2nd Thessalonians Part 2 – Lawson Perdue

Praise the Lord. Friends, I’m so glad that you tuned into the broadcast. We’re continuing to share today on 2 Thessalonians. We are in Chapter 2, where it’s talking about the hope of the church, but it’s also talking about the antichrist who’s coming. Did you know I’m not looking for the antichrist, I’m looking for the Christ, my hope is in Jesus Christ, and him alone, but I want to be aware of these times. Stay tuned. Blessings. “Don’t let anybody deceive you by any means, for that day will not come, except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin,” he’s talking about the antichrist, “the son of perdition,” right, “who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing that he is God.” Don’t let anybody deceive you. See, Satan’s only real power, again, is deception. You know, the Bible says, “Above all, we need to take the shield of faith that whereby we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” He said, “Listen, there’s gonna be a day come, but you’re gonna see some things before that.” Now, Jesus said this talking about the signs of His coming in Matthew 24:12. And you know there are two things happening. In Verse 12 He says this, he says, “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Verse 13 says this, “But he that endures to the end shall be saved.” Verse 14 says this, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come.” There’s a falling away on one side. If you endure to the end, you’re gonna be saved. On the other side, the gospel is being preached to all the world, for a witness to all nations. There’s revival, there’s apostasy, there’s revival. Choose what side you wanna be in. I made a choice a long time ago, and the light is getting brighter, and guess what? The darkness is getting darker. Like right now in this election cycle, it is so evident there is darkness and there is light. Choose life. See, it’s not very hard to figure it out. But Paul says this in 1 Timothy 4:1. He says, “Some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.” Some people are gonna leave the faith. Some people are gonna depart the faith. They’re gonna give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. I’m not departing the faith, I’m not planning on it. If I do, don’t follow me, but I’m not planning on it, right? And you gotta get a little lukewarm before you get cold and, right? Nobody just goes from red hot on fire for Jesus to living like the devil. You start making bad choices, you start turning, you start going in that direction, right? Your love waxes cold, that’s what that scripture’s talking about in Matthew 24:13. But don’t let anybody deceive you, right? There’s gonna be an antichrist. You’re gonna be able to tell who he is when he comes. Now, I’m not looking for the antichrist, really. I’m looking for Jesus, my focus is not the antichrist. Amen, my focus is Jesus. Now, let’s go a little farther and read Verse 5-7. “Remember not when I was yet with you I told you these things? And now you know what withholds that he might be revealed in his time.” What is restraining the antichrist, right? “For the mystery of iniquity does already work.” In Verse 7, “Only he who restrains,” that word, let, in the Greek is restrains, “will restrain until he’s taken out of the way.” So see, the church is the salt of the earth and the church is the light of the world. Now, what was the type of the church in the Old Testament? What’s the type of the church in the Old Testament? Israel. Guess what, as long as Israel was not backslidden or removed, no foreign nation could ever overtake them. As long as the church is not backslidden or removed, the antichrist is not gonna be able to take them over. The church is the salt of the earth. The church is the light of the world. We need to keep being salty. If the salt has lost its savour, it’s good for nothing, to be cast out into the trash pile. So keep being salty, right? If you don’t make a difference, right? Listen, you don’t wanna go the way of the world, right? You don’t wanna think like the world. What’s wrong with all this gender identity garbage? What is wrong with it? Carter says, “Everything.” You know, I’ll tell you what, it sounds okay. “Well, we gotta love everybody,” but I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it. Here’s what’s wrong with it. God created them male and female, and so if you deny male and female, if you deny who God made you to be, you deny your Creator. If all the bulls in the world decided to be homosexual bulls, we wouldn’t have any more beef. And if all the boars decided to be homosexual boars, we wouldn’t have any more pork. And if all the roosters decided to be homosexual roosters, we wouldn’t have no more chicken. He made them male and female. And to deny your sexuality in a physical body, there’s neither male nor female in the spirit, but to deny your sexuality in a physical body is to deny the creator.

Congregation Yes.

That is what is wrong with it. Does God love homosexuals? Yes. Does God love lesbians? Yes. Does God love drunkards? Yes. Does God love thieves? Yes. Does God love homosexuality? No. Does God love lesbianism? No. Does God love drunkenness? No. Does God love stealing? No. God hates sin, but he loves the sinner. Don’t let anyone deceive you. Listen, there’s darkness and there’s light. You gotta decide what side you’re on. It’s not that hard. We need to keep being salt and keep being light. Let’s look at Jesus what he says. First of all, he says, “I’m the light of the world.” John chapter 8:12. “He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the very light of life.” Jesus is the salt. He says, “I am the light of the world.” But then he says this, he says this in Matthew 5:13. “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost his saltiness,” if the salt has lost his savour.” We have people who are afraid to put a political sign in their yard. I got a conservative bumper sticker on my car, right? Make some people mad. Make some people cut me off. I got a conservative hat. Barbara’s got one too, right? We’ll wear it. It used to be a conversation killer. But I’m noticed lately, a few people are getting a little more bold and not being so afraid to show who they are. And you shouldn’t be ashamed of standing up for the truth. You shouldn’t be ashamed of standing up for light. “You’re the salt, but if the salt lost its savour, it’s good for nothing but to throw out in the trash pile, right, trodden under the foot of men. You’re the light of the world. A city that’s set on a hill cannot be hid.” Praise God. Keep being salt, keep being light. Let your light shine. Don’t be ashamed of who you are. Don’t be ashamed of Jesus. “I’m not ashamed of the gospel,” Paul said, “for it’s the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes it, to Jews first, also to Gentiles.” He says what? “For in the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith to faith, from the faith of the Jew to the faith of the Gentile.” Let’s read a little farther. Okay, go back to 2 Thessalonians. So don’t be shaken or troubled in your mind. Don’t let anybody deceive you. Keep being salt, keep being light. Keep letting your light shine. Keep standing up for the truth. Remember that Jesus is Lord. Look at verse eight and nine, here in 2 Thessalonians 2. He says, “And then that Wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him, who’s coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” Did you know what? It’s not only the Gospel that has power. Antichrist gonna have power. He’s gonna have lying signs, he’s gonna have lying wonders, right? Remember when Moses showed miracles? Pharaoh’s magician and miracles? You gotta know the difference, right? Are you gonna follow signs or follow Christ? You follow Christ, and signs follow you. I believe we ought to have signs. I believe in signs. We have signs of the Gospel. Amen. “Remember that Jesus is Lord. That wicked one’s gonna be revealed, but Jesus is gonna destroy him with the brightness of his coming.” Remember, Jesus is Lord. Let’s go to Revelation and look at Revelation 1. Again, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It’s not the revelation of gloom and doom and damnation. It’s the revelation of a person who is the grace of God. Verse one of Revelation 1 is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Chapter 22, the very last verse is, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” And I can preach grace in Revelation, because it’s Jesus. It’s Jesus. He’s the resurrected Savior of the church in chapter one. He’s the Lord of the church of every age and every time. In chapter two and chapter three, Jesus has a message for every church, every condition, every age, every time. And Jesus is the coming King in Revelation chapter 4 through chapter 22. But let’s look at just verse six through eight. I actually start in verse 5, Revelation 1:5. He said, “From Jesus, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins,” aren’t you glad that he washed us from our sins in his own blood, “and has made us kings and priests of God and the Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he comes with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him. In all the families of the earth shall wail,” you see that? That’s the revelation of Jesus. “Because of him. Even so, amen. I’m Alpha and Omega, I’m the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is, who was, and who is to come the Almighty.” Remember that Jesus is Lord. Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve been enjoying the Word of God today. Did you know we have a website, and on our website we have hundreds of hours of free teaching, downloadable audio, downloadable video, a free children’s curriculum, and, soon to come, a free youth curriculum. Plus much more on our website at CharisChristianCenter. Check it out. It says, some brought forth 30, some 60, some a hundred fold. I believe a hundred fold ground. That’s the ground is talking about our heart. The Word is talking about the seed. How many of you know the seed is consistent? The Word is consistent, but our heart is what changes. In fact, your heart is producing a harvest. If you don’t like the harvest you’re getting, you gotta change the seed you’re allowing to remain in your heart. Now let’s go back to here to 2 Thessalonians 2, and read the next three verses. Verse 10 through verse 12. He’s talking about the antichrist who’s gonna come after the working of Satan. He says in verse nine, “With all power and signs and lying wonders. With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth.” Why are they perishing? They’re perishing because they did not receive the love of the truth. They did not love truth. “That they might be saved. For this cause God will send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure.” Here’s the real problem. They had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now, years ago, I had man right at my church, and it was Easter, and I didn’t understand grace like I understand grace today. And I was trying to get this man to come to the altar. And I tried to do an altar call ever which way, and he wasn’t coming. And he sit there and just like. And he is a great big old guy. And after church, he went out on the steps and he said, “I am going to kill you.” Now, thank God for the grace of God, because that man now goes to the church with the pastor that’s there that I started. And I’m so glad, amen, that he’s in church and he doesn’t wanna kill me anymore. I’m so glad, amen, that somebody could minister to him. Hallelujah, it wasn’t me. But his brother was really upset with me. His brother’s still my really good friend. He was here last Sunday with us celebrating our 23rd anniversary. And his brother said, “He’s never gonna come to church again.” Well, he didn’t while I was there, but praise God, he’s there now. Amen. But his uncle told me, “You know the problem with him? He wants to keep living in his wild ways and staying with his wild friends and doing his wild things. And he doesn’t want to serve God. It’s not a problem with you, it’s a problem with him.” But his heart’s changed. Glory to God. Now what’s he saying here? He said, “There are those people, they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Because of this God will send them strong delusion, that they might be damned who did not believe the truth, but they had pleasure.” The real problem was his heart. They had pleasure in unrighteousness. Some people just love sin. Some of them are in the church. You know, I had one person that used to work for me, and he did something really stupid, and I said, “Don’t ever do that again.” He did it again. I’m like, “What is?” He said, “Well, it was fun.” I’m like, listen, if I did that, if I did, right, if I did what he did, my heart would kill me. I could not look at myself in the mirror. The problem was, I found out, right, after he resigned, that he did this a few other times while he worked for me. I just didn’t know it, ’cause he was keeping it in. And I was talking to his brother, and I loved his brother. And I said, “You know, the challenge here,” I said, “is I don’t believe that a person could live like that and be born again.” There are some people, they play the church game, but they don’t know Jesus. I have a person in my family, this person has caused so much heartache, and so much pain, and so much grief. But about 10 years into our marriage, this person actually tried to split Barbara and I up through saying things to my mother. And Barbara just told my mother, “Listen, I’m married to him. He’s a good man. If you don’t have something good to say about him, then don’t call here.” And Barbara shut them up. Thank God I have a good wife. Amen. But Barbara told me, “You know the problem with that person?” She said, “Before I married you, they were doing this. And then we got married, and they were doing this, and then they were doing this, and then they were doing that. And all very negative, very detrimental, very terrible things. And now they’re doing this.” She said, “The problem with that person is that person has played the church game, but that person has never been born again.” Jesus said, “By their fruit,” listen, I’m not the judge, but Jesus did say this, “By their fruit, you shall know them.” And there are some people who’ve played the church game. There are some people, but they have never truly been born again. I don’t wanna be one of those people. That’s what Paul’s talking about. He said, “They all might be damned do believe not the truth, that they had pleasure in sin.” They loved sin. Do you love Jesus or do you love sin? You see, a believer might slip and fall in sin, but a believer doesn’t love sin. You know what I’m saying? When I was a kid, I had some sheep. We showed them at the fair, we bathed them up and got them clean and pretty and white. Some of them, after we showed them at the fair, we’d bring them home. They would stay white and clean for days, if not weeks. Now those sheep might slip and they might fall in the mud, but they don’t love mud. But you know, I got a couple of pigs. I traded some hay for some pigs, and I raised them up to butcher. But I’m gonna tell you something about pigs. Pigs love mud. And you can take a pig to the fair and you can get them all pretty and give him a milk bath and nice and shiny and clean, but if you are not careful between the barn and the show ring, the pig will break out of the fence. And if he gets out of the fence, you know where that pig’s going? That pig is going to the mud hole, because pigs love mud. And if you love mud, you are a pig and not a sheep. That’s why Jesus said, right, he called them goats, okay? You know what goats do? They go . Always butting around. All right? You know what lambs do? They go . Amen. It’s a nature question. It’s a nature question. It’s not a head question, it’s a nature question. Do you have a new nature? If you’re born of God, you got a new nature. If you’re born a God, you don’t love sin. You might slip, a righteous man fall. He might fall seven times, but he gets up, he goes again. “Though I fall, I shall arise.” but a pig loves mud, ’cause he’s a pig. And I’m telling you, some people just pigs. Okay, now what do we do? Don’t be troubled in your mind. Don’t let anybody deceive you. Keep being salt and light. Remember, Jesus is Lord. Here’s the next one, verse 10 to verse 12. I didn’t give you the point. “Keep loving the truth and living right.” You know, you wanna keep loving truth, keep loving the truth and living right. Some people, what they say and what they do is two different things. Alright, Jude. Right, Jude, let’s go to Jude, the last two verses of Jude, right before Revelations, verse 24 and 25, just one chapter. “Now unto him,” verse 24, “who’s able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, he’s able to keep you from falling, to the only wise God, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, both now and forever.” You know, Jude prophesized of the coming of the Lord. “Behold the Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints.” Amen. Let’s go just back a little bit to 2 Peter. Do you know Peter prophesized of the coming of the Lord? But let’s look at 2 Peter 1 real quickly. He’s talking about, “We’ve been given all these things in Christ,” but he says in verse five, “Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge tempers,” self-control, “to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, the love of God.” Look at verse eight “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacks these things is blind and cannot see that he’s afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling an election sure.” How many of you have been called for something good? I believe God called everybody to something good, but do you wanna make your calling in your election sure. He says, “If you do these things with diligence, you make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall.” You don’t have to live like the devil. Do you know what the devil can make you do? Absolutely nothing. “If you continue in the Word, you’ll be my disciples and you’ll know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Don’t believe that lie. Satan can’t make you do anything. So keep loving the truth and living right. Amen. Remember who called you? Let’s go back here and I’ll finish this up really, really quickly. In 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14. “But we are bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God from the beginning has chosen you to salvation through sanctification. You’ve been set apart in the spirit and you have believed the truth. Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Remember who called you. Finally, he says this in verse 15. “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word or epistle.” Stand fast in the Word of God. See, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Word shall endure forever.” Friends, we’ve been sharing from 2 Thessalonians 2, and we have a lot more to share on this subject than I can get in this broadcast. But you can get this entire message, and the entire series, on our website at CharisChristianCenter, downloadable free audio and video. Thanks so much for tuning in. Blessings. Hey everyone, I want you to mark your calendar for Family Camp Meeting. We’re gonna have great teaching with Mark Hankins and Pastor Max Cornell. Great worship with Philip Renner, sharing the grace of Jesus all around the globe. And we’re gonna have great children’s meetings, great youth meetings, something for the entire family, right here at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. We wanna see you here. Blessings. Friends, I wanna thank you for being with us today. It’s our pleasure to share with you the Word of God. We believe it changes lives. And because of that, we’re broadcasting all around the world. It costs me right now around $2 million a year just for my staff and paying for our broadcast costs. But if you wanna become a partner, and help us share the message all around the world, we would love to hear from you today. Friends, in the last few months, we have heard from over 50 nations in the world, people from all around the world are downloading our curriculum, our syllabus, our downloadable audio and downloadable video teachings, our confession cards, and all of these great teaching materials, and you can go receive it too at CharisChristianCenter.com. Receive these resources and be blessed.

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