Man of Lawlessness
CCCAG, November 5th, 2023
Scripture: 2 Thess 2:5-12
Introduction
Over the last few weeks we have gone over the current events overseas from a biblical and prophetic standpoint.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had planned to teach on the kingdom of darkness, demons, and spiritual warfare during this time, and then the war in Israel started and I felt a strong leading from God to switch gears and talk about that as it has a direct impact on all of our futures.
One of the things I started to do is to use this bible as part of my research. Several years ago I was attending the District Summit. At district summit, if you visit enough of the various ministry booths there you can submit an entry for a drawing for various prizes. My name was chosen, and I received this Jewish bible.
I thought it was a neat version of the bible, but for the most part, it sat on my bookshelf until last month when all of this stuff overseas started happening. Since then, it’s been my primary study text to interpret what has been happening over in Israel.
In fact, I’d say that I’ve never studied, researched, and prayed over a series like I have this one because it’s going to directly affect our lives from here on out.
So let’s briefly review.
On October 19th we answered the question- “Are we living in the end times?”. In that lesson we looked at how our American society has made a slow plunge into darkness, and now we are reaping what has been sowed with all of the hatred, division, deception, and depravity that has been coming at us like a flood.
A few weeks ago on 26th, we looked at the history of this conflict overseas in studying Abraham, Ismael, Jacob, and Esau.
We also saw how the Arabic acronym we know as Hamas is also a word in the Hebrew Language meaning a depraved, wicked, excessive violence.
The first time God used that word in the bible to describe humanity was right before Noah’s flood- all humanity was committing Hamas against one another, and God chose to wipe out all but 7 people and start over.
Since this has happened, war has raged throughout Israel. We are undoubtably heading in the final years before the tribulation.
Some in the church are now asking- is the antichrist coming and if so, who is he?
The early church had the same question. I know we think we have it tough today but keep in mind-they lived during a time when the ruler of their world impaled Christians on stakes, coated them with boiling pitch, and set them on fire so he could see out into his garden at night. Nero was a vicious emperor who delighted in the torture and killing of Christians of all ages.
Obviously, Nero wasn’t the antichrist, although he definitely had that spirit working within him.
That was the world that the Thessalonian church lived in.
So this question- “Who is the antichrist, and is he alive today?” isn’t a new one. It’s been asked many times throughout church history, most recently during WWII when Hitler seemed to be a logical candidate for that role.
Today, we see what is happening in the world, and we start looking around and asking- is the antichrist here, and who is it?
The short answer is- we can’t be sure. My feeling is that he is alive and working behind the scenes until his time has come.
That brings us to today’s main scripture. In his 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonian church, Paul gives us some hint as to what to look for in the man who will be the earthly representation of satan, until he is completely possessed by him in the final 3 ½ years of the tribulation.
Let’s see what God has to show us this morning as we read words written almost 2000 years ago, but have incredible timeliness to the word we live in today
2 Thess 2:5-12
5 Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
NIV
Prayer
Premise-
One of the reasons I’m bringing this subject to you today is that something is happening that frankly caught me by surprise.
Over the past 2 weeks, and within the last week especially we have seen and incredible rise of antisemitism that wasn’t even seen during WWII outside of Nazi Germany. In every Western Country there are huge demonstrations calling for “From the river to the sea” to be cleansed of everything having to do with Jews.
If you don’t understand the reference “from the river to the sea”- the Jordan river makes up Israels Eastern Border, while the Mediterranean Sea makes up the western border. So when these demonstrators are shouting this- the are calling for the complete genocide of all Jews.
This isn’t just overseas- this is happening right here. Last night they attempted to breach the White House gates- smearing blood all over the fence pillars.
These are Americans, typically around college age. (military age males crossing border)
Swastika’s are being proudly flown in these marches. Let that sink in for a moment.
Swastikas.
Twisted crosses representing one of the most evil regimes ever to exist on earth.
Are Now being celebrated by many in our culture. A symbol so reprehensible even a few years ago that using it would get you forever shamed and canceled is now being celebrated. If you drew a swastika on a paper in my high school- you were expelled.
But now- people are marching under flags bearing that symbol
This is part of the spirit of Hamas- of evil, wicked, and depraved violence has gripped much of our young people, and even some of our politicians.
What has happened? The Hamas spirit has opened up the gates of hell to release a new spirit- the antichrist spirit.
The Antichrist spirit is one of complete lawlessness.
Let’s break down what we read today and see why this door has seemingly opened for the antichrist to come to power.
I. Something has to be taken out of the way
Let’s look at Verse 6-7 again-
6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
We are going to dissect these 2 verses and correlate them with other scriptures we have studied over the last couple of weeks.
One huge point- when we talk about the end times, we can’t be just focused on what is happening in America. We have a tendency as Americans to think the entire world revolves around what is happening here.
That’s not the case when we talk about eschatology, or the end times- you look to what is happening in Israel and that region of the world to discern where we are at on God’s prophetic and end time’s calendar.
So keep that in consideration as we study these verses.
In these verses, we see a criteria that is being met both in Israel and on a worldwide scale that is being met to allow for the rise of the antichrist.
The first one is simple- the “What”.
6 And now you know what is holding him back
What is the what?
The second part of the verse reveals the what-
so that he may be revealed at the proper time
A. The 1st criteria- What- the sovereign will and timing of God
Living our lives, we often forget that behind the scenes in the spiritual realm, there are set times for events to happen. These times were set from eternity past. Many of them were told to us in the bible. Some of the remain a mystery like the exact time of the rapture.
However, Father God has a calendar with certain times and days underlined and circled in red for specific events to occur. He can do this because He exists outside of time.
Let me explain how this works.
In the basement, Jim hung up a bible timeline. From our perspective of that timeline, we can see the beginning, and the end of time. We can see all kinds of events and details even though we are not physically there on the paper. We don’t have to be inside that timeline to understand it or even change it, but as a person who can see the beginning and the end with everything in between, we can see everything that is going to occur.
That is exactly how God can see, superintend, and know exactly what is going to happen. He is outside of it, and can see the whole thing.
God has ordained the time that will lead to the rise of antichrist, and it’s looking more and more like it’s now.
Now to the next verse- there is a specific occurrence that has to happen in order for the antichrist to arise.
We are going to back up a little and read verse 3. I’m going to read it in the NASB, and you’ll see why in a moment.
No one is to deceive you in any way! For it (the antichrist and the spirit that precedes him) will not come unless the apostasy comes first, then man of lawlessness is revealed
Most modern translations use the word rebellion instead of apostacy. However, the Greek word used here means to rebel specifically against religious authority, so apostacy is the better word in my opinion.
What this verse is showing us is that the antichrist can only rise when the church declines. The light of the Gospel as seen through the church is what has held back the forces of darkness from taking over worldwide.
However, in the last several decades, as the church has declined in the world, that light has lessened, Without light, you have darkness, and it’s spreading.
For sure, we have had dark moments in our history. World wars, terrorism, genocides, depravity. All those have happened and are happening as we speak. However, it’s been in specific areas of the world, but now is becoming worldwide.
Finally, we see the final thing that is allowing antichrist to rise, and that is seen in the second part of verse 7--
7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
Let’s focus on who the “He” is that has to be taken out of the way-
B. He- the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. The Holy Spirit is not a cloud that just covers an area. The Holy Spirit is a person.
He is expressed through the lives of those who follow Jesus. He is revealed to the world through the people in the church- shining the light of Jesus. That is becoming less today.
We saw that a few weeks ago when we studied the slide away from God that is occurring today. Many people, former church church members have allowed their light to dim and even go out, reducing the Holy Spirit’s influence on this earth.
Again, it’s the dimming of spiritual light allows darkness to increase. You can’t have darkness in the presence of light- you need to get rid of the light and then the darkness can take over.
This is why there is an all-out assault on Judeo Christian belief’s and practices. This is why there has been a spirit of compromise within the church for over 40 years. It’s a well-planned, well executed, assault on the very foundations of Christ’s church to weaken it until it’s influence and spiritual light is so muddied that the darkness can spread unopposed.
This is why the time is now ripe for the antichrist to rise.
Another symptoms we see today-
People are not only believing the lies, but they are seeking them out because they refused to come to the truth.
I remember in high school reading about WWII, and how Hitler was able to sway Germany- a mostly Christian country where the protestant reformation was born
into the depths of pure evil.
I wondered, how could that many people- raised in the church could fall for that obvious lie.
Then as a Christian, I read the fictional series of books called the Left Behind series in which several characters, left behind after the rapture, go through the tribulation as believers running from the evil that surrounds them. I used to watch as the antichrist in those books would give a speech, and everyone would cheer and believe every word he said even though it was obviously a lie- they would believe it.
How could they believe such an obvious lie?
Let me give you a recent example-
CNN reporter standing in front of a burning building with people actively and violently rioting right behind him saying that the protests are mostly peaceful.
Over the last 5 years, watching our nation fall off the cliff of sanity, to where it seems that everyone is believing the lie.
That leads us to the next sign of the rise of the antichrist-
II. Counterfeit signs, wonders, miracles- increasing evil
9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.
The world, even the church, has a lot of wrong information about our enemy. This is why it seems like he is winning during this time.
The first order of battle is to identify your enemy, his capabilities, and his tactics so that you can defeat him. So lets dive into this being called the devil, or satan the deceiver-
1. He is a powerful being in his own right.
A lot of people believe satan to be chief among the fallen angels. This is incorrect. He is not an angel. Ezekiel 28:11-17 clearly identifies him as a cherub, which is a higher order of creation than an angel. By their created nature, both angels and especially cherubs have abilities that are higher than ours this side of eternity.
The Jewish rabbi’s (Jewish Rabbi’s) teach that one of the natural abilities of a cherub is spiritual magnetism. In other words, you are naturally drawn to them because their chief mission is to draw all of creation to glorify and worship God.
satan uses that innate ability and power and twists it to draw humanity to himself, and lead them away from God. That, and our fallen nature is the reason that people are so quickly drawn toward evil.
Also, because of him being a higher spiritual being, he has what we would consider supernatural or miraculous powers.
Saying that, he is not God, or a god. Those miraculous powers and abilities are limited
He knows much, but is not all knowing like God.
He has a great deal of power, but is not all powerful like God
He is a created being, and therefore cannot be in more than one place at a time, whereas God is omnipresent- everywhere at once.
Our enemy is not anywhere near as powerful as God. Even though he is a powerful devil, he is still God’s devil.
The Bible illustrates this in Rev 20 when a single angel, empowered by God grabs the devil, binds him, and locks him away for 1000 years at the end of the tribulation.
So keep that in mind. Powerful, but not all-powerful.
satan is going to use the power he has during the end times to lead people away from the truth and embrace the lie. This is why we are seeing otherwise sensible people embracing some ridiculous ideas today.
It’s all to set the stage for that master deceiver- the antichrist to rise and set in motion the tribulation.
The reason he will be so effective and why people will flock to follow him is seen in verse 10b.
10b They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
This is the final step to the Romans slide into darkness that we looked at a few weeks ago. If you were not here, go on the website and listen to that message, and read Romans 1:18-32 for yourself. You’ll be shocked at how accurately the bible predicts what is happening right now in the world, and how we got to this current place.
We are right now experiencing the passive wrath of God- Him withdrawing his presence- ie the light so that the darkness spreads.
He withdraws his presence from the people, and at that point, they are ripe for destruction.
So what do we do knowing that the antichrist and the antichrist spirit is moving in our time?
I’m going to end today by giving us not only our key of survival, but our way of winning the battles to come-
1. Be on guard.
Throughout the Gospel’s, throughout Paul’s letters, and throughout the rest of the bible, we are repeated warned to stay awake, alert, and to standing for the truth no matter what the world says about it or whatever threats come our way.
Isaiah 7:9 says “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all!”
The time of the antichrist is very close if not already here. The call to compromise will be overwhelming for many of us.
*Personal HR appt at secular job questioning me about my views on transgenderism*
Don’t compromise what you know to be true to get along with this world.
Hold fast to the Word of God no matter the consequences.
That is the absolute number 1 way that the enemy will attack you.
It’s also the number one way we will win- if you hold fast
Revelation 12:11- And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
All rise
We are living in prophetic times- times that might call us to make a lot of sacrifices for the sake of Christ.
I implore you today- choose this day who you will serve.
Cement that decision in your hearts, minds, and spirits right now, and ask God to give you the spiritual backbone to stand firm despite what consequences might come.
Pray Ephesians 6:13-16 over congregation
