Called: The Quest To Represent!

 

 

"Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, ² that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. ³ Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. ⁵ Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? ⁶ And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed."

II Thessalonians 2:1-6

 

 

Good Morning my beloved,  

 

Welcome to worship this Lord's Day!

 

We are so glad that all of you are here with us today.

 

 

One of the things that has most touched my life, is how caring, kind and generous some of you have been to my family. Your love, support, prayers, and some of you, have really gone out of your way to demonstrate the love and compassion of Christ to meet our needs. I rejoice in that, I just want you to know how grateful I am for all of you. There is no moment, in this ministry, that I have not experienced joy because of you! The Holy Spirit has touched your hearts, moved through you and I am deeply touched. Thank you for not only participating in this ministry, but participating in our lives. You, through your generosity, have enabled my family, to keep our home, you have helped in providing our needs, so many of our needs, all because of the Holy Spirit's work through you, I am grateful. Beloved, never underestimate that the Word of God is filled with the explosive and penetrating power to change lives!

Wherever God is at work, we can be assured that Satan will dispatch his evil forces, in an attempt to stop Him. When you experience some great work of God in your life, some profound blessing from above, it is also likely that you have experienced, on the heels of that blessing, some unexpected temptation, some form of persecution or discouragement, or even a tragedy. It's what we call a mountain top moment.

  

 

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

 

Heavenly Father,

 

Father, thank You for this great Word, though I feel inadequate to teach Your wonderful revealed truth, I pray, as I always do, that Your wisdom and knowledge would speak through me. Thank You for these wonderful people that You has chosen to be with us today, lead me to effectively lead them, that their lives might be changed, through Your Spirit. Lord, I pray, that you will be merciful to men who have been compromised, those who fear legitimately, they will lose their voice, silenced by the power of men, if they speak the truth. I pray that You will use them mightily for Your glory and Christ's sake. Lord, I also pray for those gathered with us, that are hearing to these great truths, that You would accomplish in and through these wonderful believers, more effective servants of the Gospel.

We pray this in Christ's name

Amen 

Today's Message: Called: The Quest To Represent!!

When we receive Christ, and we call ourselves "Christian," we from that moment, represent Jesus Christ in the eyes of the world. When I say I am a Christian, all of my actions, all of words affect the image others have of Jesus Christ. Whether they are for the good or for the bad.

 

It is for this reason, that the Apostle Paul wrote the words of  II Thessalonians 1:11-12, "To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 

 

I'd like to draw your attention to what Paul said at the beginning of verse twelve, "so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you," That means that our actions and words, either are bringing or failing to bring glory to Jesus. As Christians, we often use words like glory, grace, sanctified, and a whole lot of other "God talk." However, I have to wonder, how many of us may not really understand all that those words mean.

I often wonder, just how many of us have heard and used these words over and over, without really understanding their biblical meaning. I also wonder, how many of us may not understand what certain words mean but we do not ask, because we do not want to appear ignorant to others. Then, I wonder how many of us, that may know the meaning of what these words mean, however, we have heard and used them so frequently, for so long, that the words have lost their meaning and power.

 

I believe that we occasionally, need to pause, and take a closer look, to re-discover the meanings and the power bound up in the words we use in church and to others. Allow me to remind you, that our words and actions are supposed to bring "glory" to Jesus Christ. I believe with all my heart, that because Christ, is not here in person, that we are to represent Him to the world.  I believe that means making Jesus look good in the eyes of the world. That our lives should show His goodness, purity, and love so strongly, that no person could help but love and obey Him. That the world would see the grace, love, compassion and power of Jesus Christ, in us.

Proverbs 4:23-24 teaches us that we must "Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you."

 

I believe that means that in everything we say and do, how we respond to those we disagree with, we are representing Jesus Christ! It is a great responsibility that we carry, one we should not be taking lightly! When we allow the love of God to reveal itself in our lives then we properly represent Jesus and we bring glory to Him. 

 
It causes me to wonder, just how many people, have said to themselves, because of our words and actions, "I’m not going to church, I don't believe in God, because the church is full of hypocrites. They act no better than I do....and they call themselves a Christian!"

 

Unfortunately we do not always know the impact or the results, when we choose to represent Jesus Christ poorly to others. People, who we may not know, that are watching or listening to the words we say and the things we do. Those we know, are often more forgiving of our words and actions, they make excuses for us, saying things like, "They're having a bad day, or their under a lot of pressure. They're going through a difficult season right now."

 

Beloved, this is why the Apostle Paul said in II Corinthians 13:5 "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?" May I remind you, that Paul was speaking to the church!

 

Open with me your Bibles to the Book of II Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses 1 through 6.  As you are turning there, allow me to remind all of you, that the Bible, the Holy Scripture, is unique among all books that have ever been written, because it accurately foretells specific events, in great detail, often centuries before they occur.And, as we grow and mature in the faith, God, as His chooses, He reveals things to us that were once, beyond our comprehension and understanding. 

 

May I also remind you, that there are roughly, 2,500 prophecies in the Word of God and we see that approximately 2,000 of them, have already been fulfilled, to the letter and without error! The chances of this just randomly occurring, statistically speaking, is no less than impossible. 

 

So today, as we look at this portion of God's Word, let us be reminded, of Whom we serve, I believe, this should cause us to fall to our knees, to worship the One true and living God! 

 

I encourage you to follow along with me as I read to you from II Thessalonians 2:1-6. Listen for the Word of our Lord.

 

"Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, ² that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. ³ Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. ⁵ Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? ⁶ And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed."

 

Not unlike many Christians today, these first century saints in Thessalonica, were confused in the matters pertaining to eschatology, the final events surrounding the imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ in judgment. Allow me to remind you, that these believers, were experiencing severe persecution and that, combined with the false teachers, led them to believe that they were living in the day of judgement, the day of the Lord. We know from prophecy, that the day of the Lord, will bring cataclysmic judgments upon unbelievers, just prior to Christ's physical return to the earth. Remember, that in Paul's first letter to Thessalonica, he explained to them that this would be a time of judgment for unbelievers. And for believers, in order to bring them comfort, he taught them about the great snatching away, that will take place, and the rapture of the church, that will precede it. 

In I Thessalonians 5:9-11, Paul wrote that "For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing."

 

And, in the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John wrote, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these words, 

"Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth."

 

Unfortunately, however, then, as now, false teachers were teaching that the very opposite was true. These false teachers, forged a letter purportedly from the Apostle Paul, that stated something quite different than what Paul had previously taught them. In other words, that they would experience the fury of the divine wrath of God and, in fact, they were in the midst of it right this very moment! 

 

So, Paul must refute the words of the false teacher, those terrible lies, to expand upon what he had previously taught them that they had evidently forgotten or had become confused over, especially one key piece of evidence that would undoubtedly prove that they're not living in the day of the Lord, namely that the antichrist, the one who has been prophesied in the Old Testament, predicted by Jesus as well, the antichrist had not yet appeared.

 

These first six verses in our passage today, I believe are best understood by examining them as a whole, rather than in part. The precursor of the actual day of the Lord, namely the apostasy, which will be brought on by the man of lawlessness, the antichrist that will be revealed. I believe, that, as many of you already know, for me to properly illustrate this to you, it bears referencing the supporting Scriptures, so bear with me, as we jump around a bit, to illustrate that. I pray that you will be able to get all this down, in such a way, it blesses you and makes sense. I ask that you would pray, that I won't get lost in the details, as I often do, because I really desire that you to understand the bigger picture.

So, beginning in verse 1, Paul says, "Now we request you, brethren," meaning literally, we plead with you. Or we beg you, brethren, "with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." In the original language used by Paul, which refers to the "parousias," meaning  the appearing, the manifestation of the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Coming. I want you to understand, that I believe, that Scripture, the Holy Bible, makes it abundantly clear, that the coming of the Lord, the Messiah, King Jesus, in His royal "parousia," will include a number of specific events, events that we see includes the tribulation period, a period that we often call Daniel's seventieth week of judgment, and all of those things fall under the category of the impending time of judgment called "The day of the Lord."

We know, that in I Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul explained to them, that the believers who were alive would not have any advantage over the believers that had passed away, at the gathering together to meet with the Lord, or the rapture of the church. Together, they would ascend to meet the Lord, in the air. 

Scripture clearly teaches, that the rapture would occur first; the church is going to be removed, then, according to Daniel's prophecy of the seventieth week judgment, judgement will come upon the world. And, I believe that Daniel makes it clear that this will be a time when God completes His judgment upon Israel. So, the church will be removed. And God is going to preserve a remnant of His covenant people to enter the kingdom. However, we know, from Scripture itself, that the rapture of the church, must occur first. which I have attempted to demonstrate to you, through these messages, I have tried to give you sufficient biblical evidence to substantiate my teaching. So I hope that you get that.This is in no way an exhaustive list of profound Scriptural evidence, so get into your Bibles and read them, if you want to know more. Which, you know that you should be doing anyway, right?

Look, I am fully aware that there those critics, teachers of the Word, who have, over the years, called me a lunatic, a heresy, a false teacher, with no supporting evidence, which I will admit, at first, was a rather devastating blow. However, of course, none of them have been able to substantiate their verbal attacks, these false claims! And, the reason that they do not do that, back up their claims with any Scriptural evidence, because there just isn't any.

I also would like you to know, that I have no "hidden agenda," there is "no personal gain," that I stand to benefit nothing by teaching something other than the truth in the Word of God, other than the satisfaction of knowing that on the glorious day, when I stand before the Lord Jesus, giving an account for my work in this ministry, I have the supreme confidence and satisfaction, that I have preached the truth, as it was revealed to me, in accordance to the Holy Scripture, in complete obedience to the Lord.  And, if at some point, the Holy Spirit reveals something to me other than that which I have taught, I will humbly acknowledge before all of you. But that hasn't happened, in all these years!

As a footnote, I'd like you to know that several of these same people, after the compelling evidence that I have given in my teaching throughout the years, are now teaching the same message, which they once called "heresy!" I take no credit for that, by the way, that was through the guidance of the Holy Spirit! Not anything I said or did, apart from God has called me to do. So, it doesn't boost my ego in any way, my confidence is in the Scripture. I realize my own inadequacies. But God gives me the upmost confidence and power to teach His truth, without reservation.

Paul says in verse 2, "that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come." So their hope and their joy and their focus on the Gospel have now been eclipsed in the midst of all of this confusion. The word Paul uses in the Greek, "throeisthai," which is translated as disturbed in the English language. The term means to be alarmed by fright. Notice that Paul also mentions three things that is contributing to their being disturbed, when he says "either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us."

 

So allow me to address the first one, "by a spirit." Paul is referring to the charlatans who claim that they had received, or at least so they thought, some special gift, a revelation from God. And, might I tell you, this is always a great danger in the church when someone claims to have a prophetic voice.  We often see this today, someone believes, or claims to, have received some inspired message and now they're compelled to share it with everyone. That they must now pass it on.

 

The next item Paul mentions, is "a message. "Paul is either speaking about a message, whether by sermon or series of sermons, some form of false teaching. Third, Paul says "or a letter as if from us," we know, according to Scripture, that there was a letter which was obviously a forged letter purporting to be from Paul. Now, evidently all forms of communication of false doctrine were being used in the church at that time. By the way, just as a footnote, this same practice is occurring, all the time, in the church today.

Now obviously, not through forged letters, at least to my knowledge anyway, but through false teaching, through claims of receiving some direct revelation from God, much like the inspired revelation received by the Apostles. I believe this to be very dangerous to the church and the people of God!

 

I believe that this is precisely what Paul is addressing in II Timothy chapter 3, verses 4-5, "treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these."

 

Now, I'd like you to notice what Paul says next in verses 6-7, "For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

 

These false teachers, must have really been successful, in order to lead the believers in Thessalonica astray. I can only imagine what it must have been like.  And, as a result, their hope and their joy has been robbed and they were beginning to doubt the goodness of God and His grace. This is terrible a corruption, of the Body of Christ! Thankfully, today, we have the Holy Bible, as a point of reference, that we can refer back to, to compare it with false teaching. I'd like you to remember, many of the believers during that time in the early church, only had what was being preached at the time. However, these believers had Paul's earlier letter. So these charlatans must have really done a number on them.

 

In verses 3-4, the Apostle Paul writes, " Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,  Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God" In other words, Paul is saying "Do not let anyone mislead you, by any method, any means of false preaching. Don't let anyone trick you with doctrinal error! Don't do that."

 

For the record, Jesus Himself, said the same thing in Matthew 24:4, "And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you."

 

There are so many voices that mislead people, preaching a counterfeit doctrine! Now, I'd like you to understand that you can only counterfeit something of which there is an original. A counterfeit is something that looks as much like the real thing as possible but it's not. For example, you never hear of anyone counterfeiting the Qur'an, Vedas, or the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, Catholic Bible and so on.

The greatest attack by Satan, is on the true Word of God, because that is the one that causes him the most anguish! He only attacks what is deemed to be a threat to his evil works. 

 

It is the responsibility of the pastors, those in church leadership to maintain unity.  Allow me to quickly read to you Ephesians 4:13, "until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."

 

He goes on to say in verses 14-15, "As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,"  

 

Now, as we know, this apostasy which Paul speaks of, basically means a rebellion that must take place before the day of the Lord. A specific rebellion will be in association with the man of lawlessness who will be revealed, the antichrist. I'd like you to understand, that this fits perfectly, as we will see, with both the Old and New Testament passages. It is referring to the work of the final antichrist. Which is recorded in Daniel 7, Daniel 9, Daniel 11, Matthew 24, et cetera. 

 

By the way, the Jews would use the phrase "son of" to indicate a close association; a unique affinity like a son shares with the nature of his father, and in this case, the antichrist will be the very embodiment of destruction. And, we know that he will be utterly devoted to thwarting the intended purposes and the plans of God.

 

In Matthew 24, Jesus prophesied that at the end of the age of grace, there would be increased "lawlessness."  Let's look at verse 12, "Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold." I believe that we are seeing evidence of that kind of defiance against the Most High occurring world today, and it appears to be picking up momentum. I believe that we can clearly see that, in every part of the world. Pastor's being charged with hate speech, arresting church members for singing hymn in front of government buildings, local governments demanding pastor's sermon be "approved" before preaching! If this isn't evidence of the coming age of lawlessness, I don't know what is.

 

Now, allow me to explain something, that it seems a lot of people have trouble discerning. When you see the abomination of desolation, it literally means the abomination which makes desolate; the abomination which lays waste or causes desolation. And, an abomination in biblical terms, means something is a detestable thing; an object of utter abhorrence; that which is repulsive in the eyes of God.

It is speaking of something that is repulsive and vile and revolting, things that would desecrate a holy place. in other words, a direct insult to the glory of God's name.

 

Now, in Revelation 17:4 we see that this " The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality," In this sense, it is describing the great whore of the final apostasy. 

In verse 5, "and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

 

Here, the Apostle John is referring to the ultimate ecumenical church, an enormous amalgam of apostate religions led by the false prophet that will deceive the world. Now, I do not know just how many of you are aware of this, but a man by the name of Bishop Tony Palmer, who is claiming he is speaking under the "spirit of Elijah," with a message from the pope, to bring the father to the sons and the sons to the father. I'd like to point out that he is not Catholic, he is an Anglican, charismatic. He states that "Luther's protest is at last over! That the pope, the Catholic Church now agrees that salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. Now we agree that salvation by grace alone, through faith in Christ alone, calling us to good works. The rest of the doctrine doesn't matter! And if there is no more protest, how can there be a Protestant Church?"

 

Again, an abomination is anything that offends the holiness of God and incites His wrath.

A message of "church unity," or as we know from Scripture, it is the movement toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation. The term, of recent origin, emphasizes what is viewed as the "universality of the Christian faith and unity among churches. That the division of Christianity and the Catholic Church, is openly contradicting the will of Christ." And he uses prayer for the disciples in 

John 17:20-21 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me." In other words, Jesus wants Christians and Catholics to join together in one religion.

 

So, what is this abomination?  Jesus provides us a clue in Matthew 24:15-16 when He says, "Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains." Daniel spoke of this at least three times in Daniel 9:27, in Daniel 11:31, and in Daniel 12:11. These prophesies speak of something that's going to happen in the near future, and also portends a momentous harbinger of something much worse that will happen many centuries or even millennia later.

 

As we study the Scriptures, we see that Satan has always wanted to be worshiped and this is why he is so determined to deceive through false teachers and so forth; he is the father of lies. And, if we just take a look at  II Thessalonians 2:9, notice that he is described as "that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders." Now, I just realized that we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit. As I stated earlier, when I'm teaching, I often get carried away on the supporting Scripture, because the Holy Spirit reveals something else.  

 

In verse 5, allow me to just remind you of what Paul says here, because I know that I have covered a lot of other information since that. So, as just to refresh your minds a bit, "Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? "

 

Then in verse 6,  I want to make sure I cover this, but I'll try to be brief, well.. 

"And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed." Throughout Scripture, we have seen that Satan's greatest efforts and his most violent attempts are reserved for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in His work of redemption. From his initial attempt to eliminate the messianic line through the Egyptians' murder of all the Hebrew male babies in Exodus 1, to Herod's barbaric attempt to kill the Lord Jesus by slaughtering all of the babies around Bethlehem. This has long been the mission of Satan, where he places his greatest effort, to thwart the purposes and plans of God in redemption. We know that he was decisively defeated at the cross, and his fate is sealed, though even today, he remains resolute in his determination to replace righteousness with wickedness. 

 

Or in the words of Isaiah 5:20, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!"

 

So, I believe that it is extremely important for you to understand that Satan is the master counterfeiter who seeks to imitate that which is true, in order to exchange with that which is false. And, we know every authentic counterfeit looks basically appears to be like the real thing. That is his goal, his plan, to appear to be the authentic Gospel, misleading Christians into buying his false doctrine! You have got to see and understand that, it's crucial! Allow me to quickly give you an example, just as there is a Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, a day is soon coming when Satan is going to offer his counterfeit Trinity with the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. Therefore it should be no surprise as a footnote here, that the name "queen of heaven and earth, mother of God," is still used by Roman Catholics to describe Mary. That's heresy! The Bible never refers to Mary, as the queen of heaven and earth! Let me just add, that the Roman Catholic system is far more Babylonian and Jewish than it is Christian. 

 

This poisonous heresy, is a toxic mixture of Babylonian paganism, certain aspects of Judaism, and a distorted form of Christianity, which  became the Roman Catholic Church, a political glue that would hold together the Roman empire. And to this day, Roman Catholics ultimately worship Mary, the holy mother, the "queen of heaven and earth, and the co-mediator." By the way, the coat of arms  word by  Pope John Paul II, bears the letter "M," which stands for Mary, and embroidered on the inside of his robes is the Latin phrase, "Totus tuus sum Maria, Mary, I'm all yours." Throughout history is replete with documented evidences of popes who were notoriously evil. I would encourage you to read "Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy," by Peter DeRosa, who was a former Jesuit, a member of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order, headquartered in Rome. 

 

I submit to you, that the Vatican City in Rome and the Roman Catholic Church is Babylon-ish to the core, it will continue to be a major player in the religious system of the Antichrist and the false prophet. 

Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the first Jesuit pope since the Society of Jesus was founded on August 15, 1534. Consequently, out of the Tower of Babel, the complex of all pagan religions respond, everything from Islam to Hinduism, from Shamanism to Buddhism, they were all birthed by the mother of harlots and the abomination of the earth. All of that was birthed in ancient Babylon. 

 

Allow me to give you a little history here, in Old Testament history we see that the great empire of Babylon was built by King Nebuchadnezzar. It was built in that same place which is today, modern Iraq, the cradle of civilization. You might find it interesting, that all of this wickedness was spawned in the Middle East and it's all going to end in the Middle East. This remains the most hostile region in all of the world in its vicious hatred of God's covenant people, the Jews, as well as His church. By the way, in Revelation 17, the Lord warns about a day that is going to come just before His return when history is going to come full circle. In other words, all of these false religions are going to come home to mama!

They will be rolled up into one religion which will be the worship of the beast personified here as a harlot. The world is world is being prepared this very day for the Great Whore of Babylon! Even the political and economic world systems are the components of Satan. Just look at the world, today, the evangelical church wants to be much more like Disneyland than a house of God, nation after nation, are all planning violence and war,`trying to become a world power. The rest of the nations are cowering in fear to those that are. People are growing more and more violent, increasingly angry, they have become materialistic, idolatrous haters of Christ, haters of the Gospel of grace, they applaud immorality and therefore they are poised to follow a charismatic leader who will offer them peace, hope and change. Beloved, the world stage is being set for the antichrist!  

 

So, let's look more closely verse 6, Paul says, "And you know what restrains him now." So obviously Paul had previously been teaching them about this very issue. The Greek word Paul uses is the word "katechon," literally means "to one who holds back; to hold fast; to keep in check."  In the original language we would call it a neuter participle that seems to leave us without any clear sense of definite reference, however let look at verse 7, for just a moment.

 

"For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way." Paul is speaking about the one whose removal is necessary before the antichrist can be fully manifested. We'll wait and get into all that the next time.

 

In Closing...

 

Each of us had our own appointment with judgment and eternal death because of our own sin. But Jesus kept that appointment for us.

Jesus Christ, represented you and me, when He died on the cross. However, that was not the end of it. Today, He is representing us with the Father in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father, Jesus speaks on our behalf.

Jesus Christ represents us, therefore, we must represent Him in the world. We must busy ourselves with what He would be busy with were He physically here. At the ends of your arms, are His hands and they must be busy, going about His work.

Beloved, we should be so concerned with being good and positives representatives of Christ in the world, while we await His return for His bride, the church.

 

May it be so....

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

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