Transcription
Now we will beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand, that no man deceive you by any means.
For that day shall not come, except the coming of falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he is God's sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember you not that when I was with you I told you these things? Now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letth will let until he be taken out of the way. Then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and so destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they believe not, because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they may all be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Now in this passage Paul makes it very clear that the Lord Jesus will not come until two things happen. A great apostasy, an apostasy is a falling away. They have to be falling away from something. This suggests that they knew God, they knew Christ, they knew the word and they have fallen away from that. And then secondly, the man of sin, the antichrist was to be revealed. Now we know that we've already witnessed a great apostasy in the land. There's been a great falling away in the last years. And so we come to this second prior to the coming of the Lord. He said that they will not come except that man of sin be revealed. A man who is the embodiment of Satan himself, the word revealed here until this man of sin be revealed in Greek means uncovered. It means his plan and agenda exposed. But the apostle saying, Jesus will not come until the church is aware of his agenda. Until this is revealed, this man of sins agenda. And you'll find that in the root word in Greek. You will find that there very, very clearly. It doesn't mean that there's going to be a manifestation of him on the throne. Doesn't mean that we're going to know his name. It means that Jesus could come at any time because this mystery of iniquity was going to bring the antichrist into power was already at work in the time of the apostle Paul. He said the mystery of iniquity is already work. The mystery of iniquity there is lawlessness. Now, if you follow it to the root word, it's silent initiation. The silent initiation was understood even in Paul's day. And he saw the seed of it forming in the church. We are now seeing the fulfillment. It has grown into a tree. It has spread its roots around the world. We're seeing the fullness of this manifestation or this mystery of iniquity, this silent initiation into the cult of the antichrist. A most mysterious form of iniquity is going to bring in the antichrist. There's going to be before he comes to power. And what's going to bring him to power is this mysterious, almost demonic mist. There's something that grips the hearts of mankind that would enable him to suddenly come to power. And folks, there's a mysterious power work right now that makes me know that in a very short time he could come to power. There's something at work we're witnessing the revelation of the spirit of antichrist. Jesus will not come except that man of sin be revealed until we understand what it is that's going to bring him to power so that none of us be deceived, so that you escape this completely.
Now the cult of the antichrist is already being established. Every day now, multitudes, masses of people are being initiated right now and prepared. They're already brainwashed for it. And I'll explain that. It's simply this, this mystery of iniquity. Satan is going to seduce masses into the depths of lawlessness, the mystery of lawlessness. They're going to become absolutely without law, without any restraint. The Holy Ghost is the restrainer. The Bible makes it clear there'll come a time when the Holy Spirit, the restrainer will be lifted. And lawlessness, absolute lawlessness will break forth. Now this mystery of lawlessness is not a civic lawlessness. It's a spirit of lawlessness that has to do with the word of the living God. That Satan brought in the garden when he said to Eve, God is easy in other words. There is no penalty for sin or disobedience. You can eat this fruit, you can indulge your lust and you will not have to pay for it. There's no penalty for sin. This was the big law. This was the big lie. And this is the lie that Satan is bringing now. This is the mystery of lawlessness. That the devil is going to convince masses of people, multitudes of the last day, that "you can indulge your sin, you can indulge in homosexuality, you can indulge in pornography, you can indulge in fornication, you can indulge in marital infidelity, permissive sex, pornography, whatever it may be, you can indulge in anything in your flesh." "God is easy." He (Satan) will try to pervert the message of grace. He (Satan) will try to make it a message of permissiveness. And folks, this lie is spreading. It's already taken over our society. It's already taken over the American society. So much so that we don't even want to judge our leaders when they sin. It's an amazing thing, the seduction, the blindness that is coming upon America. This great mist, this great cloud that has fallen over this nation, this great delusion, this great lie. Paul had a solemn warning. He said, in so many words, don't be ignorant of the mystery of lawlessness. Pray that the Holy Ghost will open your eyes to this secret power that Satan is using to recruit people now into the end of Christ's cult. Sadly, I'm gonna have to say this, that there are many of you here tonight listening to me. You already have this spirit at work in you. Paul said, is at work the spirit of lawlessness, this mystery of iniquity of lawlessness is already at work. And it's at work in many so-called Christians and believers who have heard the word, they've sat under anointed preaching. They have been in this book, but because they have not obeyed it, because they refuse to respect it, they've not allowed the Holy Ghost to make that word life. And they have walked in disobedience against the word, the spirit of lawlessness. Because when you disobey it, that spirit of lawlessness sets in. And you begin to wink at sin first, then you begin to look for a mercy, a message of mercy and grace beyond anything God intended, because the mercy of God is intended to lead us to repentance. Many of you are being recruited for the Antichrist's cult, who will miss the coming of Christ and who will gladly receive the Antichrist, thinking that he's a man of God.
Paul said "His coming to power is after the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." Now Paul makes it very plain, listen to what he's saying. Satan's going to deceive the masses by exerting a certain power, a lying wonder. He's going to be successful in pulling off the greatest miracle of miracles in the history of mankind. He is going to deceive masses around the world with a lie. He's going to deceive with lying wonders, lying wonders. The wonder is going to be that so many buy it. The miracle is that nobody could conceive it possible that entire nations could be deceived like this, deceiving masses into turning away from the truth of God, in turning people away from the love of the truth. And the lie is this, I said it, I will say it again. God does not mean what he said. There is no penalty for sin. The scripture says with all deception, because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason, what reason? Because they turned away from the truth. And for this reason, God so send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. Now we can't soften that. Theologians have tried, you can't soften it. God said, I will send the delusion. I will cause them to accept the lie because God sees that they have so played with the truth, so tied with the truth, so cast aside. God, after his wooing of the spirit, his gracious message of mercy time and time again, year after year pleading and wooing. And then finally the door is shut, the truth is rejected. It's cast aside. And the Lord says, all right, I'll give you over to the lie. The same thing did in Romans one, when God turned over those who tried to hold the truth in unrighteousness over to a homosexual lifestyle. He turned them over. In fact, the Bible said to a repubate mind because they tried to retain the truth in unrighteousness. They wanted Jesus and their sin at the same time. They wanted to be able to go out and lay with the man and a woman lay with the woman and still worship God. And God said, finally says, there is no hope they will never, God in his foreknowledge knows that that individual will never receive the truth. It will never get through. They will never open it. God says, all right, I give you over to your lie. And the lie is finally that I have a false peace. I have a false happiness because I know that I can do what I please. This nation is under a delusion, believing a lie. And because nobody believes there's a penalty for sin because here we are sitting away like drunken sailors and we're prospering. "Where is the God of judgment?" "Where's the God of wrath?" We've got multitudes of people sitting in front of their internet, sitting in front of their computers, watching pornography, renting X-rated movies. And now they have a guilty conscience and they have their minds warped. The nation is in delusion. They're believing a lie. Now we're going to have a whole country, one of these days of young people saying, hey, congressmen get away with it, the president gets away with it. Where's the penalty? 65% of our college students now confess that they cheat regularly and they don't believe there's anything wrong because they said there's no penalty, no penalty. That's the big lie of these last days. You can get by with it. We don't believe the Bible said, be sure your sin will find you out because we don't believe his word anymore. You say, "brother, where's all this grace preaching you've been giving us?" This is grace. This is grace. This is mercy. For this reason, because they turned away from the truth. God shall send this strong delusion that they should believe a lie. I believe, many Christians believe they're on the way to heaven, going the other away, going to hell. Because what's happening today goes beyond human depravity because what we're seeing now is supernatural. It's demonic. It's the devil himself, a mad devil coming down to the earth knowing his time is short and he's going after the body of Jesus Christ. When men reject the truth of God, he sends retribution. There's a price to pay when we reject the word of God.
Paul warned for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables. Folks, who are these deceived masses? Who is the apostle talking about? Folks, it was not for the Roman idolaters. It wasn't for the idolaters in Greece. He was speaking to the church. This letter to the Thessalonians, to the believers, to the born again believers. This was a warning to the church. He's saying, "Church, there's coming a time in your midst. There are many of you not going to endure sound doctrine anymore. They're going to turn against it because of the lust of their own flesh and because they don't want to give up the lust of their flesh, they're going to run around and find teachers who will comfort them in their sins. And you can find churches all over New York City that are going to comfort you. There have been people that sat under Holy Ghost convicting preaching in this church and got mad at it. They didn't want to lay their sin down. They didn't want to deal with it through the power of the Holy Ghost. And so they walked out and say, "That's heart, that's cruel, that's not grace, that's not mercy." And they went and found an easy church. And I can always tell you where there is sin in the pulpit. I can always tell when a pastor is living in sin. So can any other discerning believer because he gets softer and softer and softer on sin. And he'll make you comfortable as you can be. And he'll almost say, "Well, you know, God really doesn't look at sin the way we do." And I sit there and say, "Oh boy, somebody needs to pray for this man. This congregation is being led to hell." God helping us, it'll never happen in this church. Paul's addressing Christians. He said, "If you hold to your pleasure, if you hold to your lust, you turn aside from the teachers who are going to bring conviction on that, to bring the Word of God to you." You see, he's not talking the wicked because the wicked have always been destitute of the truth, the Bible says. The Bible said they turned away, they trampled truth, and fallen to the streets. They had never been involved with the truth. They couldn't apostatize because there was nothing to apostatize from. They couldn't fall away because they were never there. He's talking about those who confessed. They knew the Lord. They turned the truth of God into a lie. And for this reason, God gave them up to their vile affections. He said, "There are others that turn to these false teachers who bring in damnable heresies. Many shall follow their pernicious ways, speaking evil of the truth." And he's talking to the church. Many who are believing that they're on their way to heaven, many confessed Christians are going to follow these false teachers. The message of Paul the Apostle here is, "Saints, you better learn to love the truth. You had better get into it and search out the Scriptures. You need to pray, Holy Ghost, put a love in my heart for your word." And he was saying, "Search it out, dig it out, trust your life to it, and obey what the word says. Let the word of God bring fear to your heart, tremble at it." The Bible said even the devils believe and tremble. They know this word, they tremble at it. I don't have to preach any kind of a message that make you love me. If I'm preaching his gospel, I'm under his anointing, and I'm living his life, you'll love the word that comes. You will love what God is saying to you. And I want you to hear me in the balcony, everyone in this place, because this is life and death, a warning to pastors, a warning to myself and all of us.
The Bible makes it clear in these last days before Jesus comes, Satan is going to come with such temptation, he's gonna come with such a flood, a filth, he's gonna come with such power that he's gonna try to deceive if it were possible to elect. And I tell you now, weeping, I don't care how long you've walked with Jesus, I don't care how long you've known the Lord, I don't care how long you have been in the word, I don't care how close to Jesus you are, you are gonna be tempted like you have never been tempted in your life. You're gonna face temptations you thought were impossible. The devil knows your weak place, he knows where you are weak and he's gonna come and attack that and in some he's gonna attack places where you never thought possible, even at your strongest points and at your weakest points. Some of you are sitting here now saying, how can that be? You are gonna be overwhelmed with temptation. It's going to come from out of the very bowels of hell against pastors. Some of you, the temptation is going to be to doubt of the faithfulness of God. You're gonna have doubts about the very reality of God. Satan is gonna come and try to make you disbelieve the word of God. He's gonna try to tell you that God doesn't answer your prayers, that you'll be bound by sin the rest of your life, he'll lie to you and the big lie will be in that line. It's gonna come, so get ready. Don't be surprised when it happens. He will come to some of you with lust that you've never conceived possible. He'll come at you through family. He'll come at you all kinds of ways and on the job he's gonna come with all deceivableness to try to deceive if it were possible even the elect. The greatest danger, those who are in the greatest danger being deceived are the believers who once gladly heard the truth but will not obey it. Paul said you did run well, you were doing fine. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth now? Paul said who bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? He said what happened? You've been brainwashed, you've been bewitched. What happened to you? You were doing well. What happened? Folks, this matter of obedience to the word of God is life and death. Is there something that's laid hold of your life and has sunken so deep into you now and the word of the Lord has come either through preaching from this pulpit or through an article you've read or you were reading the word of the Lord and the Holy Ghost made that real to you and said in patience and in a wooing kind voice, I want you to lay that down because that standing between you and me and full blessed communion and I can no longer bless you while you persist in your lust. God says lay it down before I expose it, before it just absolutely destroys your life. I'm telling you now obey me and think it's thou this old man that judges them which do such things and you do the same that you shall escape the judgment of God. You know what he's saying? You are testifying, you're a Christian. You go to Times Square Church but are you doing the same thing your co-workers are doing on the job? Are you telling people don't commit adultery? Are you committing adultery? That's the context. You despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. He said how long have I been merciful to you? God is saying, He said don't you know all this goodness, all of these months and all of this time that I've allowed for this and I've dealt with you so lovingly and kindly. He said don't you know that that was to lead you to repentance? This goodness of God, this mercy, this grace of God. God said I came to you in great mercy and great love but after the hardness and impenement heart and treasures up to thyself, wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds. That's the same thing, be sure your sin will find you. God said I'll deal with you according to your secret life. I'll deal with you that way. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness there will be indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, the Jew first and also the Gentile. The glory, honor and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also the Gentile. For there is no respect of persons with God. Now God says I'm asking for total complete obedience to what I've told you to do. You respect and love the word by doing it, by obeying the word. You're absolutely able to fulfill the law in Christ Jesus when you come to him and say, "Lord, I don't wanna be a part of this Antichrist system." He's going to come and set up his kingdom in the hearts of people. And there are people that are ripe for the Antichrist. Right now you are being silently initiated into this mystery of iniquity. You are silently now being influenced so that you will believe a lie so that when this personality comes along how else do you describe Hitler coming to power in Protestant Germany under Lutherans and Pentecostals? Backslidden Christians who rejected the word of God. Now folks, I'm not indicting all the Lutherans. This was a Lutheran country. Hitler came to power under Lutheranism. There were powerful Lutheran preachers who stood up against Hitler and thousands of Lutheran Christians, but there were Pentecostal preachers and Pentecostal people lining in the streets of Berlin when his entourage went by. "Hail Hitler" They were praising this devil. They received him as a god. Christians, don't tell me that you can't be deceived. In fact, I believe Backslidden Christians who rejected the truth will be the first to bring him to power. They will have believed a lie. The Lord says because they believe not the truth, God so send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Folks, no believer can be brainwashed that baptizes themselves in the word of God. Gets along with God and say "oh Jesus, put the feared God in my heart. Let me see this and read it." Folks, we have Pentecostals deceived all over this nation. We've got Baptists deceived. We've got Charismatics deceived. Totally deceived because they would not settle down under the truth and receive the truth and let that truth change their lives. I know one thing, and with this I close, I know one thing I am sure of. There is no doubt at all. There is total victory. God has made a covenant promise to every one of us, to you and to me, that we can get along with God. We can get along with Jesus in the secret closet of prayer. And he said he'll give the Holy Ghost to anyone who asked. And we can ask for a double portion of the Holy Ghost. We can ask him to come down and fill us and refill us and baptize us and rebaptize us and send such power and glory from heaven that the devil doesn't stand a chance that he will remove all delusion out of your mind and God give you victory over your sin.
And all God asks of you tonight is declare war on your sin. Declare war on your lust. Declare war, I will not make peace with it. I'll not live with it! God says, look in the mirror and say, this is sin. I acknowledge it before God. I want freedom. God says, you ask and you're going to receive and I promise you God will deliver you, not in your own strength and your power, but through the anointing and power of the Holy Ghost. Glory to God. Folks, why did God send the Holy Ghost? To deliver us. If ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live through the spirit of the living God and not by your flesh. Hallelujah. Glory to God.