The Big Lie (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

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May 29, 2022

Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org The Big Lie

00:24: that music there was just a juke to get people to come in we're not actually starting singing yet all right
01:03: I'm gonna do the announcements if I could have your attention the announcements does anybody know the date of our big day here at cornerstone
01:12: June 12th okay June 12th some big things happening the biggest of them is baptism baptism is very important because that's how we proclaim our identification with Christ in his death burial and resurrection so we have a number of people getting baptized on June 12th we will do that out here on the field but we're gonna take advantage of that after Second Service also to have a picnic so you'll want to stick around enjoy the picnic we may even have some great things for the kids out there on June 12th we also have
01:51: Hamilton how many of you guys know Hamilton he's come quite a bit he's from Malawi and at the end of the month he's going back to Malawi to open a
02:01: Christian orphanage James one tells us that this is true religion to look after orphans and widows in their distress so we want to be a part of opening a
02:12: Christian orphanage in Malawi so on June 12th Hamilton will tell about that ministry also on June 12th we're taking a special offering it's a one -time gift towards the building fund because we have we are purchasing land just five minutes away from here and once we have the income in order to put a building up there that's our intent to do that so if anybody wants to make a special contribution on June 12th toward the capital fund pray about doing that and then lastly on June 12th we also have a movie here after the prayer meeting at 7 p .m.
02:48: so if anybody wants to come early and go to first service you could be here from 9 in the morning until 9 at night just go from the baptism to the picnic to the prayer meeting to the movie or maybe you'll want to pick and choose and come do what part you feel like we didn't just try to put everything on one day it's just that next week we're having communion and we wanted to take time to celebrate the
03:09: Lord's Supper and the week after that we have graduations and Father's Day I mean the week after June 12th so we had to we had to put it all in a lot of things happening so praise the
03:20: Lord let's go to the Lord in prayer father thank you so much for all that you're doing here at Cornerstone Church we want to thank you for the 11 people who are even as we speak meeting with Rob to learn about baptism and plan to be baptized we pray
03:41: Lord that their proclamation of faith in you would be a testimony to their family and friends and that we would all witness and agree that Jesus died and was buried and rose from the dead
03:52: Lord we thank you for the opportunity now to come into this place and sing worship to your name you desire worshippers to worship you in spirit and in truth so we pray that your
04:06: Holy Spirit would come and fill us as we sing that you would give us the joy of the Lord and that we would sing in truth that we would not withhold any areas of our lives from you but that we would bring the best of our lives if our whole attention and everything we are to sing praise to your name because you are worthy for the preaching of the word that your word would transform us to be lovers of truth thank you for this opportunity to gather in your name and we pray these things in Jesus name amen let's stand and sing
05:22: Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Lord we come before you
08:30: You are the Holy God There's nothing we can do that allows us to stand before your holiness but your son dying on the cross you are holy
08:43: Lord you are worthy of our praise let's sing together and make a joyful noise to all the earth you are holy you are holy you are mighty you are worthy worthy of praise
09:12: I will follow you I will praise you
09:20: I will love you all of my days
09:30: I will take you to the world but keep these words in I will love and adore you
09:44: I will follow and adore you I will love and adore you
09:56: I will love and adore you I will follow and adore you for my days of peace
10:08: I will live my life for you you are holy
10:16: Lord you are holy you are mighty you are worthy worthy of praise
10:36: I will follow you I will praise you
10:44: I will love you all of my days
10:53: I will take you and worship but keep these words in I will love and adore you
11:06: I will love and adore you I will take you and worship but keep these words in I will love and adore you
11:23: I will love and adore you for my days of peace
11:30: I will live my life for you for my days of peace and I will live my life for you
11:44: Amen Amen Praise the Lord His holiness is like no other
11:54: Amen There is no reason that we stand here before Him Sometimes we lose sight of how
12:03: He is, right? There are times that other people on this earth are looked to as holy close to how
12:17: God is holy He's a just God a merciful God a gracious God Let's sing to Him and only to Him because He is holy
12:31: Holy, holy, holy
12:39: Lord God In our songs shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy
13:04: Merciful and mighty
13:11: God in three persons
13:18: Blessed Trinity Holy, holy, holy
13:31: All the saints adorning
13:38: Casting down their golden crowns
13:45: Around the glassy sea
13:52: Cherubim and seraphim
13:59: Falling down before Thee Whichward and on death
14:12: Ever more shall we Holy, holy, holy
14:26: Though the darkness hide
14:32: Thee Though the eye of sinful man
14:40: Thy glory may not see
14:47: Holy Thou art, holy
14:54: There is none beside Thee Perfect in quality
15:13: Holy, holy, holy
15:20: All Thy works shall praise
15:31: Thy name In earth and sky and sea
15:40: Holy, holy, holy Merciful and mighty
15:53: God in three persons
16:00: Blessed Trinity God in three persons
16:16: Blessed Trinity Let's pray
16:37: Father, Your word says in Ephesians 5, 16 Making the best use of the time
16:44: Because the days are evil Lord, we look out at the world
16:50: In which we live With two mass shootings recently And we see that the days are evil
16:59: Lord, help us now to make the best use of the time That this Sunday hour would be spent in Your word
17:07: That Your word would lead us into all truth We pray that You would strengthen our resolve
17:16: For truth And give us courage to speak truth In a godless culture
17:25: Relieve us of our fear of man And give us boldness to tell the truth
17:32: In Jesus' name we pray, amen Some of you might have seen Steve Kerr The coach of the
17:40: Golden State Warriors Pound the table and blame Mitch McConnell and guns
17:46: For what happened Last week with the mass shooting I'm here to tell you that guns are not the problem
17:57: It is hearts without God And homes without discipline
18:07: Hearts without God Many people believe lies In fact, our culture for the last 60 years
18:14: Has been exchanging the truth of God for lies The Bible is mocked as mere myths and man -made traditions
18:26: Creation of the world in six days Is considered unscientific
18:33: Darwinian evolution is taught in its place That we evolve from some primordial soup
18:40: And that whatever organism came from that soup Eventually became a monkey And a monkey became a man
18:47: And if that were the case, then There would be no morals There would be no basis of right and wrong
18:54: There would be no purpose Because there would be no God This culture also teaches sexual expressiveness
19:04: And children are steeped in pornography Often before the time they reach puberty Resulting in a debased mind
19:13: Minds that can no longer think rationally and logically Let alone morally And the debased mind is fueled by godless lies
19:22: Such as the irrational thought That a boy could actually be a girl
19:28: Trapped in a boy's body And these things are pushed upon the culture
19:33: And those who would deny such lies Are treated as if we're haters
19:39: Or some other way irrational When in fact the lies are obvious on their face
19:46: And they are the reason for the things that we're seeing Consider what the
19:53: Lord says about lying Proverbs 6, 16 -19 There are six things the
20:00: Lord hates Seven that are an abomination to him Now, the six corrected by seven
20:05: Is actually a Hebrew poetic method Of stressing how important this is
20:12: It's a poetic thing And so he lists seven things And notice that two of them have to do with lying
20:18: The first is pride Haughty eyes A lying tongue Hands that shed innocent blood
20:26: A heart that devises wicked plans Feet that make haste to run to evil
20:32: A false witness who breathes out lies And one who sows discord among brothers
20:40: Proverbs 6 says it's an abomination And the Lord hates it when people lie A lying tongue or a false witness
20:47: Against somebody else Breathing out lies John 8, verse 44
20:54: Jesus speaking to the Pharisees says of them You are of your father the devil
21:02: And your will is to do your father's desires He was a murderer from the beginning
21:08: And does not stand in the truth Because there is no truth in him
21:15: When he lies He speaks out of his own character Or another translation
21:20: He speaks his native language His language is lies
21:25: For he is a liar And the father of lies Jesus says in Matthew 15, 19
21:33: Out of the heart come evil thoughts Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft
21:39: False witness, slander There's no wonder that murder
21:45: And all kinds of lawlessness Come about in a culture that has rejected The truth of God's word
21:51: I have a friend who's actually spoken In this pulpit a couple of times When we had apologetics conferences
21:58: His name is David David Wood When he was young He believed the lies of the culture
22:06: That we're just evolved space dust And therefore purposeless And there's no
22:12: God Who will one day hold the sinner accountable There's just nothingness after this life
22:19: So there's nothing to fear With murder And so Carrying that godless world view
22:28: He attempted murder Of his own father Running from the police
22:34: They eventually caught him and imprisoned him But in that cell After many days of reading the scriptures
22:42: The Lord gloriously saved him Washed him clean Forgave him
22:48: And gave him the new birth And the Holy Spirit of the Living God And David Wood has become
22:54: One of the great defenders of truth One of the great truth warriors
23:00: In the world today He has done as much as probably any other
23:05: In exposing the lies of Muhammad The false prophet David Wood has led hundreds of thousands of people
23:15: I think to leave Islam Through the videos that he puts online He's a truth warrior
23:22: But first of all he was saved By meeting the one who is the way The truth and the life
23:28: No one comes to the father but by him So one factor that explains
23:33: The depravity of our culture Is a lying spirit Believing the lie
23:39: The second thing that I mentioned Is the home without a father
23:48: Fatherless homes You think of the atrocity that happened And we won't mention the name of the person who did it
23:57: In Uvalde, Texas Did you know That for the last two years
24:04: The perpetrator's father Has been out of the home And has refused to see his boy
24:13: Because the father is so scared of COVID He was afraid
24:20: Of contracting COVID and passing that on to his mother And so he rejected his own son
24:25: And a month ago his son stopped talking to him Because of these COVID precautions And you think of Steve Kerr pounding the desk
24:33: While wearing a mask on his face Only to pull it down to yell at his players
24:39: And put it back up It's nothing but a virtue signal To further and propagate lies
24:49: What that boy needed was a father What that boy needed was discipline in the home As he went the way of the earth
24:56: But there was no father in the home And there was no discipline And things went out of control
25:06: What you are seeing And what I'm seeing in the culture today Is the restrainer of 2
25:14: Thessalonians 2 Beginning to lift his hand of restraint
25:21: Judgment falling upon a nation This is a nation that since 1973
25:27: Has been murdering millions of babies in the womb Every year And yet those lives are not put on the news
25:36: They're counted as worthless and expendable And God is angry
25:42: There is wrath in heaven against this godlessness And at times like what happened in Uvalde God lifts his hand of restraint
25:51: To allow the world to see The trajectory and where it ends
25:57: But where does it end? It ends in the worship of Antichrist Which we'll go to in a minute
26:03: But a few more things about lies Have you heard the expression the big lie?
26:11: The big lie is often used to refer to voter fraud And to say that anyone who makes the claim of voter fraud
26:17: In the 2020 election Is a big liar But where did the term the big lie come from?
26:26: It came from Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler Blaming the loss in World War 2
26:33: Not upon German aggression But upon the Jews Began to use the term the big lie
26:42: And nowadays Many others are using the term the big lie For anyone who exposes voter fraud
26:49: I watched a movie this week called 2000 mules Anybody seen it? In 2000 mules there's documentation
26:56: Of 2000 people Who went collecting ballots And stuffing them into these ballot boxes
27:04: One person that they video Doing so Visited 20 boxes
27:12: More than 53 times There in Philadelphia Imagine the number of ballots that were stuffed
27:18: There's video evidence of this This happened
27:24: But the response of the media The response of the ruling governing officials
27:30: Is not to go interview that man And say what were you doing at the ballot box 53 times
27:36: The response instead Is to label that movie And any other claims
27:43: As the big lie Proverbs 18 17 says
27:49: One man seems right Until another comes to examine him And lovers of truth Those who agape alatheon
27:56: They love truth Are willing to examine claims To get to the bottom of a matter
28:03: To go and investigate But in a culture that has rejected truth
28:08: There is no such thing Equal weights and equal measures Of the book of Proverbs Rather there is simply
28:15: The knee jerk reaction to cancel Anyone who disagrees With the narrative
28:22: This is symptomatic Of a rejection of truth And this is the culture in which we live
28:33: The rise of post modernism Where each person has their own truth Explains What we're seeing
28:43: In a culture that's falling apart Truth is the issue
28:50: Truth matters So we've talked about Hitler's big lie
28:56: And the so called big lie of voter fraud But what is The biggest lie
29:06: The big lie Is the exchange of worshiping The true God To worship idols
29:13: And that will culminate In the worship of the antichrist Turn with me
29:19: To 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 And today we're going to study verses 9 -12
29:25: We're going to finally finish this section On eschatology In times And move on as the text moves on But we have four more verses
29:34: Before we can do that Verses 9 -12 Before I read it
29:43: Let's remind ourselves of the context So everybody turn to 2 Thessalonians 2 I want to begin at the beginning of the chapter
29:51: Where the author Paul Sets up the discussion of End times Of the parousia, the coming of Christ And the rapture
29:59: The being gathered together When reading verses 1 and 2
30:06: Many people assume That the day of the Lord In verse 2
30:12: Is parallel to The parousia When Christ Puts his foot
30:19: On the Mount of Olives Because it almost reads that way As you read it
30:24: Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And our being gathered together to him We ask you brothers
30:31: Not to be quickly shaken in mind Or alarmed Either by a spirit Or a spoken word
30:36: Or a letter seeming to be from us To the effect That the day of the
30:42: Lord Has come It almost sounds like The day of the
30:47: Lord Is when Christ returns And puts his foot On the Mount of Olives But we need to set a better context
30:58: To fully grasp what's happening here In verse 1 He's addressing in time's issues
31:03: And setting as a category Concerning The return of Christ The second coming of Christ and the rapture
31:10: And his point in this section Is to clear up some misunderstandings To do that he will then
31:17: Remind them of what he said Earlier in 1 Thessalonians And what is said
31:23: In the broader Expanding kind of concentric circle Of all that's been taught
31:28: Before in the Bible So let me remind you of some context here The day of the
31:34: Lord Is a very specific category It's something that is Spoken of clearly
31:40: In the Old Testament and the New In the book of Isaiah the 13th chapter
31:46: Zechariah 1, Amos Many times The day of the
31:51: Lord is spoken of As a day or a period of wrath Unlike anything
31:57: That the world has ever seen Now it appears that justice Is not done on earth
32:02: Wicked things happen and God doesn't Seem to punish evil But the day of the
32:08: Lord Is a day of wrath It's a day of judgment That's what the prophet spoke of Jesus spoke of it
32:16: In Matthew 24 and he says Of this day, this period There's not been anything like it
32:22: Nor will there ever be It's drastically Different, it's a day of wrath
32:28: In Revelation chapter 6 Verse 17 We are told explicitly
32:33: That the day of the Lord Refers to these judgments That we read about in the book of Revelation The breaking of the seals in heaven
32:43: The blowing of the trumpets The pouring out of bowls of wrath Are the day of His wrath
32:51: And this is how Paul used The terminology in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 1 verse 10
32:58: When he says we will be rescued From his wrath Then he says in 1
33:04: Thessalonians Chapter 4 verse 17 We will be caught up to meet the Lord Not in Jerusalem but in the air
33:12: Unless they get confused about the timing Of how this all fits together In chapter 5 verse 2 of 1
33:19: Thessalonians We're told that the day of the Lord Will be like What?
33:25: A thief in the night Everything will seem good and you know It's just groovy, everything's good And then all of a sudden, boom
33:33: The day of the Lord will come Now 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 9 Says that the church, 5, 8, 9
33:39: That we will be raptured We will be rescued Because we will not
33:45: Endure this wrath You get that? The church is not destined for wrath
33:52: So then when you Come to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 Verses 1 and 2 It almost sounds like The day of the
34:00: Lord Is the second coming, the parousia When he puts his foot in Jerusalem Because that's how the verse began
34:06: In chapter 1 But I want you to think of it like this There's the category of the second coming
34:13: And then he specifically addresses The day of the Lord In context
34:19: Of 2 Thessalonians What is the day of the Lord?
34:26: The day of the Lord Is a period of affliction Of persecution Of suffering
34:32: And so the whole first chapter Of 2 Thessalonians Is about Afflictions and persecutions
34:42: And sufferings So what is the teaching In verse 2 That has them tripped up?
34:50: Someone has come along By a spirit claiming to be Ecstatically carried away
34:55: By the spirit And they speak a spoken word And there's even a letter written
35:01: From one of these false apostles To the effect that the day of the Lord Has come
35:09: Consider the context There They're losing their jobs Some of them have been martyred
35:17: They're being persecuted Everything seems to be falling apart And some prophet comes and says
35:23: That's because You're in the day of the Lord And Paul will go on to say
35:29: In verse 3 Do not let them deceive you It's not the case Three things have to happen before the day of the
35:36: Lord Which have not happened yet The apostasy The antichrist The abomination of desolation
35:42: And God is restraining This day of the Lord He's still got the restraint Until the restrainer is taken out of the way
35:49: What strange language Out of the way And that is when the
35:55: Holy Spirit Takes his church Takes the church of Christ To be with him in heaven Now some are still doubting that But I want you to consider the alternative
36:06: Because the alternative Makes absolutely no sense Look at verse 2
36:17: Don't be quickly shaken or alarmed Either by a spirit Or a spoken word or a letter
36:22: Seeming to come from us To the effect that the day of the Lord Has come
36:30: If I'm right in this case If I'm handling the text right Then they're understanding the day of the
36:37: Lord As a period of suffering The seven years The day of his
36:43: Affliction of the earth But if the alternative Is true then what's the day of the
36:49: Lord It's when Christ puts his foot On the Mount of Olives And slays the wicked
36:58: Which makes absolutely no sense Because they're still living in Thessalonica If they thought that Christ Was in Jerusalem What would they do
37:08: They'd just go to Jerusalem If the parousia Has already happened Then Christ has already split that mountain
37:16: And he's setting up his millennial kingdom If they believe That the day of the Lord is the parousia
37:23: Then there's no problem here Go to Jerusalem Make sense And so clearly from the context
37:30: When you read 2 Thessalonians 1 And you move into 2 Thessalonians 2 The lie is believable to them
37:36: Because they're suffering They're being afflicted, they're being persecuted Some of them killed They're answering that and saying
37:43: We're living through the day of the Lord And Paul says don't be deceived It hasn't started yet There's no apostasy, there's no antichrist
37:52: There's no abomination The restrainer is still keeping things at bay Okay Until he's out of the way
37:59: That's the context, so we return in verses 9 to 12 I needed to set that up Because we're back to the coming of the lawless one
38:06: Yet future Which means the day of the Lord is yet future It all fits
38:12: Verses 9 to 12 The coming
38:18: Of the lawless one Is by the activity of Satan With all power
38:28: And false signs And wonders And with all wicked deception
38:34: For those who are perishing Because they refuse to love the truth And so be saved
38:42: Therefore God sends them A strong delusion So that they may believe what is false
38:50: In order that all may be condemned Who do not believe the truth
38:56: But had pleasure In unrighteousness The big idea here
39:04: Is that there is a big lie The big lie of the antichrist
39:10: Sets him up to be worshipped Exchanging the worship of King Jesus for an
39:16: Anti -king A false, a pseudo -king Exchanging the glory of God For a lie
39:26: This we see, let's break down verses 9 to 12 To really understand How and when this takes place
39:34: Not like a thief in the night But with a discernible sign Three and a half years into the tribulation
39:41: There is what's called The abomination of desolation Jesus spoke about it
39:48: And he referenced Daniel Matthew 24
39:54: Verses 15 and following Daniel had foretold
40:00: That there would be a final Week, Daniel 9 24 to 27
40:05: And the lawless one would Make a peace treaty for that final week And halfway through the peace treaty
40:13: He would set up the abomination of desolation Now When you're reading Matthew chapter 24
40:18: Maybe you notice that there's a repetition of things You have false Christs appearing
40:24: And false prophets And then after the abomination There are these false
40:29: Christs and false prophets Again But what's different about The great day of his wrath, the last three and a half years
40:36: And what we saw Leading into the day of the Lord The difference is
40:44: In Matthew 24 24 The false Christ and false prophets
40:50: Are able to do astonishing Supernatural False Signs and wonders
40:58: Isn't that interesting? Jesus foretold
41:04: That in Matthew 24 24 Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2 9
41:11: Is saying that this is going to happen During the great day of his wrath After the abomination of desolation
41:18: Wouldn't you like to know What are these signs going to be? Well great news
41:25: John in the apocalypse Actually saw some of those things You want to read it? It's kind of crazy
41:33: Revelation chapter 13 Aren't you glad we're not going to have to Live through this?
41:43: Revelation 13 Verses 13 to 15 Says Of these false signs
41:51: Miraculous In a negative sense Revelation 13
41:58: Before I read it You need to understand this God has always been Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit The devil is the father of lies
42:06: And he sets up an antichrist To mimic Jesus And a false prophet
42:11: To mimic the Holy Spirit So the devil has for himself This unholy trinity
42:17: The devil The antichrist and the beast Spirit The false prophet
42:23: So look what they do Revelation 13 Verses 13 to 15
42:31: It performs Great signs Even making fire
42:36: Come down from heaven to earth In front of people And by the signs
42:42: That it is allowed to work In the presence of the beast It deceives those
42:48: Who dwell on earth Telling them to make An image for the beast
42:54: That was wounded by the sword And yet lived And it was allowed to give
43:00: Breath to the image of the beast So that the image of the beast Might even speak
43:06: And might cause those who would not Worship the image of the beast To be slain
43:13: Even back in the days of Daniel When they were in exile The wicked king set up an idol of himself
43:19: And he commanded all people To bow down Imagine the cultural pressure To bow down to that image
43:28: With everybody else bowed There stood Shadrach, Meshach And Abednego Hananiah Misael, Azariah In a different order
43:39: Because that was their true Hebrew names Not the gods that the nations Renamed them by And these men of God Stood boldly
43:48: Before that statue Refused to bow down And they were thrown into the fire because of it But God rescued them
43:54: Think of that courage How much more courage will it take If that statue all of a sudden
44:00: Can speak And call down fire from heaven
44:06: Not just a man -made fire Supernatural signs
44:11: As you read the book of Revelation The first three and a half years Are very ordinary
44:17: Even though they're devastating Jesus breaks the seals In heaven
44:22: And the four horsemen of the apocalypse Ride out on earth But that looks like on earth
44:28: War and famine and pestilence And then an earthquake and martyrdom After the abomination of desolation
44:37: In the second three and a half years Of the tribulation Things get really weird
44:44: Really supernatural And by false signs and wonders The nations are all in With the antichrist
44:52: They've taken the mark of the beast And if you don't
44:58: You can't eat There are demon locusts coming out of the pit
45:04: To sting people And torment them for a period of time Things have gotten drastically supernatural
45:10: In the last three and a half years Of the day of the Lord That is what Paul is talking about In 2
45:16: Thessalonians 2 That final period Of God Has taken his restraint away
45:24: And demonic evil Is cut loose in the world Guys, we saw a glimpse
45:30: Of demonic evil Last week That's what the whole world would look like Without the restrainer
45:39: Holding back The forces of the kingdom of darkness Did you know that? So then look at verse 10
45:47: And with all wicked deception For those who are perishing This is a truth war
45:56: There is a deception afoot In the land It's backed by now in the end times
46:02: These false signs and wonders But why? What's the nature of the war?
46:07: It says in verse 10 Because They refused to love The truth
46:13: And so be saved They refused to love the truth
46:20: And so be saved Love is agape Truth is aletheon
46:27: They refused To love truth Church, how much do you love
46:33: The truth? A Christian is one who's come into the light
46:39: And the light makes everything Invisible A Christian loves the truth
46:46: That means we cannot Keep pockets of our lives Hidden in darkness The one who's entertaining
46:53: A habit of looking at Pornography And lying about it
46:59: This darkness Is hatred for truth The Christian must come into the light
47:05: And the light makes everything Beautiful Invisible I want to show you something in Romans 1
47:14: That explains our culture a little bit better Look at Romans 1 18 to 23
47:20: There are really only Two kinds of people in the world
47:27: Those who love the truth And those who suppress it The dividing line
47:33: In the world is between those Who submit to God's truth And love the truth even
47:39: Not just give a nod and a wink And a tip of the hat to the truth But love truth
47:46: And those who suppress truth In order to please themselves And worship idols Now the scary thing that we're going
47:54: To see is that suppression Of truth in this direction Can get to a point
48:00: Where God gives a person Over To believe their own lies
48:07: That's where our Culture is going Actually believing Blatant lies
48:12: Let's look at Romans 1 18 to 23 For the wrath of God Is revealed from heaven
48:19: Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness Of men Who by their unrighteousness
48:26: What? Suppress the truth We're in a truth war
48:33: For what can be known about God Is plain to them Because God has shown it to them
48:40: For his invisible attributes Namely his eternal power and divine nature Have been clearly perceived
48:46: Ever since the creation Of the world In the things that have been made
48:53: So there without excuse Pause there for a second
48:58: We were having a conversation with somebody Last night And this person was not a believer in the scripture
49:03: And we were telling about our world view How God created everything And we believe he did that in six days
49:09: He made man and put him in the garden of Eden And this person Was indignant And said, wanting nothing to do with that Said I believe in science
49:20: Science Science was her idol But you know
49:27: It's blatantly unscientific To believe in a ball of mass and energy That came from nowhere
49:32: Without a God And to believe that this ball Exploded in the big bang
49:38: And from this Lifelessness gave birth to life Where does life come from Without God And to believe in the ordering
49:48: Of things from meaninglessness And just The chaos of the universe
49:54: Into the design Of the human eyeball Where the baby in the womb
50:00: Has optic nerves From the different parts of the eye To reach the brain stem
50:06: Numbering in the hundreds of thousands And the complexity of the eye The irreducible complexity
50:12: Of the eyeball From the cornea and the lens To the interpretation of the signals in the brain
50:18: These things cannot evolve Meaninglessly My wife had a great analogy
50:23: She said if you got a book This thick Would you ever believe
50:30: That the words Ordered on those pages Just Came into being by random chance
50:38: Or would you believe That there's an author that wrote the book How much more the complexity
50:43: Of the human body And the world, the universe In which we live Listen, these things are not debatable
50:51: They are plain to everyone Everyone According to this knows
50:58: That there's a creator But what do they do? They suppress the truth in ungodliness To exchange the truth of God For a lie
51:06: That's where we left off in verse 21 For although they knew God They did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him But they became futile in their thinking
51:15: And their foolish hearts Were darkened Claiming to be wise
51:22: Science I believe in science As they look down their noses
51:28: Claiming to be wise Professing to be wise What does it say? They became fools
51:33: And what? Exchange the glory of the immortal God For images resembling mortal man
51:40: And birds and animals and creeping things That will culminate in the worship of the Antichrist But even now
51:46: Men make idols Go to India, you can see them still And here in America You can see them in the worship
51:54: Of all manner Of sports and money And anything but The glorious God Now, I said that this is one of the most dangerous
52:05: Moments in the truth war Listen If a person suppresses truth
52:14: Stuffing it down And ignoring it And pretending that it's not true Exchanging the glory of God for a lie
52:20: God In His Judgment Being a righteous judge
52:27: Will at some point Give people over Verses 24, 26
52:34: And 28 Refer to the giving Over of a mind
52:40: That suppresses truth To believe their own lies And to descend farther and farther
52:47: Into irrationality Look at verse 24 Therefore God gave them up In the lust of their heart
52:55: To impurity We live in a nation under judgment
53:01: In the 1960's And then 70's and beyond There was what is called the sexual revolution
53:09: Where people Rejecting the natural God given gift
53:14: Of marital sex Exchanged that For a lie And were given over To do what ought not be done
53:22: And then in verse 26 We see
53:28: Another giving over and that is To disorder desires It says for this
53:34: Reason God gave them up to Dishonorable passions Then it goes on to refer to lesbianism
53:41: And men Who Sodomize men Which is the large cause of monkey pox
53:48: In our land And then in verse 28 And since they did not
53:55: See fit to acknowledge God God gave them up to what
54:01: A debased mind Those who Reject the truth and believe lies
54:08: Can be given over To sexual immorality and then to Homosexuality and then to a debased
54:13: Mind and I would say A boy believing that he's a Girl trapped in a boy's body That is a debased mind but worse
54:21: When the entire culture Affirms That Irrationality that insanity
54:30: You see a culture Developing a debased mind And read on what it says
54:36: They're filled with all manner Of unrighteousness evil covetousness Malice They're full of envy
54:43: Murder prior to the giving over You didn't see mass shootings But there were far more guns and they were
54:51: Far more accessible than they are Today what's changed In the last 60 years
54:57: It's not availability of guns because Kids out on the farm Could grab the gun that was leaning up against The table there was no thought of A child shooting
55:07: His parents or such things What's changed in the last 60 years it's the giving over To a debased mind and this murder
55:15: That goes on to say strife Deceit maliciousness this is Our culture this is
55:20: American culture They are gossips slanderers Haters of God Insolent Haughty boastful
55:30: Inventors Of evil Disobedient to parents foolish
55:37: Faithless Heartless ruthless This is what the
55:45: Scripture describes as the giving over From the suppression of truth To be given over to one's own
55:51: Lies which is what brings us to verse 11 in 2nd Thessalonians 2 We've seen the worship
55:57: Of the antichrist Because of the suppression of truth Being given over To believe lies
56:06: But I have a question for you Is it that God on One side is promoting
56:13: Truth and an equal and Opposite force namely the devil the activity Of Satan on the other side
56:19: Is pushing the lies No dualism
56:25: Is a lie Hear me God and Satan are not
56:30: An equal match They're not equal and opposite forces God is sovereign over all
56:36: Things including evil and when He lifts his hand of restraint to Allow evil for his
56:42: Own purpose He is still good and glorious He's not the author of sin
56:48: He allows sin For a reason he allowed his son Acts 4 27 and 28 to be
56:54: Crucified For his own Predetermined plan He has reasons look at verse 11
57:02: This will be shocking to some It says therefore God sends them
57:07: A strong delusion who sends them A strong delusion God Sends them a strong delusion
57:15: So that they may believe what is False what is pseudo what is a lie He allows
57:21: Them the deceit that they've Chosen for themselves this is a Doctrine called judicial Hardening There comes a point in a person
57:31: Exchanging the truth for a lie Where God may Give a person over now he in His freedom can open the
57:39: Eyes of a David would in the prison even After attempting this this horrible Thing And save him
57:46: God can Rescue the sinner But here's the scary thing that Each person who's been rejecting
57:53: Truth needs to take to heart there could Come a day when God Gives you to your
57:59: Delusion Why did Jesus Speak in parables in Sunday school maybe you
58:11: Our Sunday school teachers wouldn't wouldn't Miss this point but maybe in Sunday school you've heard
58:17: That parables are Stories of life that are relatable And it makes it very easy for you to Understand a spiritual truth
58:27: The farmer he throws seed on The ground every which way and some of its Bark comes up and others that you know
58:33: Gets destroyed by the sun Here's a parable that relates to Life and now you can make a connection in your
58:40: Brain and you can understand something spiritual Right that's what we think parables are For well when Jesus gave the parable
58:46: Of the seeds the parable the soils in Matthew 13 nobody Understood what he said and So his disciples came to him
58:56: And asked him Jesus Why do you speak in parables And he answered from Isaiah chapter 6
59:05: To make this people's heart Hard that Seeing they would not see and Hearing they would not believe that They're dead in their sin
59:17: Now what was He referencing Isaiah Chapter 6 when
59:23: Isaiah Sees the throne room holy holy Holy and he's undone and the Angel takes a coal from the fire and touches
59:30: His mouth and now he's clean and he Says here I am send me and God says to him go and tell
59:36: These people that seeing They would not see You see
59:43: Isaiah was sent as a judge To tell these people
59:49: That they've gone so far in their Idolatry that God is now Going to judge them which he did with Babylon In the days
59:57: Of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 13 hear me now The Pharisees And the
01:00:03: Sadducees Had rejected their Messiah The truth
01:00:09: With all of his true Signs and wonders And they had reached a point
01:00:14: Where God Judicially hardened them Do you hear that They had so covered their eyes
01:00:24: And hardened their hearts remember Pharaoh hardened his own heart Against the truth
01:00:29: And so God hardened Pharaoh's heart He judicially hardened Him when people suppress
01:00:37: The truth there comes a point where They may be given over to believe Their own lies The Israelites coming out of Egypt For 40 years
01:00:48: Wandered in the wilderness Because there had come a point At Kadesh Barnea where rejecting
01:00:53: Revelation God gave Them over and said you will not Enter my rest
01:01:00: It's a scary place To be given Over now here's the good news
01:01:05: If you keep reading Matthew 13 He says something different to his Disciples he says but to You the secrets of the kingdom have
01:01:13: Been given And he goes on to explain the parable for Them of what the seed means
01:01:19: And what each various soil Means and so it is with you Church the secrets
01:01:25: Of the kingdom have been given to you It's right here in this Book every word
01:01:31: Is truth you must Humbly submit
01:01:36: Yourself to the truth of God believing Every single word that he has Spoken and when you do that The kingdom is yours
01:01:46: The truth Belongs to you you walk In the truth the secrets have been
01:01:53: Given to you And to any who would hear the words Of this scripture
01:01:59: It's not too late If you're hearing the word To repent and believe
01:02:05: Now is the day of salvation The last verse in second Thessalonians 2 12 that We're studying today gives
01:02:15: The reason for these things the In order that whenever you see in order That often in the greek that's heena
01:02:20: It's a heena clause which gives purpose Why is God doing this why is He hardening people's hearts
01:02:26: In order that All may be condemned Here's the side of The lamb the wrath of the lamb
01:02:35: That we need to understand in order that All may be condemned who did not Believe the truth
01:02:41: But Had pleasure in unrighteousness You either
01:02:47: Love the truth or you Find pleasure in unrighteousness You see
01:02:53: Believing in christianity versus Believing in say islam or judaism Or some other religion
01:02:58: Is not a mere Intellectual exercise it's not about Rationality only it's a moral
01:03:04: Question to reject the Evidence of creation god's
01:03:10: Open book of nature And say that there is no god that is to Suppress truth it is to hate
01:03:16: Truth Likewise to reject the scripture although God has given sixty six
01:03:22: Books of prophecy Foretelling the future and then Fulfilling the very things that he said
01:03:28: These things are not open for Human debate As if a philosopher
01:03:35: Comes to faith These things are true And to reject
01:03:42: The word of god is to take pleasure In unrighteousness It's a moral question
01:03:47: And so i close with this Thought that brother and Sisters we are in a truth war
01:03:55: In The soviet union between Nineteen eighteen and nineteen fifty Six There was a truth war going
01:04:03: On the doctrine of Marxism was going there as It is now coming in through cultural
01:04:09: Marxism into our society And people were believing it They were taking the bait
01:04:15: Hook line and sinker One man named alexander Solzhenitsyn was an orthodox
01:04:21: Christian went off to university And he was taunted For his christian faith
01:04:27: And they ripped the cross off of his neck And threw it on the ground And before long
01:04:33: He capitulated to the Leninist doctrine Became a marxist
01:04:39: And joined the red army But in world war two
01:04:45: As he traveled about And saw the difference Between what the ideology promised
01:04:51: And the reality of what Communism represented His eyes began to be open
01:04:58: And he began to write letters To his friend Telling about what he was seeing
01:05:04: And how he did not believe in Stalin well they found Those letters and so what did they do to solzhenitsyn
01:05:11: They sent him to Prison camp some of you know my Grandfather was in one of those gulags
01:05:16: Paul cleaver For six years Solzhenitsyn was there only
01:05:22: One out of six would ever survive The russian gulag But he began to take notes
01:05:28: In his mind and wrote books in his Mind his memory because they wouldn't Allow him to keep anything he wrote
01:05:35: Finally As the tides Changed a little bit he was released And began to write
01:05:42: In 1972 he Had written a book called gulag Archipelago The gulags were the prison camps and an archipelago
01:05:50: Is like a string of islands So picture a string of prison camps Running through Soviet russia
01:06:00: That book exposed The reality of marxism But the manuscript
01:06:07: That he wrote was entrusted to a friend A woman and the KGB Found her with that book
01:06:14: For three days They tortured her in fact To find out where she was keeping it and she eventually
01:06:19: Gave it up And they got that book and they burned it As they do burning truth
01:06:25: And she went and hung herself But there was another copy already written
01:06:32: And that made it to the press And in 1973 Gulag archipelago
01:06:37: Was published in the west And do you know That that was a truth bomb
01:06:43: That book Undermined The lie of communism
01:06:49: And marxism And by 1989 the soviet union Collapsed Listen It was god's
01:06:59: Will to reveal the lies Of communism through that book We live in a day
01:07:06: When marxism Amazingly has come To the united states of america
01:07:14: We live in a neo -marxist culture That's being given over and over One of the things that Solzhenitsyn said is that People everywhere say
01:07:24: It could never happen here It can't happen here And he warned
01:07:30: I saw it there and I see it coming Here Solzhenitsyn His last speech he gave in 1973 or so When he was expelled from russia
01:07:44: Was called Live not by lies Live not by lies
01:07:50: And I want to read a couple Things that he advised That apply to us Live not by lies
01:07:59: Commit Not to say right Affirm or distribute anything
01:08:04: That distorts the truth If they tell you that Pete your co -worker
01:08:12: Has now identified as Sarah and dresses differently And you need to call her
01:08:17: Sarah And use the pronoun her Live not by lies
01:08:23: You know he is Pete And you must tell the truth And it probably will cost you your job
01:08:30: Live not by lies Commit Not to go to a demonstration
01:08:35: Unless you firmly believe In the cause And how many people
01:08:43: Went and marched With a neo -Marxist group Blacking out their
01:08:48: Facebook page without understanding What that organization Stood for Commit not to take part in a meeting
01:08:56: In which the discussion is forced And no one can speak the truth If you go to a wedding
01:09:05: So called wedding Where a preacher is saying that this man Is marrying that man
01:09:11: And pronouncing this holy matrimony You stand in agreement with a lie
01:09:18: And you're part of it A Christian Must never do such a thing Commit not to vote for a
01:09:25: Candidate or proposal you consider To be dubious or unworthy Commit to walk out
01:09:32: Of an event Even if it's run by your boss As soon as you hear the speaker utter a lie
01:09:38: Ideological drivel Or shameless propaganda Commit to not support journalism
01:09:46: That distorts or hides The underlying facts Church, we are
01:09:52: At a crossroads Most of the culture Doesn't even care about the lies
01:09:58: That are being pushed They go along with it not because They believe it but because they're cowards
01:10:05: They're unwilling To stand and speak the truth Because it'll cost them their jobs But if we don't do it now
01:10:12: It'll cost us our lives There can be The only gulag archipelago In America Sadly, but listen
01:10:21: The Restrainer has been gracious to this nation For many years And if Christians Will stand up, there are a lot of us
01:10:29: And be the salt, the preservative The light, speak the truth It may just be that The Lord will grant a stay
01:10:38: And a revival Can break out in the land, let's pray Father God Father God This morning we commit
01:10:45: To live not by lies We pray
01:10:51: Lord that you would Show us all the hidden areas of darkness In our own lives Lies that we tell
01:10:59: Our wives or husbands Or children Or children who tell lies to their parents
01:11:04: That they would this day forsake The lie and commit To the truth
01:11:11: I pray that all of us Would love the truth Give us love
01:11:18: For all that is true And an absolute Unyielding, unwillingness
01:11:25: To speak a lie No matter the cost And so Lord our prayer really is
01:11:30: For courage Because the lies are everywhere Give us courage in this day
01:11:37: To speak the truth And nothing but the truth So help us God In Jesus name we pray, amen
01:11:43: Let's stand and sing Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look fully in his wonderful face
01:12:15: And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
01:12:41: Turn your eyes to the heaven side
01:12:50: Where justice and mercy embrace
01:12:59: There the Son of God gave his life for us
01:13:09: And our measureless debt was erased
01:13:16: Jesus to you we lift our eyes
01:13:28: Jesus our glory and our pride
01:13:36: We adore you, behold you
01:13:42: Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus we turn our eyes to you
01:14:01: Turn your eyes to the
01:14:06: Lord And see
01:14:11: Christ the Lion of Reign What a glorious thought
01:14:23: The fear of death is gone For we carry his life in our veins
01:14:39: Jesus to you we lift our eyes
01:14:47: Jesus our glory and our pride
01:14:55: We adore you, behold you
01:15:01: Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus we turn our eyes to you
01:15:19: Turn your eyes to the heavens
01:15:27: Our King will return for his own
01:15:35: Amen Every knee will bow
01:15:41: Every tongue will shout All glory to Jesus alone
01:15:54: Jesus to you we lift our eyes
01:16:04: Jesus our glory and our pride
01:16:12: We adore you, behold you
01:16:17: Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus we turn our eyes to you
01:16:30: Oh Jesus we turn our eyes to you
01:16:37: Amen He's coming for his bride
01:16:44: Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus Direct our way to you
01:16:50: And may the Lord make you increase And abound in love For one another and for all
01:16:56: As we do for you So that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness
01:17:02: Before our God and Father At the coming of our Lord Jesus With all his saints