WWUTT 542 The Mystery of Lawlessness

There are two ministries that are at work in this world. There is the ministry of God, and there is the ministry of Satan. And those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ follow in the ministry of God when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky.

Paul’s Teaching on the Mystery of Lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2

I'm gonna go back to 2 Thessalonians 2, and starting in verse seven, just as I did yesterday, but this time I'm going to add in that final section of chapter two, going all the way to verse 17. So Paul writes, "'For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

"'Only he who now restrains it will do so "'until he is out of the way, "'and then the lawless one will be revealed, "'whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth "'and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

"'The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan, "'with all power and false signs and wonders, "'and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing "'because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

"'Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, "'so that they may believe what is false "'in order that all may be condemned "'who did not believe the truth, "'but had pleasure in unrighteousness. "'But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, "'brothers, beloved by the Lord, "'because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved "'through sanctification by the spirit "'and belief in the truth.

"'To this, he called you through our gospel, "'so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. "'So then brothers, stand firm "'and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, "'either by our spoken word or by our letter.

"'Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself "'and God our Father, who loved us "'and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, "'comfort your hearts and establish them "'in every good work and word.'".

So in 1 John 4, verses one through three, the Apostle John says this, "'Beloved, do not believe every spirit, "'but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, "'for many false prophets have gone out into the world.'".

And we're warned in the book of Deuteronomy that false prophets will deceive people with many false signs and wonders. Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 7 and also in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24.

John goes on, "'By this you know the Spirit of God, "'every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ "'has come in the flesh is from God. "'And every spirit that does not confess Jesus "'is not from God.

"'This is the spirit of the Antichrist, "'which you heard was coming "'and now is in the world already.'". So where John says that every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, basically he's saying everyone who teaches sound doctrine is from God, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus, who does not worship Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the way, the truth, and the life, and no one gets to God except through Christ, whoever does not confess Him is not from God.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist. This is satanic. This is the message of the devil. You know, Satan is perfectly fine with you doing good deeds. He's great with you showing kindness to somebody else as long as you think that that good deed that you do merits some sort of favor that you have with God.

Satan is not against good works. What he is against is the sound doctrinal teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, because it is by that word that we are saved. Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

So he is against sound doctrine, the sound teaching of the word of God. That is what the devil is against. He's all right if you show love and kindness to somebody else to help someone with charitable things, as long as you believe that the things that you do are good enough to earn eternal life, because the Bible tells us that by works of the law, no man is saved.

No one is justified by their works. We cannot stand before God in heaven and say, well, look at all the great things that I have done. And he says, well, yes, you have done great things. Now great is your reward.

For we read in Isaiah 64, six, that even our best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy God. We are incapable of goodness. No one is good as it says in Romans 3, 12, for it is only through Christ Jesus that we are washed and made clean and can then offer up right deeds before the Lord.

Then and only then you cannot do good deeds before God if you are not in Christ Jesus. So it is by the word of God that we are saved. And it is only by that word that we are saved. And it is by faith in that word that we are saved.

Satan is against sound doctrine. So whoever believes that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, that he left his throne in heaven, took on flesh and walked this earth as fully man and fully God, or a better way to put it would be very man and very God, at least the way that Irenaeus wrote it.

That's the better translation. When you say fully man and fully God, there can be a seeming contradiction there. What you're saying is still okay, but the argument might be to press forward a contradiction.

Well, if he's fully man, how can he be fully God? Well, it's divinely mysterious even when you say very man and very God, but that would still be the better translation of it. A true and sound teaching from Irenaeus that Jesus Christ was very man and very God.

He lived a sinless life. He died a thief's death on a cross where he shed his blood as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, absorbing the wrath of God. Our sins were placed upon him as it was prophesied would happen in Isaiah 53, as it is said was fulfilled in 2 Corinthians chapter five.

He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. His righteousness was placed upon us, the double imputation. He was buried in a tomb. He rose again from the grave three days later, ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, God the father, where he intercedes for us on our behalf.

He is coming again, bringing his recompense with him with his angels in fiery wrath, pouring out judgment on those who did unrighteousness and refuse to obey the gospel of Christ. But those who believed will marvel at him and will glorify his name forever in all eternity in his glorious kingdom as fellow heirs, those who were more than conquerors, who were overcomers in this world through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There's sound doctrine for you right there. And if anyone denies any part of it, they would be doing the ministry of Satan, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. So Paul says, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

The Mystery of Lawlessness Is a Present Reality, Not Just a Future Seven-Year Period

Now, when we read this in 2 Thessalonians 2, I think there is a tendency to think of this whole description of the man of lawlessness being revealed as being a specific period of time, like say, oh, seven years, which is the predominant premillennial teaching here in the Western world.

But there is not a period of time that is being given here. In fact, the way that John talks about it, I think it would be right for us to interpret Paul talking about this the same way. This is something that we need to be on guard against all the time.

This is not something futuristic. It's not something we're looking toward in the sense that we're looking for one man who is the antichrist that the whole world will bow before. Maybe that is going to happen, but I think our immediate response needs to be more in the sense of there are many false prophets in the world.

There are many who, by the work of the antichrist, in the spirit of lawlessness, are trying to deceive many and are successfully deceiving many with false messages and false signs and wonders and false doctrine.

Doing, again, that ministry of the devil. This is something that God has sent a strong delusion so that those who practice unrighteousness may believe what is false in order that they may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in their sin.

This is to show God's glory. He is doing this so that he might show the full range of his glory, not only in those whom he means to save, but also in the righteous wrath that he is going to pour out on those whom he will not save.

In Romans 9, 22 and 23 is where we read the apostle Paul writing, "'What if God, desiring to show his wrath "'and make known his power, "'has endured with much patience "'vessels of wrath prepared for destruction "'in order to make known the riches of his glory "'for vessels of mercy, "'which he has prepared beforehand for glory, "'even us whom he has called?'.

And we read also in Revelation 15 how the saints for all eternity will glorify God for his goodness, pouring out wrath on those who were ungodly. We will actually glorify God for all eternity because he poured out wrath on those who did unrighteousness and saved those who were unrighteousness but were given his righteousness by Christ, by the merciful, gracious, loving act of God.

These are the things that we will praise him for, for all eternity. So there is a need for us right now to be aware of the mystery of lawlessness, of the ministry of the Antichrist and not be led astray by any of these works that are at work in the world even right now.

And how do we protect ourselves from these false signs and wonders? But we store up for ourselves the true word of God, studying it intently, purposefully, lovingly, desiring God through the words that we read.

And these are gonna be the things that will place a seal over our hearts and be as frontlets between our eyes that we might see and know the true God and his true word by what we have written down for us in the Bible, by his apostles and prophets.

These are the things that will guard our hearts. And then we take the message of the gospel and we preach it to the world. And in preaching the gospel, what we preach is the word of God. Because again, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

So the only way that a person is gonna come to saving faith in Christ is because they heard the word of Christ proclaimed. Now, as I've heard Burke Parsons say, well, I read Burke Parsons say this because it was a tweet I think that I saw yesterday.

He said, unbelievers don't read the Bible, they read us. So when you go and you preach the gospel, there needs to be a consistency in this message. When you say that Jesus Christ has come and paid the price for our sins, are you living a life that is like Christ?

So what they see in you is not the sinfulness of this world, but that you have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Doesn't mean that you live a perfect life. We know that we're not gonna be able to pull that off.

And that's where the grace of God comes in, that he continues to show us grace even though we are not able to perfectly keep the commands of Christ. But we desire to do that because God desires us through his son, Jesus.

And so therefore, we want to be in his righteousness. We aspire toward that. You're not chasing after sins. You are pursuing the holiness of God. That needs to be each and every Christian. And so the world's gonna recognize that if we're consistent in our message or if we're being great big fat hypocrites, like Hollywood is right now, with the whole Harvey Weinstein scandal and all of that.

A man who is a sexual predator tried to force himself on women, wanted them to do certain favors for him in order to gain a role in a movie or something like that. Dozens of women coming forward with accounts of stuff that Harvey Weinstein has done.

And so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, and is it MPAA, Motion Picture Arts Academy, Academy of Arts, whatever they're called. Anyway, they disowned Harvey Weinstein. They booted him out of the academy, but it's hypocritical because of all of the sexual abuse and scandals that goes on all throughout Hollywood.

And many of these actresses have come out and said that it's not just Harvey Weinstein. Yes, he's bad, but this is prevalent all through Hollywood. We see it depicted in their movies. And they're also defending a guy like Roman Polanski, who is an actual felon in the sense that he had sexual relations with a minor.

So this is the hypocrisy that we see in the world. We see it at work in the world. Owen Strachan from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he also made the point that the same culture that would condemn Harvey Weinstein because of his sexual exploits is raising up Hugh Hefner a couple of weeks ago as some sort of hero of the culture for the very same thing that they're condemning Harvey Weinstein for.

The hypocrisy of this world. And so we as Christians need to be showing a consistency in our message in the sense that if we're gonna preach Christ, we need to live like Christ. We ought to walk as Jesus walked, as it says in 1 John 2, 6.

Paul also says this in Titus 2, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works. And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us.

Peter said something similar when he said that when the world reviles us, we cannot revile them in return. And Jesus is our model for that. When he was reviled, he did not curse them back, but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly, of course, that being his father in heaven.

That's the way that we need to be as well. We're not looking for vengeance even in words against those who would speak harm against us, but rather we need to entrust ourselves to God. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, not ours, but God's.

And so we need to follow the instructions of the apostles, as Peter put it in 1 Peter 3, 15, to give an answer for the hope that is within you, but do this with gentleness and respect. And Paul saying the same thing to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil, responding to opponents with gentleness, he said.

So that needs to be part of the consistency in our message, that we are speaking the gospel of Christ and those to whom we share the gospel with can observe in our lives a consistency with that message that we are preaching.

We live as Jesus lived. We walk as Jesus walked. Jesus said in Matthew 5, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect, and that's what we're aspiring to. Not that we are already perfect, as Paul said with the Philippians, but we desire to make it our own because Christ Jesus has made us his own.

And so that needs to be the gospel that we speak, the lives that we live among those who are perishing, who need the gospel to be saved, as we needed the gospel to be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, but we ought always to give thanks to God for you.

Paul says to the Thessalonians, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth. We ought always to give thanks to you, brothers beloved by the Lord.

So this is in contrast with those who are perishing who are gonna be destroyed. Remember that God has reserved for himself those who are going to be saved, again, back in Titus 2, where it says the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works, doing the work of Christ.

That is the people that we are in Christ Jesus who have been reserved for him and his glory. He will show his glory by showing mercy to those whom he means to save. And that is us who have been predestined from before the foundation of the world to be saved in Christ Jesus.

Contrasting those folks there in verse 13, those who have been predestined for salvation by the grace of God, with those whom he has reserved to destroy and will also show his glory in that way when he pours his righteous wrath on those who are gonna be destroyed in the final judgment.

So let us be among those who are being sanctified, saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth, the sound doctrine, the sound words of the Lord Jesus Christ, not led astray by the ministry of Satan.

Prayer for Guarding the Church in the Truth of the Gospel

Let's come to the Lord in prayer. God, I pray that you would indeed guard our hearts in Christ Jesus. And it is the word of Christ that we have heard spoken today that will keep us until that great day when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.

We know that we will be among those who will receive the kingdom of God because we believed the message of the kingdom of God. And so let us also go with the gospel of the kingdom to a lost world so that those who hear it might turn from their sin and be saved, that we will tell them about the grace of God that has brought salvation for all people around the world who would turn from sin and believe this message, renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions and living self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.

Keep us steadfast in this truth, in this command, in obedience of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.