The Great Restrainer (2 Thessalonians 2:5-8a Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

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May 15, 2022

Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org The Great Restrainer

04:33: Seat as we join together in fellowship this morning. I'm gonna open up with a passage out of 2
04:42: Peter 3, verse 18. This is a passage that encourages us in our relationship and our growth and our walk with the
04:53: Lord. 2 Peter 3, 18. Grow in grace and knowledge of our
04:59: Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I wanted to highlight a few quick points on that.
05:05: And the first one is that we're exhorted to grow. And what I want us all to realize is that none of us have achieved that level of conformity to God's image and likeness that he has in store for us.
05:19: Our walk is a walk of growth, our walk is a walk of eliminating those things that God would want us to get rid of and to choosing those things as it says in Galatians 5, 16.
05:32: Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So the first message is that we need to be growing and the second is that we're gonna grow in grace and knowledge.
05:43: And there are two sides to this one. Our growth is not all empowered or based on our own internal strength.
05:55: You see, it says that we're going to grow in grace. God, even once we become believers and once that grace has reached into our heart and we're regenerated and by the grace of God we're saved by faith, grace continues in our lives to help us to become more and more like him.
06:14: But we have to respond to that. And so the second part of this is we grow in grace, we grow in knowledge.
06:20: It says in John 5, 39 that we study the scriptures. Well, we actually at the end of it says so that we might know him.
06:28: Spending time in prayer, spending time in study and in meditation, spending time with fellow believers, spending time where you're immersed in his truth is part of this growth process.
06:42: And then it says that we would grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
06:48: These are personal, these are personal things. Our God is a God that cares personally for each and every one of us.
06:56: It says, but as many as receive him, to them he come to become children of God.
07:02: He is our personal Lord and Savior. Some announcements for this morning. First of all, on Saturday we are going to have our
07:09: Love Life ministry. It's from nine to 10, I encourage you to join with that to be part of those who are praying for those individuals that are potentially making a decision praying for those lives.
07:23: That they would actually come through the period of pregnancy and to become children that can turn to God.
07:31: The same day you have the opportunity to go from one to the other for our work day.
07:39: I'm not getting a whole lot of exciting faces on that one. If you feel called and led, please come join us on Saturday.
07:48: We're going to be sprucing up the grounds. Both of those happen on Saturday. On Memorial Day, Jeff didn't want me to make this announcement because if people aren't already training,
08:00: I said, Jeff, it's just a 5K. You can go out there and run three miles because Jeff has promised, he denied at first service, but he promised he will run the whole 5K dribbling a basketball.
08:14: No, he said he won't do that, but come on out. It's a great time of fellowship, it's Memorial Day. It'll be eight o 'clock in the morning.
08:21: We're getting within a month now. It's a month from today will be the closing on our land.
08:28: God has worked through every action, every decision, every process, every door has remained open.
08:36: And so we are on all systems go that a month from today on June 15th, we're anticipating closing on the land.
08:45: Man, God is so good and gracious in the time of pandemic and everything else. We're not only increasing in numbers, we're getting deeper and deeper in the study of word.
08:56: And now he's chosen to give us a new plan. We can land a lamppost out there and our new piece of property.
09:04: That's exciting stuff. Continue with our weekly schedule. Last week, we chose to not have the prayer meeting so that we could honor our mothers, spend time with them.
09:15: Come back tonight, we're coming back into our weekly prayer meeting at six o 'clock. We also had to take
09:22: Wednesday noon off from Isaiah study because both Jeff and I were out of state. We're back so we will be resuming on Wednesday noon with our
09:31: Isaiah study. You have the men's groups, you have the women's groups, you have the care groups.
09:38: So look to our weekly schedule. I understand that last Saturday's trip the women had to the tabernacle was a rousing success.
09:49: What I've heard, I hear some yes, amens to that. I understand there were over 20 women that took part in it.
09:55: If you did not take part in it and if it interested you, they're going to do it again sometime. So don't think that you missed the last opportunity.
10:04: So watch for that in months to come. This time I'm gonna ask Louise, would you come up please? Good morning, everyone.
10:21: Good morning. Our featured missionary for this month is
10:26: Neil and Wani Thompson. And they are with, oh, they have two children,
10:32: Nathan and Kevin. And Neil is Rick Thompson's brother.
10:39: They are associated with Overseas Missionary Fellowship which is located in Colorado.
10:47: Wani is an Assistant to International Facilitator for Medical Missions, mostly administrative work she does and logistic work.
11:01: She also is Program Coordinator to Serve Asia. She coordinates church partnership teams and medical placements and teams that go to Thailand.
11:15: Neil provides resources for their current missionaries and mobilizes future medical workers for the harvest of East Asia.
11:25: And we ask that you keep them in prayer. We have handouts on the back table for more information.
11:33: And they have prayer requests. One is pray for the salvation of souls in Thailand and East Asia.
11:42: Thank you. It is exciting as we each month get the chance to hear about our missionaries.
11:56: One of the things that I find just so encouraging is the number of missionaries that are either homegrown or are direct relations to people in our church.
12:06: It is so exciting to see that. We keep praying that God's raising the next missionaries.
12:12: And so that we look forward to also. Let's go to prayer. Father, we do pray for our missionaries.
12:18: We pray for Neil and Wani. We thank you for the many years that they answered the call and were your missionaries on the field.
12:25: And now they're here back in the States supporting the missionary fields. We thank you for them and for all of our missionaries.
12:32: We thank you that the lamp is lit in countries that need to have the word of God.
12:38: So Father, we acknowledge not only our missionaries but ourselves. Lord, you have equipped each of us with the power of the
12:45: Holy Spirit. You have called each of us to go into Jerusalem and Judea and to the other most parts of the world with your message.
12:54: And so Lord, we pray that we would see and respond to the opportunities. We would be obedient to spreading the word of God to friends, neighbors, coworkers.
13:06: And Father, Lord, that our own lives would be growing closer and closer to you.
13:12: Father, this weekend as we have our ministry to love life, we do pray, Father, for an outpouring of your
13:20: Holy Spirit into the lives of these women and men who are considering making a decision.
13:28: Lord, we pray for these unborn children. They are your children. We pray that they would come to full term.
13:35: They would be actually come into this world as babies and grow. Lord, protect these people from making this horrible decision.
13:46: Father, for those in our land, in our midst, in our congregation who are in need with health concerns, grieving concerns, we continue to hold them up.
13:58: And Father, we say thank you for the news that we are progressing toward this land. It is a gift from you.
14:04: It can only be a gift from you. With all that's gone on, Lord, rejoice in your sovereignty.
14:11: And as we move forward from here now, Lord, to think about a building, we, again, we seek to be following your lead.
14:19: Now, Lord, as Pastor Jeff comes and speaks to us about the Holy Spirit, speaks to us about that protection that you provide from the evil that's in the world, we pray,
14:30: Lord, that you would give him strength, give him your very words, prepare our hearts to hear.
14:37: In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, let's all stand. I'm gonna sing of the greatness of our
14:44: Lord, our God. You know, the more we dive deeper into his word, the more of his word we know, the more we can respond to him, the greater our worship is of him.
14:58: And, Lord God, we just pray that as we grow in you, that you would reveal yourself to us through your scripture, greater knowledge, greater revelations of you, so that we can glorify you more and more.
15:10: ♪ I'll bless your name,
15:29: O God, each day that I await ♪ ♪
15:34: From dawn to setting sun, your greatness I'll proclaim ♪ ♪
15:41: Your glory far exceeds all human thought ♪ ♪
15:49: So with each breath I'll bless your name, O God ♪ ♪
15:57: Your name will be revered, my children, yet to come ♪ ♪
16:03: As generations sing the wonders you have done ♪ ♪
16:11: Your strong and mighty deeds are always near ♪ ♪
16:18: O God most high, your name will be revered ♪ ♪
16:27: How great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪
16:33: How great is the Lord, our God ♪ ♪
16:40: How great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪
16:50: Your gracious hand provides for all who live and breathe ♪ ♪
16:57: Your mercy runs through fire, the helpless and the weak ♪ ♪
17:04: When we call out to you, you hear our cries ♪ ♪
17:12: And all our needs your gracious hand provides ♪ ♪
17:19: How great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪
17:27: How great is the Lord, our God ♪ ♪
17:33: How great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪
17:54: Forever without end, creation will rejoice ♪ ♪
18:02: For works of wicked men, you finally destroy ♪ ♪
18:10: Your power we'll proclaim, till Christ descends ♪ ♪
18:17: And earth will reign forever without end ♪ ♪
18:23: How great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪
18:31: How great is the Lord, our God ♪ ♪
18:38: How great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪
18:47: And greatly to be praised ♪ ♪
19:14: Worthy of every song we could ever sing ♪ ♪
19:21: Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring ♪ ♪
19:28: Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ ♪ We live for you ♪ ♪
19:43: Jesus, the name above every other name ♪ ♪
19:49: Jesus, the only one who could ever save ♪ ♪
19:56: Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ ♪ We live for you, we live for you ♪ ♪
20:08: Holy, there is no one like you ♪ ♪
20:14: There is none beside you ♪ ♪ Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are ♪ ♪
20:25: And fill me with your heart and lead me in your love ♪ ♪
20:33: To those around me ♪ ♪
20:45: Jesus, the name above every other name ♪ ♪
20:53: Jesus, the only one who could ever save ♪ ♪
20:59: Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ ♪ We live for you, oh we live for you ♪ ♪
21:11: Holy, there is no one like you ♪ ♪
21:16: There is none beside you ♪ ♪ Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are ♪ ♪
21:28: And fill me with your heart and lead me in your love ♪ ♪
21:35: To those around me ♪ ♪ And I will build my life upon your love ♪ ♪
21:56: Firm foundation and I put my trust in you ♪ ♪
22:11: I will not be shaken and I will build a firm foundation ♪ ♪
22:25: And I will in you not be shaken ♪ ♪
22:39: Holy, there is no one like you ♪ ♪ There is none beside you ♪ ♪
22:47: You open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are ♪ ♪
22:56: And fill me with your heart and lead me in your love ♪ ♪
23:03: To those around me ♪ We just pray that you would pour yourself into us,
23:26: Lord. Just fill us to overflowing, Lord. Not that we could hold it onto ourselves,
23:33: Lord God, but that we would be poured out to a lost and dying world, Lord God. Use us, we pray, oh
23:39: God. As you fill us, help us to be poured out on those who are most in need,
23:46: Lord God, who need to hear your gospel, who need to hear the truth of your word. ♪ Come, my fountain of every blessing ♪ ♪
24:00: Tune my heart to sing thy praise ♪ ♪
24:05: Streams of mercy never ceasing ♪ ♪ Call for songs of loudest praise ♪ ♪
24:16: Teach me some melodious song ♪ ♪
24:21: Some thy flaming tongues above ♪ ♪ Praise the mount affixed upon it ♪ ♪
24:31: Mount of thy redeeming love ♪ ♪
24:36: Here I raise my Ebenezer ♪ ♪
24:42: Hither by thy help to come ♪ ♪ And I hope by thy good pleasure ♪ ♪
24:51: Safely to arrive at home ♪ ♪ Jesus saw me when a stranger ♪ ♪
25:02: Wandering from the fold of God ♪ ♪ He to rescue me from danger ♪ ♪
25:11: Interposed his precious blood ♪ ♪
25:17: Oh to grace how great a debtor ♪ ♪ Daily I'm constrained to be ♪ ♪
25:28: Let thy goodness like a fetter ♪ ♪ Bind my wandering heart to thee ♪ ♪
25:37: Prone to wander Lord I feel it ♪ ♪
25:42: Prone to leave the God I love ♪ ♪ Here's my heart
25:49: Lord take and seal it ♪ ♪ Seal it for thy court above ♪ ♪
25:57: Here's my heart Lord take and seal it ♪ ♪
26:02: Seal it for thy courts above ♪ Amen, let's all be seated.
26:15: Amen. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we are reminded of the words of Moses who said in prayer, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.
26:38: And Lord, I pray if your presence is not with me, your empowering presence by your
26:43: Holy Spirit, then don't let me go into the pulpit. But Lord, meet me in this pulpit.
26:51: And for all of us in the building, how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight,
26:57: I in your people? Is it not in your going with us? So that we are distinct,
27:02: I in your people, from every other people on the face of the earth. Lord, we need your presence here with us to make us distinct and different.
27:13: Fill us with your Holy Spirit, give us ears to hear your word and change us through the preaching of your word.
27:19: In Jesus name we pray, amen. There have always been antichrists in the world.
27:30: In Thessalonica in the first century, they believed often that the
27:36: Roman emperors were the antichrist. The Roman emperors were actually very hostile to Christianity for 300 years through 10 great waves of persecution.
27:49: Very often, Christians thought that they were dealing with the antichrist. Even after the conversion of Constantine, one named
27:58: Julian apostatized from Christianity and tried to reinstate paganism and the people thought he was the antichrist.
28:07: In the dark ages, the popes were often very wicked and regarded as antichrist.
28:13: In fact, all of the reformers thought that the pope was the antichrist. There have always been antichrists in the world.
28:23: One of them was Adolf Hitler. When Hitler rose and kind of took over Europe, it looked like he was the antichrist and many people thought it was the case.
28:35: But did you know, catch this, that when Hitler was born, Charles Spurgeon was still preaching in London.
28:44: That's how close in time they were. In London, Spurgeon was preaching the gospel and holding to the authority of God's word and he was training up pastors and sending them out into the towns of England.
28:58: Hundreds, even thousands of pastors trained by Spurgeon. Meanwhile, in Austria, where Hitler was born, and then in Germany, the leading theologian of the day and preacher was a guy named
29:12: Adolf Harnack. Harnack rejected the authority of scripture. He preached a different gospel, a social gospel, and rejected miracles as having ever happened.
29:23: So Hitler was raised in a culture where the people had apostatized from the faith.
29:31: Higher criticism in the German churches had taken hold and the majority of Christians held to that view.
29:36: So it was fertile ground for a pagan like Adolf Hitler to take power.
29:43: And it would have been Hitler's design not just to conquer Germany and the mainland, but to be really the ruler of the world.
29:50: He had an antichrist spirit, but God, something restrained him.
29:58: And that was those Christian boys in England and in the United States of America.
30:04: Coming from America, they got on ships and they sailed and they joined forces with Britain and they sailed across the
30:12: English Channel and they stormed the beaches of Normandy and they, through blood, sweat, and tears, defeated the
30:19: German army. And as they approached Berlin, Hitler put a bullet in his own head.
30:27: He was restrained by the Christian church operating through the military of the nations, especially
30:37: Britain and the United States of America. God restrained his evil. Now, why do
30:43: I bring this up? Well, fast forward to today, look out around us. There are antichrist spirits that would desire to take over the world.
30:53: We talked last week about what? The Great Reset, which is the design of those who meet in Davos, these thousand powerful leaders of the world, headed up by Klaus Schwab, who desires a one -world government, the resetting of the world economy to a supranationalism and socialism.
31:16: This is his design. But the message this morning is that whatever he designs,
31:24: God is still on his throne. And there is a restraining power in the world, the
31:31: Holy Spirit of the living God, who tells the oceans how far they can go. You can only go this far.
31:38: Likewise, he tells the rulers of the world, even the antichrist spirit, how far they're free to go.
31:45: And he is the one in charge. Putin had a design to overtake
31:52: Ukraine. And if you read Ezekiel 38 and 39, we learn about Gog and Magog, Gog of Magog, I should say, a ruler from the northern country who coming through Ukraine on a straight line down to Jerusalem would seek to conquer
32:08: God's city. Putin would be more than happy to attempt such a thing.
32:16: But he's restrained. As much effort as he puts into conquering, there's pushback.
32:22: There are nations standing behind the Ukraine which are pushing back against his design.
32:31: And very much those nations are themselves tied together with unholy designs.
32:38: You can't trust Zelensky as far as you can throw him. Neither can you trust the rulers of the
32:44: West, including the President of the United States of America. It was
32:51: Fauci's design to lock down the nations in response to a virus.
32:58: And now in Shanghai, because of Xi Jinping and his authoritarian designs, his hatred of freedom, what is he doing?
33:08: He has locked up a city of 25 million people. They're behind padlocks in their own buildings.
33:15: The same thing would have happened in the United States of America if it weren't for the restraining power of the
33:22: Holy Spirit working in the church. There's too much capital of the Christian nation that once existed for that to happen.
33:32: Americans love freedom because Americans have been founded upon biblical notions of individual rights, which come from being made in the image of God.
33:43: So America was founded on these Christian principles, and because of the culture in which we live, the evil powers that exist in the world could only go so far.
33:56: They were restrained. We were never padlocked in our homes like Shanghai. You see,
34:03: Xi Jinping and Fauci or any other ruler of the Great Reset, they have earthly power, but they can only go as far as the restrainer will let him go.
34:16: Last week, we saw some bad news, didn't we? We watched that ridiculous Harari guy,
34:23: Yuval Harari, the right -hand man of Klaus Schwab who has designs to monitor you not just where you go but under your skin.
34:31: Terrifying. This antichrist hatred of the gospel saying that the resurrection is fake news.
34:37: All of these things are the wicked intentions of the antichrist spirit called the mystery of lawlessness.
34:44: Last week, I wanted to look that straight in the eye and say, here, look at it. This is as bad as it gets.
34:51: But now, let's revisit the passage we're studying and understand the thrust of it because it's not about him.
34:59: He's mentioned on the aside, the mystery of lawlessness, the antichrist, is the aside to the main point.
35:06: So what is the main point? Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 2. Today, we'll read verses 1 to 8.
35:15: The main point is that the Holy Spirit is conducting a ministry of restraint in the world during this present dispensation.
35:26: But that ministry will abruptly, decisively end.
35:32: Everything is going to change. And we'll see that in the text today. Let's read, first of all, verses 1 to 4 to remember what we talked about last week.
35:42: And then today, we're doing 5 to 8. Now, concerning the coming of our
35:49: Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, here's the point, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed.
36:03: That's the imperative, guys. That's what you're to do, is not be shaken or alarmed, even.
36:10: Either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the
36:18: Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so -called
36:34: God or object of worship so that he takes a seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be
36:41: God. So, pause right there. We cannot have the day of the Lord, that is, the day of his wrath, as described in the book of Joel and all the
36:49: Old Testament prophets. We can't have it until three things happen. They all start with A. The first is the apostasia, that word rebellion.
36:59: It's a turning away. The second is the antichrist, this man of lawlessness, the son of destruction.
37:05: And the third is the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel 9 -11 and Matthew 24.
37:12: Jesus refers to it. These three things have to happen first before the day of the Lord.
37:18: Got it? Now the point of today's text, five to eight. Do you not remember that when
37:25: I was still with you, I told you these things and you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.
37:37: 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.
37:50: 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.
38:05: So the big idea that we're reading about is the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit.
38:11: Let's look at verses 5 -7a. Before we read it, I want you to think about the word mystery.
38:20: When I say the word mystery, what comes to mind? Is it something hidden? Something that you can't really figure out because it's mysterious, right?
38:29: If I gave you a mystery novel, you wouldn't really know what the point is until you've read the whole book.
38:35: It's hidden in there. It's a mystery. You don't really get it, right? And in English usage, the word mystery carries that idea of hiddenness that you don't really understand.
38:46: Now, before I read this text, understand, that is not what the
38:51: Greek word mysterion actually means. Okay, let's read it then I'll tell you what it does mean.
38:58: Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things and you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.
39:12: For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. The Greek word mystery does not refer to something hidden that we can't understand.
39:25: It refers to something that previously had been hidden but is now made known.
39:32: Namely, in the Old Testament, revelation was only given to a certain level.
39:38: But revelation in this sense is progressive that the New Testament brings knowledge that the
39:44: Old Testament saint did not have. A mystery is something that the
39:50: Old Testament saint could not see but has now been made known. You know it?
39:55: So he says in verse 5 Do you not remember when I was still with you, I told you. The apostle told them.
40:02: Verse 6, and you know. You have understanding. It's not that you're in the dark or it's cloudy or mysterious.
40:10: You know these things. They've been told you and if you don't know it it's because you're not remembering.
40:16: You're not listening. You're not taking the data that the New Testament has given us and understanding what
40:23: God has clearly said. The problem of misinterpretation is never on God's part.
40:30: His word is always clear. At times we misunderstand because we don't read carefully and take him at his word.
40:39: Here's an example of a mystery. In Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 to 27 we are told that there's 77 year periods decreed for God's people, the
40:50: Jews. But before the last week in that last week, that last seven year period, the
40:58: Antichrist is going to be revealed. So Daniel, when he got that prophecy, he pictured it happening 70 straight weeks in a row.
41:07: In other words, 490 years. The prophecy, you'd have to read it later but the prophecy says
41:13: Messiah would be cut off after the 69th week. Daniel assumes, okay boom the last seven years of the world are when the
41:21: Antichrist comes right when Jesus is cut off. But there's a mystery.
41:27: There's something that Daniel would not see but that we know by the apostolic teaching. Ephesians chapter 2 and 3.
41:35: The mystery is that Jew and Gentile will be included in this new entity called the church.
41:42: The church age was not there in Daniel 9 but there is a gap between the 69th and 70th week.
41:50: There's a parenthesis that we only learn about when you get to the New Testament. So God's dealing with the
41:59: Jewish people will resume for the last week but until that happens there's this gap.
42:06: Romans chapter 9 through 11 refers to a hardening in part of the
42:12: Jewish people until the fullness of the Gentiles come in and then their hearts will be softened. God will resume this program with the
42:20: Jewish people. That's a mystery. The church that Jew and Gentile would be included in one body called the church that's not in the
42:27: Old Testament with this clarity. It's hidden. It's mysterious but in the New Testament it's revealed in the same way.
42:34: Here is another mystery. It is called the mystery of lawlessness. The church will be submitted to the lordship of Christ.
42:43: Go therefore make disciples in my name. Baptizing in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit.
42:48: Teaching them to obey everything. Lo I am with you always. All authority is given to Christ and he's the head of the church.
42:56: Here's the mystery of lawlessness. The world will hate his authority and they will rebel against that authority.
43:04: There will be an anti -Christ spirit that doesn't submit to the kingship of Christ in the world.
43:10: They will try to arise and overthrow his kingdom. There will always be an anti -Christ seeking to overthrow the rightful reign of Christ at the right hand of the father.
43:25: What does that mean to us? It means that friendship with the world is enmity with God.
43:34: It means the difference between being in the church, in Christ versus out of the church, out of Christ is the difference between being a sheep and a goat.
43:43: The difference between being light and being darkness, day and night, wheat and tare.
43:50: There is a difference between world on one side and being in the word on the other.
43:59: The mystery of lawlessness is that there is a hatred for Christ in the world that seeks to overthrow him.
44:09: To be faithful to Christ we need to understand that this is the case. Think it not strange when you suffer in this world because the mystery of lawlessness is at work.
44:23: But it says here in verse 7, it is restrained. And this is the second point.
44:31: He who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way.
44:37: So question, Bible student, when you come across a statement like that, what are you to ask?
44:43: Who is he? Who is he that's restraining the anti -Christ spirit in the world that would seek to overthrow and create this beast empire of Revelation 13?
44:56: Who is he? The answer is he is the Holy Spirit. Circle that word he because he is a personal pronoun.
45:05: It cannot refer to mere governments or anything other than a person.
45:13: It says in my Bible that he is doing the restraining. That refers to God's spirit himself.
45:20: Consider the pronoun usage in the New Testament. Guys, did anybody here think that the
45:28: Holy Spirit is like the force in Star Wars? You have the force that the good guys tap into and then there's the evil force that bad guys tap into.
45:39: That is not the biblical presentation of the Holy Spirit. He is described as he.
45:44: It's a personal pronoun. So the Bible tells us elsewhere that he, the spirit, searches.
45:51: He knows. He teaches. He dwells. He accomplishes. He gives life.
45:58: He cries out. He leads. He bears witness. He desires. He helps.
46:05: He intercedes. He works all things together for good. He strengthens and he is grieved by our sinfulness.
46:14: He is a person. He restrains behind the scenes. So if he is the person of the
46:21: Holy Spirit, which he is, why in the previous verse is the word what used?
46:27: Look at verse 6. It doesn't say you know who is restraining him so that he may be revealed in his time.
46:38: It says you know what. Why is he described as what would be the question.
46:49: And the answer is he, the Holy Spirit, is restraining instrumentally.
46:56: He is restraining through something. He is using something as a tool, namely the church and other things to do the restraining.
47:07: What is keeping the Antichrist from being revealed? He, the
47:12: Holy Spirit of verse 7, that's described as a he, is using something to restrain the wickedness of this world.
47:22: And there are a few things that he uses. Let's look at a couple verses correspondingly. The first thing that the
47:29: Holy Spirit uses instrumentally to hold back the Antichrist spirit in the world is conscience.
47:37: Every human being has a conscience. Turn to Romans 2 .15 with me. We're going to look at, just quickly, four governments that God has instituted in the world.
47:53: The first is the government of the individual. Self -government. In Romans 2 .15,
48:05: speaking of the Gentiles who don't even have the law, says in verse 15, they show that the work of the law is written where?
48:16: On their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.
48:23: So the first government that the Holy Spirit uses is the conscience of people.
48:30: How many times have you thought about doing something and your conscience quickened and kept you from doing it?
48:38: Or perhaps more likely, how many times have you done something and your conscience sounded the alarm bell saying,
48:44: I really shouldn't have done that. And you just feel guilty afterwards. That gift of conscience comes from God.
48:52: And the Holy Spirit uses that all around the world to keep people from doing the most wicked things that they would do in the flesh.
49:02: There is conscience in the world. And the Holy Spirit is the one that's quickening that, activating that, speaking in order to restrain the evil of the world.
49:13: The second thing is family. There is a natural affection for family.
49:22: You could go all the way to Saudi Arabia. Mom's in the room. You love your kids.
49:27: You have the Holy Spirit. But guess what? If you went to Saudi Arabia to a Muslim woman who's never heard the name of Christ, she will have a natural affection for her baby.
49:39: Maybe that's why God made babies so cute. They're so helpless and dependent that people naturally will, they'll be pitiable and they'll just want to help this child.
49:54: But see, that is part of God's natural gift of family in the world. He's restraining evil by families.
50:03: Which, by the way, if the lawless spirit is rising in the world, what will come into the crosshairs of the
50:10: Antichrist? Family. The destruction of God's design of a husband and a wife in marriage, procreating and caring for their children, which keeps society stable.
50:24: So when you see an agenda, a culture of death, which breaks apart the marriage bond, it's a culture of death because LGBTQ doesn't reproduce, does it?
50:36: It's a culture of death. And abortion, the killing of babies, is a culture of death. But the family is a culture of life.
50:44: And it's part of God's government, even in non -Christian countries where families keep a certain fabric of society together.
50:53: It's God's government. It's His restraining evil in the world. That's the second thing.
50:58: Now the third thing is in Romans 13. It's also in 1 Peter 2, but we'll do Romans 13, verse 4.
51:05: And that is civil authorities. The Holy Spirit wields governments of the earth to restrain the wicked intentions of men.
51:17: When the book of Romans was written, was the Roman Empire a beast Antichrist system, or was it a godly
51:24: Christian nation? It was the beast Antichrist system. And yet, even so,
51:32: Paul is able to say that governors bear the sword of God.
51:38: In other words, God uses civil authorities to restrain evil. Police officers, militaries.
51:46: Let's read it, Romans 13, verse 4, referring to these instituted powers.
51:55: He is God's servant for your good. If you do wrong, be afraid.
52:01: If you steal somebody's lamp, be afraid of the policeman. If you murder somebody, be afraid of his sword.
52:11: For he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out
52:17: God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Now, wait a minute. What if a government itself begins to turn the sword of their authority against people who do good?
52:28: At that point in time, God will raise up other sovereign nations to restrain that wickedness until the end.
52:39: So, when you have Adolf Hitler killing people and trying to rule the world,
52:45: God will raise up the United States of America and Britain and other countries to fight against that.
52:51: Now, tellingly, the Roman Catholic Church, Rome, they were on the side of Hitler. The fascists under Mussolini, they gathered on that side of the aisle, as did all of the
53:03: Muslims, the Muslim countries. But God used nations to restrain nations.
53:11: What nation right now is restraining the rise of the one world government?
53:19: It's by and large the United States of America, which is why the goal for 2030 is the removal of the
53:25: United States of America as the world's leading superpower. But it's
53:31: God who uses government to restrain evil. Is Jesus against carrying a sword?
53:39: I mean, he told Peter to put it away, right? Which means he had a sword. And he told them when they tried to fight back, to put down your sword because we're not fighting an earthly battle.
53:54: But there was a certain level of self -defense that was appropriate for them. In fact, when they showed
54:01: Jesus a sword, what did he say to them? Of the one they had at the time, that is enough.
54:08: He didn't say get rid of it. He said that's enough. Well, in our day and age, guns are like the sword of the first century.
54:17: And the right to bear arms is restraining so much of the evil that would otherwise overtake a country.
54:24: This has been true since the American Revolution and even before. The sword is in the hand of governors to restrain the wickedness of men.
54:36: And it's God's design. So we've said three spheres of government. Now this is important. The three spheres of government that God, the
54:43: Holy Spirit, is using to hold at bay the Antichrist spirit in the land are number one, conscience.
54:51: That's good, your answer. Number two, the family. And number three, governments, right? Sovereign nations.
54:59: The fourth sphere of government that Christ rules through his
55:04: Holy Spirit is the church. But we're not in favor of some sacralism where the church and the state are married so that the church has authority over the civil rulers.
55:19: That was a failed experiment. And the discoveries of the
55:25: American Revolution and prior were the separation of church and state in the sense that the church is not to rule by ecclesiastical authority over the nations.
55:39: Rather, we have prophetic witness over all the spheres of life. We have authority here.
55:48: The elders of this church have authority in the church. But not authority to tell the state and institute laws, right?
55:58: But what can we do in this sphere of our authority? We are like John the Baptist who in his prophetic ministry looked at Herod and said it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.
56:15: And they cut off his head for saying so. But he said it.
56:20: And it was his role to preach that way. In the same way, you are salt, you are light, you are truth -tellers in the world, prophetically telling the truth to individuals appealing to their conscience, to families, building up the family, and to governments.
56:38: We say, no, it is not okay that you want to kill the babies in the womb. We prophetically say that.
56:46: Do you have any idea why it is that the bill that was attempted last week failed?
56:54: Forty -nine democrats wanted to kill all the babies. One of them said no, but he would have gone along with it if it had only gone as far as Roe.
57:05: So he's only moderately pro -death. Manchin. By God's grace, the 50 men and women on the
57:15: Republican side restrain the evil of that law, not necessarily because they are actually genuinely pro -life, by the way.
57:23: Probably a majority aren't, but they know that the evangelical church is their constituency.
57:29: And our prophetic voice, standing in front of the abortion center and telling one another that you are never to vote for a baby killer, they know this.
57:40: And as a result, that bill failed. And that's also how the justices were appointed.
57:47: For that same reason. And Roe v. Wade, it looks like, will be overturned. Do you understand what
57:52: I'm saying? It is the church's prophetic witness in the world that restrains the evil of the
57:58: Antichrist spirit, which is already present. Now that's an important teaching.
58:05: Because it says something about who we are to be in the world. Prophets. And so let's read on, 2
58:14: Thessalonians. The next point is very interesting. If you found that one dull, what does this one mean?
58:25: You better not have found that dull. It says in verse 7, only he who now restrains it,
58:33: I'm telling you that's the Holy Spirit, at ministry through the church, prophetically restraining evil in the world, right?
58:41: Will do so. Now look at this last phrase, which is drastic. Think about it. Until he is out of the way.
58:53: What does that mean? He, the creator of the heavens and the earth, would ever be out of the way?
59:03: He, the Holy Spirit, will be out of the Antichrist way? Well, it's completely consistent with the message of this text to say that this verse refers to the rapture of the church.
59:21: He will be out of the way. Now listen, you need to understand something about the Holy Spirit in the different ages of this world.
59:30: Because his ministry changes even though he remains the same. When he was brooding over the face of the earth in Genesis 1 -1, when the covenant was made with Noah and with Abraham in Genesis 12,
59:46: Moses in Exodus 20, David in 2 Samuel 7 -14. In each case, the ministry of the
59:52: Holy Spirit has a different variation. But the starkest difference is the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant.
01:00:05: That's why Hebrews describes it as old and new. When you say something is old and another thing is new, you're representing a radical change, a discontinuity from something old to something new.
01:00:20: In the old covenant, they had the law of Moses, these outward commandments, and yet the
01:00:26: Israelites were constantly going astray, never faithful to the commandments given.
01:00:33: They were often under the curses of Deuteronomy 28 and 29, and not the blessings.
01:00:39: Yet they had the law of God. Consider David himself. In the old covenant, the ministry of the
01:00:47: Holy Spirit would come on someone. So Saul, at times, they would say he's a prophet or a son of the prophets.
01:00:55: At other times, he's got a javelin and he's trying to pin David to the wall and chasing him through the countryside, completely inconsistent.
01:01:06: King David himself is writing hundreds of psalms of praise and worship.
01:01:11: He has the courage and the boldness of a lion to stand up to the giant, Goliath. And then in the next moment, he's numbering the troops.
01:01:21: Or earlier, he's sleeping with Bathsheba, Uriah's wife.
01:01:28: And sending for Uriah to try to cover it up and then sending
01:01:33: Uriah to the front line of the battle to have him killed. Here is the great king after God's own heart, who's an adulterer and a murderer.
01:01:44: And in Psalm 51, David will repent of that and say, take not your Holy Spirit from me.
01:01:49: He's aware that the old covenant ministry, there's a certain distance.
01:01:55: The Spirit is not operating in the hearts in the same way that we now experience.
01:02:03: Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, Joel 2, all of these foretold the coming of the new covenant.
01:02:08: When God would do something differently, not just an outward conformity to his word, but the
01:02:13: Holy Spirit will take hearts of stone and turn them into hearts of flesh. He will now put his
01:02:19: Spirit inside of you. So consider the difference between Peter when confronted by that servant girl, do you know
01:02:28: Jesus? Without the new ministry of the Holy Spirit, he's quivering.
01:02:35: He has no courage. And he denies even knowing Christ three times just days later you find
01:02:46: Peter standing in the streets of Jerusalem preaching Christ as the
01:02:53: King and the Son of David, who died and who rose from the dead. And 3 ,000 people come and believe and are baptized right there that day.
01:03:05: Do you know the difference between Peter post -Pentecost and his pre -Pentecost version of himself?
01:03:13: The difference is the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Holy Spirit changed at Pentecost.
01:03:19: The new covenant brought the Spirit of the living God like fire into the believers and gave them courage and passion and victory over sin.
01:03:28: It changed their morality. We can be consistent as Christians, not committing adultery all the days of our life.
01:03:37: Living with purity and victory and advancing the kingdom.
01:03:43: You see, the difference for Peter was the Holy Spirit. Now, in our text, something drastic happens at the end of verse 7.
01:03:50: It says, until the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way. As drastic was the coming of the
01:03:58: Holy Spirit at Pentecost, so will be the difference between when we had the
01:04:06: Spirit in the church and when he's gone. That's what he's saying.
01:04:13: Until he is out of the way. And consistent with what we know from 1
01:04:19: Thessalonians 4, that refers to the rapture of the church. Because we're told we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in the twinkling of an eye.
01:04:32: Something drastic's about to happen. 1 Thessalonians 4 says, we will not precede those who have fallen asleep, those who are dead in Christ, but they will be resurrected to meet the
01:04:44: Lord in the air, and so we will be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. I'm not saying that the
01:04:51: Holy Spirit won't be in the world after that. Because the Holy Spirit was in the world before, even from Genesis 1 -1, and he always will be.
01:05:00: He's omnipresent. What I'm saying is, his ministry changes as dispensations change.
01:05:07: Pentecost was a drastic change and there's coming a drastic change called the rapture of the church.
01:05:14: Until that happens, until the Holy Spirit lifts from the earth with his church, until that happens, evil is restrained.
01:05:29: Look around you. Chicken Little thought the sky was falling.
01:05:35: Right? But it was really a fox throwing little pieces of wood on his head. And so he rallied the other animals to leave the safety of the chicken coop to run to a cave, and that turned out to be the fox's den.
01:05:49: Stupid Chicken Little. He was being toyed with by the fox. Guys, the sky is not falling.
01:06:01: There is one on the throne and he is the restrainer. He is here. Look at the world around you.
01:06:07: When you go out, to me sometimes it looks like the Garden of Eden. Do you see all the flowers blossoming in your yard and in your neighborhood?
01:06:16: Go for a run and feel the coolness of the air and see the blueness of the sky.
01:06:22: You live in a world that was made like the Garden but fell into sin. Yes, you know what?
01:06:30: How bad is the wickedness of the men around us? It's worse than we know. The spirit of lawlessness, what you see of your neighbors, the outside face that they paint for themselves, that's their good presentation of how they want to look.
01:06:47: How deep is the darkness inside their hearts? Or ours before we came to know
01:06:52: Christ? Not all of us would make it home today if the Holy Spirit wasn't restraining evil in the world.
01:07:02: There is a restrainer who's holding everything as he wants it. And so we ought to look at the world this way.
01:07:11: We live in the age of the Spirit. This is a huge, important teaching.
01:07:18: The disciples missed it because when Jesus said that not many days from now you will be baptized with the
01:07:24: Holy Spirit, they said, are you now going to restore the kingdom? Acts chapter 1. They were worried about the coming eschaton, the eschatology, the end times.
01:07:33: And they're saying, is this the end? And Jesus told them what? It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the
01:07:41: Father has set by his own authority. Are we in the end times?
01:07:47: Well, we've been in the end times since 1 Thessalonians when it was already at work. And 2 Thessalonians, already at work.
01:07:56: But you will receive power when the
01:08:01: Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
01:08:09: That's the issue of Acts chapter 1. He's given us his Spirit. And that Spirit will restrain evil and allow it to go only so far.
01:08:18: Meanwhile, you have the privilege of being a Spirit indwelt believer and a witness in the nations.
01:08:27: That power that's in you is the power that raised Jesus from the dead. You can go and tell your neighbor about Christ in the power of the
01:08:35: Holy Spirit. You can disciple in the power of the Holy Spirit. You can speak prophetically to governors and to judges.
01:08:48: You and I have the Spirit of the living God. So in closing it says in verse 8, and then the lawless one will be revealed.
01:08:56: Next week we get the second half of that verse which is really fun.
01:09:02: Talk about a great reset. They have that planned and it will last for seven years.
01:09:10: Just a breath. But then Christ will come and set up his millennial kingdom and kill the antichrist by the appearance of his coming.
01:09:18: We'll learn about that next week. None of these things can happen, it says, and then the lawless one will be revealed.
01:09:25: None of these things can happen until the restrainer is taken out of the way. The restrainer is the
01:09:32: Holy Spirit at work in the church. That's the next event. And if that's the case, what should we be afraid of?
01:09:39: In application in your notes, you can read along and think about this more later. Here's how
01:09:45: I would sum up what to do with all this. We have no choice of fight or flight.
01:09:54: Commissioned as soldiers here in this war, for as long as our commander chooses, we are only ever commanded to stand and fight.
01:10:06: Fight the good fight of the faith, 2 Timothy 4. Ephesians 6, we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against authorities and powers in this dark world.
01:10:17: We're only ever called to stand and fight during these days. We stand as instruments of the
01:10:24: Holy Spirit that he uses to restrain the mystery of lawlessness, which is an antichrist spirit about which we are aware, even though the world does not.
01:10:36: We have this knowledge, 1 Corinthians 2, as Christians. The spiritual one, by the way, in 1
01:10:42: Corinthians 2, is not like a super saint that has a special baptism of the Spirit. It refers to all
01:10:48: Christians who have the Spirit. We have this knowledge that the world doesn't have.
01:10:54: Precisely because we are aware of the times, we are duty -bound not to take flight, but instead to fight.
01:11:03: The time of our warfare will come to an abrupt end in a twinkling of an eye. Until then, we fight.
01:11:10: We don't take flight. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word this morning. It is deep, in some ways not easy to understand, but we take you at your word where you say that we know these things.
01:11:26: We've been told. So, Lord, taking you at your word, we believe that the
01:11:34: Holy Spirit in the Church is restraining the wicked intentions of men. So, Lord, I pray that anyone here who has had a spirit of fear about the
01:11:47: Antichrist and the rise of lawlessness in our culture,
01:11:53: I pray that you would replace that spirit of fear with the spirit of peace and power and of a sound mind in the
01:12:00: Holy Spirit. Give us faith. Lord, as we look out and we see mainline denominations dying, we also look around and see conservative churches that hold to your word, growing and growing and strengthening.
01:12:18: So, Lord, it's our prayer that New Jersey would turn toward Christ.
01:12:28: We believe that you can restrain the evil of this land and through the culture of life, raise up more and more
01:12:36: Christians to speak prophetically. Preserve this state until the end.
01:12:44: Lord, we're asking for a revival. In Jesus' name, we pray that you would fill this church with power from on high.
01:12:50: Fill me as the preacher, Lord, that I would proclaim your word as I ought to. I pray for the other faithful churches.
01:12:58: I'm thinking of my friends down in Hamilton at Victory Bible Church and Calvary Chapel Hamilton and Calvary Chapel, Marleton, Gloucester City, Gloucester County, Calvary Chapel, all of these pastors that are faithful.
01:13:13: Pray that you would strengthen them, and we pray, Lord, for a revival in Jersey.
01:13:20: We pray for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand. Blessed assurance
01:13:43: Jesus is mine. Oh, what a poor taste of glory divine.
01:13:53: Air of salvation purchase of God born of His Spirit washed in His blood.
01:14:09: This is my story. This is my song.
01:14:16: Praising my Savior all the day long.
01:14:23: This is my story. This is my song.
01:14:31: Praising my Savior all the day long.
01:14:44: Perfect submission. Perfect delight.
01:14:52: Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
01:14:58: Angels descending ring from above.
01:15:06: Echoes of mercy. Whispers of love.
01:15:12: This is my story. This is my song.
01:15:20: Praising my Savior all the day long.
01:15:27: This is my story. This is my song.
01:15:34: Praising my Savior all the day long.
01:15:48: Perfect submission. All is at rest.
01:15:55: I and my Savior am happy and blessed.
01:16:02: Watching and waiting. Looking above.
01:16:09: Filled with His goodness. Lost in His love.
01:16:16: This is my story. This is my song.
01:16:24: Praising my Savior all the day long.
01:16:30: This is my story. This is my song.
01:16:38: Praising my Savior all the day long.
01:16:50: Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our
01:16:55: 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.