REVELATION TWENTY
by L.R. Shelton, Jr.
Chapter 3
Dear friend, as we continue our studies in Revelation
20, we again want to look into the LOOSING OF SATAN, as described in vv. 7-10:
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his
prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters
of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of
whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth,
and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came
down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false
prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
WHY SATAN WILL BE LOOSED
Now in these verses, there is revealed the PARTICULAR
PURPOSE for which SATAN SHALL BE LOOSED when the thousand years shall be
fulfilled: (and remember that this thousand years is not a literal but a
symbolic time period, reaching from the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to
His second coming.) Right before our Lord comes back, Satan shall be loosed for
a little season to universally “DECEIVE THE NATIONS” (vs. 8). Just as he was
bound at the cross so he might not deceive the nations (vs. 3), here he is
loosed that he might deceive them again. As we have previously shown you, this
is in agreement with what the apostle Paul teaches in II Thess. 2:11-12: “And
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a
lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure
in unrighteousness.” And this loosing of Satan to deceive the nations will be a
TOTAL AND UNIVERSAL DECEPTION! Why? So he might gather all the nations
together-the number of whom will be as the sand of the sea (Rev. 20:8)-to battle
against the saints, the church of the living God, pictured here under the figure
of “THE BELOVED CITY, THE NEW JERUSALEM” of Gal. 4:26, Heb. 12:22, Rev. 3:12 and
Rev. 21.
Gog and Magog
Why does John, by the Holy Spirit, refer to the nations
in this battle as Gog and Magog? Gog and Magog were the heathen nations that
were in existence 2500 years ago who fought against the nation of Israel,
physical battles of great intensity (Ezek. 38- 39). But do not confuse Rev.
20:7-9 with these battles of Ezekiel 38 and 39 as so many do today! These verses
have nothing to do with what is promulgated from so many pulpits and over the
radio today! They say Rev. 20:7-9 pictures how Russia is going to march on
Palestine in the near future; but Russia is not mentioned here, nor is it
mentioned any place in the Bible!
You see, John refers to the battles of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 and 39 only
because they typify the battle here in Rev. 20 in this way: Just as they were
physical battles of such great intensity, the Holy Spirit uses them here in
symbolic form to illustrate the greatness of the persecution against the saints
who will be living at that time just before our Lord’s return. Just as Gog and
Magog were the last attempt to destroy literal Israel before the first coming of
Christ, the Gog and Magog of Rev. 20:8 is the last attempt to destroy spiritual
Israel, (the church, every living believer) before the second coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
My friend, did you know that by using the Gog and Magog of Ezek. 38-39 to show
forth a spiritual truth, John is following the same pattern as our Lord and the
other writers of the New Testament? Take your New Testament and look up all the
references from the Old Testament that are used in the New, and you will find to
your amazement as I did, that these Old Testament Scriptures are always used to
show forth some great spiritual truth; in other words, all the Old Testament
Scriptures that are used in the New Testament are given a spiritual meaning,
NEVER a material or physical meaning!
“The Beloved City”
Now as we go further into our study of vv. 7-9 of Rev.
20, we see Satan and his forces surrounding the camp of the saints: “And they
went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about,
and THE BELOVED CITY” (vs. 9). Here again we see that “the beloved city” is used
symbolically, to describe-not the literal city of Jerusalem here on earth-but
the new spiritual Jerusalem upon earth. You see, this beloved city is nothing
more or less than a picture of the church of God; and the phrase “compassed the
camp of the saints about” is figurative language used to express the enmity of
the world against the church of the living God.
The Scriptures Themselves
My friend, this is Scriptural truth, verified by the
Scriptural use of the term, “Jerusalem”. You see, if I could not find the
Scriptures spiritualizing this, then I would be foolish for doing so. But when I
come to Scriptures like Gal. 4:22-31 and find the apostle Paul using the Old
Testament Scriptures to spiritualize this allegory he was giving of the two
Jerusalems, then I’m on good ground in spiritualizing this verse of Scripture in
Rev. 20 to show that is typifies the church of the living God. For in Gal. 4
Paul uses Hagar, the bondwoman and servant wife of Abraham, to picture the city
of Jerusalem on earth as being in bondage with her children; and Sarah, the free
woman who gave birth to the spiritual seed, Isaac, to picture the Jerusalem that
is from above and is free. Further, he tells us in vs. 26 that she is “the
mother of us all.” So we see that this can only be a spiritual Jerusalem,
because no future, material Jerusalem can be the “mother of us all”.
Again, in Heb. 12:22 Paul spiritualizes Jerusalem in
these words: “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem…” And notice that he says, “YE ARE COME.” So this is
no future, material city, but a PRESENT SPIRITUAL CITY, which is the church
described in Rev. 21 as a bride adorned for her husband.Therefore, it is the saints, the “church of the firstborn” (Heb. 12:23), that
Satan comes against in a final attempt to wipe them off the face of the earth,
just before Christ returns. As he moves through the nations, governments and
false religions, he will play havoc with the church, seeking to utterly destroy
them. The days of the martyrs will return; for men, women and children will seal
their testimonies with their blood! This will be a time of tribulation, so great
that there will be only a few left upon this earth who know Christ in true
saving faith.
God’s Answer to Satan
But my friend, Satan cannot and will not utterly destroy the church of the
living God, for our Lord said, “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it” (Matt. 16:18). CHRIST IS THE VICTOR AND CONQUEROR, for God’s answer to Satan
is found in the last part of our text: “Then fire will come down from God out of
heaven and devour them” (Rev. 20:9). All throughout the Book of Revelation this
theme prevails: Christ the Victor, and His people with Him in all His triumphs.
And dear friend, when you understand that there is but one second coming of our
Lord, and that His coming ends it all, then all of the Scriptures in the New
Testament are just one blessed pattern woven together; they all speak of the
same thing! When He says that fire comes down from heaven to devour them, then
we see how II Thess. 1:7-8 falls into place: “And to you who are troubled rest
with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels, IN FLAMING FIRE taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You see, fire will accompany the
second coming of our Lord; the testimony of the apostles Paul, John and Peter
all agree. For what Peter tells us in II Pet. 3:10 takes place at the same time!
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements SHALL MELT WITH
FERVENT HEAT, the earth also and the works that are therein SHALL BE BURNED UP.”
Therefore we are told we should look for and hasten unto “the coming of the day
of God, wherein THE HEAVENS BEING ON FIRE SHALL BE DISSOLVED and the elements
shall melt with FERVENT HEAT” (vs. 12). All of this dovetails together!
Again, we see in II Thess. 2:8 that Christ’s sudden second coming in glory shall
destroy the wicked one: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord
shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” Then, according to II Pet.
3:7, He will judge the world of the ungodly; and then He will consummate the
redemption of His elect people of all the ages according to II Thess. 1:10. Then
shall be fulfilled all the promises of the new heavens and the new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness (Isa. 65:17; II Pet. 3:13). You see, all of these verses
of Scripture dovetail together and all speak of the same identical second coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, when all of this will come to pass.
So you don’t need a Philadelphia lawyer to figure out when all of this takes
place; it’s just as simple as the Bible makes it, with no confusion; When Christ
returns, that is the end, that’s the day of resurrection and that’s the day of
judgment. But it’s only when you ask God to erase from your mind the false
teaching that Christ’s second coming is in so many stages, that you will find
that the whole Word of God agrees! You don’t have to take a portion like II
Thess. 2 and say vv. 5-7 belong to the first stage of His coming, and vv. 8-12
belong to the second stage of His coming! or say that the first stage is for His
saints, then seven years later it is with His saints, than a millennium, and
then the judgment and resurrection of the wicked-oh no! This is confusion! This
is of Satan, to confuse the minds of the people, because the Holy Spirit is not
the Author of confusion! (I Cor. 14:33).
Satan’s Eternal Doom
It is blessed to me to know that there is coming a day when our Lord is coming
to vindicate His name! For Rev. 20:10 declares: “And the devil that deceived
them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false
prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Finally
after his long history of deceiving mankind, beginning with Adam and Eve and
continuing to the present time, Satan will meet his doom in the lake of fire! Oh
what a deserving fate for one who has brought such terrible misery, woe and
terror upon the church of the living God for so many centuries! My friends, this
is the deepest hell, for there will be no relief from this torment, it is
eternal! There is no pause, no rest, no comfort; the suffering is unending, it
is everlasting! The devil shall be tormented day and night without end.
What a
picture!
But oh, it is sadder yet to know that every one of you who dies OUTSIDE OF
CHRIST shall be with Satan in this awful state according to the words of our
blessed Lord Himself in Matt. 25:41: “Then shall he say also unto them on the
left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into EVERLASTING FIRE, PREPARED FOR THE
DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS.” Oh my dear soul out there today without Christ and
without hope, do you hear these words! They are spoken by Him Who now holds out
the scepter of grace to all who will bow at His feet in repentance, turning from
their sins and wicked ways, laying down their arms of rebellion and seeking His
face in believing trust and faith. Again, I tell you in love, TODAY IS THE DAY
OF SALVATION, not in some future date; for if you neglect so great salvation,
then this same Jesus shall be your Judge! What about it my friend? Are you going
to be cast into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels? or
will you be with Christ for ever and forever? I’ve told you the truth today;
I’ve brought before you the truth of God’s Word as to what the end times are
going to be, as they are pictured in the Word of God.
HOW SATAN WILL AGAIN DECEIVE THE NATIONS
Now this next statement may surprise you, but did you know that this earth is
ripe right now for that little season wherein Satan is to be loosed? I’m not
setting dates, for it could be yet another 100 or 1,000 years, but the nations
are now ripe for this very thing. So now as I go into the Scriptures with you, I
propose to describe our present condition, and show you how Satan will be able
to universally deceive the nations, bringing them to persecute and put to death
the church of the living God.
Remember what we have told you from II Thess. 2:8-12! It is because they
received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, that God shall send
the nations of the earth a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that
they all might be damned. Why? because they believed not the truth when it was
preached unto them but had pleasure in unrighteousness. The constraining hand of
the Holy Spirit and His grace shall be taken away, as God gives them up to the
deceitfulness of sin, letting them follow their own ways. This will be the awful
judgment, for they shall be reprobated; so they shall believe Satan’s lie, and
easily be led against the saints of God to persecute and put them to death.
But in order to fully understand how Satan can deceive
the nations once again as he did before the first coming of our Lord, we must
first understand man’s natural condition. Follow us very closely now! In the
fall of Adam, man, who is a tri-part being, composed of body, soul and spirit (I
Thess. 5:23), became lost in his spirit; it was no more in communion with God,
so he was a lost soul! His spirit fell to the level of the soul, for according
to Heb. 4:12, in the new birth the spirit is raised or “divided asunder” from
its immersion in the soul. So man can never be delivered or saved apart from the
distinguishing grace of God worked in the heart by the Holy Spirit.
This is confirmed in Eph. 2:1 which reads: “And you
hath he quickened, who were DEAD in trespasses and sins.” This verse of
Scripture shows us that man outside of Christ, is a lost, helpless and hopeless
sinner; and verse 3 tells us that he is by nature a child of wrath. But these
are truths or doctrines of God’s Word that are hated by men today (and they have
always been hated by natural man, no matter how religious he may be); that is
why these doctrines are not preached from most pulpits; in fact they are denied
in most all religious circles, which makes man a prime object for the deceiving
power of Satan.
Now you may ask, “What doctrines are these that men despise?” My friend,
actually there are three teachings of God’s Word which, if pressed upon the
consciences of men, will make them lash back at you with all the vengeance of
their souls. These three truths are: the SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD, the WRATH OF GOD
and the TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN, and these are key doctrines of God’s Word! Even
professed Christians will come back at you with hatred and bitterness when you
press home the Word which declares that God is sovereign in all of His
operations, that He alone dictates the terms of salvation and gives it to
whomsoever He wills, and that grace is in the hands of a sovereign God! The
effect of Scriptures such as Rom. 9:15,16 and 18 which show our sovereign God to
be the God of election and predestination, is always the same upon natural man
as it was in our Lord’s time (see Luke 4:24-29): “…when they heard these things,
they were filled with wrath” (vs. 28).
Further, to say that this sovereign God, the God of the Bible, is a GOD OF
WRATH, will bring out the worst in the unsaved. When you press home to the
conscience that God has the right, which He exercises to the glory of His
justice and the vindication of His holiness, to punish sinners beneath His wrath
in hell forever, then you hear this cry: “A loving God would not send a sinner
to hell to burn and suffer forever; my God would not do that!” But nowhere does
any writer of Scripture under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit try to placate
or do away with the justice of God in punishing sinners for their sins! Yet
natural man receives not the love of the truth that, he may be saved (II Thess.
2:10), so he’s open to Satan’s deception!
Then to be told that he is totally depraved, lost, a helpless and hopeless
sinner, without any goodness, righteousness or profitableness to commend him to
God, is more than natural man can bear! (and this truth of man’s TOTAL DEPRAVITY
is taught all throughout the Word of God.) Well then, what does the Bible mean
by “total depravity”, and how will this help us to understand how Satan deceives
the hearts of men?
God’s Picture of Man
Dear friend, the Word of God teaches that in the fall of man, he became totally
depraved-not in his physical, but in all his mental and moral capacities. In
other words, every part of man’s mental and moral nature is corrupted by sin;
therefore his depravity is total. For you see, man in his spirit is made up of
all those mysterious intangibles: his intellect, volition, emotions, instinct,
desire, motives, his urge, disposition and temper, which live not only
inseparably with each other, but WITHIN each other, altogether constituting one
indivisible thinking mind. And when man died spiritually through the fall of
Adam, all that makes up his mental and moral powers became corrupted and set
upon a COURSE OF REBELLION AGAINST GOD. Listen to God’s Word! “The carnal mind”
(the natural), depraved mind of man) “is ENMITY against God: for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7). These are not my
words, they are God’s Words! And I know they’re true, because I know a little of
my own heart by the grace of God. Because the natural mind of man is not subject
to the law of God, nor can it ever be, that is the reason why God in salvation
must give a spiritual heart and a spiritual nature, or no man could ever have
communion with God.
I trust you can understand what I’m saying! I’ve tried
to make it simple, that you might understand exactly what total depravity is.
Again, this is what the Word of God teaches, for if you will turn to Jer. 17:9,
you will find that mans heart by his fall in Adam is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; so he must be given a new heart! (Ezek. 36:26).
In Eph. 4:18 we read that man’s moral and spiritual being has darkened his
understanding, and therefore has alienated him from the life of God. In John
3:19, our Lord said that man’s affections by the fall are prostituted so men
love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Therefore, for
God to save a man, He must enlighten his soul, or otherwise he stays in
darkness, under the controlling influence of the spirit of the devil; (for as we
have shown you in previous messages, natural man bears the mark of the devil in
his mind and in his hand!).
Further, Rom. 5:6 tells us that man is without spiritual strength and is
ungodly, the opposite of God and holiness. Our fall in Adam has polluted the
fountain of every man’s spiritual life (Prov. 15:8); therefore “the imagination
of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). Being “shapen in iniquity”
and conceived in sin (Psa. 51:5), then man is “a transgressor from the womb” (Isa.
48:8) and goes astray as soon as he is born, speaking lies (Psa. 58:3).
We could go on and on with the Scriptures, showing you that one after another
gives us a picture of man being totally depraved in his mental and moral being;
and this is his spirit, because it is in his spirit that a man is God conscious.
And in the fall of Adam, his spirit fell to the level of his soul, therefore it
is in rebellion against God. That is why the natural man has no taste or
capacity to enjoy the things of the heavenly spiritual realm. He cannot discern
them, because they are spiritually discerned (I Cor. 2:14). He has no love nor
desire after them because his affections are prostituted (Jn. 3:19), and because
his will is enslaved by the lust of the flesh (Eph. 2:2-3).
So we see that the Word of God does not paint a pretty picture of man outside of
the grace of God in Christ; apart from the grace of God, man is in an awful
spiritual condition (helpless and hopeless). And when you realize the truth of
this, you will be convinced that no man could or ever would be saved apart from
the SOVEREIGN GRACE OF GOD worked in that sinner’s heart by the power of God’s
Holy Spirit.
The Satanic Spirit of Rebellion
Then as if all this is not bad enough, the Word of God is very clear in II Tim.
2:26 that natural man is under the control of Satan, that is, taken captive by
him at his will. That’s why man walks according to the course of this world; he
walks according to the prince of the power of the air (Satan himself), the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, according to Eph. 2:2.
Listen now! Being the depraved creature that he is and controlled or held
captive by Satan, natural man manifests the Satanic spirit of rebellion that we
see everywhere today. No matter where we turn, man is in rebellion against God,
giving vent to all the deep sinful emotions of his natural heart and mind.
Therefore when the restraining power of the grace of God and the Spirit of God
is held back and Satan is loosed, it will be easy for him to deceive the
nations, for he already controls them by his spirit, the spirit of rebellion.
Left to himself, natural man is capable of committing
the most awful, abominable sins. Do you wonder why men act as they do today! Why
does a man lie and steal, hate and kill? Why does a father commit incest with
his own young daughter? Why do men commit the most revolting crimes such as
killing unborn babies? Why do men and women kill in the most inhuman way? Why do
mothers leave their babies in garbage cans and locker rooms? Why do fathers
leave their children and wives-and mothers their children and husbands-to go off
and forget their responsibilities? Why do men and women drink themselves to
death, burn themselves out in the most perverted forms of lust or commit
suicide? It is because they are depraved sinners, acting out of a heart of
rebellion against God, held captive by Satan, deceiving and being deceived.
We are living in a day when God is belittled, cried
down, humanized, and minimized because He is dethroned in the minds and hearts
of men. The name of our blessed Lord Jesus is rolled in the gutter of man’s
depraved thoughts and humanized to such an extent that He is thought of only as
a man of history and not the true and living God. And we’re living in a day of
hero worship, for man in turn has been preached up, exalted and deified. We are
seeing Rom. 1:25 come to pass: Natural man, under the deceiving power of Satan
has “changed the truth of God into a lie”, and worships and serves “the creature
more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.” The mind of man with all its
glorious achievements, has been worshipped, praised, and deified instead of the
true Deity of the LORD of heaven in Whose hands our very breath is held!
Not only is the MIND of man worshipped, but the BODY is
also glorified and served. Especially the female body has been exposed,
glorified, and made a national deity by our newspapers, magazines, books,
radios, T.V.s and from just about every stage and theater. Our society bows down
before her shrine in daily ritual as the heathen nations did before and after
the time of our Lord. Everywhere you turn today, in our grocery stores, drug
stores, supermarkets, eating places, hotels, motels, newsstands, from the T.V.
screens and in the streets, we see and read of the sex-goddess, the sex god,
until it is nauseating and sickening. Men and women, to their own shame, have
glorified and worshipped the naked body as a thing of beauty, which God says is
an abomination in His sight.
Our nakedness is our shame! It shows that we are
sinners; that’s the reason God made clothes of skins and clothed our first
parents in the garden of Eden! So to unclothe our bodies, and to parade them
before man to be lusted after and worshipped, is a slap in the face of God which
openly says to Him, “I am not a sinner, and I defy you to punish me; I am going
to walk as I please, and do as I please; You and Your Word shall not tell me
what to do!”
And my friend, this is what we see on the streets and read of in our newspapers
every day! From the oldest to the youngest, from the pulpit to the gutter, from
the place of authority at the seat of government to the poor in the streets,
there is open rebellion against God! As in the days of Noah and Lot, so it is
today: Man no longer has a sense of morality, but his conscience has been seared
as with a hot iron, and he has become nothing but a beast like Nebuchadnezzar,
roaming in the field of sin, drinking it up like water, and doing what his
depraved heart delights to do!
Every medium available today is controlled by Satan to
promulgate sin in its raw, disgusting rebellion against God-you know this as
well as I do. Magazines, newspapers, radios, televisions, movies and books ALL
parade the sensual, the lustful, the devilish and the diabolical; all lift up
sin as virtuous. What is it that man hates? It is the law of God! So men say,
“throw off all restraint, let yourself go and have a good time; don’t you know
it is your right to live as you please and do what you please?” And they portray
lying, stealing, robbery, adultery, fornication, whore-mongering, wife-swapping,
homosexuality, pornography, drunkenness and even murder as acceptable because it
is the letting loose of the man that has been held down these many years by the
“old puritanical laws”. Men laugh at, joke about, indulge in and get their fill
of sin out of a heart of rebellion against God!
A Foretaste of the Loosing of Satan
My friend, all of this had led to A SOCIETY OF LAWLESSNESS, and our nation is
headed straight for hell just as fast as it can get there. We have sowed to the
wind, and now are reaping the whirlwind; we have sowed the wind of promiscuity
and have reaped the whirlwind of wrecked lives, suicide and wholesale insanity.
Justice goes begging in the streets and man has warped and twisted ideas about
the rights of others.
Why is all of this happening? It is because God is withdrawing the sweet
influences of His Holy Spirit and letting men go, to walk in the ways of their
hearts and in the sight of their eyes (Eccl. 11:9) in preparation for the
loosing of Satan. (For as we have mentioned in our previous studies, his
deception-for which he has been loosed-is so gradual that it is almost
imperceptible.) And II Tim. 3:13 tells us that “ Evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse, DECEIVING AND BEING DECEIVED.” So we should not be surprised at
what we find in our society. The pulpit as a whole has repudiated the law of
God; and when the law of God is done away with, then every man becomes a law
unto himself, and sin reigns.
You see, Satan is stirring up the rebellion that has been in the heart of man
all the while into an outward manifestation of hatred against God in causing him
to defy the law of God. Rom. 1 gives us the reason this is taking place:
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and
to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore GOD GAVE THEM UP
to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own
bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and
worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for
ever. Amen. For this cause GOD GAVE THEM UP unto vile affections…and even as
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a
reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (vv. 21,26,28).
How has man been deceived by Satan? He has turned the truth of God-His holiness,
righteousness, justice and sovereignty-into a lie, saying that God does not
exist; or, if He does exist, He does not take knowledge of us, so there is no
hell, no wrath, no punishment. Thus men, being deceived, go on in their sins,
worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator and bringing upon
themselves SWIFT DESTRUCTION (II Pet. 2:1). And these verses of Scripture in
Rom. 1 ARE BEING FULFILLED BEFORE OUR VERY EYES TODAY! Everywhere men and women
are being given over to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to
dishonour their own bodies between themselves. We are seeing the days of Noah
reproduced in our generation (Lk. 17:26-27); and God’s commentary on them
applies to us every imagination of the thoughts of men’s hearts are only evil
continually (Gen. 6:5). For “unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is
nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled” (Titus 1:15).
Modern Sodom and Gomorrah
But that is not all that is described in Rom. 1. Listen as we continue vs. 26:
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did
change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the
men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward
another: men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in
themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Oh what a sad
commentary on the human heart! We have a picture here of modern Sodom and
Gomorrah, for this describes the desires and actions of men and women today! We
are presently witnessing the overflow of the wickedness of man controlled by
Satan and given over by God to a reprobate mind!
We are seeing homosexuality and homosexual sympathizers who have become bolder
and bolder today; instead of hiding in the closet as in yesteryear, they have
gone public, boasting of their unnatural and ungodly perversion. Is this not
reminiscent of the days of Lot?
They are doing the same thing that Isaiah said
of ruined Jerusalem and fallen Judah, “THEY DECLARE THEIR SIN AS SODOM, THEY
HIDE IT NOT! Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded EVIL unto THEMSELVES!”
(Isa. 3:9). Are we not seeing this today? And are not men receiving in their own
bodies that recompense of this sin? Of course they are! What about the diseases
we are seeing today among homosexuals? Oh my friends, Satan has men blinded to
their condition before God! We are in the days of Lot, spiritually speaking,
when they did eat and drink, they bought and sold, planted and built, right
along with the awful sin of homosexuality. “But the same day that Lot went out
of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all!” Oh
that we would hear God’s Warning: “EVEN THUS SHALL IT BE IN THE DAY WHEN THE SON
OF MAN IS REVEALED” (Luke 17:28,30). Dear friend, all of this is that falling
away from divine truth described in II Thess. 2:3. And as Satan gradually
deceives the nations, the apostasy gets greater and greater, so what we see
happening today will get worse.
Our Only Hope
But beloved, I cannot leave you without hope in this
terrible day when nations and men are being deceived! As the only place of
safety was in the ark when the storm of God’s wrath fell in the days of Noah, so
the only safe place today when the storm of God’s wrath is about to fall in fury
upon us, is the ARK, CHRIST JESUS. HE ALONE IS THE SINNER’S HIDING PLACE.
Although my heart is grieved and vexed today because of the exceeding sinfulness
of sin manifested all around us, yet it rejoices my heart that in Christ I have
a safe hiding place. He came to save the types of sinners we have been
describing, dear friend; for God is able to wash even the most defiled soul
clean in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ! This is the hope that is
offered in the gospel: Christ will receive sinful men! While the Bible condemns
your sin, whatever it may be, He nevertheless is willing to forgive you if you
will repent and turn to Him by faith, crying for mercy. You may ask, “On what
basis is He able to save me, the rebel?” On the basis of the righteousness of
Christ, Who gave Himself without spot to God that He might purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14), cleansing you from the vile
and filthy effects of sin, and covering your spiritual nakedness before God.
Praise be unto our God that …where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20-21).
So my friend, your only hope is that God will work in your soul, that by His
Spirit He will quicken, or make you alive, in the new birth and reveal unto you
the holiness of God as shown in His Word; that He will grant you repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth that you are a guilty, lost sinner, and so work
in your heart that you become so sick of sin (of having your own way), that you
can no longer continue therein. Pray that God will give you the Spirit of
holiness, the Spirit of righteousness, that by faith you will close in with the
Lord Jesus Christ and see that God’s justice has been satisfied in the shedding
of the precious blood of His only begotten Son at Calvary’s cross; and that God
can be just in justifying even YOU, based upon the imputed righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ (II Cor. 5:21). God gives and imputes His righteousness only
to the account of those who lay down their arms of rebellion, hoist the white
flag of surrender, and crown Jesus Christ Lord of their lives, as they look away
by faith to Him to save, deliver and have mercy on them in this life and in the
life to come!
Satan’s Deception in Religion
Now remember the interpretation of the two beasts of Rev. 13, how Satan operates
in two areas to deceive the souls of men: as a roaring lion (his hand in
persecution) and as an angel of light (his mind, as he works through imitation).
This also corresponds to II Thess. 2:3 in the falling away from divine truth,
which we are seeing more and more in religion. You see, it is because God is
giving the so-called civilized and Christian nations over to a reprobate mind,
that Satan will be able to enter into them as he did Judas in total deception.
they will be so deceived, they will receive the “man of sin” who will so turn
their hearts away from God that they will revolt in open rebellion against Him
and seek to destroy all vestige of Christianity and the worship of the true and
living God as revealed unto us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And with the
restraining power of the grace of God and Spirit of God held back when Satan is
loosed, they will compass the camp of the saints (Rev. 20:7-10) to take
vengeance upon them since they cannot get to the holy God Whom they hate.
A False Gospel
The Scriptures in II Thessalonians give us much light upon the true
interpretation of vv. 7-10 of Rev. 20, for they tell us what will happen when
the man of sin or the wicked one is revealed; and in this I purpose to show you
how religion (and that’s what it is, man’s religion, not Christianity) through
Satan’s subtlety has fallen away from God in this apostasy. Keep in mind that
Satan’s one aim is to deceive and imitate, making the world religious without
Christ. Let us again consider vv. 9-12 of II Thess. 2 where we read that the
wicked one’s coming is “…after the working of Satan with all power and signs and
lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness.” Look at verse 11 again: “AND FOR THIS CAUSE GOD
SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE.” God sends upon
them a misleading influence, a working of error and a strong delusion to make
them believe what is false! And my friend, as I have previously mentioned, this
misleading influence, this working of error, is the false doctrine of carnal
Christianity that is already working today, and is bringing in the great
apostasy that sets the stage for the loosing of Satan when the nations
universally, will believe Satan’s lie.
Dear friend, let me sound the trumpet loud and clear
today, to warn you of this damning influence of the false gospel that is
bringing in the great apostasy! For when I set out to interpret the 20th chapter
of Revelation, I did not desire to tickle your knowledge-bone with a little
eschatological meaning, just to bring you some things about last times. I
purposed to bring you the whole counsel of God, that you might be forewarned and
instructed in the truth of God’s eternal Word, and that you might not be
deceived when Satan is loosed and the whole world follows after him, turning the
truth of God into a lie and being damned.
I must warn you that this doctrine of carnal Christianity that is preached today
is a false gospel, for it has no power to save, but only to deceive; it deceives
poor sinners into believing that all is well with their souls because they have
believed something or other (most don’t know what), and they are preached into
heaven when they die, no matter what kind of life they have lived! This false
gospel is built upon the false foundation of “easy believism”, so it knows
nothing of Holy Spirit conviction or of heart-felt repentance; it knows nothing
of true saving faith or of the demands of the true gospel of the grace of God.
For my friend, the great power of the true gospel of God breaks the power and
dominion of sin in the sinner’s life (Rom. 6:14), giving a new heart, new
desires and therefore a new life; that is, a holy life (not sinless), holy
thoughts and a holy walk by the grace of God before God and man.
You see, our Lord described the way that leads to
heaven in Matt. 7 as a narrow way with an entrance into it by a strait gate, but
this false gospel leads you to believe that there are two roads to heaven and
not only one; it makes a second way, which is the road of carnal Christianity, a
way that seems right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death! (Prov.
14:12). Beware of this false gospel that presents the easy way and appeals to
the flesh, for it is a road that leads to hell; and it is the working of error
that is bringing in the great apostasy when Satan is to be loosed for a little
season!
So I say, beware of that false gospel which allows a man to stay in his sins and
sow to his flesh, and yet gives him a hope for heaven! Beware of that false
gospel that sells you an insurance policy against the flames of hell and yet
gives you no power over sin! Beware of that false gospel which lets you go on in
your same way of fleshly living and makes no demands for the death of your
fleshly nature! Beware of that false gospel that gives you religion without
life, and profession without possession!
Let me tell you a little more about this false gospel!
It encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic appeal. It does not seek
to slay you, the sinner, before you can receive the new life in Christ. Rather
it tells you to receive new life and then if you desire to crown Jesus as Lord
by and by and destroy the old life, that’s fine; but you have believed and now
all is well, so you will go to heaven no matter what you do! It tries to pour
old wine into new wineskins, and it won’t work (Lk. 5:37-38)! But my friend, the
old must be torn down before the new can be built (which is what God does in
Holy Spirit conviction).
Instead of slaying the sinner, this false gospel tries
to redirect him into a more clever and jollier way of living which saves his
self-respect. It says to the self-assertive, “come and assert yourself for
Christ”. To the thrill-seeker it says, “come and enjoy the thrill of Christian
fellowship!” Don’t mention sin, don’t mention the sinner, don’t mention that
death came by sin; men will get mad at you! So it is not opposed to your flesh;
rather it is a friendly pal, and if understood rightly, it is the source of
oceans of good, clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets you live without
interference; it still lets you live for your own pleasure. Because it makes no
demands upon you, it never changes your life! Again I say, beware of this false
gospel that makes no demands upon you, but shows you the easy way unto
salvation, which is but the shortest route to hell!
This false gospel misses completely the whole meaning
of the cross, for the cross means death. It never breaks the heart of pride! But
my friend, if you are ever saved, your heart of pride will be broken before God,
for He will do this under Holy Spirit conviction. You see, the gospel of the
grace of God in Christ-which is the power of God unto salvation-demands the
death, burial and resurrection of YOU the sinner in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
sets forth the cross of Christ as the abrupt, violent end of all that you are by
nature, and raises you to new life in Christ with the shackles of sin broken. It
brings to an end your pride and ambition and leaves you at the feet of the Lord
God of glory, that holy God, crying for mercy in the blood and righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel of the grace of God in Christ does not tell
you that you are going to have your life redirected, but that you are going to
the place of death; that you will take up the cross of Christ and say good-bye
to your friends, good-bye to the world, for you’re not coming back the same
person. As Heb. 13:13 says, “let us go forth therefore unto him without the
camp, bearing his reproach.” For there we died to the world! As the Lord Jesus
Himself tells us in Luke 14:27, “And whosoever doth not bear this cross, and
come after me, cannot be my disciple”; and the cross means death!
No Compromise!
Listen to me now! We see from the Scriptures that the gospel of the grace of God
in Christ makes no compromise with sin; it demands a coming clean, and coming
clear with God or going to hell. It says, “Down sinner, down at the feet of the
holy and sovereign God in repentance, fall down at the feet of Christ in faith,
looking only unto Him for salvation.” It will not let you cover, defend or
excuse any sin, according to Prov. 28:13. All sin must be forsaken; all sin must
be renounced; all sin must be repented of; all sin must be hated! My friend, you
must die to the world, its pleasures and allurements, and the world will die to
you (Gal. 6:14). You must forsake your sin and your way, and then forsake
yourself or you will never know Christ in true salvation; for when you die to
sin and self, then Christ by His almighty power, the power of the gospel, will
raise you to life-new life-and there will be His life abiding in you.
You see, it is that misleading influence which is
bringing in the great apostasy that allows a midway ground or compromise between
the broad and the narrow way. But I must draw that line of demarcation, for when
you come to Christ to set you free from the penalty of sin in hell (which is
justification), you also come to Him to set you free from the power and dominion
of sin in this life (sanctification). My friend, you cannot divide justification
from sanctification any more that you can divide the Person of Christ, for He is
our Salvation and Hope of glory! You cannot know Him as Savior without knowing
Him as Lord, the One Who breaks the power of sin and sets you free! “…for if the
Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36); and that
means free from sin! Rom. 6:2 also bears this out, that in salvation we die to
sin and its reigning power. My friend, the very nature of faith which embraces
the whole Christ demands that justification not be separated from
sanctification.
Oh what a subtle trick Satan has pulled on Christendom today, deceiving the vast
majority! This is that departing from revealed truth, that misleading influence
of II Thess. 2:11, for it is so subtle, those who are deceived by it cannot see
they are deceived, and go on thinking it is possible to be saved without the
reigning power of sin being broken! They believe a Christian can live a life of
sin in the flesh, sowing to the flesh, and yet all is well with his soul because
he has made a little decision and is doing the best he can. This false gospel of
carnal Christianity has so permeated our churches today that no one ever
questions his interest in Christ. No matter how one lives, as long as he’s made
a little profession, he’s given a hope of heaven, and some preacher will preach
him into heaven when he dies. that’s why I hate to go to funerals, where you are
made to think by the preaching that all one has to do to go to heaven is to die!
But this is a lie out of hell! For God’s Word teaches differently! When God
saves us in Christ, He gives us His holy nature and His Holy Spirit to indwell
us, so that His grace reigns and abounds in our hearts and lives, for He has
redeemed us from the inward corruptions and sin that was destroying us. And my
friend, this is Scriptural teaching that God does something when He saves us:
Christ comes to dwell within us, teaching us by His grace to deny ungodliness
and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present
world (Tit. 2:12). Something is happening to us: we are being changed and made
into the image and likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ! God gives us a hatred for
sin, and beloved, the world knows it, our wife or husband knows it, our children
know it, our friends know it, those we work with know it; and they won’t have to
wait until we die for some preacher to tell our loved ones who are left behind
that there was another side of us that they knew nothing about, when they preach
us into heaven!
Therefore I lift up my voice against this false gospel of carnal Christianity
that allows a man to go on and live as he pleases and yet says he’s on his way
to heaven just because his name is on the church roll or because he made a
little profession when he was twelve or thirteen! Oh no! This is that damning,
misleading influence working in our midst today to bring in that great apostasy,
preparing the hearts and minds of men, women, young people, boys and girls to
receive the “man of sin” spoken of in II Thess. 2:3! I pray that God will give
you ears to hear and eyes to see it! This apostasy has been coming in for these
past decades, and it is going to reach that stage of THE GREAT APOSTASY when the
man of sin will be revealed and there will be no turning back!
Beloved, the doctrine that is leading into this great apostasy more than any
other that is promulgated by this false gospel of carnal Christianity, is the
denying of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in salvation. To deny this divine truth
and declare that a man can have Jesus as Savior without bowing to Him as Lord
and crowning Him King of kings and Lord of lords, leaves the poor sinner in a
worse fix than he was before, for he is then deceived into believing he is a
Christian while he is yet a rebel against the commandments of God’s Word that
demand separation from sin and the world. But my friend, if you are ever saved,
you will crown Him Lord in this life, or you will never find mercy; for Phil.
2:9-11 says: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him (Christ), and given him
a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God
the Father.” You see, if you do not crown Him Lord of your life and find
salvation in Him now, you will crown Him Lord at the Great White Throne
Judgment; but there will be no salvation or mercy then, for time will have
ceased for the salvation of the human soul!
As we have shown you in previous studies, the Scriptures plainly declare that
Jesus Christ is reigning now, “angels and authorities and powers being made
subject unto him” (I Pet. 3:22), yet there is a flat denial of this today from
practically every source. Men have Him reigning in some future date. But to deny
His present reign is to deny His bodily resurrection, for it was by His
“resurrection from the dead” that He was “declared to be the Son of God with
power, according to the spirit of holiness” (Rom. 1:4), and all power was given
unto Him in heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18). Yet this false gospel of carnal
Christianity denies the power of the grace of God to save men from their sins,
by saying that men can accept Christ as Savior and yet remain in their sins! In
this they deny Christ’s resurrection, for it is by the power of the resurrected
Christ (the power of the grace of God in the gospel, Rom. 1:16) that sin will no
longer have dominion over us! (Rom. 6:14). By delivering us from the power of
sin, our Lord would have us know experientially “what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty
power, which he wrought in Christ, WHEN HE RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD” (see Eph.
1:18-23)
Further, the denying of the Lordship of Christ and the bodily resurrection of
Christ is also denying the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit in salvation.
For this false gospel flatly denies the convicting, convincing and converting
power of the Holy Spirit by saying that the sinner is the captain of his own
fate and can repent and believe any time he pleases! This flatly denies John 3:5
where we are told that unless a man is born again, or regenerated by the Spirit
of God, he cannot enter or see the kingdom of God. But, my friend, only the
power of the Holy Spirit can quicken a dead sinner and make him alive in Christ
(Eph. 2:1, I Cor. 6:11), for we are told in Jn. 16:7-15 that the Holy Spirit was
sent for the express purpose of bringing the poor, helpless sinner to Christ by
His power.
You see, the mystery of iniquity doth already work (II Thess. 2:7), for we are
seeing that gradual falling away and the preparing of the hearts for the coming
great apostasy when the son of perdition, the wicked one, will be revealed.
The Rise of the “Man of Sin”
Now let us look more particularly at II Thess. 2 and again see how this portion
of Scripture compares with the verses we are studying in Rev. 20, comparing
especially the rise of the man of sin with the loosing of Satan. I trust the
Holy Spirit will enable you to grasp the setting of these verses in II Thess. 2,
and fix them clearly in your mind, that you may know exactly what is going to
happen when the great apostasy sets in and the son of perdition, the lawless
one, this man of sin, is revealed. As we read these verses, ponder them
carefully and prayerfully, asking the Holy Spirit to give you an open mind and
heart to receive the truths they contain; for I desire to rightly divide them
and give you a brief verse by verse commentary on them. Listen as we read!
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by
our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be
troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the
day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day
shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that
is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of
God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with
you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be
revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who
now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that
Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is
after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God
shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all
might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you,
brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye
have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ
himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us
everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and
stablish you in every good word and work.”
Dear friend, from an overview of this chapter, we see the apostle Paul setting
before the Thessalonians the same truths that prevail throughout the entire New
Testament, of the two companies of people: the lost and the saved, the reprobate
(those who turned from the truth) and the elect (the chosen), those who receive
the strong delusion and those who believe the truth; the vessels of wrath fitted
for destruction because they received not the love of the truth, and the vessels
of mercy whom God has given His salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. He also contrasts and compares two comings: that of the
antichrist and that of Christ, of the man of sin and the Son of man, of the son
of perdition and the Son of God, of the mystery of iniquity and the mystery of
godliness, of the Wicked one and the Holy One, of the working of Satan and the
working of the Lord of glory. Then he closes with an exhortation to stand fast
and to hold the traditions which were taught by word and by letter, praying that
they would have that good hope through grace that would comfort their hearts and
establish them in every good word and work.
I thank and praise my heavenly Father that He by His Spirit gave us this
chapter, for it gives us much needed light to interpret these verses we are
studying in Rev. 20:7-10. Notice how this loosing of Satan for a little season
to deceive the nations coincides with the revealing of the son of perdition in
II Thess. 2. You see, in Rev. 20 we are told who will do the deceiving and that
is Satan. And here in II Thes. 2 we find who he is going to use, that is, the
man of sin, who is also called “the wicked one” or “the son of perdition”. So
both Rev. 20 and II Thess. 2 describe the same scene and the same situation.
This man will be energized by Satan to lead the world in open rebellion against
God and His Christ; he will have all the power of the two beasts of Rev. 13 to
carry out the great persecution against the saints of the living God, setting
himself up as God, to be worshipped as God. He will be Satan’s man to try to
stamp out all vestige of Christianity.
Now we’ve been showing you all along that the apostasy or falling away from
divine truth which is seen in the religious world today is ushering in or
setting the stage for this son of perdition. We have shown you how men’s hearts
and minds have been blinded to their true condition by this false gospel of
carnal Christianity that denies almost all the great truths of God’s word. But I
especially want you to keep in mind that this falling away has not come in all
of a sudden; it has not come overnight, but rather it has been a long, steady
decline of Christendom that has been advancing for a long time. Therefore, men’s
minds and hearts are being prepared for the sudden rise of the man of sin, the
son of perdition, to come on the scene and set himself up as God.
“Well” you ask, “who is this man of sin and where does he come from?” Listen
carefully now! You and I must first settle in our minds that he is a man and not
an influence or system. For the word “the” before the expression “son of
perdition” is a definite article in the Greek and therefore must indicate a
person. Next we must understand that he is an END-TIME personage and not someone
who has already lived and died; for he is definitely associated with the end
time and the second coming of Christ. Listen to how verse 8 of II Thess. 2
describes it: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming.” He is to come on the scene at the end of time right before the
second coming of Christ.
Satan Personified
Verses 9 and 10 of II Thess. 2 tell us that this man of sin will be as Satan
personified, for he comes “After the working of Satan, with all power and signs
and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish.” He is the son of perdition (spiritual ruin and destruction), in every
way like his spiritual father, so the words of our Lord in Jn. 8:44 apply very
forcibly to him: “Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father
ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” So he will be the great lie that
will be palmed off on the professing church, setting himself up as god to be
worshipped “above all that is called God”, and fulfilling Satan’s desire from
the beginning to exalt himself “above the stars of God” (Isa. 14:12-14). For
that brief moment of time then, seemingly Satan will be in full sway upon the
earth, and the whole unregenerate world-religious and profane-will bow to him,
following after him to such an extent that they will persecute all who refuse to
worship him, those who are the true children of God!
Further, the expressions “the son of perdition” and “he
sitteth in the temple as God” (vv. 3,4), strongly indicate that this man of sin
will be an apostate, one who comes out of the professing church. How do we know
this? Dear friend, the expression “the son of perdition” is used in Scripture to
describe only one other man: Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve. Our Lord said to
His Father in His High Priestly Prayer in Jn. 17: “Holy Father…those that thou
gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that
the scripture might be fulfilled” (vs. 12). What He is saying is that He had
kept all the Father had given Him to be apostles, in the Father’s name, all but
one; and the reason He had not kept Judas was that he was the son of perdition,
the son of doom the son of Satan; and that the Scripture might be fulfilled that
“one that eateth” with Him would “betray him.” Speaking to his twelve apostles
in Jn. 6:70-71, He said, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a
devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should
betray him, being one of the twelve.” And again in Jn. 13:18 at the last supper
He said, “I speak not of you all; I know whom I have chosen: but that the
scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel
against me.”
Then vs. 27 of that same chapter tells us that after
Judas had received the sop-indicating that he was the one who would betray
Christ-”Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him,
That thou doest, do quickly…he then having received the
sop went immediately out: and it was night” (vs. 30). Judas failed to walk up to
the light he had been given, so he plunged himself into utter spiritual
darkness. Believing Satan’s lie that Jesus was not the Christ, but an imposter,
he went out and was damned! So this man of sin, this antichrist, will be an
apostate, like Judas, a religious leader who turns away from the true and living
God, coming up out of the professing church. He will be as Satan personified as
he deceives the nations and so-called Christian world into believing that he is
God and therefore sets himself up to be God.
Now follow me closely as we read verse 4 and look at the other expression that
strongly indicates that this man of sin, the antichrist, will come up out of the
professing church: “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called
God, or that is worshipped; so that HE AS GOD SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD,
shewing himself that he is God.” Look particularly at the word “temple”. There
are two Greek words that are used for “temple” in the New Testament. One word
means the building itself, and the other word means the inner sanctuary. Here in
II Thess. 2:4 the word “temple” refers to the inner sanctuary and not to a
building! Further, when you trace out this word in the New Testament, you will
find that in the teaching of our Lord and in the apostolic teachings in the
Epistles, it is used metaphorically, that is, as a figure of something else. In
Jn. 2:19-21 our Lord uses this word “temple” (the inner sanctuary), to describe
His own physical body. In Eph. 2:21 the apostle Paul uses it to describe the
church, the mystical body of Christ. In I Cor. 3:16-17 and II Cor. 6:16, he uses
it to describe a local church or an assembly of believers. And in I Cor. 6:19 he
uses it to describe the present body of the individual believer; that his body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit, or the sanctuary or dwelling place of God.
Then in The Revelation, it is used to describe the sanctuary or dwelling place
of God.
So since the word “temple” in II Thess. 2:4 is translated from the Greek word
meaning inner sanctuary, and since this word is used by our Lord and the
apostolic writers in a figurative way, we must believe that this is the way it
is used here; and therefore indicates that the man of sin, the son of perdition,
will set himself up in the professing church as God and ascribe to himself
authority over God’s true people. For it says he exalts himself above all that
is called God or that is worshipped. I know that the true believers will not
believe him nor will they follow him because our Lord said, “my sheep hear my
voice, and I know them and they follow me:…and they shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand…my Father, which gave them me, is
greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand…and a
stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the
voice of strangers” (John 10:27-29,5); so therein begins the great persecution,
when Satan will try to stamp out the church of the living God.
I trust you are following us! I said he will come up out of the professing
church, the church being the sanctuary or dwelling place of God; he will be an
apostate; for he will turn away from the living God and turn on the people of
God. He will not be a saved man, but an apostate!
Now I do not take opposition with those who believe the Jews will build another
temple in Jerusalem and will again have animal sacrifices, and that the
antichrist may dwell in this temple when he comes on the scene. This they may do
in time; they might do anything! But this will not be by God’s command; for you
will not find one verse in the New Testament that God has purposed for the Jews
to build another physical temple in jerusalem for His dwelling place, for He has
completely fulfilled all types and shadows in the Person of Christ (Heb. 10).
For in Christ, Who is the true dwelling place of God, dwelleth the fulness of
the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9); and we are to worship Him in Spirit and in truth
(John 4:24).
Beloved, the gospel, the truth of God has gone out now for centuries, and the
cry has been “repent, leave your sins and sinful ways and turn to Christ, God’s
only Substitute for sinners; be washed by faith in His blood so you may stand
before God cleansed and forgiven from your sin.” the gospel cry has gone out,
“turn from your own righteousnesses which are filthy rags before God (Isa.
64:6), and be clothed in the spotless robe of Christ’s righteousness!” But you
have not heard the good news; you don’t want to leave your sins, for you take
pleasure in them. You have hardened your heart as Pharaoh; and my friend, when
Pharaoh hardened his heart, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exo. 7:14; 8:15,32;
9:7,12).When the king of Israel hated God’s true prophets, then the Lord
permitted him to be deceived by placing a lying spirit in the mouth of the other
prophets (II Chron. 18:22). When men continually practice impurity, God gives
them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity (Rom. 1:24,26). And when they
stubbornly refuse to acknowledge God, He finally gives them up to a reprobate
mind and to unclean behavior (Rom. 1:28).
The Great Lie
And this will happen to you, my friend, since you have not heeded the warning to
turn in repentance to God, since you have no love of the truth that you might be
saved, for this cause God shall judicially blind you and send you a strong
delusion (II Thess. 2:10-12) that you should believe the lie of the lawless one,
that he is God and should be worshipped! And then you too shall be damned,
because you believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness! This is
how the lawless one will be able to deceive the nations, their governments and
leaders, and the religious leaders of the professing church. They have refused
the Truth! And as our Lord said in John 5:43: “I am come in my Fathers name, and
ye receive me not; if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.”
And II Thess. 2:9-10 tells us how he will come: His coming is “…after the
working of Satan, filled with all power, and signs and lying wonders, and with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness”! We see this coming, for the great
apostasy is being brought in by this false gospel of carnal Christianity, which
is deceiving men’s minds and hearts so they will readily accept the antichrist
as God, and bow down and worship him.
And beloved, this is coming to pass! so my cry today is that you will hear God’s
Word, be warned and turn to Him. Listen to me! God is love; He is not a cruel
tyrant who deliberately and with inward delight prepares people for everlasting
damnation! On the contrary, He earnestly warns and proclaims the gospel,
declaring what will happen if you will believe and what will happen if you do
not believe! He urges you to accept the love of the truth; but when you of your
own accord and after repeated threatenings and promises, reject His Word and
spurn His messages, then and not until then, He hardens you; so you who were not
willing to repent, may not be able to repent, but will believe the falsehood
that the man of lawlessness is God, the only God, and that every one should obey
him. That is the strong delusion; and this time could be upon us very shortly!
Oh may God deal with our hearts that each one who does not know Him will be
turned unto Him by His grace!
A SUMMARY OF
REVELATION 20:7-10
Dear friend, I trust you have been able to understand the significance of the
loosing of Satan for that little season, as he puts forth that last final effort
against Christ and His church in his rebellion and enmity against God: “For we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places.” (Eph. 6:12) By seeing the awfulness of the deep depravity of
the human heart as it is pictured in the Word of God and in all we see around
us, I trust you’ve understood how Satan will be able to deceive the hearts of
men and nations, that they will fall down and worship the “man of sin” who will
set himself up to be worshipped as God.
Then, with this in mind, can you not understand the
greatness of the persecution against the true children of God, who will not be
deceived and who will not bow down to worship the man of sin? Can you now
understand why our Lord asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith
on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)? For it will seem as if all true Christianity has
been wiped out. This fulfills Rev. 11 where, under the figure of the “two
witnesses”, THE TRUE CHURCH will seemingly be non-existent and lie dead for 3
1/2 days (a small period of time), while “They that dwell upon the earth shall
rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because
these two prophets (the true church) tormented them that dwelt on the earth”
(vs. 20), that is, by the testimony of their holy lives. But just as it seems
Satan has the victory, and the camp of the saints is compassed about with the
forces of evil, the church will again stand upon her feet! (vs. 11). This is the
consummation of the battle of Armageddon which has been fought all down through
the ages between the forces of spiritual good and spiritual evil. And at this
last “battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Rev. 16:14-16), fire will come
down from God out of heaven (Rev. 20:9; II Thess. 1:7-9) at the second coming of
Christ and the forces of evil will once for all be destroyed. In that day, in
the general resurrection, the whole world shall know that no weapon formed
against the church shall prosper, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it!
A WORD TO
GOD’S CHILDREN
Dear beloved in Christ, our hope in this dark and perilous day is the
resurrection power of God. So let us look to Him and trust Him, for He has
declared He will hold us, keep us from falling and present us spotless at the
last day (Jude 24). He has promised to come again for us, to take us to be with
Him forever, and give us a new body and a new home wherein dwelleth
righteousness. He says we have an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, and that we are “kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I
Pet. 1:4- 5). So let us look up, for our redemption draweth nigh! And in all of
the sin and confusion that is going on around us, let us remember that today our
God is on the throne and has everything under control!
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