Growing in End Times Discernment

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  Growing in End Times Discernment

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  Please turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. And as you do that, I just want to get us thinking about the word discernment. That's what we'll see today in the text, as Paul is trying to help these Thessalonian believers grow in their discernment of the end times. But the emphasis I just want to put on it at the beginning is for us to continually see the need for growing in discernment. It wasn't just enough that this church, when Paul wrote to them, initially had discernment from the beginning, thanks to their attentiveness to the Word and growing in it. But they were growing in discernment. And if you're new to Christianity or just knowing what is discernment, it's the ability to distinguish God's truth from the error...error of man, which is rooted in the lies of the father of lies, Satan. And it's not just about the ability to discern it, to say, okay, that's right, that's wrong, that's true, that's false, but then to take it and apply it in your daily life. What good would it be to just recognize the error and recognize the truth, but not to actually put it into practice when those distinctions are made? So it's of utmost importance that we as individual believers and as a church, grow up into all that God would have us to be in Christ. That's Paul's words in Ephesians 4, when he says that we're to attain to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As in, God didn't just want to save us and then leave us pygmy Christians...to leave us as little toddlers. Why? Because if you look in verse 14 of Ephesians 4, we'll be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. Well, that's the danger of not growing up, not maturing in your discernment that you're going to get knocked over by the waves of every wind of false doctrine, just like if you took your kid to the beach and your toddler ran out and just got crushed by that first wave. It happens, but worse would be to stand there and do nothing and not pull them out, but let them get swept out to the sea and just tossed to and fro. And that's a church that doesn't help its people grow in discernment doctrinally. It's that they're just constantly going to be taken back and forth with every wind of change that blows throughout society, from the prince of the power of darkness, from the father of lies...the prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2 calls him. When we're dead in our sins and trespasses, working in the sons of disobedience...how do we stand against that? We have to be anchored in the truth of the Word of God, and grow in our discernment. Throughout the Bible, the ability to discern is extolled as a mark of a mature person who is going to be useful for God. In Exodus 18, Moses a great leader in his own time was sinking, though in the quicksand of solo leadership. He couldn't lead the people of Israel by himself. So his father in law, Jethro comes to him and says, hey, you need a little bit of help. You need to find some guys to help you lead these people. But you can't just pick any type of guy. He says in Exodus 18:21, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God...a man of faith, men of truth, who hate dishonest gain, those you'll place as the leaders. He's looking for those who are going to be men of truth who could recognize right from wrong. Not just that...moving on to the life of David. Maybe the next greatest leader in the history of Israel.And as he is rising to power, Saul is on his way out. They're moving on from him. The tribes of Israel, the 12 tribes, are recognizing he is the one we need to follow. So they're sending David leaders even before he's anointed as king. And in 1 Chronicles 12, of all the 12 tribes, it says this about the sons of Issachar, verse 32, 1 Chronicles 12...Men who understood the times with knowledge of what Israel should do. Those are the ones who were appointed in charge. So it's not just to be someone of the truth, Exodus 18:32. To mature and grow in the faith is to be somebody that knows the times that they're living in, can take that truth and apply it in their situation. Matthew 16, when Jesus is, uh, questioned by the religious leaders of his day, of his deity. They're wondering in Matthew 16 if He would show them a sign. And his response to them is a rebuke that he's been around for two years. They have seen his signs that he was the Son of God sent to save the world. And so this is his judgment on them. He says in Matthew 16:2, you know, when it's evening, you say, it will be fair weather. You know the sky is red. And in the morning there will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening. So you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times. Judgment over men in his age...religious leaders. The most knowledgeable of them all, who couldn't discern the signs of the days that they lived in. And then we get to 1 Thessalonians, what we've been studying. And in 1 Thessalonians 5, at the end of this letter, one of the final exhortations Paul gives to this church in verse 21 and 22. Examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil, 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22. A mature church is one who can separate the good from the bad, the lies from the truth. People who are going to lead in the church and grow in the church into the fullness of Christ, have to know the truth. Know the times. Discern the days therein. And so Paul, here in 2 Thessalonians 2 moves onto a new subject, and the need to discern is about the end times. Because false teaching had come into this church in the few months that he had been gone, even after he had written that first letter, and had started to confuse the minds and terrify the hearts of these people. It was a threat. And that's what was at stake then, and it's still at stake today when we talk about having discernment and look to the scriptures. It's not just about knowing what's in here. It's about what knowing what's going on out there. Bishop JC Ryle said it like this. "The men of Issachar are set before us as a pattern to be imitated, and an example to be followed, for it is a most important thing to understand the times in which we live, and to know what those times require. Our Lord Jesus Christ blamed the Jews because they did not know the time of their visitation and did not interpret. Let us take heed lest we fall into the same sin. Next to our Bible on our own hearts our Lord would have us to study our own times." So that's what we're here to do today. That's what we're here to do every week. Hear from God's word. Let it examine our hearts so that we can rightly understand the days in which we live.
  Let's read 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 and see Paul address their need to be growing in end times discernment. "Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message, or a letter, as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has already come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first. And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?" Jesus said in Mark 4, "he who has ears to hear, listen up. For what you measure out will be measured back to you. May we listen up this morning, Father.Amen.
  In this text, Paul just described the threats regarding the end times that these people were facing confusion of the mind, anxiety of the heart, and deception of the soul.  Yet the solution was single...Biblical discernment. And as we walk through the text today, you see that breakdown between thinking and feeling and knowing. That's how the text progresses. And you have to ask yourself wherever you sit today, where has your thinking been? What have you been feeding it? Has it been shaken up? As you look at the decline in the society around us. And then your heart...where has that been? Has it been uneasy, irritated, agitated by what you're taking in here and getting down to there? And to fight these thoughts and feelings, Paul is going to take us to what we know. As he says in verse five, don't you remember what I taught you? Because you just can't live in the world of what you think is true or what you feel is true. It's got to be rested on what you know is true...your convictions. And that's the setup for the day. That's the way Paul is going to move it. But those actions then will lead to the way we live different in light of Christ's return. From thinking to feeling to knowing then to doing, to living it out.

  And friends, when I say how we're to live in light of the return of Christ, I'm not talking about, you know, who has bought the five year supply of my Patriot survival meals. It's not going to be the application for today. The application is can you take what the text of the Word of God says? Let it minister to your soul this morning and as a result, live in light of the return of Jesus Christ. As Paul ends in 2 Timothy 4, loving his appearance, looking forward to the crown of righteousness that you'll receive for fighting the good fight, for finishing the course, for keeping the faith. Is that what you want? And we need to take heed today what Paul has to say. First, you must grow in discernment of your thinking and feeling, verses one and two. Paul moves to a new subject when he says, now, as in listen up, I request of you brothers and sisters. I've got something new to say here. And it's with regard to the coming, the parousia, the return. The personal appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him. Those are the same event. He comes back. We go to him. I've already taught you this back in 1 Thessalonians 4. You could even flip back there to be reminded of it, because he's having to remind them of it. And he says, I don't want you to be uninformed back in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 about those who fell asleep who have died. You don't need to grieve for them because they're going to rise when he returns, and we're all going to meet him in the air at the same time. They were uninformed, they were ignorant, and he filled in their understanding. But since the time that he wrote the first letter, false teaching had come in and was twisting them up in their minds. And that's the word you get there in verse two, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure. That's a word for your mental capacity. You have gone from being reasonable to unreasonable...thinking about the end. You have gone from being rational to irrational because you've taken your minds off the truths of what I've taught you. Paul warns, your mind is turned on a dime. You have been swiftly shaken, quickly confused. And I need to flip this thing back around. That word shaken from composure. It's used also in Acts 16, talking about the jail when the earthquake came to free Paul from...it was shaken. That's the imagery here that your mind that should be guarded and protected by the Word of God, by the Word of Christ dwelling richly within you when you take your mind off the Word. As 1 Peter 1:13 says, when you don't tuck in the loose ends of your thinking, gird up the loins of your mind like a warrior going into battle so he doesn't trip over his robe. When you don't do that, this is the result. You're shaken. And we're the same. When our minds aren't planted firmly on the ground of God's Word, but in mid-air, we get blown by winds of deception quickly. Rumors are flying around...the 8 to 8. What's going in on 127. Hannah's barbecue bid us farewell. Sign goes up. Something new is coming to town. Rumors start to fly. Another Aldi, maybe a Trader Joe's. John Krick has plans to put in a Great Wolf Lodge. But my discerning wife jumps on the internet and pokes around. She finds out. We're getting four more Dollar Generals right in a row. Get my toothpaste there...paper towels there. I mean, just what a gift. But it's just the way we are. We latch on to a half truth and it sweeps us away. So the first thing to go in our lack of discernment is our thinking. Because we let those truths rain down upon our minds. But see, like water trickling onto that patchy roof, it finds its way down into the attic and then into the...and then it goes down...that's how it works here with these believers. They're shaken in mind, which leads them to be disturbed. And that word disturbed is now a word for our feeling. It's a state of fear. It's root verb was to wail or to cry. And so you could see that picture of the lies that pour over their heads and seep into the fearful caverns of their hearts. And that's how it works. It's a freefall...that 18in from here to here (head to heart). But when it hits, then you're flooded with all this anxiety and worry and concern because you hadn't stopped it where it should stop...right there (mind). You haven't been grounded in the truth. And so you're swept away, as Ephesians 4 said by some, some doctrine blowing into town. But then it blows up your heart and it doesn't come out of nowhere. There's a means to it. Paul identifies it there in verse two. It's either by a spirit or a message or a letter, as if from us. He's saying it could be any one of these things, or it could have been all three. I mean, the scenario could have been some so-called apostle rolls into Thessalonica. Self-proclaimed prophet might have been really charismatic, a good speaker, and when Paul was gone, in the absence of his presence and leadership, this 'anointed' speaker comes in and really interesting to listen to tickling their ears. And so his message was, hey, I don't know if you're paying attention, guys. The affliction, the persecution, the day of the Lord...it's already here. That was the message. He might have even is because it says even a letter said, hey, I've got I've got a letter here from Paul. Christ already came. So he says it could be any of these three. And later, at the end of this letter, Paul has to write verse 17...if you look at the end of 2 Thessalonians. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. And this is a distinguishing mark in every letter. This is the way I write. He has to put that in there. Why? Because there were false teachers, false apostles, self-proclaimed prophets coming in and saying, I got a word from Paul. Look, the letter is here. And he says, no, no, no, this is my mark. This is my letter. This explains what was going on in this situation. False teachers claiming a word from God about the end were misleading the Thessalonians, confusing their minds and confounding their hearts all because they thought they were in the day of the Lord. Now, if you remember when we talked about the day of the Lord back in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 5:1-11, the day of the Lord was not, as we might initially think, a good thing to look forward to if you're in it. Because in the Old Testament, particularly the Minor prophets, it was associated with...a preachers paradise of alliterated words that begin with D... Doom, destruction, devastation, darkness, all of it. That's how the day of the Lord is described in the Old Testament. Because now God is returning not for salvation and redemption, but in judgment and retribution. And we learned that last week...that those who will be here when Jesus Christ returns with his mighty, mighty angels in flaming fire, verse 8, dealing out retribution to those who don't know God and those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. So imagine the Thessalonians now believing the idea that he's already come. They've been left behind. They're in the day of the Lord. Awful enough, right? But added to what they think now they're going to face when it comes to the judgment of God, is that they would be questioning their own salvation. Why? Well look back to 1 Thessalonians 5, because he's been setting the whole day of the Lord up like this. You're not going to see it coming, and people will think it's peace and safety. And he tells the Christians in 1 Thessalonians 5, brothers and sisters, you're not in darkness that that day is going to overtake you like a thief. You're the sons of light and sons of day. You're not of the night. So he's been telling them. They've been hearing from him. Hey, the clear line is you're in the light. You're in Christ, or you're in the darkness. You're not in Christ. So if you're left behind for the day of the Lord, what conclusion might you come to? That you're not in Christ. So on top of the anxiety of thinking, now you're in for the judgment, the tribulation...you no longer are saved. You were never saved to begin with because they would have just thought back. Verse 5:8...since we are of the day, let's be sober. Put on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for salvation. But if I miss the day of the Lord, if he came back and I'm still here, then I haven't obtained salvation. And I am destined for wrath. So does it make sense now why they would have been so shaken up by allowing that false teaching of the return of Christ already happening to pervade their thinking, get into their feeling...they're stuck. So what could they do about it? How did Paul advise them to grow in end times discernment?

  He addressed their thinking and their feeling. Verses three through five he gets to their knowing and doing. This is the way out. The way isn't to think your way out or feel your way out. It's to know what God has said about the return of Christ. So let's go into verse 3. He starts out and says, let no one in any way deceive you. That's the issue. It's always the issue with false teaching in the church...that you've let someone because of some credibility you've granted them, whatever platform this person has that make you think you can trust their teaching. He says, no, it's not about the man. So let no man, let no one. You don't show partiality. Doesn't matter who this guy said he was. You don't let the person and in any way deceive you. It doesn't matter the method. He says he's spirit anointed. He said he has a message...a word from the Lord. He could say that all he wants. He could say he has a letter from me. But if it doesn't accord with what I've already told you, it's out. Should we have any different attitude today towards the Word of God and what we hear proclaimed from pulpits? Can it be backed up with this? If it can't, it's out. It's out. It doesn't matter the man or in our day and age, the woman preacher that has some massive following, millions of followers, writing books, best seller. Generally speaking, I would have said like the best selling section in, you know, Barnes and Noble, but I would tend to say avoid that. Goto our bookstore not because we need the money, but we vetted those books. We're not just putting them up there because they're Christian by name. But that's the attitude we have to have. Let no one...it doesn't matter the person. In every way...it doesn't matter the delivery deceive you when it comes to how you are thinking about the return of Christ. And that word deceive...just let's pause there for a moment, because we are up against it when it comes to being deceived. But it's not unique to our time period. Deception has been the issue since day one. Or should I say the day that Satan came in the garden to deceive Adam and Eve...from the beginning. That was the first issue...deception. Satan is the deceiver. He's the liar. And we have to know that when we look at this word deceive, Paul uses it six places in the New Testament. He's the only one that uses it, and he uses it in four different ways. And we need to know these ways, because these are all the ways that we can be deceived. I just want to give you a brief, you know, pull the car over to highlight how dangerous it is to not grant that you could be deceived as a believer...when you realize how many different ways it works against you. Four ways. Six times he uses it and he highlights four different ways we're deceived.
  The first one is we're deceived by Satan because he's the source. Lies just don't come out of thin air. He's the father of lies. He's been doing it from the beginning. So Satan, Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 11:3. You could write it down. You could turn there if you want. Paul wrote, I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. What's he saying there? When it comes to being deceived, the starting point is always trying to take a believer and pull them away from keeping their eyes fixed on who?...Christ. Christ is always the issue. And that's the last person Satan wants you to look to because he's the source of our salvation. He'll get your mind on anybody else, anything else except what Paul says here simplicity and devotion to Christ. He disguises himself as an angel of light. He fools us into thinking just like he did with Eve. Hey, is that what God's Word really said? Don't you want to be like God? You know that issue you're going through is a really difficult one. Maybe the Bible isn't the final word on it. You know, you're a 2024 person...educated. Are you really going to trust this ancient book when you have the spirit in you? You know...you're created in the image of God. How reliable is this? Taking you away from simplicity and purity and devotion to Christ and His Word? It's the first way we're deceived, according to Paul.
  The second way...Romans 7:11 is we're deceived by sin. What's Satan doing when he's trying to deceive you with error? He's trying to lead you to sin and sin, Romans 7:11 says, sin takes an opportunity through the commandment deceives me and through it kills me. Wow. Think about that. Paul is saying that sin deceives us by doing the opposite with the law that we would expect, rather than us draw closer to God. Sin uses the law to distance us from God. So how does he do that? Well, back to simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. If you define your relationship to God by the law and not by Christ, that's where it divides. If you define your relationship to God by your keeping of the law, as if that's where your righteousness is found. Above being found in who?...Jesus Christ and his righteousness. That's what Paul is saying in Romans 7:11. Sin takes the opportunity through the command, deceives me, and through it killed me. Why? Because it takes the law and it says, yea, run after the law. Keep the law. You just keep all the commandments, just like that rich young ruler did and came to Christ and said, I've done it all. And he's staring in the face of the Son of God, the Messiah. But he doesn't see him. He sees I'm good with God because of how good I am. And Christ says no. You're good with God because of how perfect I was. It's not you. But that's the deception satanwants to use, even the Word of God. For some of you today that you've defined your relationship to God your whole life by the law and not by Christ. And so the more you keep it, the better you are with them. When you have a bad day, the worse you are with them. Never once thinking, where does Christ fit into this? It's his righteousness alone that I will stand before the throne one day. Just as what was heard in the testimony, Florence said it...I'm in Christ. He's my salvation. I look forward to seeing him.
  Third we're deceived by self. 1 Corinthians 3:18...Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he might become wise. What's this foolishness we must become? It's not the foolishness that goes out and believes lies out there and acts foolishly on the weekends. He's saying the foolishness is the kind that says, wait, I'm going to believe that the Messiah willingly gave himself up to die? That message, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, is a message of foolishness to the wise of this world. It's a message of weakness to the strong in this world. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God, and it's the wisdom of God. And if the rulers of this world would have understood that, they would not have crucified their Messiah. But we get deceived by our own self exalting pride. And if we don't have the Word of God to correct us and we don't have disciplers around us, perspective is the gift you can't give to yourself, friend. How do you know you're deceived? That's its whole point. You don't. But look how much is working against you. Satan, the father of lies. Sin using the word against you. Self thinking you've got it figured out on your own.
  And then the fourth dimension. Maybe I can trust a preacher. I'm going to keep alliterating with S. So I'm going to say the fourth way we're deceived is speakers, not these kind, this kind. Romans 16:18...Paul's talking about false teachers. He says such men are slaves not of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of their own appetites. And by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. False teachers deceive us. Notice what Paul said there...by sugarcoated speech, not by the bitter pill of absolute truth.
  So what are you up against when it comes to being deceived? Do you think it was a pretty simple matter...a true/false test? It's multiple choice. Which one are you going to pick?...Satan, Sin, self, speakers coming at you from four directions, the walls closing in. But if you're grounded in the Word of God, if you know, like Paul is saying to these Thessalonians, if you know and remember what I taught you when I was with you, and I told you verse five, you won't be deceived in any way. So then in verse three, he tells them two truths about the end that he had taught them, that they needed to remember what they needed to know in order to live rightly. And the first truth is there in verse three, under what you need to know, the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy comes first.

  Truth number one, for the end...the day of the Lord won't come till the apostasy comes first. What's the apostasy? Well, just defining it Biblically. It's a word that meant to defect or to revolt or to rebel, whether on a widespread or personal level to rise up in open defiance of authority, with the presumed intention to overthrow that authority. It's the Greek word for toddler. It was heavy for a while there, so I had to lighten it up. I mean, we were we were moving. So the apostasy is this time period where the way of the world has just shifted entirely to a time of total rebellion and revolt against the law of God. If you want a longer treatment of this, I think it was last year. It was last week. We said the longer treatment of 1 Thessalonians 1: 6-10 is Revelation. If you want to take this section and spend some more time with it this week, you can go to Matthew 24. I'm just going to go to it briefly, but Matthew 24 would be really the teaching of Jesus himself about the end...called the Olivet Discourse. Which would have been the basis for the apostolic instruction going around to the churches about the return of Christ, which Paul would have been aware of. And so Matthew 24, you want to mark in your Bibles as something to be familiar with when you want the truth about the day of the Lord, the end times. And it was instigated by Jesus with his disciples. After he has called out the Pharisees, cleansed the temple, wept over Jerusalem because it was an empty grave. There was nothing left there. I mean, he was broken over Jerusalem. He looked at the temple and he saw nothing. Because all they knew was that they were right because of their law keeping. They didn't need one to keep the law for them. And so he's talking about the end. He says, hey guys, one day, verse two of Matthew 24, every stone here is going to be turned on one another. And his disciples say, hey, um, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And so imagine this, the warning right there. Jesus says, see to it when you're thinking about the end, guys see to it that no one deceives you, misleads you. Many are going to come first and foremost in my name...notice that...how many false religions are out there today using his name? They'll come in my name saying I am the Christ and mislead many. And we've had people throughout history believe they were Jesus. They're all dead. Then he says, you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. Don't be frightened. These all are going to take place. It's not the end yet. Verse seven nationagainst nation and kingdom against kingdom, various places, famines and earthquakes. Here's the key...all these things are merely the beginning of the birth pangs. And after that is the day of the Lord. So Paul is telling these Thessalonians, look, until all of this is ramping up for my return. It's not the day of the Lord yet. So wars, natural disasters, fake religious teachers, false believers, it's all going to happen and it'll continue to happen. I mean, even today we hear about the calamity in the world and think, is this the end? And I mean, one thing we continually have to remind ourselves is we have 24/7 access to hear about all the bad news unlike any generation prior. Of course, we're going to be on edge. I remember growing up, there was a newspaper that I would go to the sports section, of course, and then there was on the back page, they would have a picture of the world, a map, and all it would have was these little symbols for like a hurricane or an earthquake or a coup or something. I mean, it was it was just the bad news section. And as a 12 year old, I was fascinated by it. And, it made me, like, try to find it. I was hunting it down this week and I thought it was USA today. So I go on USA today's website on Thursday and lo and behold, what do I find?...doom and gloom. I mean, what changes, whether it was 30 years ago, in my childhood or three days ago? This is it. You land on their page. Here's our headlines. I mean, save the world's oldest person dies at 117, smiling, free and satisfied. A bunch of bad news that you would have no idea what was going on unless you had what?...access all the time to hear it. And I'm not saying this to to make light of what's happening today. I'm just saying, I mean, in our lifetime, in the last few years, today, last week, last month, any given week, you could pull this up. And this is how it is. I was trying to find an article, even by a guy named Kevin DeYoung. I've referenced him before. He's a pastor down in Charlotte...great writer. And I remember reading an article a few years ago where he said, don't, don't catastrophize all the catastrophes. Okay. Relax...sort of. But he wrote it, so I found it and it was dated July 13th, 2016. And this was his intro to this article. "Last week was a hard week...a very hard week. Sadly, there could be harder weeks to come. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling a mix of sadness, exhaustion, fear and confusion. There is so much hurt, so much grief, so many layers, so many storylines, so many different voices clamoring for our attention. How can we possibly process everything that's going on in our world?" I was like, wow....July 13th, 2016. I couldn't think of one thing, can you? I mean according to Kevin DeYoung, and he is not a sensationalist. It was a very bad time. So I did what you're probably thinking of doing on your phone right now. What was so bad in July 2016? And I found an article with the headline ten World Changing Events in July 2016. Isis Attacks in Iraq, France and Germany, a mass stabbing in Japan, a cop killing in Dallas, a coup in Turkey. And brace yourselves...a Gallup poll that revealed Americans believe the US nominated the two least popular candidates in history. Relax. Okay. Eight years ago, we thought we had the two worst candidates in history. One of them's still out there. I say this with all love and sincerity. Like when you are given access all the time, to all the bad news and all the places of the world...this is how your mind. Right? It starts there. And then it gets to your heart. And you've got to be a good steward of what you let your little eyes see and ears listen to. Otherwise it's going to spin you out. But you get grounded when you know the truth about the return of the Lord, don't you? Now here's something that's pretty amazing in Matthew 24. Um, when you connect it to 2 Thessalonians 2:3, he says, the end isn't here until the apostasy. All this bad stuff, the world going to hell in a handbasket. But then listen to this in Matthew 24:14...the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. So the two points that we have to look for to identify when it comes to the end... apostasy and the gospel going to the ends of the earth...something unfathomably awful and unimaginably good. And they're going to coincide that the end is now here. That this apostasy and this man of lawlessness we'll get to is going to happen. But this really amazing thing is, in all that time, as bad as it gets, the gospel keeps going forth. And that's according to Jesus' words when the end will come. So I was just meditating on that picture...world getting worse...Gospel keeps going. Who wins? And my favorite moment of the Olympics came to mind. Sha'Carri Richardson gets the baton last leg of the 4x100 in the ladies race. She's behind and just cruises right on by. And then turns and gives the...humm... I gave the same face to Kurtis this morning. I was on 70 going past Walmart. I got the green light. He's coming up 4th.  He gets the red and I see his Honda to the side and I go mm. It's the only race I've ever beat Kurtis in.

  But I love that juxtaposition, the contrasting nature of the time leading up to the end. The finish line is in sight and in one lane is apostasy and rebellion and persecution. And in the other lane is the gospel of Jesus Christ and his promises that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church. It's awesome...that it has to come down to the wire like that. It's awful for the world. But isn't that a sign of the kindness of God? That as bad as it's getting, he is pushing us to keep going. He's leaving us here, so it keeps going. And if we stop doing our mission, I mean, it's kind of one of those things I'm sure some of you guys, you know, like to. So wait a second. If we just kind of all stop preaching the gospel, like he'll never return? It just says the gospel has to be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end comes. So that's the order of operations, this great apostasy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, but also the proliferation of the gospel.
  Truth number two, besides the Great Apostasy, is the apostate one, the worst of the worst, the man of lawlessness. Verse three. The son of Destruction, the man who thinks he's God...all of verse four. He behaves with complete disregard for the laws of society. He is driven by an idea of complete autonomy to do whatever he wants to do. He has no love for God, no love for God's law, no love for Christ. That is the God hating spirit of this man of lawlessness. He is the Antichrist of all antichrists. 1 John 2:18. John, writing 40 years after this letter, has seen some Antichrists come already. And what does he say? Children, it's the last hour which should give us pause. It's been the last hour since 90 A.D.. It's a small time, isn't it?...an hour. When we think of the return of Christ. And it's been that way, according to the apostle John, since a couple of decades after Jesus went back. He says, children, it's the last hour. And just as you heard, that Antichrist is coming. Yeah. The teaching of Paul back in 2 Thessalonians, Matthew 24, um, even now many antichrists have appeared and from which we know it's the last hour, and it's going to be people that go out from us that aren't really of us. And so this is who the Antichrist is. And we continually see attempts at guys like this in history. Demonic inspired dictators who think they're so-called gods and they're gone. God allows them to be raised up, but he also. They're gone...every one of them. But this guy is anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-moral, anti-law. His lawless behavior will know no end. He's called the Son of destruction. And that's the emphasis of Son of Destruction. Is not so much the destruction he causes, but that he will be destroyed. John MacArthur defines him this way. I couldn't improve upon it, so I'm just going to put it up. "The expression son is of a Hebraism indicating a close association or of the same kind, just as a son shares his father's nature. So this man is going to share the nature of destruction. The Antichrist will be so completely devoted to the destruction of all that relates to God's purpose and plan, that he can be said to be destruction personified. He, however, belongs to destruction as the one to be destroyed. He is fixed for punishment and judgment. He is human trash for the garbage dump of hell."  And we don't have to fear him. We don't have to fear the apostasy. We don't operate out of fear. Why don't we operate out of fear? Because John says we've come to know and believe the love which God has for us. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment. Because as he is, so also are we in this world...protected...delivered. There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment. And the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. Is there any greater remedy for your mind and heart and soul this morning than knowing you are kept in Christ...protected, and nothing can pull you from the love of God in Christ...nothing. That's the confidence that the believer operates out of, no matter how bad it gets, how lawless society gets. If you wanted more Old Testament about this Antichrist, this lawless man, this son of destruction, if you want the language of the exalting of himself, we go back to Daniel. We were there last....I don't know how many years ago now. Daniel 7 says he'll speak out against 7:25. This this antichrist, this man of lawlessness will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the highest one, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in the law. Remember we talked about that then? He's going to be so bold as to want to change time itself. He's going to change all the laws. He's the ultimate defierof authority. There is nothing he won't tear down for the sake of his own exaltation, but he'll sell it to the people. And for three and a half years, have everybody duped because he will be the ultimate freedom fighter. That's appealing for people to hear that, isn't it? This...we're free people. Well, it has to come at the cost of some kind of law. No laws, no authority, noconsequences...a new society where nobody can tell me I'm wrong for following my corrupted desires. A lawless leader leading a lawless world with one result...pure what?...anarchy. A rebellion and riot like never before imagined. And you say that could never happen. People can never buy it. Really? Have you listened to some speeches of late? Highlighting, extolling freedom, but talking about a lawless way of society? Because you are about you. No we're not. We're Christs, all of us...body, mind and soul. We belong to him. So when you hear speeches that extol this idea of self exaltation, self-governance. What's it point towards?...lawlessness. But somebody could sign it off saying God bless America. I could use the name of God to sell a lawless vision for the future. Matthew 7:21-23 and I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. You can claim the name of Christ. You can sign off your words with saying, God bless. But if you have made a practice of lawlessness, if that's your vision for the future, if that's where you think freedom is found, you will hear in that last day...depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness, 1 John 3:4.
  So I would just say to any in here today, if sin is the regular practice of your life, I'm talking about the regular practice...1 John 3:4. Then lawlessness is the word that fits your lifestyle. Now here's the reality. Romans 3 says that we're all guilty. We all fall short of the glory of God. We're all lawbreakers. But what you need to do is trace the fruits of your lawless, sinful behavior to the root of the biggest problem, which is your lovelessness for Christ. Because Jesus says, if you love me, you'll do what? You'll keep my commandments. So we're back to not letting sin deceive us with the law. Oh, so I just need to be right by keeping more of the law? No, you need to be right by recognizing the reason you don't want to obey authority of any form, let alone the highest authority. That's because you don't love the Lord. And if you love him, you want to keep his commandments. That's how it works. It comes from the heart. So is your heart devoted to Christ this morning? Do you love him? And do you love him because he first loved you? We're back there again, aren't we? It's recognizing what he did for you in the gospel that will drive out any fear you have this morning if you're not in Christ. Uh, this isn't a hellfire and damnation sermon. This isn't about scaring people into heaven. It doesn't work that way. You win them to heaven. You compel them to come in. That's the invitation. If you're not in Christ today, come in. All the preparations are ready, Luke 14:23. All of it's been done. Come now to Christ.  Everything is ready, Christ said.  The great marriage banquet of the lamb to the bride is going to be ready. He's prepared everything. Don't you dare think you can bring something. It would offend the master. You don't bring nothing. You come. You come to Christ saying, I've got nothing to bring to this. And he says, exactly. Welcome in. You come. You don't stay. He has everything, you have nothing. And he says, do it now. Don't wait. So come to Christ if you don't know him. Surrender your life to him now. Plead for mercy to forgive your sins so you can live forever with him. That's the glorious good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The greatest news there is. And if you are in Christ, when's the last time you've taken that same good news to people today who are anxious, who are confused, who are worried? And you sit and listen to them. You let them share their heart. And then can you say, I've got some good news to tell you? It doesn't have to end this way. You can come. I've got an invitation from the master for you.
  Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace in our lives. The grace that we find in Jesus Christ alone, who delivers us from the wrath to come. We thank you that as your children, we have nothing to fear. We are held in you, protected and provided for eternally. So we praise your name this morning. Christ. You are our all. All of our salvation. All of our righteousness. You kept the law perfectly. You loved the Father perfectly. And you offer it to us in yourself. Thank you for your kindness and mercy and grace. Amen.