It’s the same with your own struggle with sin. You have this experience, you look into your own heart, you say, I hate myself. And you need to know what is going on underneath the surface so that you will know what it is that you should really hate. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. And Colin, that’s a pretty hard place to start today’s program. It really is. Mind you, we’re not about fluff and the Bible addresses real life. I think a lot of folks will say, I can connect with that. I’ve said I hate myself, at least in my mind. I’ve looked at, oh, why am I like this? And I’ve struggled with that. And I don’t like what I see. And so what should we hate? Well, we’re going to look at the fact that sin is the thing that we’re to hate. It’s not yourself you should hate. It’s sin within you. We’re to learn to loathe what is evil, hate what is evil and cling to what is good. And the wonderful thing is that God is in the business of redeeming you from sin, separating you from it and separating it from you. And so the hate rightly directed can be very, very useful. And we’re going to look at how that works from the scriptures today. And the scriptures are Second Thessalonians chapter two, the first seven verses. So I hope you’ll be able to join us as we begin the message, the Antichrist exalting himself. Here’s Colin. Well, please open your Bible at Second Thessalonians. We’re continuing our series in this marvellous letter that’s all about how Christ enables his people to persevere. In chapter one, we have found so far three strategies for staying the course. The first is simply exercise faith and practice love. If you want to have perseverance, this is what it grows from. Exercise faith, practice love, and you will have perseverance. Second strategy, trust what you suffer into the hands of God. God is just, and so you can trust into his hands what is not sorted out in your life in this world. Third strategy, anticipate your glorious future in Jesus Christ. And what is that future? You will see Christ’s glory. You will be glorified in him, and he will be glorified in us, his people, the great company of the redeemed, who are only in heaven for one reason, and that has nothing to do with us. It is the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, our very presence there brings glory to him. Now, the whole point of chapter one is this. When it’s tough to keep going, when you’re weary of the battle, when you’re fatigued in the struggle of living the Christian life, of getting through what you’re facing, these are the things that we must build into our lives. They’re the strategies by which Christ enables us to persevere. Now, today we come to chapter two. The series is entitled Staying the Course When You’re Tired of the Battle, and chapter one, as we’ve seen, has been all about finding strength for staying the course. Chapter two is all about discerning or understanding the nature of the battle in which we find ourselves in this world. Think again about the battles that may wear you out. It may be a rebellious son or a rebellious daughter, a difficult colleague at work, and just the strain of dealing with that is wearing you down. Or perhaps you’re doing something for Christ. You’re attempting to move ministry forward and you’re facing opposition at every turn. Or perhaps it is simply your own struggle with sin and temptation in your own inner life, and you sometimes look at yourself and you say, what in the world is going on inside of me? Well, this chapter gives us wisdom for discerning the battle. What’s going on under the surface of the great struggle that you are engaged in in your life? This is the inside story, if you like, of what is going on behind the scenes. And if you are going to stay the course, then you need to be able to discern the battle. Now, God speaks to us about this important subject in Scripture. In various places, he lifts the veil so that we may have a look at the unseen forces that lie behind the events of our lives, forces that operate in the spiritual realm. And perhaps the best known of these passages of Scripture is Ephesians in chapter six. That will be familiar, I think, to all of us, perhaps more familiar than this passage, which is why I mention it. You remember that Paul says there, our struggle, your struggle, my struggle, is not against flesh and blood. Our struggle is not essentially people. Because behind the struggles that we may have with people, he says this, we’re struggling against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. That’s Ephesians chapter six and verse twelve. So he’s saying, understand this, people are not the problem. It may seem that way, but always remember this, that our struggle, your struggle, and mine is not against flesh and blood. That’s not the primary issue. And so when you’re feeling worn out with this battle against the rebellious son or daughter or the difficult colleague or whatever, remember this, that behind him or her there are spiritual forces at work. There’s more going on than his behavior. There’s something behind it. You need to understand what it is. When you’re struggling with the way that certain people do business in your industry, and it is really hard for you as a Christian, the real issue is not simply these people who you can think of and name right now. Behind them there are spiritual forces that are at work in their lives and more widely. You can’t see them, but you need to understand what’s going on. And it’s the same with your own struggle with sin. Sometimes you, you have this experience, you look into your own heart, you say, I hate myself. And you need to know what is going on underneath the surface so that you will know what it is that you should really hate. Wisdom for discerning the battle. That’s what chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians is all about. This chapter then is about spiritual forces that are at work in the world that will be uniquely expressed in the future in one man who will appear on the scene at the time of Christ’s second coming. It is more broadly about the battle that all of us face in life, how that battle will intensify as we come towards the ultimate confrontation when Jesus Christ himself will be revealed. So that’s the relevance of this chapter. God willing, we’ll be in it for three weekends. It’s of huge importance for you and for me to discern what’s really going on in the battle. I hope you have your Bible open in front of you. Let’s look at what it says. First, the chapter begins with a rumor concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him. We ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report, or letter supposed to have come from us saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Now, evidently, word had got around amongst these new believers that the day of the Lord – we’ll come to that in a moment – had already come. It’s not immediately obvious exactly what this would have meant. It may be that some people who had come to the church, even that early on, denied the doctrine of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and suggested that what we were to look for was really fulfilled by Christ’s spiritual presence that was already there in the church. Throughout history, that suggestion has often been made. People who do not believe, they deny the doctrine of the second coming of the Lord Jesus, they see ministry purely in terms of this world, they have often gone in the direction of instead of seeing the hope of the world in Jesus Christ and his return, they have shifted and they have said basically the hope of the world is in us, in the church, in the community that we’re able to create, in the good works that we’re able to do around the world, and so forth and so on. It may have been thinking like that that was troubling this early church. It’s not clear exactly how these ideas got around among the believers, but it does seem that people may have picked this up in different ways, which if you think about it is usually the case. If you have the Bible open there, you’ll see a reference to some prophecy. That is, someone got up and said in a meeting that they had had a direct revelation from God. God’s told me this, they said, as people sometimes said and people believed it. They said the day of the Lord’s already come. It seems that there was a forged letter. Paul says a letter supposed to have come from us, a letter forged as if it had been from Paul saying that the day of the Lord had already come. Added to that, it may simply have been a report. He uses that word there, prophecy, forged letter, or a report, which is what we would call today simply a rumor that got around. You know how this kind of thing happens. People are meeting over breakfast and they’re engaged in conversation and folks are running into each other in the grocery store. Did you hear there’s a letter from Paul? Oh yeah, apparently. We were talking about that in our small group last night. Apparently Paul’s written a letter. Oh yes, you heard about that. I hear he says that the day of the Lord has really come. Oh really? Yes. How do we know that? Oh well, I heard it from my friend and her boss. His brother had gone to Corinth and he says he spoke to Paul. You know that kind of thing, you see? And suddenly it’s all over the church. There’s a prophecy here, there’s a forged letter there, there’s lots of rumors all over the place, and the word is getting around that the day of the Lord has already come. And this has, notice, alarmed and unsettled the believers. Now, that is hardly surprising, because if it was the case that Paul had really said that the day of the Lord had come, that would be a flat-out contradiction of what he said in 1 Thessalonians. Many of you will know that passage in 1 Thessalonians where he writes these words, chapter 4, Christ will come down from heaven with a loud command. He’ll come with the voice of the archangel. He will come with the trumpet call of God. The dead in Christ will rise first, and after that we who are still alive will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Obviously that has not happened yet. So if Paul had said that the day of the Lord had already come, it would be a flat-out contradiction. He would have to have changed his mind, which would undermine apostolic authority. And since they had believed the gospel that Paul had preached, that would rupture the very heart and the foundation of their faith. If you can’t trust what the Apostle says, where else can you go? So it is very important for Paul to write this letter and to put the record straight. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message, The Antichrist Exalting Himself. It’s part of a series based on two Thessalonians called, Staying the Course When You’re Tired of the Battle. And if you ever miss any of our messages, you can always go online. Come to our website. That’s at openthebible.org.uk. There you can go back, listen again, or catch up with any of the programs that you might have missed. You can also find our programs as a podcast. Go to your regular podcasting site and search for Open the Bible UK and subscribe to receive regular updates. Back to the message now. Here’s Colin. You understand the problem. Forged letter, rumors, false prophecy. Now, how does Paul reply? Look at verse three. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day, that is the day of the Lord, will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. Now, this verse at least is simple. Paul is quite clear. The day of the Lord has not yet come. The rebellion must come first. The man of lawlessness will be revealed first. Then comes the day of the Lord. Now, you say, what is this day of the Lord? Well, the day of the Lord is described in verse eight. It is the day when Jesus Christ will overthrow the lawless one with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming. And since on this marvelous day, Christ destroys the lawless one, it stands to reason that the lawless one must be revealed first. So Paul is making this simple point. First, the lawless one is revealed. Then the day of the Lord will come when the lawless one who has been revealed will then be overthrown. That’s what he says. Now, I want to attempt two things today. The first is that I think we need to know something about the man of lawlessness. Who is he? What does he do? But then secondly, I want you to see today what all this has to do with us. Because what we learn here will give you wisdom for discerning the battles and struggles in which you find yourself today. So if you’re thinking at this point, this sounds like we’re getting a little remote here. I promise you we’re not. It’s coming right back to discerning the battle in which you find yourself. Today. So please hang in with me. Let’s look first then at the man of lawlessness, who he is, what he does, and then we’ll see what it’s got to do with us. The man of lawlessness, who he is. Let me just describe it this way, and then we’ll look at the words that are used in scripture here. In summary, the man of lawlessness is a person who will appear on the scene shortly before the day of the Lord. Evil will come to its head in this person. Human rebellion against God will climax itself in him, and it will climax itself through him and under his leadership. We are told three things, three very important words are used about this man. First, verse nine, his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan. Second thing we’re told about him is that he will be revealed. Most distinct word that’s used there, verse three, the day of the Lord will not come until the man of lawlessness has been revealed. The lawless one has been revealed. Thirdly, we’re told about his counterfeit miracles. I’m looking at verse nine here. The work of Satan will be displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles and signs and wonders. Now, who do you think of when you think of someone who’s coming and someone who’s revealed and the one who does miracles? There’s only one who comes to your mind, isn’t there? Coming, revealed, miracles, Jesus. Jesus, chapter two and verse eight, the Lord Jesus will destroy the lawless one by the splendor of his coming. Chapter one and verse seven speaks about the day when Jesus Christ is revealed, and you read through the gospels and Jesus is the one who works true miracles, true signs, and true wonders and still does today. Now, you see the point of this. This man, therefore, is a parody of Christ. He will be the antithesis of everything that is in our Lord Jesus Christ, which is why when the apostle John writes about the same person, he gives him a different title. Paul calls him the man of lawlessness. John calls him, you with me, the Antichrist. The Antichrist. That’s 1 John chapter 2 and verse 18. Dear children, this is the last hour, and as you have heard, the Antichrist is coming. That’s John’s way of saying the same thing. Even now, he adds, many Antichrists have come. So, let me just read this comment from William Hendrickson that I found very, very helpful in summarizing who this man of lawlessness, the Antichrist, is. Hendrickson says, Satan cannot become incarnate. That’s worth thinking about, by the way. Satan cannot become incarnate. Only the Son of God can do that. Satan cannot become incarnate, but he would like to imitate the second person of the Trinity as far as he possibly can. He yearns for a man over whom he will have complete control and who will perform his will, that is, Satan’s will, as thoroughly as Jesus performed the will of the Father. Now, that is precisely what the man of lawlessness is. The Antichrist. The parody of Jesus. The antithesis, the dark antithesis, of everything that is in our Lord and our Savior. That’s who he is. Now, secondly, I want us to see what this man, who is completely under the control of Satan, does It’s very important to know how you recognize the activity of Satan. What does a man who is completely under the control of Satan do? And we’re given two answers to that question in verse 4. Here’s the first. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped. Now, notice that it does not say that he exalts himself over God. He can’t do that. He might think he can. He might try to, but nobody ever exceeds in exalting themselves over God. That’s impossible. What he does is he exalts himself over everything that is called God, over everything that is worshipped. In other words, over everything that is worshipped, everything that is called God in the world, he exalts himself, in other words, over all religion. That is really the only way to understand that phrase. Now, folks, have you noticed in our culture, and not only in our culture, but much more widely across the world, that many people are buying into a growing consensus that religion promotes intolerance and intolerance promotes violence. That is a growing consensus that is widely felt and increasingly felt throughout our world. You hear it all the time. How many problems in the world today have at their root religion, you see? And so a growing number of people are coming to believe that religion, in and of itself, as a category, irrespective of which religion we’re talking about, all religion, any religion, is actually a force for evil, a root of violence in the world. One of the ways that you hear that is when people say this, I’m interested in spirituality, but I’m against organized religion. Has anyone not heard someone say that? You see, it’s all around us. Not just I take a pass on organized religion, I’m against organized religion. Now, that is the mood of our time across many cultures, and I have no doubt, therefore, that our time is ripe for a change. It is ripe for a leader who will exalt himself against everything that is called God or is worshipped. Well, if that’s the case, then what? We’ll continue this message and answer that question next time on Open the Bible. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and the message is called The Antichrist Exalting Himself. It’s part of our longer series on two Thessalonians called Staying the Course When You’re Tired of the Battle. And don’t forget, if you ever miss one of our broadcasts, why not come online to openthebible.org.uk. There you can listen again or go back and hear any of the messages that you might have missed. You can also hear our messages as a podcast. Go to your favorite podcast site, search for Open the Bible and subscribe to receive regular updates. Open the Bible is supported on this station and on the internet by regular donations from our listeners, and we’d like to thank you for that. If you don’t already donate to the work of Open the Bible, but you feel it’s something you’d like to do, we have an offer for you. This month, if you’re able to set up a new donation in the amount of five pounds per month or more, we’d love to send you two copies of a book. It’s called More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. Colin, give us an idea of what’s in this book. Well, the first thing to say is that it has stood the test of time. This book has been around for more than 40 years and God has used it in the lives of many people. It sold more than 15 million copies. That is remarkable. Now, someone might say, well, a book that was written 40 years ago is hardly going to be relevant to today. So here’s the good news. It has been updated to speak to some of the questions that we are facing today, and that work has been done by Josh McDowell’s son, Sean McDowell, and it’s been done really well. So this new edition is going to bring a time-tested book to a new generation, and it’s a marvellous story. Josh McDowell started out by asking some fundamental questions of his own life, and these are questions that never change. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? And he was challenged by some friends to make a serious investigation into the claims of Christianity. He started out on that thinking that he was going to disprove Christianity, and what he found was that the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ laid hold of his mind and of his heart, and that story is told very wonderfully in this book. So this is a very useful book, both for believers, so that we will be better equipped to testify to Christ, and also for anyone who has serious questions about Christianity and is looking for answers more than a carpenter, updated after 40 years for a new generation. This is really a special gift, and I’m delighted that we have the opportunity of sharing this book this month. We’d love to send you two copies of this book if you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds per month or more. Full details of the offer and to give online go to openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I hope you’ll be able to join us again soon. It’s very important to know how to recognize the activity of Satan. Discover three telltale signs. That’s next time on Open the Bible.