In the sermon titled 'Don't Be Shaken or Troubled,' Jason Dohm discusses the concerns of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy regarding a harmful teaching in the Thessalonian church, which claimed that the day of Christ had already come. The speaker emphasizes the importance of humility when studying prophecy and the end times, recognizing the complexity of these topics. He outlines the tendencies of false teaching to shake and trouble believers and stresses the need for grounding in biblical truth to prevent such disturbances. The sermon also addresses the concept of apostasy and introduces the 'man of sin,' also known as the 'son of perdition,' as a counter to Christ. Dohm advises believers to focus on their faith, remain steadfast in truth, and engage in prayer and the work of the Great Commission, rather than becoming obsessed with eschatology.

The title of the sermon this morning is, Don't be Shaken or Troubled. So Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have come to understand that there's a new teaching, a harmful teaching that's running in the church. And so they're writing to address this. They're concerned that these new converts not be shaken or troubled by these false teachings. So that's what the text is about.

Last week, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy were praying that God would do mighty acts of grace, that He would accomplish His will through the lives of these believers to glorify Jesus. And so one of the obvious applications of that is we should pray that way too. We have brethren, we should be praying that God would do mighty acts of grace in their lives so that Jesus Christ would be exalted. I just want to say, just observe the obvious, that that prayer was answered a thousand times over, a million times over. God is always looking to do mighty acts of grace in the lives of His people so that Jesus Christ will be known and loved.

And that people will be in awe of His ability to take sinners and transform them into faithful people who love Him and serve Him. This week, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are addressing a deceptive teaching about the return of Jesus Christ. False things are being taught about Jesus coming back. I want to begin with four comments about Studying the end times. We're still in the introduction here.

We'll get to the text in a minute. There are four things that I want to say about studying the end times that I think will just help us. Here's thing one. Studying the end times is very controversial because it's hard. It's not easy.

And the problem is people sometimes pretend like it's easy. And If you don't embrace their end time scheme, then you're an idiot that can't see what's obvious. I just want to say, as we engage in a study of the end times, I think humility is called for. I'm feeling humble as a pastor. I'm feeling humble as a preacher.

Talking about the end times. To really understand these texts, you really need to understand the relationship between end time teaching from the Old Testament, and from Jesus, and from Peter and Paul, from Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John in Revelation. It's not easy, and humility is required. Thankfully, in our circles, I have not run into a lot of what I'm describing. There are people who are very confident and firm in what they believe, but I have not run into a lot of people who are condescending about it and lack the humility.

But I just want to exhort us to that. Let's just acknowledge, end times is hard. Prophecy is easy when it's been fulfilled and you can look back on it. Prophecy is hard when it hasn't been fulfilled in its future yet. So let's clothe ourselves with humility.

Number two. Here's an example for us. Matthew chapter 24 is really the prime end times or eschatology chapter in the Bible. Matthew chapter 24 begins with the disciples asking Jesus about two things, the destruction of the temple and the end of the age. They are not the same thing.

The destruction of the temple happened in 70 AD when the Romans swept in, and the end of the age is Jesus coming to judge the living and the dead at the end of the time. So the disciples ask him these two questions about two very different events, and then Jesus says a bunch of stuff for the rest of the chapter. And you've got to figure out, is he talking about the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, Or is he talking about the end? And you have to very carefully parse that. And on top of that, you have to keep in view the parallel texts in Mark, Luke, and John about that.

So it's a task. And the question you always have to be asking as you just work through this single end times chapter is, what has already been fulfilled in 70 AD? Because a lot of Matthew chapter 24 has been fulfilled in 70 AD. And what is still to be fulfilled when Jesus comes back to judge the earth? So that's an example of why these things are not simple.

Because you have many typical judgments. 70 AD was that. Sodom and Gomorrah was that. The flood was that. Types that tell us that things aren't just going to roll along forever.

That God comes and does reckon. These are types that point forward to when Jesus is going to come and set all things right finally. So you've got to be asking when you come upon these texts about judgment. Is this talking about a type or is this talking about the substance? Is this talking about the shadow or the thing itself?

Number three. Here are two rock solid guidelines that will help us as we consider any end times passage. Nothing anywhere in scripture overturns no man knows the day or the hour from Matthew 24 verse 36. So if you get into an end times passage and it makes you think, well then we'll know the day and the hour you're wrong. Nothing in Scripture overturns that.

That is a clear precept that we can hang our hats on. And, nothing in Scripture overturns when they say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them. We studied that in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 3. Remember that? Talking about the day of Jesus' return.

The wicked are going to be saying, Peace and safety, and then sudden destruction is going to come upon them. So whenever you get into an end time text, you say, This is going to be a cataclysm that's happening the day that Jesus returns. No one will be able to say, Peace and safety. That's an indirect contradiction to something that's very clear in Scripture, so you know you're off track. Let's just satisfy ourselves right now.

Nothing in scripture can overthrow those two things. No man knows the day or the hour, and when that day comes, many of the wicked will be saying peace and safety, and they'll be surprised by the sudden destruction that comes upon them. By the way, I don't think that means that the righteous will be saying peace and safety. I think very likely it could be peace and safety for the oppressors, but no peace and safety at all for the oppressed, which is likely to be the Lord's people. Number four.

Eschatology, the study of the end times, makes for a bad obsession. Do not allow yourself to be obsessed with the end times. Because the temptation to speculate is so great. You say, I'm just reading between the lines. We do that all the time.

We can read between the lines. Well, the problem is, with the end times, the lines are often so far apart, and the basis for reading in between those lines is so thin, it's just really, really easy to get in trouble. So, resist the temptation to make it an obsession. Study it. It is important.

If it wasn't important, it wouldn't be in the Bible. But it is in the Bible, and so it is important. And so we should study it, and we should do our best to understand it. We should apply ourselves to study, but it should not be an obsession. Be obsessed with Jesus and His work on behalf of sinners.

Be obsessed about the God of mercy who would send him. Be obsessed with the work of the Spirit that applies the blood of Christ and saves people. Be obsessed with the great commission that God has given to His people. Don't be obsessed with the end times. Do not.

As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. Father, I thank you that your Son is coming back. That Your people can stand on this great certainty that Jesus will return at the appointed time. And you know the appointed time and He won't be one second earlier late. And in the meantime, every second between now and then, God, I pray that we would be a people who watch and pray and live in expectation and hope that it will be in our lifetime.

We desire to see Him come. But if we are not, we know He'll come at the right time. God, thank you. Thank you for these promises. We want to cling to your promises.

They are great and precious. We love them. God, I pray that you would bless this time and help us to understand these things in Jesus' name. I want to divide the text into three different parts. The first part is going to be the biggest part.

It will be one through the first part of three. So let me read this. This is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, reading a little bit into three. Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us. As though the day of Christ had come, let no one deceive you by any means." this section is about the tendency of false teaching and this specific false teaching.

So if you're taking notes on your handout and you're filling in blanks, it's tendency and specific. The tendency of false teaching, in other words, when there is false teaching in the church, it tends towards certain things and we are given those things here. And this specific false teaching, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy talk about the false teaching that is in question in these verses. I want to begin with the first part of verse 3. Let no one deceive you by any means.

Some person or persons had been working to deceive these young in the faith Christians. This is our context. They might have been Christians for a year, possibly two years. That's the time frame. We're talking about pretty new believers here.

And it's clear because Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are addressing it that somebody or some people have been working to deceive these new converts. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy named several means that can be used to deceive. By spirit, or by word, or by letter, as if from us. And by each of these, I believe Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy are indicating a claim of authority. Somebody's there claiming authority to teach something new and different.

They're either claiming the authority of God and or the Apostles. God told me, or I heard it from... Fill in the blank. By spirit. Someone is claiming to have this from the Holy Spirit.

Remember that the Thessalonians have been told, Do not despise prophecies, test all things, hold fast what is good. That's 1 Thessalonians 5, 20, and 21. So at the end of the first letter to this church from these authors, They said, don't despise prophecies, but test them and hold on to what's good. And they're being exhorted to that again, implicitly, in our text. Someone's claiming, God told me, by spirit.

The spirit says these new different things, and they better be testing it. So I'm just setting aside the question about whether that is in the modern church. If you want to go back and listen to that sermon, you can hear my thoughts on that. But that's beside the point. It is indisputable that at the time when Paul and Silvanus and Timothy were writing this, there are prophets in the church.

Agabus was a prophet in the church. Silvanus was a prophet in the church. He's named that in Acts chapter 16. By word. Someone is claiming to be speaking based on an authoritative source.

The ESV renders this spoken word by spoken word because the Greek word that's being translated usually infers that the word there is not a written word but a spoken word usually. It doesn't have to be that, but it most often is that. So the ESV renders it spoken word. So someone is claiming to be speaking based on an authoritative source. In other words, what I'm telling you I heard from Paul, perhaps.

Or what I'm telling you I heard from Peter, or from John, or from an authoritative source. They're claiming to be speaking for an authoritative source. By letter, as if from us. Many commentators at this point speculate that there are forgeries circulating. Hey, new teaching, signed Paul.

And here's some support for that. If you look at chapter 3 verse 17, we read the salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle, so I write. In other words, It appears to be that in chapter 3 verse 17, at the very end of the letter, Paul is saying, this is authentic, this is how you know my letters are authentic, and that would go along with forgery circulating. Maybe that's what that means when he says, by letter as if from us. They're counterfeit letters making the rounds in the churches.

Now there is a false teaching in the church to be contended with, and they're contending with it, that's the whole point of the text, and it had two tendencies. Let me give them to you from the text. Number one, it had and has a tendency to shake the mind. So, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, as our authors are saying, it had this tendency. And it has.

Meaning, I don't think there's anything special here. False teaching does this. In Thessalonica, and in Philippi, and in Ephesus, and in Youngsville, and in, and in, and in. False teaching tends to shake the mind. Here's what Gene Green, a modern-day commentator, says.

Gene Green says, I think he hits the nail on the head. Gene Green says, The exhortation that they had not become easily unsettled means that they should not be moved so quickly from their understanding. The verb used could mean either be shaken or, as here, be made to waver, and appears in those contexts in ancient literature, where an author wanted to talk about people who were unstable in their opinions. So what Gene Green is saying here is that when you look in literature from the time period, and how this word that's being translated is used by the ancient authors, it's talking about people who are unstable in their opinions, who are moved off of one opinion to another. They are shaken in mind in that sense.

So the concern of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy is that the Thessalonians not be separated from the truth that they have been taught. This is abundantly clear. Let's preview next week and the next week. Look at verse 5. We're in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Look at verse 5. Do you not remember that when I was with you, I told you these things? In other words, you've been taught the truth. There's not a new truth on this topic. Remember what I already taught you.

Now look at verse 15. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. The implication is whether by our word, words out of our own mouth, or our epistle, our real live writing to you. Stand fast. That's the opposite of being shaken in mind.

It's the opposite of being unstable in your opinions. False teaching has a tendency to toss some to and fro. And the less time in the faith, the more likely you are to be one of those who are tossed to and fro by false teaching. Turn to Ephesians 4 verse 14. It's only a single verse, so I might read it before you even get there, but you can try.

Ephesians 4 verse 14. Ephesians 4 verse 14. Paul writes in Ephesians 4 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting." That is exactly what is in view. Paul is writing about exactly the same thing to the Ephesians. And he's saying, hey we can't afford to be kids anymore about this.

And to be so easily moved off of the truth that we've already been taught. We can't be children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by every deceiver that comes into the church. Hold tight to Scripture. Hold tight to the things that we have taught you. So that's the first tendency.

To be shaken in mind. To be shaken in mind. The second tendency is that false teaching had and has is a tendency to trouble. The NASB renders it disturbed. The ESV renders it alarmed.

Don't be troubled, or don't be disturbed, or don't be alarmed. They're all good. It just gives you a range of meaning. Different ways to say the same thing. False teaching has a tendency to trouble us.

God wants His people to be solidly grounded in truth. He wants them to know the truth and then to stand on it and not be able to be moved off of it. There's a peace that comes with that, isn't there? Isn't there a peace that comes with knowing the truth and standing on it? There's a solidness that comes from a right confidence that you know the truth.

You can't be moved off of it. False teaching does exactly the opposite. It disquietes and disrupts the people of God. When you have false teaching in the church, you're going to have a disquieted, disrupted people. So, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are calling for exactly the opposite of that.

Don't be distrubled. Get these disquieters, get these disruptors out of here. And you stand on the truth and enjoy the peace that comes with knowing what God has said with confidence. Don't allow yourselves to be alarmed by this deceptive teaching. With regards to the coming of Jesus Christ, it's really simple.

We are to watch and pray. Period. Amen. World without end. You know what you're supposed to do.

You're supposed to watch and pray. You're not supposed to freak out. No Christians are supposed to freak out about the coming of Jesus Christ. It's not necessary. We live in expectation.

We watch and pray. We've been told that when he returns he'll return with a shout with the voice of an archangel, you're not going to miss it. You're not going to miss the shout of Jesus Christ and the voice of the archangel. You don't need to be disquieted. We watch and pray, and we busy ourselves with the things that God has given us to do.

We're not disquieted by the thought of Jesus' coming. Like we learned in 1 Thessalonians, he doesn't come as a thief to us. It's not like a thief in the night to us. Because we have our eyes fixed on heaven. If it happened today, we'd say, finally!

He's here! Hallelujah! It's nothing to disquiet the soul of those who are in Christ. It's a great comfort, in fact. Now, the specific false teaching, so those were the two tendencies that false teaching had and has in the church.

To shake the mind or to make you waver in your opinions and to trouble you, to alarm you, to disturb you. It was then and it is now. When there's false teaching in the church, you have those things. Now the specific false teaching was that the day of Christ had come. You missed it, or He's here now, or the things that we were expecting happened in a way that we didn't expect.

And you missed it. For clarity, this has to be the final coming of Jesus Christ to judge the living and the dead. This cannot be 70 A.D. So in the introduction I said one of the things we need to be asking in these passages is what's already been fulfilled and how do I know? What is yet to be fulfilled and how do I know?

I'm saying with all the clarity and confidence I can muster this has not yet been fulfilled this could not be 70 A.D. Why do I say that? We'll look at verse 1 chapter 2 verse 1 of our text. Now brethren concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him. I do believe that 70 AD was a coming of Jesus Christ in judgment on Jerusalem.

I do believe that from Matthew 24. But this is not what's being talked about. I think the reference here is to the coming where we are gathered together to Him. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have already spoken about this. Just flip over to 1 Thessalonians 4.

Let me read 15-17 to remind you of what has already been written to these people. 1 Thessalonians 4, 15-17, For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep." That means are dead. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." To me, I don't see how you can miss the connection.

This is our gathering together to Him. This has to be Jesus coming at the end to judge the living and the dead. There is evidence in the New Testament that this is a repeat problem. In other words, this isn't the only time we see that there have been teachers out and about saying, Jesus already came. Or, the resurrection has already happened.

Turn to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 2. So 2 Thessalonians is probably written around 52 AD give or take. 2 Timothy is probably written around 64 AD. These are the commonly accepted dates for these letters. This is 10 to 12 years later, Paul is writing to Timothy and listen to what he says in the commonality with what we're studying.

This is 10 or 12 years later maybe, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, 16-18. Paul writes to Timothy, but shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness, and their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already passed. And they overthrow the faith of some. Ten years later, there are guys by name saying, the resurrection is already passed, you missed it.

It came and went, It didn't happen as you thought it was going to happen, as you expected it was going to happen. You weren't looking for the right thing and you missed it. We might say, what's just a little false teaching? They got the fundamentals right. This has nothing to do with the Trinity, it has nothing to do with substitutionary atonement, Jesus' death, His resurrection.

This is not a fundamental thing. What's the big deal? So they're a little off on their eschatology. Here's what Paul says, they overthrow the faith of some. You have to understand, truth stands together.

You start nibbling away at truth, you think you can take away this truth and nothing else in the body of truth is affected or taken away unexpectedly, then you're not thinking right about it. That's not how it works. When you start nibbling away at truth, you lose a lot more than you bargained for. When we are careless about our doctrine, or we let deceptive or false teaching into the church. I say this knowing that all of us have defects in our theology and our doctrine.

None of us are doctrinally pure. We're all going to be embarrassed when we get to heaven. The things that we thought we knew, but we didn't know at all. I'm just saying, we need to recognize how truth hangs together. And the implications of giving up just a little of it you only thought you were giving up a little Paul says it overthrows the faith of some Paul says it's cancer.

Right here in this text. The same things being taught a decade later. You missed the resurrection. Jesus already came. When you believe that, you think, well, it's just not fundamental.

You're not thinking right. You're not thinking like the Apostle Paul's thinking. That's for sure. You start letting truth be nibbled away by going after novel doctrines. You're going to end up forfeiting more than you ever bargained for.

That's true. It is cancer. False teaching is cancer. Now, let's go back to our text and look at the second part of verse 3. We just looked at, let no one deceive you by any means.

Now the rest of verse 3 is this. This is our second section of the text. For that day, the day of Jesus' return will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition." This section has two related things that will happen before Jesus Christ's final return. If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, It's related, final. Two related things that will happen before Jesus Christ's final return.

I say related because in next week's text, verses 5-12, we're going to see how intertwined these two things are. They are happening overwhelmingly concurrently. I'm not saying that one won't start before the other one starts, but I'm saying overwhelmingly they run concurrently, and that's going to be obvious when we study verses 5-12 next week. The first thing that's going to happen before Jesus Christ's final return is the falling away. The NASB renders this the apostasy.

The Greek word behind this is apostasia. I don't even know if I'm saying that right, but it's the word that apostasy comes from. The E-S-V renders it the rebellion. All those, again, are appropriate translations that give you a range of meaning that helps you zero in on what's being talked about. The falling away, the apostasy, or the rebellion.

The idea is that you've embraced something, then later you walk away from it. So this is not the unregenerate of the world saying, we hate God. That's not new. These are people claiming to have embraced something, then walking away from it. Let me give you another usage in the New Testament.

Acts 21, verse 21. But they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses." Apostasia. To rebel against Moses or to apostatize from Moses or to fall away from Moses. That was the report on Paul. That was the report in Jerusalem.

He's out there in the Gentile Church telling Jews to apostatize from Moses, to forsake Moses. That's another usage of the same word. So you get the picture of what is being described here. Here's what Matthew Poole says. Matthew Poole says it is an apostasy from sound doctrine, instituted worship, church government, and true holiness of life.

Now Matthew Poole is actually setting up something here in his commentary. Here's what he's setting up. It doesn't have to be, you said you were a Christian, and now you say, I'm not a Christian. That is one way to apostatize. That's one way to rebel.

That's one way to fall away. I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, and then persecution comes, or the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and you say, I'm not a Christian anymore. Forget it. Never really believe that stuff anyway. That's only one way.

Matthew Poole, in his definition, it is an apostasy from sound doctrine, instituted worship, church government, and true holiness of life. He's setting up that you can do this and stay in the visible church. You can do all this and stay in the visible church. In the business world, there's a phrase, quitting in place. It's meant to describe someone who has quit their job without leaving their job.

Meaning, they checked out a long time ago. They're not busy doing the things at their job. They're busy only working when they're under the eyes of the boss. Quitting in place. It happens in all sorts of corporate environments.

It is the great enemy of the corporation, someone who's quit in place, because they haven't actually had the intellectual honesty to say, I'm done with this, I hate this company anyway, I'm leaving. They've said, I'll keep getting the paycheck, but I'm not going to do the work. So they quit without quitting. They quit without leaving. This is the same kind of apostasy that is possible in the visible church.

I'm a Christian, I just don't believe the Bible. I'm a Christian, I'm just not interested in holiness. I'm saying that under my breath because that's the nature of it. The placard on the outside is Christian. Only without holiness, without believing the Bible, without standing for truth, without engaging in the Great Commission, and on and on.

It's quitting in place in the body of Christ. Now think back about your Bible and then about whatever amount of church history you know. Apostasy is not a new thing. Falling away is not a new thing. Rebellion is not a new thing.

Just read the history of Israel. Read the history of the church in the New Testament. Read church history. It's not new and it's not rare. But this is THE apostasy.

What is in our text today is THE apostasy, not AN apostasy, of which there are many. And they're all sad. But This is one that will be marked out by its magnitude. This is the falling away, the rebellion, and its spectacular in magnitude. Which makes you think, what will it be like?

Because there have been some humdingers already. That's the first thing that will happen, the falling away. Here's the second that is named. And again, I believe these happen concurrently and we'll talk about that next week. Secondly, the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.

This is the same man with two titles. Same man, two titles. The man of sin, the Son of Perdition is revealed. I would just like to comment, as a side comment right now, it's already been said in this letter that Jesus is going to be revealed when He comes back. And so, we can Go find the counterfeits here, where this is a pretender who is mimicking the things that we see in the life and the ministry and the coming of Jesus Christ.

They are mimicked in the life and the ministry and the coming of this man of sin, this son of perdition. It's counterfeiting Jesus all the way. Instead of son of perdition, the NIV renders this the man doomed to destruction. While that's terrible word-for-word translation, which they don't do, that's why. It's good commentary.

It really gives the sense, I believe. The man doomed to destruction. The reason I say that's good commentary is that Judas is called the son of perdition in John 17 verse 12. He's sort of along the lines of Judas. Judas was marked out for destruction.

And so will this man be. Here's what Matthew Henry says. Matthew Henry says, He has called the man of sin to denote his egregious wickedness. Children, that means really, really bad wickedness. Not only is he addicted to and practices wickedness himself, but he also promotes countenances and commands sin and wickedness in others.

I think Matthew Henry is exactly right. This is what you can expect to see when the man of sin, the son of perdition, is revealed. He loves sin and is good at it in his own life, and he promotes it and even commands it in others. Even commands it in others. Now here's my understanding of the man of sin and the son of perdition.

And I hold it with humility. I'm looking forward to being corrected by my betters. Second Thessalonians speaks of the man of sin and the son of perdition. 1 John speaks of the Antichrist. Revelation speaks of the beast, who is a pawn of the dragon.

The dragon is definitely Satan. We know that. I believe these are the same. The man of sin is the antichrist, is the beast. They are interchangeable names.

Just as there are different pictures of Christ, there are different pictures that help us understand the man of sin. So according to that, I think 1 John can help us. I'd like you to consider 1 John chapter 2 verse 18. Listen to 1 John chapter 2 verse 18. Little children, it is the last hour.

And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour. I think this helps us understand what is being said about the man of sin or the son of perdition. Just as there are types of Christ, now again think in terms of counterfeit and the real thing, Jesus is the real thing, There are types of Jesus in the Old Testament. Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High in Genesis, is a type of Jesus. How do we know that?

Hebrews says that Jesus is High Priest in the line of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a shadow and Jesus fulfills it. Jesus is the substance of that. Moses was a type of Christ, helping us to understand something about Christ. How do we know that?

Because the New Testament says that Jesus is the prophet who was to come. The prophet like Moses who was to come. So Moses was a type of Christ. David was a type of Christ. He was a great king of Israel, who was a shepherd of his people.

In that sense he was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as there are types of Christ, there are types of the Antichrist. I think 1 John 2, 18 helps us to understand that. There is THE Antichrist. He's the substance of it.

He's the fulfillment of it. But leading up to Him, there will be Antichrist's little a, Antichrist's leading up to the big capital A, Antichrist. Listen to what our confession says. This is the SOBC chapter 26 of the church paragraph 4. This is going to make your jaw drop, because it uses the language of our text.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, in whom by the appointment of the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order, or government of the Church is invested in a supreme and sovereign manner. Neither can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof. But is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ, and all that is called God, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." So exactly the words of our text and the men who wrote our confession said, that's the Pope's. Now this sounds very strange to our ears, doesn't it? Like Who got up on the wrong side of the bed that day?

They must have had a nun in their classes, wrapping them on the knuckles or something. They just had this bad disposition toward the Catholics. I just want to say what is so demonstrably true, that the core doctrines of the Catholic Church have been in place since the Council of Trent, and they're not one bit changed since the Council of Trent. The extent to which it was true in 1689 is the extent to which it is true today. I believe the authors of the Confession are very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very careful and precise.

They picked every word, and in the confession, it's little a anti-Christ. I think they're drawing on 1 John chapter 2 that there are antichrists leading up to the antichrist and they're saying every pope that ever has been an little a Antichrist. I know that because of the doctrines they hold and champion and teach and the position that they take over what they call the Lord's people. I want you to listen to the paragraph again. Here's the argument of the paragraph.

Here's what I want to ask you to listen for. Jesus is this to the church. Nobody else can be that. And the popes lay claim to that. And therefore, our little A antechrists.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church, in whom by the appointment of the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order, or government of the church is invested in a supreme and sovereign manner. Neither can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalted himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." The framers of the 1689 confession looked at the Pope and what he laid claim to and said that only belongs to Christ. No one else can lay claim to that within the Church of God, without being anti-Christ. Again, this is not a person who says, I'm not a Christian. This is a person who claims headship over all Christians, and yet robs Christ of glory in his church.

That is what it means to be anti-Christ. To attempt to take that which only belongs to Christ. He can't take it from Christ, of course. There are 1.2 billion Catholics in the world. 1.2 billion.

There are 7 billion people on earth. 40% of them are in South America. The most explosive growth is in Africa. That is damnable heresy, to put it in the words of 1 Peter, damnable heresy, 2 Peter, on a mass global scale. It's hard to imagine how the Antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition, is going to out-Antichrist that.

Here's my personal view. Here's my personal view. Take it or leave it. Said from the pulpit, with humility. I don't believe we've seen either one of these.

I don't believe we've seen the falling away rebellion apostasy. I don't believe we've seen the Antichrist. I think these will be close to the end. I'm not sure Christians will be able to be 100% sure when they do happen. I think they're going to be on spectacular scale, but we've seen things on spectacular scale.

The point is, every generation has a Hitler that it points to and says, man of sin. Son of permission, it's him, it's Hitler. I keep waiting, it's going to happen. Somebody's going to say, Donald Trump is the man of sin. It's coming.

Set a countdown clock right now until somebody says, man of sin. He loves his sin and he's good at it. And he promotes it. I don't think he's the man of sin. And I'm not sure if he was if we have clarity.

Because every generation really does point to someone and say, it has to be him, like Hitler. Here's the point from the text. The point is this. Paul was sure that they hadn't seen the falling away and the man of sin. Paul was sure.

That's all we need from this text. Paul was sure it hadn't happened then. I think we say because Jesus hasn't come back, we can know it hasn't happened now. If it happens in our lifetime, will we recognize it with 100% clarity? I doubt it.

Okay. Verse 4, our last verse. Verse 4, our last verse. These are marks of the Son of Perdition. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's marks.

There are two of them. Number one, he opposes God. As the man of sin, some manuscripts have man of lawlessness. Because some manuscripts have a different Greek word, it's a textual variant. But it doesn't really matter, they sort of get you to the same place, don't they?

Man of sin or man of lawlessness. As the man of sin, he rejects the government of God and all of God's claims on mankind. God is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He has all the rights to rulership and this man of sin is going to reject it all and say, I don't accept any of that. Listen to Psalm 2 verses 1-3.

Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us." I don't think that Psalm 2 is necessarily written about the man of sin. I'm just saying the man of sin is the perfect embodiment of that spirit. God is trying to chain us. We're breaking off those chains.

We're going to be free of this God. He opposes God. Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us." Here's what Matthew Poole says, "'Not that he openly and professedly opposes him, but as Judas kissed his master and betrayed him. Matthew Poole again, writing in that time frame, when there was open hostility between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church, and he's setting up, this can apply to the opposing God, doesn't have to look like outside the visible church. You can do it just like Jesus.

He opposes God secondly. He exalts himself above God. He exalts himself above anything that is worshipped. So whatever is worshipped, the God of whatever book, he is going to lay claim to that worship and say that worship belongs to Me. Christian worship, Jewish worship, all worship.

He's going to say I deserve all worship. I lay claim to all worship. All worship belongs to me. Now turn to Isaiah chapter 14. This is our last place that we're going to.

Isaiah chapter 14. I go to Isaiah chapter 14 just to drive home the point, this is simply satanic. If it's not obvious, we haven't really said it yet, but if it's not obvious, this is satanic. In next week's text, verses 5-12, it's going to be explicitly called out as the working of Satan. This is exactly what Satan said.

Listen to Isaiah chapter 14 or follow along, verses 12 through 14. How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will also sit on the mount of congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High." Just like in the book of Revelation you have the beast that proceeds out of the dragon, is really the pawn of the dragon. That's what you have in view here. You have Satan who has always wanted to ascend above God, who was cast out of heaven for trying to ascend above God.

And now you have the man of sin who is acting likewise. Verse 9, when we get there next week, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan. So it's not surprising at all to see him saying exactly the same things that Satan was saying. Those words are on his lips. Finally, we have this hotly debated phrase, so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.

Some argue that this is the literal Jewish temple in Jerusalem. And there's not one now, which would mean it would have to be rebuilt. And then a man is going to be in that temple saying, I am the God of this temple. Some argue that the New Testament people of God are called a temple by Paul in 1 Corinthians and in 2 Corinthians and Ephesians and by the spiritual building in 1 Peter. Remember?

Peter is saying we are a spiritual house being built. We are all living stones being built up into a spiritual building. Let me say this. The Thessalonians have a much better framework for this than we have. Why so?

Imperial worship? They can walk to a place, a temple, where a man is worshiped as God. Can you do that? The Thessalonians have context for this. Thessalonica has a temple to worship Augustus Caesar and his father, Julius Caesar, both considered to be gods worthy of worship.

So the Thessalonians can walk down the street to that. They got a framework for that. But that's not isolated to a couple of Caesars and Thessalonica. Many leaders in world history have laid claim to worship as God. Either explicitly saying, I'm God, worship me, or through the allegiance that they demand.

If you look at the loyalty and allegiance that Hitler demanded, He was demanding worship. Absolutely he was. The most helpful commentator that I read on this, at least to me, was F.F. Bruce. He's been dead, I think, since the 70s.

So reasonably modern. F.F. Bruce. He says this, been dead since the 70s. He says, It may be best to conclude that the Jerusalem sanctuary is meant here by Paul and his companions, but meant in a metaphorical sense.

Had they said so that he takes his seat on the throne of God, few would have thought it necessary to think of a literal throne. It would simply have been regarded as a graphic way of saying that he plans to usurp the authority of God. This is what is meant by the language actually used here. That's what I think. Might be wrong.

That's what I think. It's being used in a metaphorical sense. They are talking about the temple in Jerusalem. The time that Paul and Silvanus and Timothy write this, it still exists and they use it in a metaphorical sense to give you a graphical way to say he's going to lay claim to what is rightfully God's and to be worshiped. Applications.

I'm going to give you three. Only two are written down, but I've got a third one that I thought of. That's unusual. Application number one. Here's what's certain.

Jesus hasn't come, and He is coming. You haven't missed it? You didn't miss Jesus shouting or the voice of an archangel. He has not come yet. But He is coming.

Let me remind you of 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 10. When he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed. Look at the beginning of that verse, when He comes in that day. Not if, but when. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy bet their lives on it.

I'm betting my life on it. You can bet your life on it. This is the truth. We can stand four square on and never be moved off of Jesus is coming back He hasn't come yet. We haven't missed the resurrection Jesus is coming listen to what Matthew Henry says whatever uncertainty we are at or whatever mistakes may arise about the timing of His coming, His coming itself is certain.

This has been the faith and hope of all Christians in all ages of the church, nay it was the faith and hope of the Old Testament saints. And it's our faith and hope today. And it's a sure hope. And so what do we do? We watch and pray.

Really simple. We have our marching orders about how we think about the coming of our Lord. We're watching, we're praying, we're looking at the skies in anticipation, and in the meantime we're praying and we're busy doing the things that God has given us to do. Application number two. Know your Bible and hang your hat on it.

Hang your hat on it just means rely completely on it. You can't hang your hat on your Bible unless you know it. You can only stand on it and be immovable standing fast if you know what's in there. Like know what's in there. We've skimmed it.

I know we've all skimmed our Bibles. I'm saying know our Bibles. We have to continually feed on the Word of God. Feed, feed, feed, feed, eat it. So that we won't be disquieted by the false teachings that make the rounds every hundred years.

There's nothing new under the sun. There are novel teachings in the church that were around a thousand years ago. And they're so old that they're new. And That's how the last time this is going to happen. The old heresies always make their rounds every few hundred years.

But people who know their Bibles won't be disrupted or disquieted by that. We don't have to be knocked off our game. We can keep working at the things that God has given us to do and we can watch and pray with confidence if we know our Bibles. Third, Third. The counterfeits are on display in these texts.

We need to know the counterfeits. There's a Jesus who has types that pointed to, helped us understand, and then he came, he was the substance of those types. And there's the counterfeit. There's the capital A antichrist, and a bunch of little antichrists are going to lead up and show us what He's like. We would do well to be familiar with the counterfeit.

Jesus will be revealed at His coming. The man of sin will be revealed. The kingdom of God has its laws. There are counterfeit laws to the other kingdom. There are counterfeit things to be loved and appreciated.

They are counterfeit good works for the other kingdom. Everything that the kingdom of God has, there is a counterfeit. We should learn to recognize them so that we can spot what is not of God. It says, everything to do with testing all things and holding fast to what is good. No, it counterfeits.

God, I thank you for your word who was sufficient for these things. I pray, oh God, that you would give us a heart of wisdom as we study the end times. We know that they wouldn't even be in the Bible if it wasn't important. And yet we do want to have the right heart of humility as we come to these things, knowing that they are hard, knowing how many of your people have misunderstood prophecy. Father, I pray that you would make us a people who watch and pray with confidence that we live with such expectation and anticipation of your sons being revealed so that we can admire Him for all eternity.

And in the meantime, God busying ourselves with the work that you've given your people to do, It is a glorious work to think that you would use us to bring people into your kingdom and to teach them all things that Christ has commanded. I pray that you would help us to keep these things in view and to love them. In Jesus' name, amen.