God's in Control of the End Times
Tom Shrader walks through 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, addressing the confusion of the Thessalonian church, which had been misled by false teachers claiming the Day of the Lord had already arrived. He explains that two events must precede Christ's return: a visible, cataclysmic apostasy and the revealing of the Antichrist, a counterfeit Christ empowered by Satan whose exposure and destruction are entirely under God's sovereign control. The message closes with a pastoral appeal, urging those who do not know Christ to consider the eternal stakes and respond in repentance and faith.
“Biblical prophecy is given to us, not so that we can mark a date on a calendar, but so that we can develop our character in light of His imminent return.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 2 Thessalonians
Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 40 min
Themes: end times, antichrist, second coming, deception, apostasy, God's sovereignty, false teaching, repentance, confused about end times, exposed to false teaching, seeking assurance, new believer, spiritually anxious, unbeliever considering faith, questioning God's control, young adult
Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Acts 16:26, 1 John 2:18-19, 1 Corinthians 11, Matthew 7, Acts 2:22, Romans 1:24-28
Theological Themes: eschatology, day of the lord, parousia, man of lawlessness, divine sovereignty, biblical prophecy, satanic deception, soteriology
Full Transcript
The Fellowship of Common Origin
Let's pray as God prepares our hearts today. Father, as we turn to the study of Your Word, we ask You to open our eyes and our hearts and to teach us. We pray that to You in Jesus' name, amen.
Open your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. This morning we will look at verses 1 through 12. Paul is writing to this relatively new church at Thessalonica, and we get the very sense in the first verse of what he has to say to them. Second Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 1: "Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus and the gathering together to Him."
Paul is writing, and for this section, he is talking about the idea of the Lord coming again. The language he uses is significant. "We request" — some translations will say "beseech" — means to encourage, to challenge, to lift the heart, to bless the soul. He says, "We're encouraging you, brethren." We need to make a point of this because the Apostle does. Twenty-seven times in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, he uses the word "brethren." The word means from the same origin, from the same root.
Here is what he is saying: as brothers and sisters in Christ, as believers, we spring from the same origin. We are born again of the Spirit — that is, the Holy Spirit — and so we have everything in common. This explains the phenomenon of how you can meet somebody, discover they are a Christian, and within five, ten, or fifteen minutes have a more intimate conversation with them than you have with your own blood brothers and sisters whom you have known all your life.
Have you had that experience? You sit down next to a person on a plane you have never seen before. All of a sudden they pull out a Bible, or a Chuck Swindoll book, or a John MacArthur book — some book that identifies them as someone with interest in Christian things — and you start to talk. You are still on the tarmac, you have not even taken off yet, and all of a sudden you are at a level of conversation deeper than you have had with your own parents or your own brother whom you have known for five decades. Why? Because you are from the same origin. That is what Paul said: "We challenge you, brethren, of the same origin, about the coming of the Lord."
The Coming of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians
This idea of the coming of the Lord was very fresh in the minds of the church at Thessalonica. Turn back to 1 Thessalonians. Every one of its five chapters ends with a reference to the coming of the Lord or to the day of the Lord.
Chapter 1, verse 10 — Paul is talking to them about their work of faith and their labor of love, and he mentions their steadfastness of hope: "You wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come." In chapter 2, verse 19, he mentions it again: "For who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord at His coming?" Chapter 3, verse 13, at the end of that chapter: "So that He may establish your heart unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with the saints."
Chapter 4 ends with that classic passage where Paul describes the beautiful scene of the church being gathered together. And chapter 5, verse 23: "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely. May your spirit, your soul, and body be preserved completely without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
This idea of Christ coming again was so real to this church at Thessalonica — not in some abstract way. In fact, they assumed this event was going to take place in their own lifetime. Part of the confusion they are experiencing at this moment is that they are being taught by some false teachers that the coming of the Lord has already taken place.
Confusion Turned to Worry
That becomes the backdrop. These people had a natural curiosity, and they had become excited, but it appears there has either been a delay or they are being taught by some teachers that Christ has already come. Their curiosity has turned from excitement to confusion. They are no longer filled with wonderment. Now they are filled with worry and questioning. Paul writes to them to comfort them and to set them straight.
Let me be a little autobiographical here. I apparently am one of the few people on the planet for whom end times matters are not a particularly consuming curiosity. I acknowledge that. I have never been one swept away by all of the end times discussion. That is not to make a judgment — perhaps I should be — but I am not.
It seems pretty clear to me that nobody knows the day, nobody knows the hour, nobody knows the time. We do know that it is going to happen. So what is the point of all of this? Biblical prophecy is given to us not so that we can mark a date on a calendar, but so that we can develop our character in light of His imminent return.
That is why He gives us this prophecy — for practical reasons. To encourage us, to comfort us, to challenge us, to say: Christ is coming again. Are you ready for that? Are you living in light of that reality? Paul is saying, "I am encouraging you. I am lifting your heart, brothers. We are from the same origin."
Comfort for the Suffering Church
Now, regarding the coming of the Lord and our gathering together in Him, I want to ask you to turn back a page or so to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 to refresh your memory about what Paul writes. He says this in verse 14: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those that have fallen asleep in Christ." Those who have fallen asleep are those who have died as Christians. That was part of the question troubling this church — what about Christians who have already died? Have they missed the coming of the Lord?
Paul says, not at all. Verse 15: "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 not precede those who have fallen asleep." Here is how this coming will take place, this gathering together of the church: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ shall 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."
That is your future. If you are a Christian here today, and you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that is what lies ahead for you. Whether Christ comes in your lifetime or after you die, you will be caught up, gathered together in the clouds to be with Him forever. Verse 18 says, "Therefore comfort one another with these words."
There is great comfort in this. Remember what we noted about the church at Thessalonica — it was filled with persecution and suffering, perhaps much like what some of you are experiencing in your own lives right now. Suffering, persecution, hardship, and difficulty were pressing in and crushing these people. Paul says, wait — here is how you survive: you have to keep the long view in sight. Jesus is coming again, and you will be with Him forever, and that should be your comfort.
I do not for a second try to minimize the hardship and difficulty many of you are facing. But I am able to say this to you: no matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime. That is the perspective you need. No matter how bad things become, they can only exist until you die, and then you go to be with Him. God never points us toward denial or tells us our suffering does not exist. He acknowledges in His Word that there is suffering and pain, but He also says you must weigh it against the reality that you will be united with Him. And until He comes, the Spirit will live in you and indwell you and give you all you need for life. You have everything you need — all the power, all the resource — so be encouraged.
Do Not Be Shaken
Paul says he is writing so that his readers will not be quickly shaken. That word "shaken" is the same one used in Acts 16:26, where Luke writes that suddenly there came a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. That is the image Paul has in mind. He does not want his readers to lose their composure when the subject of the last days comes up. Some translations render this as not losing the composure of your mind, and not being disturbed or troubled, not being surprised, caught off guard, or taken aback.
One author writes this: these words are in the present tense, which gives the idea of a sudden stirring, a sudden violent moving of the mind, a continual attitude of discouragement. God did not intend for us to live like that. We must not be shaken in our minds, living in a constant spirit of depression or fear or frustration. Paul is saying, with regard to the coming of the Lord, I do not want you worrying about it. I do not want you pulled off your game by this. I want you living for Him.
He goes on: "Don't be disturbed by a spirit or a word or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come." Now we arrive at the real problem. There had been a false prophet who, through sermons and through letters, had been speaking as if on Paul's behalf, claiming to represent what the Apostle taught. When those letters and sermons reached the church, the response was one of worry and alarm.
The Danger of False Teaching
Paul identifies three sources through which these lies were coming. The spirit refers to a false prophet claiming some kind of divine revelation — and the ultimate spirit behind it all is Satan. He is the real enemy. A word refers to a sermon, and a letter refers to written correspondence. These falsehoods were being circulated throughout the church at Thessalonica by representatives claiming to speak for Paul, but who were not sent by him at all.
Whenever false teaching enters a body of believers, the result is shock, fear, alarm, and havoc. That is what false teaching does. That is why it is something we cannot waver on at all. And false teaching comes into our lives in many forms in this day and age. I was at a restaurant recently and someone — a Christian, I presume — had left behind a tract. Generally, tracts are left in lieu of a tip, which does not exactly excite the recipient about the information contained inside. But the tract was there, and we looked through it. It was acceptable in some areas, but then it said that God will—
Healing, Prosperity, and What God Actually Promises
Not only may God not want you healed, He may want you sick. And not only does God not promise you prosperity, He may want you barely getting by. The reason is that many of us, when we are healthy and prosperous, become cocky and unteachable — not very in tune with what God is teaching us. But when difficulty comes along, when hardship comes along, when we are not sure how things are going to work out, we find ourselves saying, "Lord." That is the point.
You have to test these things. How do you test the spirit? The answer is straightforward: What does the Word say? What does God say? Does God really teach that? You take the verse, put it in context, and ask what He is talking about. That is the work. Paul is saying to these people, listen — I do not care who speaks to you, what they say, whose place it is, or what they claim about the Spirit, the Word, or the letter. If it is contrary to what we are teaching, throw it out.
The Day of the Lord Will Not Come Unless…
He begins to clarify that point in verse 3. Here is what he says: "Let no one in any way deceive you." That is exactly what is going on — false teachings coming in through spoken word and written word, and the people are being deceived. The "it" that will not come is the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord will not come unless something takes place first, and it is two things: the apostasy comes first, and then the man of lawlessness is revealed.
The word *apostasy* means a falling away, a rebellion. In Greek literature it was used to refer to a military or political rebellion, and it comes from a root word meaning to go away or to fall away. There will be people who say they are Christians who deny their faith — we see that happening and understand it all the time. But apparently this event is so cataclysmic that it is visible to everyone.
John MacArthur writes: "This is an event which is clearly and specifically identifiable and unique. It is the consummate act of rebellion, an event of final magnitude." Paul is referring to the ultimate apostasy, which reveals the Antichrist.
John's Witness to the Apostasy
John gives us a hint of this in 1 John chapter 2, verses 18 and 19. "Children, it is the last hour. And just as you heard, there are Antichrists coming. Even now, there are many Antichrists that have arisen." There are many spirits that are contrary to Christ. Verse 19 continues: "For they went out from us, but they were not really of us. For had they been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out from us in order that it might be shown that they are not of us."
This is the apostasy. We will see people and churches — and this must be so enormous that it likely includes entire denominations — begin to go astray and deny the very teachings of Christ. It will be clear to all.
True Christians vs. Those Who Walk Away
Do not mistake what is being said here. This is important. These were not Christians. John says they appeared to be of us, they spoke as though they were of us, but they were never truly converted. Perhaps you have had people in your life who claimed to be Christians and then threw it all out, denied it all, and walked away. One of two things is the case: either they were not Christians at all, or, if they are truly Christians, they are going to wander for a while — but God is going to take them to the woodshed, because He is not going to let His children act that way.
In our relationship with our own children over the years, we have had other children around them, and not once have we disciplined those other children. They are not ours. We do not discipline the kids who are not ours. But if I am truly a child of God and I have walked away from Him, He will come after me. He will not allow me to live that way — He will discipline me.
In fact, 1 Corinthians 11 says He may discipline me so severely — if I am such a disgrace to Him and in such rebellion against Him — that He will simply take me home. That is serious. So before the coming of the Lord takes place, two things must occur: this general falling away that is clear to everyone, and then the revealing of the man of lawlessness.
The Man of Lawlessness Revealed
The man of lawlessness is the person we refer to as the Antichrist — the son of destruction. Verse 4 gives us information about him. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
The Meaning of "Antichrist"
The word "anti" can mean against, or it can mean in place of. In this case, it means the latter. Obviously, the Antichrist is against God, but he comes along and says, "I am in place of God." R.C. Sproul writes this: "The Antichrist is one who not only opposes Christ, but seeks to usurp His rightful place, the rightful place of Christ. He seeks to substitute Himself for Christ. He seeks to deceive people into thinking that He is the true Christ." This Antichrist comes along in opposition to Christ. He is a counterfeit Christ.
Apparently, there is a moment where his true intent is revealed. That word "revealed" means something that was hidden is now uncovered, unveiled — we can now see it. It is a revelation that has taken place, and Paul says you cannot miss it.
Paul's Repeated Teaching
Remember, the Thessalonians were confused about the coming of the Lord. They had been taught by false teachers that it had already happened. Paul said that is not the case at all. It cannot happen until there is a falling away, or until this Antichrist is revealed. And then he says in verse 5, "Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?"
That sentence is in the imperfect tense, which indicates a repeated action in the past. Paul is saying, don't you remember we talked about this — again and again and again? We went through this. When I was with you, I taught about this. We do not have those teachings recorded, and it would be remarkable to have them. Don't you ever wonder what his voice sounded like, what he said in those messages? We have what he wrote, but there were so many other things he talked about.
This may be not just an admonishment, but an encouragement. Hey, there are people among you who remember this. Talk to one another. Refresh one another's memory.
What Restrains the Antichrist
Verse 6 says, "And you know what restrains this Antichrist now." Apparently, because of that repeated teaching, they already know this. The word Paul chose for "know" is significant — he had two choices available to him. One word means to learn by experience; he did not choose that. He chose the one that means to know by insight or by inner information. The Holy Spirit has made this clear to them. They know what is restraining him.
Over the years, there has been an awful lot of speculation about what this restraining force might be. Some have suggested it is government. As limiting and restrictive as government is, I doubt it is that, but it could be. Other suggestions include the church, the preaching of the Word, the Jewish state, the nation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit. Here is what we do know: the Antichrist, as powerful as he is, cannot be stopped by any human force, so whatever is restraining him is divine.
God's Absolute Sovereignty
Do not for a second begin to look at this and say there is nothing that can be done. Not at all. God is in absolute control. God is sovereign. One author writes this: "At the appointed time, the Antichrist will be revealed in all his awesome destructive power, but it will not happen one second before God said so." This cannot come to pass until God allows it.
There is a tendency, even as we go through these verses, to say that this chapter is about the end times and the Antichrist. Yes, it is, in terms of subject, but what it is really about is God. He is saying, do not for a second get swept away and think things are out of control. They are not. They are beyond your control and my control, and sometimes we feel that.
This week there was a story on the news about a woman who was stabbed to death with a screwdriver — just senseless. She was simply going about her life, going to work. And there was a story just over a year ago that may have been the low point of all of this: a man took his two-year-old daughter out into the desert, and as he poured gasoline on her, he told detectives that she was screaming, "No, Daddy, no, Daddy, no, Daddy" — and he lit her on fire, and she died. We look at that and think things are out of control. They are beyond our control, but they are not out of God's control. That is our hope. That is what we hang on to.
Going Back to What We Know
Sometimes we look at circumstances and we cannot figure them out. Someone comes into my office and says, "I just cannot figure this out. I do not know what to do. What does God want me to do?" We will talk for a while and come to the point where neither of us is sure. So what do we do? We go back to the things we know for sure. That is what we do.
And here is what we know: God is in control. From the very beginning, God has had a plan for how this redemption would take place and how this Antichrist would be revealed.
The Mystery Already at Work
In fact, here is what Paul writes in verse 7: "The mystery of the lawlessness is already at work." He wrote this nearly 1,950 years ago, and this plan is already being executed. It is already being worked out. God already has this in motion. "Only he who now restrains will do so until the day that he is taken away." There is this power — perhaps the Holy Spirit, perhaps the church — that God is using to hold back the Antichrist. No human force could stop him, but God can.
"And then that lawless one will be revealed" — again, the word means uncovered, unveiled, a revelation — "whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming." There will be a moment where this apostasy takes place, where this Antichrist arises, where all of a sudden it will appear that —
The Antichrist's Counterfeit Power
Things are careening out of control. God will intervene. He will stop that with His coming — that is, the one whose coming is in accordance with the activity of Satan, with all his powers and signs and wonders. Paul is saying this to them again. There will be this one. It is not Satan, but he is the son of Satan, the power of Satan.
Look at this: he comes with power — *dunamis* — and signs and wonders. Remember when we were studying the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2, verse 22, where Peter was teaching about Jesus? Jesus came with power and signs and wonders. This Antichrist will do miraculous things. Warren Wiersbe writes, "Satan can perform miracles that seem to rival those of the Lord. That's how he opposed Moses in the court of Pharaoh." In the final judgment, some people who perform miracles, even in the name of Jesus, will be rejected by the Lord because they were never saved. That is Matthew 7.
Wiersbe also says this: the purpose of God's miracles was to lead people to the truth. The purpose of the Antichrist's miracles was to lead people to believe his lies. These are called lying wonders by Paul — not because they are not real, but because they were designed to have people follow the counterfeit.
This counterfeit will come, and all of the deception of wickedness for those who perish — those who do not know Christ — will sweep them away through this man: his persuasion, perhaps his eloquence, the way he looks, his style, his message. It is apparently a very appealing message to those who are lost. They do not know or receive the love of the truth, so they will not be saved.
God Sends a Deluding Influence
Verses 11 and 12 tell us: "For this reason, God will send them into a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they may be judged." God is going to use the activity of Satan and of this Antichrist to bring about the judgment of those who do not believe and who take pleasure in the wickedness of this world.
This is very similar to what Paul talked about in Romans chapter 1. Paul describes how the invisible attributes and powers of God have been made visible through creation, and yet men and women rejected them. They refused to believe. They did not thank God, and they did not honor Him. Then Paul describes a situation where God essentially says: fine, if that is the way you want it, have at it.
Here is what Paul writes in Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 24, from the New Living Translation: "So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their heart desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshipped the things God made, not the Creator Himself." They worshipped mother earth and the stars and the planets, but not the God who created them.
Verse 26 continues: "That is why God abandoned them to their sinful desires." God removes His restraining hand. He just lets them go a little more and a little more. "Even women turned against the natural way to have sex, instead indulging themselves with sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved. When they refused to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done."
God's Restraint and Human Nature
That passage is not directly talking about the apostasy of the end times — that is what happens when God removes His restraint more broadly. But every once in a while, we see those examples around us. People say to me, "I don't understand — how could God allow a Hitler?" My real question is: I don't understand why there aren't more Hitlers. God has been so gracious to us.
I remember one time I was teaching and trying to make the point that we are all, in a sense, little Hitlers — that God restrains each of us. I said, "You know the difference between Tom Schrader and Adolf Hitler?" And one man said, "Yeah, one little mustache." There is a day of the Lord coming where this apostasy takes place, this Antichrist rises, God removes His restraint, and all hell breaks loose on the earth.
God is so gracious and so kind, even now. The rain falls on the saved and the unsaved alike. God gives so much grace even to those who spit in His face. But there is a point at which He says: that is enough.
This Message Is for All of Us
What we are talking about here is not just the end times in the abstract — because what about those of us who never get there? Let us say Jesus comes again, but not until 3004. Does that mean this message is not for us? I do not think so. J. I. Packer says: "The return of Christ will have the same significance for Christians who are alive when it happens as death has for Christians who die before it happens." It is the end of this life and the start of the next.
I believe we live in a world where, unfortunately, even those entrusted with teaching the Word have backed away from these truths. I believe this is a message that desperately needs to go out to the world, and I believe people respond to it. Something very telling happened to me this week. On Tuesday, Steve Ebright came in and said that the previous Sunday we had more tapes ordered than any message we have ever done — by a wide margin. I was surprised. I thought, "Wow, really? I ought to get one."
When he left, I went back to look at the notes. It was an awful lot about hell. I had already read some of those passages from Jonathan Edwards and from Thomas Hooker.
The Reality of Eternity
Whether Christ comes again in your lifetime, or you die before He comes, it is immaterial in this sense: you will face an end of this life in this world, and you begin life in the next. We talk all the time about whether you have eternal life, but that is actually a somewhat funny question, because everyone has eternal life. There are two components to eternal life — quantity and quality. The issue is not whether you will live eternally, but where: in heaven with Christ, or in hell, separated from Him.
We talked about hell last week, not to scare you, but to get a sense and a picture of it. It is not just eternal separation from God. The overpowering thing that struck me as I went back through the notes again was that it is hopeless. There is no way out, no way to undo it, and you are there forever — in a fire that burns everything but you, in an eternal state, separated from God.
Two Groups in This Room
Here is how we apply it. There are two groups of people in this room: those who are headed to heaven, and those who are headed to hell. Those who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and those who do not.
To speak specifically: if you were here today and you did not take communion, you understand that is an acknowledgment that you are not a believer. I applaud your honesty in not taking communion if you are not a Christian — at least you are not a hypocrite. But I will tell you something: I am not in awe of your reasoning. What do you need to see? A man rise from the dead? He did it. You have the Law and the Prophets. If you die in that condition, you will spend eternity in hell.
This is delicate territory for me. I do not want to manipulate you, and I am not trying to play on your emotions. And yet, it would seem there must be something emotional about this. If you have truly been converted — if you have come to Christ in repentance and faith — there are moments when you are overwhelmed by the love of God, when your heart is filled with thanksgiving for who He is. You were headed to eternal destruction, and He, not through any work of your own, plucked you out and chose you for eternal life with Him in heaven. How can that not be emotional?
A Personal Invitation
Do you know Christ? Maybe you are here today and you do not know Him. We beg you — we beseech you — to talk to the person who invited you. Ask him or her what it means to be a Christian. Ask how you can know Christ in a personal way.
This was sweet news for me when I heard it for the first time. All my life I thought that to go to heaven, you had to do more good than bad. I did not understand it exactly, but I believed God kept track of everything I did, and that if I did more good than bad at the end of my life, He hit the grand total button and I went to heaven. More bad than good, I went to hell. About midway through my second year of college, I realized the hell pile was getting pretty big, and I did not think there was a way out. I had been around church, heard about trying to be good, tried to do it, and could not get it done.
Then one day I heard something entirely different. I could be saved — not by anything I had done. In fact, the things I do can get in the way. Some people who are relatively good think they are earning their way to heaven, and they point to all the things they have done. God says that is not going to save you. There is nothing you can do. He did it on the cross.
The Moment Everything Changed
There was a moment in my life when I understood that. I was sitting out at McCormick Ranch — I can remember it like it was yesterday. I prayed, "God, I'm a sinner. I've got that so figured out it isn't even funny. And I understand from the Bible that my sin has separated me from You, and that that chasm is something I can't cross. But You sent Your Son to die. And the Bible says that if I believe that Jesus is who He said He was, and I believe that You raised Him from the dead and that He is Lord, that I'll have heaven." And I said, "God, I have to tell You something. I want that more than anything. I just have a little glimpse of how much my sin hurt You." God saved me. That day, at that minute, in that car, He did. And He changed my life.
Then He changed Susan's life. Then He gave us Sarah and changed her life. Then Haley, and changed her life. We had a baptism this morning, and I had the privilege of baptizing a man who has been part of one of the Priority Living studies. He talked about coming to Christ and what difference it had made in his life. He began to speak about the people around him who noticed the change and asked, "What is different about you?" He had two people with him who had themselves become Christians — not through his work alone, but through God using that work to convert their hearts.
The Stakes Could Not Be Higher
If you are here this morning and you acknowledge you do not know Christ, please understand the stakes. If you die in that condition — or if He comes again this afternoon — you will spend eternity in hell. No way out. Hopeless and helpless.
Paul speaks to this, and then as always he comes back to the practical — the "so what." How do we live in light of that? That is what we will look at over these next two weeks, covering the last chapter and a half of 2 Thessalonians.
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*Father, help us see this truth. I pray especially for those men and women, the students and the children who may be here today who do not know Your Son Jesus — that You would convert them, that they would understand today, that You would put in their hearts a desire to know You, and that they would be miserable…*
God Is the Main Character
Who is Jesus? God, thank you for saving us. Don't let us get distracted by who is the antichrist, the man of lawlessness, and the apostasy. Those are fine topics, but God, help us understand that the main character in this story is You.
The main lesson to us is that You are sovereign and in control. And God, that is exactly the way we want it — out of our hands and into Yours — so that we don't need to be disturbed or worried. We don't need to have our composure shaken, because we have You.
We pray to You this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.