The Man Of Lawlessness
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Pastor James Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 27 July 2025
- 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him. We ask you brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion, some versions, the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the Son of destruction or perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that I was still with you? I told you these things?
And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.
Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, God. We know that you've given us word to know how to live for Christ and even prepare ourselves for hard times. And God, I'm aware that this passage may be a little controversial.
I pray that by your spirit you would help us to look at it and to discover what you're trying to tell us in the passage. And we pray for grace, Father, to be able to handle this. We're grateful, Father, that we have the freedom to come before you to worship and to exalt our Savior Jesus Christ. And we give you praise. And, God, we just remember some of these prayers.
Oh, how I thank you for Linda. What a joy she was, and an encouragement to me. I thank you for her, the work that she often did as far as decorating things for events. And it was a shock. But I really believe that she's with you now and there's nothing that can be better than that.
I pray for you comfort her son Josh, and help him as he buttons up his mom's affairs. And bills to take care of that. And thank you that he has assurance that his mom was a believer and now is with you. We lift up. Becky's daughter is going through an abusive relationship.
And I just pray that you'd bring her to her senses and that she'd cry out to you and God that you'd be able to work in her life and save her from this situation. Give Becky wisdom as she tries to minister to her daughter and same for Joni, her love for her daughter. And so she's heard the truth. And I just pray that she would acknowledge the truth and give her life completely to Jesus Christ. Ask your blessing now on this word in Christ's name.
Amen. May be seated. Well, a few weeks ago I spoke on this passage and we looked at the fact that the Thessalonians thought they had missed the Rapture are being gathered to him. And Paul writes them right away and tells them, don't be easily shaken in mind or alarm. And then he reminds them of two things he said had to happen before Christ would come back.
And we looked at those. The first was he said, the rebellion or the apostasy or the great falling away. He said that had to happen before Jesus Christ comes again. The second thing he told them, he says the man of lawlessness had to be revealed before Jesus comes again. And Paul is just repeating what Jesus had taught back in Matthew 24:9 14, where Jesus said, before he comes back, many will fall away and hate one another, and the love of most will grow cold.
Then he also said, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And so one thing we know about the last days is there will be a great apostasy where many who thought they were Christians will fall away from the faith. And there will be many false prophets, including the false prophet, this man of lawlessness. Now we may asked what causes people who think they are Christians, and there's many out there who think they are, that maybe aren't what causes them to fall away and less than let false prophets lead them astray. Well, to understand that back in Matthew 24:9, Jesus said, then they will deliver you up to tribulation, put you to death, and you'll be hated by all nations for my name sake.
The thing that's going to cause many in the last days to fall away from the Lord Jesus Christ is tribulation, persecution and even death. And God allows that. Now I'm sure if you're like me, I don't want to experience tribulation. That doesn't sound fun at all. And yet Jesus talks about it and he allows it, even promises that there will be tribulation in this world for those who follow Jesus Christ.
And if you look back at the history of the church, that's been the history of the church, great tribulation, where people have been persecuted, arrested and killed for their faith. And you don't even have to look back. You can just look around in the world today. There are places in the world today where Christians are suffering because of their faith for Jesus Christ experiencing tribulation. And we might ask, well, why does God allow this?
Why does he allow it? I mean, let's just make it easy. God. All right, that sounds good, doesn't it? Well, the reason he does is to test our faith to see if it is genuine or not.
Verse 13 in Matthew 24 tells us the one who endures to the end will be saved. And the Christian life requires endurance. It's wonderful when it's smooth sailing and there's no problems and we enjoy that. But often that's not the case in the Christian life. Often there are trials and tribulations.
So what I want to do today is look at this man of lawlessness. If he has to be revealed before Jesus comes to gather us to himself and then to judge the world, I think it's important to know as much as we can about him. What does the Bible say about him? And we're going to look at that this morning. And again, I'm not trying to teach a doctrine that has been taught to me.
I want to just look at what the Scriptures say, examine the Scriptures to see if this is true or not. And so the fact is, if you know that someone is the deceiver that prepares you to and not be deceived. Right? Yeah. I don't trust you.
You know, you've deceived me before. You know, it looks good, but I know, I know something's there that I need to be aware of. So whoever this man of lawlessness is, and I don't believe that we know who he is, I believe he is identified by many other names. In the book of Daniel and then in Matthew 24, both Daniel and Jesus call him the abomination that causes desolation. The abomination that causes desolation.
Spoken of in Daniel 9, he's going to set himself up in the temple in the middle of a seven year period, what we call the tribulation, and declare himself God. Over in first and second John five times he's called the Antichrist. He opposes Christ and exalts himself over Christ every chance he has. He denies Christ's humanity and he denies Christ's divinity. There were many antichrists, and there have been throughout history.
But at the end of age there will be the Antichrist, the one who will stand up in the temple and say, I'm God, worship me. In Revelation 13, this man is simply called the beast, the beast out of the sea. And he comes to destroy Christ's church. Whoever this man is, he's going to be empowered by Satan. Satan is a created being.
He can only be in one place at one time. And he's not, not like God, who is everywhere all the time, one place at one time. And I believe he will possess this man, whoever he is, and he will demand to be worshiped by everybody in the church. So this passage in Second Thessalonians gives us as much information as we know in the Bible about this man of lawlessness. Since we're going to possibly, if this is the end of the age, we may experience him.
We need to learn what we can about him. So just a few things about this man of lawlessness with the idea of preparing us in case we may be confronted by him. And how are we going to take a stand against him? So first of all, in verse three of Second Thessalonians, chapter two, and I encourage you to look at the passage, Paul says, let no one deceive you in any way, for that day, which I believe is the day of Christ's second coming, that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the Son of destruction. And so first of all, we see that this man is hidden.
He's going about his work, but he is not exposing himself to who he really is. He's putting off the idea that he's a man of peace, that he can bring prosperity and plenty into your life. And we're not going to know who he is until he is revealed. And that's going to be by God. God will reveal who this man of Christ is.
That word revealed is an interesting word. It means to take the lid off and look inside and see what's there. You can't see it until the lid's taken off. And at some point in the future that lid will be taken off and he will reveal himself for who he is, this man of lawlessness. Second thing we read is in verse four, who opposes and exalts himself against every so called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, proclaiming to be himself, God.
So he wants to replace God. He wants to be worshiped. And he will demand that people in the world worship him. Allegiance. Even forcing, we're told over in Revelation, chapter 13, he will force everyone to take a mark on either his right forearm or his forehead.
And people have wondered what that is. We're getting more and more clues with the AI and the fact that neural links, they're pushing that. You get that connect with the satellites, know everything that's going on. You don't need your wallet, your credit card, anything. And if anyone proposes that to you, say, uh, can't do that, won't do that.
And. And so he wants to be worshiped. Take the place of God, third in verse six. And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. And so we see that whoever this man of lawlessness, when he comes, he will be restrained.
And you think about the evil in the world, and there's a lot of evil, but it is nothing compared to what will happen in the last day when the restrainer does not restrain him any longer. God will allow him the freedom, just like he allowed Satan to work in Job's life, to test his church through tribulation. And so he's restrained, Jesus said, for then there will be great tribulation. Such has not been from the beginning of the world into now and never will be. And the church, believers, the saints, are going to be tested when this happens, beyond anything we've ever experienced.
But we're told in Revelation 12 that they conquer Satan. You and I as believers, no matter what we face, we conquer Satan by the blood of the Lamb. Without the blood of Jesus, we have no power against this enemy. It's only through Christ, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and by the fact that you testify that Jesus Christ is your Lord and you hold on to that testimony no matter what it says. For they love not their lives, even the death.
And so as a result of that, we're told In Revelation chapter 12, when Satan realizes his time is short, it says, the devil has come to you in great wrath. Behold. Because he knows his time is short. And so I believe there will be a time at the end of the age where God is going to allow Satan to bring great tribulation such as never happened on earth before. But we can be victorious in the midst of that because of our faith in Jesus Christ.
So I want to just pause here real quick to look at this restrainer. Because there's a lot of different ideas on who the restrainer is. I might mention that, you see personal pronouns, him, he, indicating it's a person. Dispensationalists teach that the restrainer is the Holy Spirit working through the church. And there's no question that God has restrained evil in this world through the Holy Spirit working through you.
And I, the church, we take a stand for truth. No question about that. But people who teach this say at the Rapture, when the church is taken up to Christ, that the Holy Spirit goes out of the work world with them and he's no longer restraining the evil one. And I think there's several reasons that this is not the way it's going to be. And one, the Greek for out of the way does not mean to remove, take you out.
That word is simply meant, is get out of the way. And it was used like this if two people were wanting to fight each other and you stepped in between them. Come on, guys, let's. Let's cool it now. You know, we don't need to fight like this.
And they're going, no, no, no, I'm going to get him. I'm going to get him. And finally you just say, okay, go at it. That's all that word means. Just step back.
And the fact is, is the Holy Spirit is not living, leaving this world. He is everywhere. Many believe that there will be people saved during the tribulation. I do, too. How are you going to get saved without the Holy Spirit?
How are you going to live for God in the midst of tribulation without the Holy Spirit? We have a tough time living for him when there's not tribulation with the Holy Spirit. And I believe that he will be here. He just will stop for a time, however long that is, and allow Satan to do his work, just like he allowed Satan to do with Job.
And so there'll be great tribulation. Revelation 13:9 says, if anyone is to be taken captive, the captivity goes. If anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. And the idea that it's going to happen, there's nothing you can do to change it. But then he adds, here is a call for endurance, the faith of the saints, a call for endurance in the midst of trials and tribulations to prove our faith.
Some may protest. Wait a second. God would never allow that to happen to his church. Well, he has allowed it. You look back in history and the church has been persecuted and people have been dying for their faith in Jesus.
Christ. And again, he's allowing it even today in certain places of the world. We might ask, well, why would he allow that? Then? Why do I have to possibly go through hard times like that?
Well, Peter tells us in 1st Peter 1:7, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, that is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And I have faith. Show me your faith by what you do. Show me your faith by how you handle the problems in life. And that's real trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So that's the third thing. The restrainer has to restrain him until he's taken out of the way. The fourth thing, the lawless one will be empowered by Satan to perform false signs and miracles. Whoever this guy is, he's going to be given the power to do miracles. They're false, but they will appear to be genuine.
He is going to impress people into believing that he must be the One. And it says here in this passage that he's able to deceive those who are perishing. I believe people are desperate for a savior today. And when this guy shows up, unless you know your scriptures, he must be the one. Look.
Look at what he's doing. Who could do those things except God? We're seeing many in the church today that are just desperate for signs and wonders. They go to services and I look at it on TV and I go, this is a clown show. How can people be falling for this?
Because they want them and we have to be careful. Jesus said that in the last days, people will want signs and wonders. And he calls them a wicked and adulterous generation. And so he's going to convince people to follow him to their own destruction. Peter said in verse 10, or Paul tells us here in verse 10 that they perish because they refuse to love the truth and be saved.
I want experiences. I want the word of God to tell me the truth. I need to know what God is saying, and you do too. So the word of God, the Bible, the truth is the only thing that will save you and I from the lawless one. It will be so deceptive that unless we have the word of God to warn us and alert us to who this guy is, we will fall for that deception.
And whether it's the lawless one, the Antichrist, the beast, it doesn't matter if someone doesn't love the truth. It says here in verse 11, therefore God sends them a strong delusion. If you're not Going to embrace the truth of God's Word, then God will send a delusion that you will embrace, that you will believe. We need to be aware of that. And that's not me speaking.
That's the word of God speaking. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure. Unrighteousness. And the fact is, is you either believe the truth or you will believe the lie. There's only two choices, truth or lie.
And again, I watch some of what's going on, and I'm just amazed. How can people be falling for this? And God says if they don't love the Word and you very seldom see the Word preached in those services, very seldom, then they'll believe a delusion. God will even send them. And so we have to hold on to the Word of God.
Now, when will the lawless one come? We don't know. Jesus said the angels don't know. He didn't even know when he was on the earth. Only the Father knows.
I believe it will be soon, whether it be in my lifetime or not, I don't know. No one knows. But we're told that he is. Jesus is coming soon, which means the lawless one has to come before that. I do know that the spirit of lawlessness is already at work in this world.
Okay. And it's already at work in the church. And yes, it's preparing people for this. Lawlessness will come, who will lead people astray. And so our responsibility is to be ready.
To be ready. We don't know the day or the hour is coming, but we're called to be ready. That means we need to know the truth so that we can recognize. And I believe it'll be a spiritual recognition. It won't be, aha.
I can tell he's. That he's the wrong one. The spiritual recognition, this does not line up with the Word of God. And so we have that responsibility because it says, he who stands to the end will be saved. And if you're not standing with Jesus, you're standing against him, and you will be destroyed in hell for all eternity.
And so we have a responsibility to prepare ourselves and take our stand against him, even if it means giving up your life for Christ.
And it's easy to say, oh, I will. And yet we find ourselves, even in easy times, struggling. What would we do? When times are really hard, we have to strengthen that. And ultimately, that's all that matters.
Salvation.
Our Sister Linda and just so grateful for her. A wonderful person and a blessing to the church. But ultimately, all that matters is she in heaven with Jesus.
Nothing else matters. I mean, it's important. It impacts our life. But 10 years, 20 years, 100 years from now, nobody's going to say, hey, you remember that Linda? And she decorated the fellowship all that time.
No, all that matters is eternal life. And so may God give us wisdom to take our stand for Jesus Christ in the truth. And he is going to allow, according to what I read, tribulation to come upon the church in the last days that will test our faith. I close with this. When my first wife, Jan, was going through cancer, there were times it was really hard if any of you had cancer treatment, you know that, right?
And sometimes she would get discouraged, but one day she was discouraged and she was reading Jeremiah 12:5, and it says, if you can't run with the footmen, how are you going to run with the horses?
If you can't make it when it's easy, how are you going to make it when it's hard? And so we need to be doing everything we can to preparing ourselves to stay faithful to Jesus. And it may not be the lawlessness at the end of the age. It might be a fatal sickness that you're dealing with or rejection or rebellion or whatever it is. We want to stay faithful to Jesus Christ.
We want to love the truth so that we don't believe a lie. And God will work in our lives and prepare us to spend eternity with him. And that's my prayer, that whatever our view is on the last days, that's not the issue. The issue is he tells us to be ready. And not just ready for Christ coming back, but ready for the persecution and the tribulation that Jesus said will impact the church.
Let's pray.
Father, I know this is a difficult passage and maybe one that we disagree on, but God, it appears to me that you're warning us against this man of lawlessness who will be revealed, who's currently being restrained, who will set himself up in the temple to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. God, you told us these things ahead of time so that we can prepare our lives to be able to stand against him. And God, I think we're going to see just an onslaught of evil around our world, in our nation, even in our churches. And God help us to take a stand for the truth, for Jesus Christ, that we might be saved. In Christ's name, amen.