Growing in End Times Discernment Pt. 2

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  Growing in End Times Discernment Pt. 2

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  Please turn your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. We'll pick up where we left off last week in verse 6, and continue to look ahead as these texts about the end times call us to understand them, to know them, to grow in them so that we can grow in our discernment and be capable not so much of predicting the future...that's not really the purpose of these texts, but to know that our future is in the hands of a God who is in control of all things. Last week we saw at the beginning of chapter 2 that a healthy church keeps growing in areas of discernment, and especially in knowing when we're talking about the end. Uh, the difference between God's truth and man's error, because it's a cover to cover issue in your Bible from the front part in the beginning, from page one day one Genesis one God is the creator of all things, all things seen and unseen on earth and in the heavens. He created it all. He owns it all. He knows it all. He keeps it all. And he is leading it all to the end that he is over to the last page, the end of the Bible, Revelation, the last days. All of it is still his. Not one thing is out of place in the perfect plan of God, where he is headed for all time and eternity. Isaiah 46:9-10 states this. Remember the former things long past. I am God, and there is no other. I am God and there is no one like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient timesthings done which have not been done, saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure. What is God defining himself, or describing himself, or separating himself out from the rest of the pack? Well He says there's no one like me. Well, what makes no other God like him? He's the only one that knows the beginning from the end. He's the only one who can say, my purpose will be established and not in different purposes. As if he just kind of says I'm going to set it all up and leave it alone. No, he says, I will accomplish all my good pleasure. All of history, from beginning to end, is happening according to God's plan that he can be pleased with. He can take all things...as Romans 8 tells us, work all things for his glory and for the good of his people. And that is a rock solid foundation that we build our lives around. And it is also what we want to have in our minds as we talk about growing in your discernment, the ability to separate out truth from error when we come to think about the future from the end times. And one way that you can, even in the last week and this week, as you reflect on what we're learning here. You may not be the biggest fan of talking about the end times. Maybe not so much for fear of it, but because maybe you grew up in some church denomination that exhausted the subject and you never wanted to talk about it again, for whatever reason you might have.  But an effect of understanding what's to come...maybe the greatest effect is it works on your heart, and it does as Paul states at the end of 2 Timothy 4:8, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. What's the first fruits of you growing in your discernment of the end times. I don't think it's you being able to predict. Sorry to let you down. If you want somebody who can predict things, talk to Kurtis. He sat next to a guy at the Hickory Motor Speedway last night. Apparently a pretty big race was going on. It was a packed house, and the guy Kurtis shared with me predicted the revenge that car 6 was going to take on car 19 for a sideswipe earlier in the match, and sure enough, it happens. No offense. None taken. Car 6 or 19 if you're here today, okay, not commenting on that. If you're into that kind of prediction of the future, great. But when it comes to the good fruit of a growing understanding of the future, it's the virtue of love that you would love...long for the appearing of Jesus Christ. And it's connected, even what we saw last week orsorry, not last week, but well, it is connected to last week because these Thessalonian Christians were shaken up in mind and their hearts were weighed down, thinking that the day of the Lord had already come and the worst of all possibilities...they weren't in Christ, and they missed their Savior. What I was meaning to say is they were in a time of persecution, in a time of affliction. And when Jesus comes, it says to be glorified in his saints...they will be relieved. They'll be with Him. They'll be with Him forever. A good fruit of a right understanding of the end is we get relief. We get to be with our Savior. And as Peter states in the opening chapter of First Peter, again a letter written to a persecuted people that you love his appearing, you rejoicewith joy inexpressible with the thought of seeing him. So those first fruits of a person who they're excited to see Jesus again, our love and they're of joy. And so that's something even this morning to say, Lord, give me a greater love for you and a greater joy in you. Not just in the present, but as I would think about you going into the future.  So we'll pick up where we left off last week in verse six, where last week you had some confused Christians, some disturbed Christians. They thought the day of the Lord had come. They thought they had missed Jesus. They thought they were in the end times. And what an awful thought that would be. You come to Christ just a few years earlier. You're taught by the Apostle Paul how wonderful it is to be a Christian. How wonderful it will be to be with Jesus forever. And then, in the absence of Paul, false teachers came in and said, sorry guys, you missed it. What a letdown. How disturbing it would be to live in that time. And that's really the air in which these Thessalonians have been breathing and they've been afflicted by people outside the church persecuting them. So it's been hard times. And Paul comes with a word of comfort. Last week we saw that they haven't missed the end because the man of lawlessness has not been revealed. The Antichrist hasn't come. And today we will see...and this is where it shifts today. The focus is on the Antichrist and what he and Satan will be doing together. And if we're not careful, we might miss the big picture that Paul is trying to paint when this bad day does come, when the day of the Lord does come and the Antichrist is revealed that it's actually not really all about him still. This is the big lesson for the day, for us now and into the future, that no matter what temporary scheme of Satan seems to be succeeding against the people of God, the eternal plan and purpose of God is always, always working itself out. That's the great hope he gives them today, that at every move the Antichrist could make on the chessboard of eternity, he is never coming close to putting God in check...not even close. It could seem that even for you today, you could say. But I have seen bad things. I read history books, I get it, so do I. But never once is Satan's ultimate plan through an Antichrist spirit to ruin the world, to destroy the world ever come close to succeeding. Never has before, and it never will outside of God's sovereign purposes. And we can take joy in that today, as Martin Luther said it. The devil is God's devil. He compares him to a bad dog on a chain. Luther was wonderful with words...which may bark, run here and there and tear at the chain. But because the devil is tied, it cannot bite you. That's the promise we have. That's the hope we have, and that's what we want to keep in mind today as we study this text. And it features more about the Antichrist than it seems to feature about God.  But His Sovereign plan and purposes are work out behind it. So read along with me...2 Thessalonians 2:6-12. Paul writes to them, referring to the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness. "And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains him will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. That is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness, for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness." This is the Word of God. May it be planted deep in our hearts and bear the good fruits, Father of love for the appearing of your Son. Amen.
  So right out of the gates, verses six and seven, this first subsection of the bigger picture, that God's purposes, his eternal purposes and plans will be carried out no matter what temporary schemes of Satan seem to be succeeding. The first evidence of this is that the Antichrist is on God's time. He's on God's watch, verses 6-7. And you know what restrains him now, speaking of Antichrist, so that in his time he'll be revealed. And it seems, well he's working on his own time. No, he is on God's time because there is a greater power at work holding him back. Now notice what Paul says here that sets the table for us to walk gently into this text. What I mean by that is, um, they know something we don't know. Do you see that right there in verse six? And you know what restrains him...the Antichrist. They know. We don't know. And we could read on and still not know what they know. Have I lost you? Look at verse 5. Do you not remember that while I was with you, I was telling you these things? So he's writing to this church, whom he hasn't seen in a while, but has been writing to them. But he refers to a time when he taught them, when he first got there, and he taught them everything from cover to cover. He explained to them the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He taught them about the return of Christ. Hence, he has a lot to correct in 1 and 2 Thessalonians about the return of Christ. And he says, I have taught you already about this man of lawlessness. Do you remember this? I told you. And then he starts in verse six today. You know what restrains him. But we're standing here saying, no, we don't. We actually don't get what they got, which should humble us today. That as wonderful as it is to have a spirit inspired Bible, and we get to look back on it all and we get with these texts to look forward. They know things. They got to learn things we'll never learn until we're in heaven. I know I often say how wonderful it is with all the resources we have Bible studies and sermons and Bible colleges and seminaries. Praise God for it all. And yet we can be humbled to know that these first generation Christians in Thessalonica knew things that we won't know, especially when it comes to the big question that I know you're dying to be answered. What is this restrain? Or who is this restrainer? That's the question people ask about these two verses. Look in your Bible. He says, you know what restrains the Antichrist now that in his time he'll be revealed and then he goes on for the mystery of lawlessness...speaking of the man of lawlessness and mysteries in the Bible, when they're mentioned in the New Testament by Paul, are not mysteries to God. They're mysteries to us, which means they will not remain unsolved. There is complete understanding and knowledge by God of whatever is called a mystery in the Bible. He knows we don't know. But then in verse seven he says, this mystery of the man of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains.Wait a second in verse six, it was what restrains this Antichrist. And in verse seven it's he who restrains. And that's the main clue we have to work with today. When we think of what's restraining the definite article. You know, like when college football's upon us and annoying Ohio State fans who like to say THE Ohio State University when they talk about Ohio State and maybe other schools do that too. But when we're talking about the Antichrist, the one that he's mentioning here, this man of lawlessness back in verse three, the son of destruction who thinks he's God. Verse four...exalts himself like God. He's one that we have never seen before. And Paul is asking the question like, wait, what's kept this guy back? Because other ones have come. 1John 2:18...many antichrists have come. An Antichrist spirit 1 John 4:1-3. The Antichrist spirit is anyone who what?...denies that Jesus has come in the flesh...denies that Jesus is the Son of God. Well, there's been plenty of those throughout history. What's stopped any of them from succeeding to the plan of Satan? And we get the answer in six and seven. There's a restraining power in verse six...what...and person in verse seven, he. And you put those together and say, and this is what theologians and commentators have studied throughout the last 2000 years. It's a whodunit. Who is this who and he? Who is a he, and what and it in six and seven. And so there's been some possibilities put forth. Here's a little multiple choice for you today. You can pick the one you want and then debate it over lunch at Golden Corral. It's all you need. So you could stay there all day right. Do they kick you out? Great day to go to Golden Corral and talk the day away over these options for the restrainer. First option is many people have believed that the 'what' is the Roman Empire and the 'who' is the emperor. So again, if you're not tracking with me, just put those words into verse six and seven. And you know, the Roman Empire restrains him now. And then, verse seven, and only the emperor who now restrains will do so until he's taken away. So some people in church history, early church fathers, especially when the Roman Empire was still strong, a guy like Tertullian, which, by the way, great name for a boy. So time to time I offer my opinions. Tertullian, church father, lived in the two hundreds. The Roman Empire was still going strong. And the emperor, you know, he was in control. And as Romans 13 says, Paul wrote, uh, all these governments and institutions are ordained by God, and they don't bear the sword for no reason. So as long as the emperor can bear the sword, as long as there is an empire, uh, an antichrist might be held in check. Unless, of course, it is the emperor, which some people thought throughout time and history it had been. So he's saying maybe some people believe that's it. And Paul's writing in kind of clandestine language of a what and a he so as to not be found out by Caesar. Now it maybe seemed like a really good idea in church history until Constantinople fell in 1453 to the Ottoman Empire. And this idea that the Roman Empire was going to forever keep in check the bad guys kind of fell apart at that point, which this view then did as well. Not to say some still don't believe it. Moving on from that one, less a historical view and more of, um, a view that we would get from the pages of Scripture that what's holding back the Antichrist is the proclamation of the gospel and preachers like Paul, that as long as preachers and the gospel keep going forth until as we studied 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 maybe Paul, in writing this to these people was saying, hey, as long as I'm around preaching the gospel, Jesus doesn't come back until then. And if Jesus doesn't come back to rescue the church, then the Antichrist can't come. So some people have believed in church history. That would be B on your multiple choice now...that it's the proclamation of the gospel and the preaching of it. And, uh, others have accepted this view. Most prominent, probably John Calvin. Third on the list, and maybe the most accepted view today is that the 'what' is the presence of the church and the 'who' is the Holy Spirit. So verses six and seven put those in and think about it. You know what restrains the Antichrist now...you know that the church restrains him now. As in, the church is doing the good work of the gospel and not just preaching the gospel, but the church is also, as Matthew 5:13-16 talks about the church is salt and light, right? Salt has a preserving quality. That's why Jesus uses it for an illustration that, you know, you're the salt of the earth. But if you're tasteless, you're useless and you're not making anything salty, you're not preserving, you're not adding flavor. And as Christians, we're to be that preserving and flavorful quality on our planet. So Christians stop wearing Crocs with socks, okay? We're to be a tasteful addition. Just once in a while, I want to make sure you're awake. But the presence of the church in the world is a convicting presence by what we preach and hopefully how we live, and that even our presence when we speak of God, and we do so in ways that honor him and glorify him and adorn the gospel of grace with our good works echoes what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2. This is this influence the church is to have in the world. Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. For we're a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. So maybe Paul has that in mind, that the presence of the church and the power of the Holy Spirit are who Paul is talking about in six and seven. The only, I guess,the main detractor to that is why he wouldn't just say it. Why he wouldn't just say, guys, the personal nature of the restraining power is the person and work of the Holy Spirit, alive and active in all of you. Maybe it's because he just said in verse five, didn't I already teach you this? And he didn't feel like repeating himself. So we actually don't know. And I just tried to maybe give you some options for debate later. And you're like, man, I still don't think we have any idea. You're in good company. So did Augustine in the fourth century. Quote, "I myself, I confess I have no idea what is meant here." So there you go. One of the greatest church fathers of all time can say humbly, I just don't know. And I think we all can accept the possibility of it, especially the presence of believers in the church and the proclamation of the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit. But if in all that you miss the point which is this, um, no matter what or who is this restraining power over the Antichrist preventing this Antichrist from coming...the whole point is that God is in control of his time, and he is not going to arrive and last a second longer than God ordains. John Piper wrote this about it. He said, everybody's guessing about this, so he would probably be in. We don't have any idea. Everybody's guessing. But what matters here was the Antichrist's time is set by God and the restrainer is preventing the man of lawlessness from crashing like a wave over the world, as though he were to come on the force of his own power, as if God were not in control. But the whole point of Paul here is God is in control of his arrival time. And that's the emphasis of six and seven that when we think about the times we live in, we step back and we see all the attempts Satan has made through Antichrist characters. As 1 John 4 described, these are those who come and they're false teachers and say that Jesus has not come in the flesh from God. They don't confess Jesus is from God. That's the spirit of Antichrist that John writes, you heard is coming and now is already in the world. And so the litmus test is always, what does this person have to say about Christ? And throughout history, no matter how powerful a leader has been to to come up and go down. Whether Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Nero, Genghis Khan, Stalin, Hitler, Saddam, the list goes on. They all come and go, dust to dust in God's vacuum cleaner of time just comes right through and sucks them up and they're gone. And that should give us pause today when we are maybe, like the Thessalonians, worried about the next four year or possible eight year bit part one line actor who gets just a vapor of time on the world stage and gone just like that. If that's been vexing you, weighing you down, confusing you, just put them in the category of Daniel 2:21. It is God who changes the times and epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. It is he who knows the profound and hidden things. That's good news for the world now and all time. Because think about it if God is in control of the worst of the worst world leaders, and we haven't seen the worst one yet, how much more can we have hope today? It always reminds me in talking about the bit part actors...like myself in a former life. At the end of Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray closes his novel, a whole novel about the vanity of man, and says at the end, come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets for our play is played out. God's box holds every single puppet. Cast your vote for one this fall. They will be put back in the box just like everyone else. That's what you're doing. I'm supporting a puppet, who's going to have their purpose in God's plan for a season, and then back in the box, just like the rest of them. That's not a fatalistic view. That's a faith filled view of our future. And if you don't understand that and embrace that and rejoice in that, you may stay in the cycle of shaken in composure and disturbed at heart, because you think the future might be headed somewhere outside of God's sovereign control. And it's not. It's 100% his time, and the Antichrist is on his watch. That's the summary of six and seven.  
  Now let's move to verse eight. The Antichrist is not just on God's time. He is in God's target. God has this megalomaniac in his crosshairs from the moment this Antichrist breathes his first and yes, will breathe his last. Verse eight, the lawless one will be revealed. And so we feel like we're going to, you know, okay, we're getting more about this lawless one, he's revealed. And then the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. He appears and then God makes him disappear. It's almost like verse eight is an aside that he's been describing this man of lawlessness for the last five verses from verse three to verse seven. And maybe these people are getting worked up and they're thinking, this man is an awful man. And he is. He's the worst of the worst of all time. And yet, in just an aside, he says that lawless one who will be revealed. Two things...one, God takes him out. Two, with the breath of his mouth. That's it. No help from us as if he needs it. He just speaks. And this guy is done. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He upholds the universe by the word of his power, Hebrews 1 tells us. So, Genesis 1 when God said, let there be light, and there was light. And Psalm 33:6 echoes by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and the breath of his mouth all their hosts. By the breath of God, he turned the lights on in the universe, and by the breath of Christ he will turn the lights out on Antichrist. Gone...just like that. Slays him, wipes him out in a millisecond. It doesn't happen on a whim that God lost sight of him and then sees him again. Nope. God is carrying out his purposes on Antichrist from day one. In fact, it goes all the way back to Isaiah 11 that Jesus came the first time in Isaiah 11 that we learn about. He was the spring from the stem of Jesse, a branch from the roots bearing fruit. The spirit of the Lord rested on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. All these wonderful things we like to say about Jesus in his first coming. And they're all true. But then listen to the shift, and he will delight in the fear of the Lord, and he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear. But with righteousness, as in, he's not swayed by man like all these other false Christs are. But with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. So he's not here by accident, this Antichrist, but he is off the scene as quickly as you can pause in verse four between he will decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth...pause. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. I mean, that small space in your Bible is actually where all of us live. It's wonderful sometimes when we see that when Isaiah the prophet was looking forward in chapter 11 to the first arrival of Jesus, he didn't see the large period of time in between the first and second coming, called the Church Age. You have to turn it sideways to see it. He just saw it coming at him like this. And so he could write all of this all the way down to verse ten or verse nine, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. And in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, and his resting place will be glorious. Isaiah sees it all at once, but we now are in between. And you say, where are we in between? You could just draw a little arrow in verse four where it says, he'll decide with fairness for the afflicted of the Earth...arrow, Church. He'll strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. His return. That's where you live, Christian. When we think we're like my significance, where I. Where I land, I'm just that little white spot in my Bible.  It's all about Christ.  It's all about what He came the first time to accomplish in salvation and what he's going to accomplish the second time in judgment. And in the second time we see corresponding with our text today, he does it all with the rod of his mouth, with the breath of his lips. The wicked, including Antichrist, are slain. Corresponding to revelation four times it's mentioned the imagery of Jesus Christ in his second coming with a sword in his mouth, not one in his hand. He doesn't need it. Sorry if you've been jazzed up by like crazy renditions of the apocalypse, and Christians are standing behind him with our swords...He doesn't need us. This is how he takes care of all the wickedness and unrighteousness in the future. Revelation 1:16, In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp, two edged sword. Revelation 2:16 Jesus says, repent, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against the wicked with the sword of my mouth. Revelation 19:15. From his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. Revelation 19:21, and the rest were killed, the wicked, that is, with the sword which came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. That's your future, secure in Christ, delivered from the judgment that he himself will carryout simply by speaking. That's all the effort it takes for Jesus to win. That's it. I know, strange movies about the end times have been made with fanciful imaginations, and here we just get in one verse how swiftly the Savior wins, because the Antichristhas been in his target all along.
  Moving on from there to verses nine and ten. Paul moves from talking about the timetable of God's for the Antichrist, the target that the Antichrist is in to verses nine and ten...why this all is happening is because Antichrist is serving a purpose not of the Lord Jesus Christ as master, but Satan. He's against God's truth. That's the focus of nine and ten. And that's really the heart of this section is the Antichrist is coming, verse 9, in accord with the activity of Satan. What's the activity of Satan? Well, the main activity of Satan has been the same thing from when God pronounced judgment on the serpent in Genesis chapter 3. You struck at the heel. But that's one day going to strike you. That heel is going to stomp you down. And so Satan has been numbered, and Satan working through antichrists right from the beginning, all the way through those who's coming always is in accord with the activity of Satan. We have to remember when we talk about the activity of Satan, the limitations he has. He is, as Peter writes, like a prowling lion looking for someone to devour. But he's not omniscient. He's not omnipotent. He can't see the beginning from the end. He knows his end is sure. He's known his end is sure since God pronounced his judgment back in the garden. And so from that moment on, he's been working. It's not like he's waiting and trying to pick the best possible candidate for Antichrist. You know, they come before him and they audition.  No, whoever he can get and fill with wickedness in the heart and wicked plans of the mind he'll use. So first up on the list was. Who?...Cain. There's your first Antichrist. Why? What was he about to do? He was out to destroy. He was out to kill. Took his own brother's life. Why? Because Satan knew enough about the judgment pronounced in him in Genesis three, that it was through the seed of the woman that I'm going to be destroyed. Well, then I can just destroy the seed of the woman. So he tries by turning Cain against his own brother. And every time we see and it could be an individual case like that, or the crazy psychos who have tried to take over the world since then. Every time, at the behest of Satan, demon possessed, trying to kill, steal and destroy, trying to take people away from the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ by whatever means necessary. So yes, there is something to watch out for with him. I mean, he's been studying mankind since that very first day, and he's working in ways in Ephesians 6 to tell us strategies, principalities, arrangement, warlike in its structure. So he's good, but he's not God, and he's limited. Andso he can try all he can to fool people. Look at the end of verse nine. He'll do it with power because he has some power. And this power enables someone like the Antichrist to deceive with signs and wonders, to promote the false teaching, to keep people away from trusting in God. The activity of Satan with all power and signs and false wonders...it's not to say that the wonders and signs aren't real. It's that they point to error. It's they point to a lie. The NIV actually captures the best translation of verse nine. It says, he will use all sorts of displays of power. This is speaking of anti-Christ...through signs and wonders that serve the lie. Let me read that verse again. It's in the NIV, which I think shows that don't get hung up on like is it a false sign or a false wonder? No, it might be a real miracle. It might be a real evidence, something that he can conjure up through the limited but yet plausible power of Satan to deceive people with a false message, to pull them away from Christ. So he will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders to serve the lie. That's the danger of antichrists. That's the danger of false teachers who are led by the limited but persuasive power of the devil. They can do signs and wonders to serve the lies of Satan. He's not saying that these signs and wonders are like magician's tricks, but that signs and wonders promote false teaching and Antichrist spirit since the beginning till now. Think of the time of Moses, when Moses was sent to tell the people of Israel to follow him out into the wilderness. He was telling Pharaoh, a pagan man, let my people go. And God gave Moses limited power to do some signs and wonders. And so he could throw a stick down, turn into a serpent. He can make some frogs come. He could turn the blood or the water of the Nile into blood. But do you remember that Pharaoh's sorcerers were able to do the same things? It says that in Exodus 7:11,22 and 8:7, they were demon possessed wizards able to replicate. You know, what's really interesting about that is they weren't able to use their limited powers to reverse what God gave the power of Moses to do. As if to give the idea that they had more power than God. So Moses could throw his stick down, turn it into a serpent, and they could do the same, and they could turn the water into blood. And they were able to do the same, but they weren't able to undo what Moses was doing. Why? Because they didn't have more power. God was using that perhaps to sift out and say, hey, look, there might be some power here in Egypt. You really have to look and decide what's the message behind the signs and wonders. That's what it always comes down to. The message that Moses was bringing is Israel you need delivered. You are oppressed here. Come with me by faith into the wilderness. What was Pharaoh's message? No. You must stay. Trust me, it'sbetter here. Well, what's the message of the Antichrist going tobe in the future? Go with God? Put your faith in him? When times get bad, he'll bring you out of it. No, it's. Trust me. Look at my power. Look at my ability. Look what I can do on the stage of the world to lead people to what?...find happiness, joy, fulfillment away from God, Antichrist, away from truth, and all the ways in which Jesus came the first time doing signs and wonders. They rejected and crucified him as a blasphemer. In all the ways Antichrist will come and do signs and wonders with satanic lies, the world is going to do what? Rather than reject him and call him a blasphemer, they will accept him and call him God. It's not a great look for humanity, is it? When you think about getting the wrong guy. But that's the craft of Satan. That's how good he is. That the first time the Son of God comes, the real Messiah. Mankind sees the signs and wonders and Jesus knew what was in the heart of man. That's why it says in John two, right out of the gates. He does the miracle at the wedding turns water into wine. They see the sign, he manifests his glory. But by the end of chapter two, it says because of signs they were believing in him, but he wasn't believing in them. John 4:48 he says later on to the watching public, unless you too see signs, you will not believe. He knows how easily people are fooled with their eyes, which is the same for us today. Look around at churches today that talk the most about signs and wonders. Want to put out the most impressive displays for the world to watch. But this is the discernment you believers need. If whatever it is you're seeing doesn't match up with what that preacher is saying, Verse ten...a love of the truth. If sound doctrine and a clear gospel, not tainted with prosperity, not tainted with you can by your own speaking words manifest some power of God...word of faith. No matter what you see with your eyes. How big the church gets, how powerful it seems. You throw it out. That's what discernment does. Because you can say the message isn't backing up the magic...if you want to call it that. That's spiritual discernment. You have no time for it. It's rubbish. So who cares the size of that church? How many people in the movement, how many people they claim are coming to Christ because of the signs and wonders and miracles they're doing? You judge it by the test of truth. It's exactly what's there in verse ten. Why are these people perishing? They're being deceived by the wickedness of this Antichrist, faking them out because they don't receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. It always comes back to the truth and not just an intellectual agree or disagree. You see, sometimes we make it as if unbelief is just a matter of yes or no, right or wrong. But verse ten teaches us that belief is about a matter of the heart. Do you love the truth, or are you just getting caught up in the superficiality of it? Is it in your heart to love the God who first loved you by sending His Son to die for you, apart from any work of your own? The antichrist is against God's truth. I pointed out the similarities between the two and the powers and signs and wonders. But remember the difference between the real Messiah and the false Messiah. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The anti-Christ is the son of the devil. Jesus Christ is the way of truth that came down from heaven. Antichrist is from the father of lies up from hell. Jesus Christ was empowered his entire life and ministry by the Holy Spirit. The Antichrist will be empowered by the most unholy spirit, Satan. Jesus Christ was the perfect man of righteousness. Antichrist is the imperfect man of lawlessness. 1 Timothy 3:16 says, Jesus is the mystery of godliness. Antichrist is the mystery of lawlessness. Galatians 4:4 says that in the fullness of time God sent His Son to save the world. Satan has been working in all time to send an Antichrist to destroy the world. So how important is it for you to be able to discern between the two? Eternal life hangs in the balance. To know the truth. To hear the voice of Christ. And respond to the voice of the shepherd, not to a false shepherd. All the works of Antichrist will serve Satan's aim to keep people deceived and missing the message of heaven so that they perish in hell.
  Last Paul wraps up in 11 and 12 is to say with somebody that is that against God's truth and in his target and his timeline is on. Clearly he's operating by his own prerogative. And no, 11 and 12 remind us that the Antichrist is being used as God's tool. Verse 11 and 12, Paul wraps up here stating a very grave consequence for those who openly reject Christ and willingly follow the lies of Antichrist, they will finally be given over to their unbelief. That's what verse 11 is about. Somebody that doesn't have the discernment to see between the two, to not get caught up on the power and signs and wonders of a false gospel.Verse 11 God will send on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false. What is Paul saying there? He's saying that God is using Antichrist as his own tool. He can use error as a tool, a tool to teach sinners who continue to reject the saving gospel, refuse to love Christ, but rather love their sin, who won't believe the truth but continue to accept lies follow a path to their own destruction. It's the path painted out very clearly in Romans chapter one. What Paul says in small part here in verse 11 about this deluding influence. He says in larger part in Romans chapter one, starting in verse 18, going all the way down to 32. It's an expansion of that simple truth there. What is it that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Those who have the clear sign, the clear message with that, to believe in Jesus Christ, to honor God, to give thanks to him. Verse 21. But instead this is the path that sinners take to their own destruction that God gives them over to. They exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man. Just like we learned about an Antichrist, a person that's so full of himself puts himself on the throne and calls himself God. What is an unbeliever doing other than that every day of their life, an unbeliever who could sit under the teaching of the gospel and be told you need to be saved. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and knows oh, I trust in myself. It's an exchange happening all the time. But see what's happening. Verse 24, is God is giving over into the lust of their hearts to impurity. Exchanging the truth of God for a lie, that my life without Christ is better than with him. There's no passive rejection of truth without the active embrace of a lie. Do you know that? You don't just passively reject the offer of the gospel. It's a command. Repent and believe. And when you reject that offer of the gospel, what you're actively choosing is to live in the lie that your life is better without God. That you can make your own way without Christ. That you could be your own savior.That you have enough righteousness. And with every day that you believe that lie, you can be hardening your own heart, as it says in Romans 1:28. When you don't see fit to acknowledge God, you're given over to a depraved mind. And so what you think and how you act now become inseparably linked. So what Paul is saying in small part here is something that we need to be aware of today, that every time you sit under the teaching of the truth, but are persistent in your refusal to look to God, can lead to a permanent inability to see him at all one day, being given over in your unbelief. Because sin doesn't just want you to reject a statement of true or false, it wants to harden your heart. It wants to work on your desires. It wants to work on your will. That's back to verse ten. It wants to keep you from having a love for the truth so as to be saved. Sin wants you to be in verse 12 to not believe the truth, but continue to take more pleasure in wickedness. So I say to you who are not in Christ this morning, an unbeliever. You may think that just because you've probably heard me do this dozens of times if you've been here. Hey, look, Adam stands up there every week and tells me to come to Christ, and I'm still here. It could actually produce a hardening in your heart. A mockery like we read about in 2 Peter. Oh, yeah. The Lord's coming back. Sure. How long is that? When's that going to be? I mean, you could be getting hardened in your own seat in a church saying, oh, yeah, another Sunday has come and gone, and I'm still here. Just put another, you know, notch in your notes. Here comes another Sunday where I've waited, I got more time. I can live in my sin longer. But what you don't realize sin is doing is it's doing a hardening. It's giving you over, giving your heart over to your unbelief. But yet the offer of the gospel comes again today, where Christ offers you himself, offers you to be saved. And in that there's this softening, not a hardening. And the softening comes out of a love for the truth. And what is that truth?...that God sent his son to die in my place. There's nothing that could soften you more than the simplicity of the gospel that I, the sinner, deserve to perish. I, the sinner, deserve God's wrath. And this holy God sends his holy Son to suffer in my place, to be rejected, to be reviled, to be crucified on a cross. But he rises again three days later, and he gives hope to all who would die, put their faith in him...die to self...will be raised with him on the last day. Life eternal, forgiven sin offered to you right now on the person of Jesus Christ.
  We're going to move to a time of communion after I pray right now, but I want to offer that warning to any here today before I pray that if you're under the burden of sin, guilt, apathy, or anger to God, don't turn the Lord's table into a time of judgment on you because you've been rejecting him, but turned it into a time of grace.  Because this morning you asked the Lord to save you.You cry out to him for mercy, and he gives you new life in himself. And you could celebrate his body and his blood broken and poured out for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Let's pray.

  Father, we thank you this morning for your grace and kindness in Christ. And we see no better picture of it then in remembering in communion today, remembering that you offered yourself. It wasn't some other sacrifice that couldn't permanently take away our sin. You offered yourself in our place. Your blood, as we sang earlier, was poured out as a pleasing sacrifice to you, Father. You accepted it so that we could know today, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our sins are forgiven. And there's some in here today that don't know that. They need to respond to your call to come to you, that you stand at the door and knock, and any that hear your voice and open the door, you'll come in to dine with them. Therefore they need to be zealous and repent, and only you can grant that repentance to them. Today we ask you to do it. Help us now as your children, your sons and daughters who have invited you in. You do sit at the meal with us to take and eat, because you are the bread from heaven. You're the water of life. You're everything we need. We abide in you. Amen.