In the sermon titled 'Counterfeit Satisfaction,' Matthew Holst explores the theme of deception through biblical texts from 2 Thessalonians 2 and Proverbs 9. Holst emphasizes the importance of discernment to avoid being misled by counterfeit calls of satisfaction that mimic the true call of Christ. Proverbs 9 presents two symbolic calls: one from 'woman wisdom,' representing Christ and true life, and another from 'woman folly,' symbolizing the world's deceptive allure. The sermon warns against the allure of the world, particularly in the form of sexual immorality, which promises fulfillment but leads to spiritual death. Holst draws a parallel between the deceptive 'woman folly' and the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians, who appears as an antichrist figure. The sermon stresses the need for vigilance and reliance on Christ to resist such deception, highlighting the promise of eternal life and blessing through true wisdom in Christ.

Well, if you have your Bibles, turn to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, and then we'll go back to Proverbs, chapter 9. I want to read the first, well, just into the third verse of 2 Thessalonians. Trent, you can keep that on for me if you want. That's the first time I've ever had anyone else tell me to stop preaching. Apart from my wife.

I'm joking, of course. Alright, 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, and listen to the issue of deception, deceit, and being deceived. That's so important to what we'll consider today. This is the Word of God. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

Let no one deceive you in any way. Okay? Let no one deceive you in any way. Go back to Proverbs chapter 9. I want to comment on this briefly before we get into the text.

Proverbs 9 is really the summary chapter of the first nine chapters of Proverbs. Throughout Proverbs you've had the call of wisdom, and I take wisdom in Proverbs to be personified and exemplified in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've had the call of wisdom throughout, seek wisdom, live, be blessed, walk uprightly, and you've had a similar call, And this time it's epitomized by the adulterous woman, the immoral woman who seeks to call young men, old men away to their death. What these really are in Proverbs, yes, it teaches about sexual morality, but It teaches us about two great calls on your life, one for life, one for death. Two ways, the way of the righteous or the way of the fool.

It is the way of the church and the way of the world. The problem is deception is involved in the call of the world. Look carefully now in Proverbs 9 as we see the call of wisdom personified as woman wisdom and then we have the call of the adulterous woman or the way of folly at the end of the chapter. Look how the way of folly the adulterous woman's called, the call of the world to all manner of immorality, not just sexual, but to go the way of the world. Look how it mimics and attempts to replicate the call of woman wisdom.

Proverbs chapter 9, wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars, she has slaughtered her beast, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table, She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. To him who lacks sense, she says, Come, listen, eat my Bread, and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and live, and walk in the way of insight. Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abused, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man. He will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will still be wiser. Teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is in sight. For by me, by Christ, by me your days will be multiplied and years will be added to your life. If you are wise you are wise for yourself. If you scoff, you alone will bear it. Now listen carefully.

The woman folly is loud. She is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house. She takes a seat on the highest places in the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.

And to him who lacks sense, she says, stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. I hope you saw, especially you fathers, but all of us, that the woman folly, the way of the world, is seeking to call us away from Christ in a similar fashion as Christ calls us to Himself. Did you notice the repetition of language, the scene, the setting, the calling, the offering of food and of water and of wine, both from woman wisdom and from woman folly. What are we seeing here? We're seeing here that the world will seek to lure us away to itself by similar methods and modes that Christ himself has ordained for our salvation and sanctification.

That's why when we go back to 2nd Thessalonians, the man of lawlessness who comes, He sets himself up as what? An antichrist. He doesn't come in the last days like the traditional picture of Satan. He's not red. He's not got wings.

And he doesn't carry a pitchfork. And he's got a sharp tail. He doesn't come like that. He comes as another Christ, as someone to deceive you, to lure you away. And we'll come to 2 Thessalonians in just a moment.

That's the point. That's why Proverbs 9 comes at the end of chapter after chapter after chapter of warning about the adulterous woman, which is most certainly a warning against sexual immorality, but It is a larger picture of how the world will seek to lure you away from Christ. Time after time Christ called us in Proverbs, find wisdom, seek wisdom, and live and be blessed. And Proverbs 9 in the first few verses here are really a summary of all of wisdom's call to us in the first nine chapters, just like verses 13 to 18 are a summary of the world's alluring call and deceptive call to the Christian to step away from Christ, to step away from the church, to step away from family and pursue your own desires. Look at Proverbs 9.

First of all, there's a house being built by wisdom, a house. Seven pillars, verse 1, picture of perfection and completion. This is the household of Christ, the household of God, that picture of perfection. She slaughtered her beast, she's mixed her wine, she has set a table. If you want to take that out to its natural conclusion, that's if you like the marriage feast of the Lamb in all eternity where we will sit down at table with our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is beauty, there is perfection, there is fullness presented to you in wisdom, the wisdom of Christ. It's there for you if you want it. What else does Wisdom do? She sends, verse three, she sends out messengers, young women to gather in those people who are being called by the gospel the elect of God. She sent out her young women to call from the highest places in town.

If you're simple, come step in. If you need salvation, here is the place to find it. You need sense, You need wisdom, you need knowledge, insight. Ultimately, of Christ, this is the place for it. Come on in.

The message goes out via the messengers. Leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight. But embedded right in the middle of those calls to come and find salvation is also this verse 5, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Now bread and wine in the Old Testament are symbols of plenty, of fullness. And as you get into the Psalms and into the Prophets, you begin to see that bread and wine are actually a symbol of greater new covenant blessing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The prophecy of Joel tells us that. So bread and wine is both an old covenant symbol and a new covenant symbol of the fullness of covenant blessing in life with Christ. And it's not by chance that our Lord takes bread and wine as a symbol of His death on our account and has given it to the church as a perpetual memorial of His death. So we clearly see that Christ is at the very center of this call, the bread and the wine symbolizing later on his salvific work on our account. That's the call.

That's the environment, a house, messengers sending out a message saying, come in and eat and drink. Take, eat, this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, says the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 10 comes back to the fear of the Lord, that overarching principle in the first nine chapters.

The knowledge of the Holy One is in sight. The reward for by me your days will be multiplied and your years of life will be added to you. Let's go back to the language of the Abrahamic covenant and a picture of eternal life. You see what's going on here. There's very much the call of salvation, the call of Christ to His people.

And if that call was just the only call that we had, well, it would be pretty simple to follow it, wouldn't it? When you think about it, what blessing there is. There goes the messenger. Christ sends them out. He speaks of His life and His death on account of His people.

And there's plenty. There's no lack. There's no want. There's just blessedness and life. Length of days and years of life it will add unto you.

Young men, look at me, is that what you want? Length of days and years of life, not just here, but in the life to come. Is that what you want? Then Christ Jesus is the only method. Let me say that again.

Christ Jesus is the only one by whom you may have that eternal life. And it's so important you remember that because the world comes rushing in there in verse 13, looking very much like the church, sounding very much like the church, setting up another Savior figure. As woman wisdom, it's Christ of course. Christ says, look, here are all my benefits. In comes the false deceitful world and says, oh look, but I've got benefits as well.

And don't they look awfully like the benefits of Christ? At least that's what they're saying. Now cast your mind back to the garden. Satan didn't come into the garden and deny the existence of God. Adam would have just said, clear off.

He's just spoken to us. We know this to be true. He didn't deny the existence of God. He affirmed the existence of God. He said, no, has God said?

He did not say there is no God. That would have been easy. That's like Satan walking up to us now. We could see him. Oh, we know that's Satan.

But he's cunning. And the world is cunning. And sometimes Satan is found where? Behind pulpits. That's how cunning Satan is, coming as an angel of light.

And that's what's going on here. This is a picture of the world attempting to lure you away by similar means and methods as Christ first drew you unto himself. Look again. We have, first of all, the comparison between woman wisdom and then there's woman folly. Now, don't think about this being about women per se.

It's not about being female or anything like that. Wisdom in Hebrew is just a female noun. So don't make any assumptions negatively about women here. That's not the point. Okay.

So, woman wisdom is there and woman folly is there. Two great calls. Woman wisdom is also her own house. We've read of her house earlier back in chapter five. We know she sits there waiting for the fool to pass by and goes out and calls to them.

Woman wisdom, we know she is seductive. She's seductive. There's something alluring about her. There's something attractive about the world. What is it?

It's that it promises, falsely promises, all the blessing and goodness that Christ promises, but can never deliver on them. That's the thing about sin, friends. And let's drill down just for a moment, drill down just for a moment on sexual morality, pornography, immorality of that kind. That is one of the great lies of sexual immorality, that it will provide you with what you want. No, actually, it will not.

He does not know the dead are there. And her guests, those who have hired her out, are in the depths of the grave. Do not believe the lie of sexual immorality. Do not believe the lie of pornography. And if you're trapped in it right now speak to your pastor and if you're a pastor speak to another pastor because sexual immorality can grip anyone if you allow it to do so.

Let's go back to the comparison. Notice verse 2 and verse 3. Woman wisdom sends out her messengers with a message of come in and find safety. Woman folly sits at the door of her house. There's her house.

She takes her seat on the highest places of town, just like woman wisdom does. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places of the town. So too does woman folly. And she calls to those who pass by. And she calls in precisely the same way as woman wisdom does.

Whoever is simple let him turn in here and to him who lacks sense she says. That's precisely the words of woman wisdom in verse 4. You're not to miss that brothers. The call of the world will come to us in such a way as that it seems authentic. It mimics, it replicates the call of Christ to the Christian and the call of Christ to the church.

Not in exact appearance, not in exact form, though it's in exact form here, but the call will be find satisfaction out there. Find fulfillment out there. Find fulfillment in going your own way rather than the way of wisdom and the way of Christ. Notice else what is said. Compare verse 5 and verse 17.

Woman wisdom says, come eat my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. We've already said that's a symbol of blessing, symbol of new covenant fullness, why it's a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And woman wisdom puts up this paltry replication, this sorry attempt at mimicking the fullness of Christ when she says this stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Come in and have sex with me. Let's be blunt about it.

As the world says, come, eat your fill of the world. But notice this, stolen water, it's not wine first of all, it's a cheap replica, it's stolen, it's being used inappropriately, she can't offer wine though she promises a great feast, bread eaten in secret, I don't want to eat bread in secret. I want to be sat down with Christ at the end of time and all you brothers eating bread and drinking wine forever and ever. Amen. I don't want that which is stolen and hidden.

And yet we know the lure of it, don't we? Because when it comes to sexual sin, 99.9% of it is done in secret. 99.9% of backsliding is done in secret. When we go out of the doors of the church, we go home at night. What we look at, what we listen to, who we listen to, the whole nine yards, what we give ourselves to, that's the world calling you to its way.

Do we not see the parallel here, brothers? This great parallel, the similarity. It will happen also at the end of time when the man of lawlessness comes. Go back to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, we'll finish with this. Paul says 2 Thessalonians 2, 3, let no one deceive you in any way.

This is the point of Proverbs, words of insight, understanding, discretion, which will keep your soul. It means lay hold of Christ and never let go of him. That will keep your soul. Do not be deceived because a deceiver is coming and he is coming at the last day a man of lawlessness who will replicate the Lord Jesus Christ and seek to lure you away. Excuse me.

Listen to this, verse 3. That day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness will be revealed. First of all, I do believe he is a man. I know there's debate on this passage. I do believe he is a man.

Just as our Lord Jesus came as a man, did he not? Here comes another man, knowing that the second coming of our Lord will be coming, which is just what he's writing about. He is a man, the son of destruction, listen, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God. That is to say, he will line up the Lord Jesus, he will line up Almighty God, he will line up every false idol and say, look at them all, they all belong together, but I am the true God. I am the true Savior.

I am the one who has come and you must follow me. He sets himself up as an object of worship Just like woman folly sets herself up as an object of desire, so too the man of lawlessness will come seeking to lure you away by plausible arguments. And we can go on through the rest of that passage. The man of lawlessness will be defeated by the breath of the mouth of Christ. Coming of the lawless one, verse 9, is by the activity of Satan.

Listen, with all power and false signs and wonders. Just like our Lord came at His first coming, the man of lawlessness by the power of Satan will come with similar signs and wonders. Setting himself up as a counterfeit, a fake. We hear a lot about fake news these days, don't we? Fake Saviour, fake Messiah, fake blessing, fake life.

Everything about him is fake. And yet, and yet, there will be a wicked deception, a wicked deception on those who are perishing. God will send a strong delusion, verse 11, so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Do you see what's going to happen? Many will be given over by this strong delusion to the man of lawlessness.

So brothers, you don't need to wait until the end of time for the spirit of the man of lawlessness, the spirit of Antichrist, to grab hold of your hearts. It can happen right now. Right now. Young men particularly take heed of this. If you're in your upper teens into your early 20s, take careful heed.

You've got liberty for the first time in your life. You've got a freedom that you've never experienced before because you've moved out of childhood into manhood. You have choices to make for yourself. To whom will you listen? To whom will you give your life?

Well, listen to the results. You give your life to the world, you will be one of the dead. He that is the simpleton who goes to woman folly, he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of shale. Or you can have this, for by me says woman wisdom, your days will be multiplied and years will be added to your life. Remember what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2, let no one deceive you in any way.

Let's pray. Oh Lord, how we long not to be deceived by that which looks plausible but is false and empty and condemning. Oh have mercy upon us. Lord, may it be that none of these little ones before us now fall foul to the lies of Satan. Equip them by faith.

Equip their fathers by faith and humility and gentleness to lead them in the paths of righteousness for your name's sake. O be pleased, Almighty God, to do a great work in your church of revival and reformation that we might not be among those deluded and deceived. Keep us, train us, disciple us and teach us for your namesake and for the sake of our own hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.