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
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He just simply says the Holy Spirit is going to stop His restraining work to reveal the Antichrist.
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Interestingly, verse 7, he makes a very interesting statement.
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Look at it again. He says, "For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work." This could be a whole other sermon, and maybe someday, not today.
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But the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
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We see it right in front of us.
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The mystery of lawlessness, we watch it right in front of us.
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Because you realize as human beings, as a race, we are literally hell-bent on destroying ourselves with sin.
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We insist on doing the very things that destroy us.
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And as bad as things are now, the only reason they aren't worse is because the Holy Spirit is restraining it.
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in His people and globally through His people that He indwells.
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But he's restrained until God allows him to be revealed.
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Let her see, he will be destroyed.
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Look at verse 8.
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It says, "And then the lawless one will be revealed." Okay, after the restraining is gone, the lawless one will be revealed.
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"Whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of His mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of His coming." I kind of laugh, you know, I'm studying and reading this and rereading this and rereading this and Paul's like, he's like, "And then at that point, the antichrist is revealed." Fast forward, here's how he's destroyed.
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Like he just jumps right to that.
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Like he's so excited on the day that Jesus Christ comes to take care of business.
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He's talking about Revelation 19.
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Spoiler alert if you haven't read that.
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It doesn't end well for the Antichrist.
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Revelation 19 talks about what we call the battle of Armageddon, but it's not really a battle because battle implies two sides fighting.
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And that's not exactly what happens.
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If you read it, Jesus shows up and everyone who's rejected Him, He just destroys them.
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Letter D, Paul's going to now kind of take us back.
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Ultimately, he's destroyed, but we're going to jump back here and I'm going to tell you a little bit about him before his ultimate encounter with Jesus Christ.
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Verse 9, he is Satan-powered.
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He says, "The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders." He's Satan-powered.
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See with the Antichrist, you have to think of it this way.
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God the Father has His Son, Jesus Christ.
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And the Antichrist is going to be, in a sense, like Satan's man in the way that Jesus is God's man.
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It's the most wicked blasphemy you can think of.
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Satan's like, "Oh, you have the One who does miracles, who died and resurrected and the world worshiped?" Satan goes, "Oh, I got one of those too.
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This is mine." It's sick.
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It's sick.
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His origin is Satan, His power is satanic.
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He performs signs and wonders.
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Again, He has a resurrection.
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We talked about that in Revelation.
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Like a literal one, does He fake it?
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I don't know, but it's the means by which He deceives the world into worshiping Him.
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Such a twisted copy.
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God the Father and God the Son.
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And finally, he is deceptive.
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He is deceptive.
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Look at the last three verses.
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He says, "With all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth, and so be saved." what it says there. It doesn't say they didn't know the truth. What does it say? They refused to love it. That's the problem. Like they had it. They just refused it. And like his "dad", Satan, the Antichrist is a deceiver. And it is so easy to deceive people who don't want the truth. They will believe anything. What about God? Where does He fit into this?
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Verse 11 says, "Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false." If that verse doesn't chill you to the bone, I don't know what will. This is an aspect of God's judgment. We see it in Romans 1. When you exchange the truth of God for a lie. Romans 1 says, "God gave them over." God's like, "Okay, you don't want the truth, you want a lie? Have it. Do it your way." Then verse 12, finally, he says, "In order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Like who are the people who are condemned?
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who did not believe the truth, and instead, pleasure and unrighteousness. We talked about this last week with hell, didn't we? God ultimately is going to give you what you want. God says you want sin? You can have it. Here you go. Have as much as you want. If you refuse the truth, you know, God's not going to force it on you.
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You know, God's never dragged anyone to heaven kicking and screaming.
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God says, "You want sin, you want falsehood, you want to live according to your own lust of the flesh and your own way and your own selfish, idiotic, self-centered existence.
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Fine.
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Have it.
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You can have that whole package deal, but I got to tell you, with the package deal comes condemnation. So Paul is underscoring here, "Hey, the day of the Lord has not yet come." So I want to say to you, church, if there are any of you that have been caught up, maybe turn CNN off for a little bit? Huh? Go outside, get some sunshine?
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Those of us who know Jesus Christ, listen, you do not have a thing to worry about.
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Not a thing to worry about. But when we read these last few verses, I have to also remind you, if you don't know Jesus Christ, you have everything to worry about. The good news is today's the day of grace. And if you don't know Jesus Christ I want to ask you just one question as I close as the worship team comes up. If you don't know Christ I just want to ask you one question today. What What are you waiting for?
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I mean really.
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What is it that you're waiting for?
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Because one of the, you know, we talked about Satan's lies and deception and the Antichrist with the deception.
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You know one of Satan's biggest lies?
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It's this one.
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You always have time.
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That's one of his biggest lies.
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You always have time.
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You don't want to give your life to Jesus today because you still got some stuff going on in your life that you're not quite ready to turn from.
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Satan would want you to know you got lots of time.
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You can worry about that next week.
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"Yeah, put that off till the month...
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Why don't you just wait till summer and then things will change.
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That'll be a good time to get serious about your walk with God, but right now is just not really a good time. That's the lie of the devil. Here's the truth. Right now, right this very minute, this very well could be your last opportunity. So I'm pleading with with you. It's not too late now. God loves you. Jesus Christ came to die for your sins and to spare you, to save you from this wrath that is to come. And I want you to bow your head with me because now is the time to walk away from your sin and come to Jesus Christ. I just want to lead you in a prayer and if this is a decision that you need to make or you are making today I want you to come and see me. What are waiting for. This might be your last opportunity. The Father in heaven, we bow ourselves before you. And your word says so much about the end of this age and about the man of lawlessness and in this section we just get like this really fast cliff's nose version. But it's It's enough to horrify us when we try to wrap our brains around the wickedness that's coming.
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So Father, to that end, I want to lift up those who don't know you.
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If there's somebody here, whether they're sitting here or watching this at home or watching the stream later or listening to the podcast later, whatever, I pray that you would bring them to the end of themselves.
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You bring that person to say, "My sin has gotten me nowhere.
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I have made my life miserable by choosing to do things my way.
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I have ignored God.
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I have done everything I could to shut Him out.
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And I realize today that God loves me with an infinite love and He demonstrated that by punishing Jesus Christ for the sins that I committed." Father, I pray that you would help that person understand that it is through believing in Jesus Christ, receiving Him, that their sins are washed away.
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That they would pray, "I believe that Jesus died for me, and I believe that through receiving I become a child of God because that's what Your Word says.
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Father, I pray that that person would reach out, whether it's to me or one of our elders, a small group leader, anybody they know that knows the Lord and knows Your Word.
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Father, we believe the time is near.
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But at the same time, Father, we rejoice because this passage was meant to give us comfort.
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Father, I confess to you, there have been times over the last couple of years I try to get caught up in the news and I get freaked out a little bit.
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"What's going to happen to my kids? What's going to happen to me?
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What's going to happen to the church?" But we're reminded not to be alarmed or deceived or forget what your Word says.
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You're going to take care of us.
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Thank you for that reassurance from your Word today. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are your views on the rapture? What reasons were given to support a pre-Tribulation rapture?
What was Paul’s point in giving the lesson on the Antichrist (“the man of lawlessness”)? How does this lesson give comfort to God’s people?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
