We want to read verse 3 and verse
4 this morning.
I believe that the enemy wants me not
to speak this message this morning.
I really believe that.
I haven't been too well this week, bit
of a bug or something like that there,
but I feel that he would wish to
shut my mouth, but praise God that will
not happen because of God before us who
can be against us this morning, amen.
And I believe that this is certainly something
prophetic that we need to hear, that the
church at large needs to hear in these
days.
We looked at last week, the first few
verses, and we looked at obvious apostasy in
these days, and I believe wholeheartedly that we
are very much in this apostasy that the
Apostle Paul talks about.
Now, as John the Baptist was a forerunner
for Christ, as John the Baptist paved the
way for the Messiah, then I believe this
morning that apostasy will indeed be a forerunner
for the coming of Antichrist or will pave
the way for him to rise.
And as he rises, he will perpetuate that
apostasy with lying signs, miracles, or wonders.
The apostasy will be the platform and the
mode for which it or he will rise
from.
So, this morning, let me say from the
offset that I'm not going to speculate here
as to Antichrist and who it is or
what is it.
I just want this morning to give you
some thoughts, some ideas, and some facts from
Scripture, and we can conclude from what is
being said.
We can take it away, and we can
rightly divide the word of truth for ourselves.
Now, Paul here in verse 3, he gives
us two names, and the first one is
that man of sin.
We have this falling away.
We have this apostasy.
We have this defection from truth.
And through that, and in the midst of
that, then the man of sin shall emerge.
It's almost, I suppose, in my mind's eye,
I can see a fog.
And most of us have walked through a
fog or driven in our cars through a
fog, and in the distance, you can see
something drawn near.
You can't really make it out, but it
emerges out of or in the midst of
the fog.
The Bible says that he is the man
of sin, the man of sin.
You know, Barack Obama, the President of the
United States of America, some would say that
he is the embodiment of the American dream,
the embodiment of the American dream, because of
where he's come from, his race, and so
forth.
And when we look at this, the man
of sin, he shall be the embodiment of
sin.
Now, the scripture says the man of sin.
Now, what I want to say here is
this, that when we look at that, we
don't necessarily see one person, but rather a
succession of people.
And we can see in context, we can
see that in Deuteronomy chapter 17, I think
it is, verse 18, which God says that
he that takes the throne of his kingdom
must write down the law.
He that takes the throne of his kingdom.
Now, that's not speaking about one person, but
it's speaking about a succession of kings.
Now, this morning, what I want to say
is, I don't know, I haven't come to
a conclusion when we think of Antichrist.
Many in the church certainly differ when it
comes to this.
Some believe that indeed, that it's the spirit,
that's all.
It's the spirit of Antichrist.
And not specifically a man, where others will
believe that a man shall emerge.
I am gravitating, I suppose, this morning, maybe
to both, to both.
And that man of sin one day shall
be revealed, or in other words, shall be
uncovered.
That which has been covered shall be uncovered.
That which has been veiled shall be uncovered.
And I just want to show a couple
of, I suppose, illustrations for you this morning,
what I think about that.
That which is covered or veiled shall be
uncovered at a particular point in time.
I think of the program Top Gear.
And most of us in here this morning,
we have watched it, or we know about
the program Top Gear for our American cousins.
It's a program about cars, about petrolheads, whether
male or female.
And on that program every week, there is
a particular car or cars that are profiled.
And generally, you might have a supercar.
And there's a character in that program called
the Stig.
And the Stig will take the supercar, and
he will take it out on the track.
And he will do a fast lap.
Okay?
Now, the Stig is dressed in racing overalls,
and he has a helmet on.
Now, there have been a few different Stigs.
We are told at least possibly three.
There was the black Stig, and then there
was the white.
We know of at least three.
And when the Stig went around the track,
if you were watching the TV screen, you
could see that he's present.
You could see the facade, as it were.
But you didn't know who it was, because
he's wearing a helmet.
He's covered.
He's veiled.
He's hidden.
I remember one particular program.
Obviously, they played a bit of a joke,
and they said that they were going to
reveal the Stig.
And in fact, it was Michael Schumacher.
They took the helmet off, and there was
Michael Schumacher underneath.
That was just a joke.
But we know now who it was in
recent years, because of...
Well, you can go on Wikipedia and find
out his name.
But he was revealed.
And that, for me, is just somewhat a
little picture of what I see in the
scripture here, in regards to what is said
about a succession of men, many Antichrists.
In fact, when we look at the scripture,
many from times past, many of the church
fathers, many of the reformers, Calvin and Luther,
many of the Puritans, Baxter and Bunyan, many
of those used during the awakening, whether Whitfield
or Wesley, even the Prince of the Preachers
himself, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Matthew Henry, they
would have said that this speaks of the
papacy.
This speaks of the succession of popes a
way, way back.
Now, that's what they say.
And I'm not going to argue with that
this morning, but I'm not...
Let me tell you, I'm not going to
go into that.
But what I do want to say, that
may be very well true, but I believe
that the spirit of Antichrist is not only
in or has been in the Roman Catholic
Church, but it's in the Protestant Church, the
Evangelical Church, the Pentecostal Church, the Charismatic Church,
the Emergent Church, the Seeker-Sensitive Church.
That spirit has infiltrated and penetrated Christendom and
the body of Christ.
Now, I want to make that clear.
That's what I believe.
The spirit of Antichrist, many Antichrists, and one
day that may culminate in one.
Okay.
That man of sin.
It reminds me, I suppose, of Christmas Day.
Christmas Day, two weeks yesterday, is that correct?
And many people have wrapped presents at this
time.
Okay.
And they're placed under the tree.
And those presents are wrapped.
And they're sitting there.
And they're waiting, I suppose, for that moment
in time when they will be unwrapped.
And many kids around this nation and around
the world, they are getting up even during
this month, and they are lifting the lid,
as it were, on that little calendar, that
advent calendar that's on the refrigerator.
And with mum and dad, they're lifting the
little lid as each day progresses, as each
day passes by.
And then we find that it's Christmas Day.
We find that moment in time is when
those presents will be unwrapped and uncovered.
The man of sin will be revealed.
I firmly believe this morning, by what I
can say and by what I can ascertain
through Scripture, that many ways, metaphorically speaking, that
the calendar, we have entered into that season
of when the windows are being opened in
the calendar, that we are slowly but surely
drawn near to that fixed moment in time
when there will be a revelation.
And that fixed moment in time when there
will be an uncovering, a revealing in the
body.
Now, that's what I believe this morning.
There will be a man of sin revealed
or uncovered, and his platform or his seat
shall be this apostasy.
Now, I want you to hear this this
morning because the Apostle Paul calls him the
man of sin, but also calls him the
son of perdition.
Now, I want you to get this, the
son of perdition.
In John chapter 17 verse 12, Jesus said
that he lost none except the son of
perdition, the son of perdition.
And so that title was given to Judas
who was a false apostle, the son of
perdition, a false apostle, wim in the church,
so to speak.
So, this is the criteria, criteria here which
I see for Antichrist.
Now, let me say, I don't believe by
reading this and by seeing the train of
thought or the thinking or the teaching of
Paul here, will Antichrist as such be wearing
a suit, but more wearing a robe.
Because if Paul says he is the son
of perdition, which is a title given to
Judas who is a false apostle, that causes
me to look inside the church and not
look to any government or any political leader.
Now, that's my thinking when I look at
this scripture this morning, the son of perdition,
which brings me into Ephesians chapter 4 and
verse 14, that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine by the slight
of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie
in wait to deceive.
Now, as we look back in those scriptures,
we see that there are gifts that have
been given to men, given to the church,
and those gifts are there for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ, till we come into unity of faith
and the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ.
So, when we enter into verse 14, what
the apostle Paul is saying here, that through
those gifts, that through the instruction and the
teaching of God's word, that we henceforth be
no more children tossed to and fro, carried
about with every wind of doctrine, every wind
of doctrine.
This reminds me of Herlice.
Let me give you a few facts about
Herlice.
Herlice don't have any wings, and so they
don't fly from one head to another.
In fact, they crawl from one head to
another, and we're also told that wind can
carry the head lice from one head to
another.
When we look back at the early church,
we see one church, we see one people,
but it wasn't long before some began to
defect from that truth and from that head,
and they began to form other churches, or
they began to form other cults, or whatever.
And when we think of Christendom today, I
believe wholeheartedly that we can see that spurt
of Antichrist moving from one head to another,
crawling from one head to another, and the
wind, as it were, of doctrine is the
transport to take that Antichrist from one head
to another, the wind of doctrine, the doctrines
of men or the doctrines of devils, from
one head to another, from one branch of
Christendom to another, and we have such a
defection from truth.
And so many Antichrists are everywhere.
They are propped up everywhere.
They have positions everywhere.
They are wearing suits in the church or
robes in the church.
It doesn't really matter.
It doesn't matter about the facade.
It's about the heart, that we henceforth be
no more children tossed to and fro and
carried about with every wind of doctrine by
the slight of men, by the slight of
men.
Do you know what that means, actually?
That means the thought here of Paul, this
is the picture, it means casting dice, hoping
to defraud the person.
That's the intent.
That's the line of thinking here.
Casting dice, hoping to defraud.
So basically, it reminds me somewhat of some
guy going into a casino in Las Vegas,
walking up to the table with his dice
which are loaded, with his dice which are
fixed, hoping to defraud the casino.
Because when we look a little bit further
in the scripture, cunning craftiness.
That means it's been fixed.
It's been fixed in the heart.
It's been set in the heart.
The agenda has been set, what?
Beforehand to go in and to defraud.
Now I want to say this this morning,
Paul is specifically talking here about those that
have spirit of Antichrist, those false apostles or
false prophets or false teachers that are in
the church today that have agenda from Satan.
Now you might say this morning, Scott, you're
being a bit of a scare monger.
Absolutely, I'm a scare monger.
Absolutely.
Because listen to me, when the captain sends
up the wee boy up to the top
of the ship and that little contraption that
he has at the top, what do you
call that?
Nest.
The captain sends him up there so that
little sailor can see if there's any oncoming
danger.
That's his post.
And I believe that's my post.
I believe that's the post of of this
church.
Listen to me, it would be remiss of
me if I was the town crier and
there was a fire blazing, that I wouldn't
run up and down the town shaking my
bell and shouting and screaming and hoping that
people would hear the cry and hear the
sound of the alarm and come out of
their homes and come out of their houses.
These people have an agenda from from Satan.
It's not that they have good intentions.
It's not that they are ignorant.
It's not that they're naive.
They know what they're doing.
And we need to know this church.
And really, let me say this here, and
I don't mean this flippantly, we have to
stop walking about in the body of Christ
with daisy chains around our necks thinking all
is lovely.
We need to be alert.
We need to be aware.
We need to have prophetic foresight into the
church.
We really do.
Because they have set it in their heart.
Let me tell you something, Judah set it
in his heart to deceive, to betray, didn't
he?
Beforehand, he colluded and made deals with the
religious leaders of Jerusalem to betray the Son
of Man.
He had purposed in his heart to betray.
And this is the same line of thinking.
It says, whereby they lie and wait to
deceive.
They lie and wait.
Do you know what that means?
We get the English word method from what
that is in the Greek.
They have method.
Do you know another word that we get
from that is art?
There is method, methodology, and artistry to their
deception.
If you don't know that Satan's got methods
and strategies this morning, well I'm telling you
now he has.
There's a revelation for you.
He has method, and he has strategy, and
he has artistry, and how to deceive, and
how to separate, and how to sift, and
how to take the sheep away from the
shepherd.
And he will do that with every wind
of doctrine.
He will do that through spirit of Antichrist.
He will do that through seducing spirits that
are ripe and rampant in the church and
in Christendom today.
He is an artist of destruction and deception.
That's what deceive means.
It means to scatter or to separate the
sheep, to cause them to go astray.
Jesus said, he that is not with me
is against me, and he that gathers not
with me scatters or scattereth.
And there are those that are against the
Son of God, and they are scattering the
sheep, and they have purpose in their hearts
to do that because they have been raised
up by Satan and permitted by God.
Let me say permitted by God.
I go back to what God says, I
think again in Deuteronomy, and how God will
test his people.
And he communicates to his people, and he
says that false prophets shall rise.
False prophets that are able to do signs
and wonders, and God will permit their resurrection,
and God will permit their rising.
Why?
To test his people.
To test if they will stick and adhere
to the law of God or follow the
prophet and his erroneous teaching and signs.
It always comes back to the word of
God, church.
It always comes back to the truth.
It always comes back to the undiluted, unadulterated,
that perfect, inherent word that comes from God,
that has come from God.
This is our rock this morning.
Hallelujah.
This is our bell this morning.
This is our trumpet this morning.
The word of God.
Paul goes on to say in verse 4
that this anti-Christ will oppose and exalt
himself above all that is called God or
that is worshipped.
He will oppose, or in other words, he
will be adversary, or he will be against
God, the Christ of God, against him.
It reminds me somewhat of the student protests
of late, regardless of what you believe about
the rising fees, but they are in opposition
to government.
They are against government, against the power of
government.
And you see what the scripture is saying
here this morning is, not only does anti
-Christ oppose, but desires to exalt.
That's the agenda, to exalt a haughty heart.
That's what it speaks of.
And you see even the protesters on the
streets of London, they're not only against, but
there's a spirit there to exalt, to exalt
their own agenda or their own power.
Now, I'm just using that as an illustration
this morning as to what we see in
the scripture here.
All that is called God, all that is
holy and pure and righteous, all that is
good and virtuous and noble, all that is
of grace, so that he as God sits
in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God.
This sort of reminds me somewhat of another
portion of scripture in Isaiah 14, verse 12
to 14.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
son of the morning?
How art thou cut down to the ground
which did weaken the nations?
For thou hast said in your heart, I
will ascend into heaven.
I will exalt my throne above the stars
of God.
I will sit also upon the mount of
the congregation in the sides of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds.
I will be like the Most High.
And I believe that those portions of scripture
certainly complement and parallel, so that he as
God sits in the temple of God.
Now, without going into anything and deviating, obviously
there are those that believe that this is
something that's literal, that another temple will be
built in Jerusalem and that Antichrist will sit
in that temple.
Okay, I'm not going to argue with that.
I don't know.
But what I will say is this, that
scripture is perfectly clear and categorically states that
we are the temple of God, the church.
Isn't that right?
Didn't Paul not say in 1 Corinthians chapter
3 that we are the temple of the
Holy Ghost?
So, that's what the scripture says.
And my thinking is that certainly now, at
this particular time, it is quite evident that
within the church, there is the heart of
Lucifer that sits in the church and shows
himself or herself that they are God.
Let me say this, what has been popular
over the last number of years and still
is today, is this line of thinking.
It's not so much God is man, but
rather man is God.
And there are particular ministries, there are particular
teachings that will promote that, that you yourselves
are gods, that you have the creative power
within yourself as a mini-god.
I want to say to you, that is
Luciferian.
That is not of God this morning.
That is Luciferian from this scripture.
Let me tell you what makes God, God.
What makes God?
What attributes does he have that makes him
stand out?
Well, he is omnipresent.
He is omniscient.
Omnipresent means he's everywhere.
Omniscient means he knows all things.
And he is omnipotent, which means he has
all power.
Let me tell you something, you do not
have all power.
I don't have all power.
I am not God.
We are not mini-gods this morning.
This is not Babel.
There are elements that would try to bring
a revival of Babel to, we can reach
God.
We can ascend to the very throne of
the Almighty.
But I want to say this to you
this morning, we are just dust.
And if Christ tarries, we will be back
in the dust.
Praise God we can say this morning that
we are children of God.
Praise God we can say this morning that
God has given power to his church and
power to his people.
But let me tell you something, it's borrowed
power.
Because when I was in the army, listen
to me, I was given a weapon.
I was given a weapon.
And during my time in the British army,
that weapon was mine.
That weapon was allocated to me, but I
did not own that weapon.
That weapon belonged to the British government.
It belonged to the MOD.
It wasn't mine.
And we need to really grasp, I think,
as a church this morning and realize it's
all about him.
It's all about him.
It's not about us.
It's all about the Almighty.
It's all about the captain of the armies
of heaven.
I want to say to you again that
I see so much in the body of
Christ, many antichrists that promote and teach the
heart of Lucifer.
And that's quite blunt and that's quite frank,
but it's the truth.
And woe unto me if I do not
convey the truth.
Woe unto me if I do not communicate
what's going on.
And we as a church and we as
a people of God, we have to be
aware.
We cannot sit in ignorance.
We cannot sit in lethargy.
We cannot sit in apathy.
We cannot sit back and leave it to
others.
But we must study to show ourselves approved
unto God.
We must rightly divide the word of truth.
We must take even what I have said
this morning and go home and prove it.
We must take the message and we must
seek God's face.
As I said this morning, I'm not about
to speculate and say this is the antichrist
over here in Brussels or this or the
other.
What I do know is this, that the
spirit of antichrist is prevalent and is at
work in the church.
There's no doubt about that.
And if that culminates or joins together in
one individual, then God will uncover it and
his remnant will see it.
The day of the Lord church is at
hand.
And God, I believe this morning in these
critical days, when the lids of the calendar
are being opened and ever so near a
drawing closer to that advent, that second coming,
that God this morning doesn't want to.
Listen to me.
This is what I believe.
God so much this morning doesn't want to
put the fat in your belly, but if
he could put a pair of binoculars around
your eyes.
Amen.
He doesn't want a church that has a
fat belly sitting back and enjoying the pleasures
of this life.
Let me say this, build up your treasure
in heaven.
With a moth nor the thief nor rust
can contaminate or thieve or whatever.
We need to be a people that have
the binoculars or the telescope out at this
time within the church and in the midst
of the falling away, in the midst of
the rise of antichrist, in the midst of
decay, in the midst of defection, in the
midst of pollution, in the midst of what
was pure and holy is now tarnished and
refuted and mocked.
We need to stand as a church.
We need to stand as an army.
We need to stand as a body of
Christ.
We need to stand and engage in warfare.
We need to stand and fight the good
fight.
We need to stand and endure hardness as
a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to stand as the army of
God.
We need to stand friends and to assert
ourselves.
We need to stand and go on the
offensive and not the defensive.
We need to stand in the trenches.
We need to stand in no man's land.
We need to stand and declare that God
is with me, that God is for me
and every step that I take, Jesus Christ
is present because he said I will build
my church and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ because he alone is the master
builder.
He alone is the chief cornerstone.
He alone.
Glory to God in the highest.
We praise his name this morning.
Hallelujah.
It's coming up to the time of year
when we think about God made flesh.
God made flesh.
The God of heaven who put on the
likeness of men and dwelt amongst his own
people.
It's about him this morning.
Hallelujah.
Bless your name God.
There are those church creepy crawlies crawling from
one head to another.
Crawling from one part of Christendom to another
that are being carried with a doctrine that
is innately Luciferian and anti-God and anti
-Christ.
Let's beware.
Jesus said watch and pray to his people.
Watch and pray.
Father we thank you this morning for your
word and Lord we fully realize God that
the worker of iniquity is here and present
God.
Lord we have to rely.
We must rely.
It's imperative that we rely upon you God
to show us Lord, to teach us in
these critical days, in these latter days.
Lord we ask for insight Lord.
We ask for revelation.
We ask for uncovering.
We ask that you would show us because
God that which is manifest Lord from darkness
is is manifest by light and Jesus you
are the light of this world and Lord
we just pray that the light would shine
brightly.
Hallelujah.
Praise his name.
You know this is just what I see.
You know something people would say that you
know there's all sorts of creepy crawlies in
your bed.
All sorts of minute little creatures there and
present and we all know that when we
look at our beds or climb into our
beds there's nothing that can be seen with
the naked eye.
It's hidden.
It's minute and it's small and just because
we can't see it does not mean that
it's not present and it's not breathing breathing
and living and working.
So let's stay alert.