Well, good morning to everyone again. Thank you, Mark, for leading us. Appreciate that. And glad you all made it here safely. It was a little bit treacherous on Highway 51 this morning. So we were going slow the whole way. Got to Vilas County. It looked like they'd been out working, but not up our way. So it's that time of year, and it's finally upon us. So we can quit worrying about it coming now.

Well, this morning we're going to study Second Thessalonians Chapter 2. When we come to a very interesting, really very challenging passage in this chapter, we'll be reviewing some of the material we studied concerning the day of the Lord in First Thessalonians 5 and God's intent in this time. We will come back next week, really, to do a proper exegesis of the text and part two of this message. So I just want to review some of those things concerning the day of the Lord, the rapture of the church, and set some of those things in our minds sort of as a foundation as we go through the words and verses of the text.

This is a text within the context of the letter that is very simple and straightforward in its intent. But the implications of these words are mighty concerning the events that are yet to come related to the rapture of the church and the day of the Lord. We spent a great deal of time back in First Thessalonians 5 studying the rapture of the church and the day of the Lord, and particularly the use and meaning of that phrase in the scriptures and how the final day of the Lord will play out in the future. And you'll remember that we studied together God's creative intent and how His overarching plan of salvation and the promises that He has made to Israel and the church help us to understand what in the world God is doing now and in the future.

Ultimately, God will set up His King on His holy hill and Jesus will reign over all the earth and every power and dominion as King of kings and Lord of lords. We see in Revelation 5 that only Jesus is worthy to open the scroll, to take the title deed to the earth and take back what is rightly His, ultimately judging all of the earth and setting up His kingdom where He sits on David's throne. The final day of the Lord is a process whereby God gives to Jesus the whole of creation as Jesus takes back what is rightly His and sets up His rule and reign for eternity. 

And the day of the Lord includes this time beyond the tribulation, the 70th week of Daniel, and even beyond the millennial reign of Christ. I want you to look at 2 Peter 3 with me, just to remind you of this text. It's an interesting statement that Peter makes here in 2 Peter 3:10. He says, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," just as Paul writes. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. And then he says, "in which," notice those words, "in which," in the day of the Lord, the course of events, the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Notice that Peter says the day of the Lord includes the destruction of the heavens and the earth and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth in the day of God. 

We will see that this is because the process of the day of the Lord is meant to accomplish the glory and manifestation of who God is and his right to rule over all things. There are a lot of details that are difficult to sort out, considerable mystery yet surrounding how all of these events will play out. But there are some clear and concrete truths that God has revealed to us that guide us in our interpretation of these things. And the simple clear message is that God keeps his promises, that Jesus wins in the end, and that we will rule and reign with him and spend eternity with him in the new heavens and the new earth. 

Jesus will judge, and He will reward. Remember, we just looked at this back in chapter one of 2 Thessalonians. There will be rest for those who believe Jesus, and there will be retribution for those who reject him. These are the primary truths for us to understand, and I want you to keep them at the forefront of your minds as we study these things and really get down into the details of the prophecy in the scriptures.

Well, let's consider our text this morning, 2 Thessalonians 2:1. "Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved."

I've given you four points on your outline this morning: context, creative intent, catastrophe, and comfort. Well, first of all, as we study these words before us, we must set them in their context. This was a real letter written to real people in a real time with a real purpose. The author Paul had a specific intent in this context when he wrote these words. Now, the intent is very plain and clear, and I believe it's twofold. We saw this back in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 as well. Paul is writing in a pastoral way to teach, to console, primarily to comfort. These words are meant primarily to comfort troubled believers in that local church concerning these doctrines.

The second intent we see in the text that goes along with comforting is in verse three where he says, "Let no one deceive you by any means." There were false teachers who came to the church of the Thessalonians and told them that they had missed the rapture and that they were in the day of the Lord. This is the context. Verse one, Paul says, "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, our gathering together with him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us as though the day of Christ had come." Let no one deceive you by any means. Paul writes concerning the rapture. He says, "We ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word as if from us as though the day of Christ had come." 

Paul's intent here is to straighten out some false teaching with truth because the believers were shaken. They were troubled by what they had been taught and they thought that it had come from Paul. So this is a major issue, false teaching. It causes all kinds of trouble and strife and confusion and it leads believers into captivity, into fear and a troubled state of mind, and there's plenty of false teaching concerning things yet to come.

It's interesting to me, as I've studied at great length these doctrines over the past year or so, the eschatological events of the rapture, the day of the Lord, that every passage written to believers, to the church that mentions this, speaks of comfort, truth teaching, dispelling of error with the express intent to bring comfort to the believers concerning these things. In John 14, Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also." Jesus is comforting the disciples. Let not your heart be troubled. And Paul's doing the same thing in 2 Thessalonians 2. 

Don't be troubled, don't be shaken in spirit and mind. Don't be upset, know the truth. Don't listen to the lies, let no one deceive you. It appears that these events that are to unfold, the seven-year period spoken of by Daniel concerning Israel and Jerusalem, where the Antichrist will rule and reign and persecute God's people, this great time of trouble, these truths, these revelations bring a certain discontent and wonder to the minds of believers in Jesus Christ. And it seems that there's always this latent thought, this concern or fear that somehow, we will endure the day of the Lord and the catastrophic events that are yet to come.

All of the scriptures from Jesus' words in John 14 concerning the rapture to 1 Corinthians 15 to 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Thessalonians 5, and the chapter we're studying this morning are expressly written to comfort, to assure us that we will not endure that time of great trouble on the earth. We saw this back in 1 Thessalonians 5: we are not of the night, but of the day. This time will not overtake us. We are not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation. The intent is comfort, to console with the truth, to see troubled hearts at ease.

It's vital that we understand this intent of the author in the context of the people to whom he writes and what was going on there. There are many details in the revelation of God to us in His word concerning these future events, and there's a great deal of study to be done to sort them out. All of these things must be carefully discerned, rightly divided, so that we come to the right conclusions and applications, but this intent is vital to our understanding and should guide us to a great degree. Comfort is deliverance, is salvation. It's not wrath. 

So we see context, this is important. And next I want to go back to creative intent to review a bit what we studied before in the first epistle. If you'd turn to Hebrews 2 with me, please. Hebrews 2 beginning at verse five. "For he has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels." The one testified in a certain place saying, "What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him," speaking of man.

Verse nine, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone." The author of Hebrews here is discussing angels, Samaritan understanding concerning angelic beings and their place. He writes, "For he, God, has not put the world to come, Oikoumeni, it means the inhabited earth. Did you know that there's an inhabited earth yet to come? That's an important truth. The inhabited earth to come. He has not put it into subjection to angels." And then we see God's original creative intent when he made man. 

In verse six, "What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you take care of him? You've made him a little lower than the angels. You've crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet." For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. When God created the heavens and the earth, when he made Adam and Eve, his intent was for Adam to rule over the earth in a theocracy, walking with God in perfect harmony with God's will. 

God would have his man to rule over his creation on the earth according to his will. This was his intent in creation. Hebrews 2 goes on to say, "We do not now see all things put under him." You see, Adam sinned and brought the curse on the world, sin and sickness and death, and the creative intent of God for man to rule over the works of his hands was turned upside down. Satan, the usurper, would now be the God of this age. The whole world lies in the sway of the wicked one, and man is now subject to creation, to weather, to catastrophe, and he works by the sweat of his brow against thorns and thistles to make his living.

I've got all kinds of stuff under the snow up there because I'm just too dumb to get it all picked up. We had a great fall, didn't we? We can't complain, but I wasn't ready. And what am I doing? I'm fighting against the snow. I'm fighting against the weather. Why? Because Adam sinned in the garden. That's why, to hawk on it. Man is now subject to creation. This was not God's creative intent. We do not yet see all things put under man. But verse nine says, "But we see Jesus." Jesus is the promise of restoration to God's creative intent. 

Jesus will be the ruler over all of creation just as God intended. I want you to turn to Revelation 5 with me, please. Revelation 5 at verse one. "And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll, written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?' And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look at it. So I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. One of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.' And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 

Then he came and took the scroll out of the hand of him who sat on the throne. Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth.' And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.' 

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard saying, 'Blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever.' Then the four living creatures said, 'Amen,' and the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped him who lives forever and ever." 

As we said before, this scroll is a title deed to the earth, is how we can look at that, and who is worthy to take that deed, to open that scroll? Only the lamb, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Only Jesus has the right ownership over His creation. Now mark this, pay attention. This is important. The book of the Revelation is an unveiling of the process by which Jesus takes back His rightful ownership of the creation and restores God's creative intent, setting up the kingdom on this earth. Jesus will rule and reign according to the will of God and fulfill God's original intent.

And what we see is that God is working out this plan to bring full and final glory to Himself, to judge all who offend, casting them into the eternal separation from God in the lake of fire. This is one of the great purposes of the time of tribulation on this earth and helps us to understand the unfolding of the events of the day of the Lord. But there's another work that God is doing in this time, and that concerns the centrality of Israel. We spent a whole message on this back in 1 Thessalonians, but I just want to review that a bit, set it in your minds again as we consider the day of the Lord and the relation of the rapture of the church to it.

That's what Paul's talking about in 2 Thessalonians 2, the relation of the rapture to the day of the Lord, to assure the believers that they are not in the day of the Lord. As I said, there are a lot of details in the Revelation of the Scriptures concerning these end-time events that we must deal with and fit together for our understanding, not the least of which are in our text this morning. But as I study the whole, there's one overarching principle that I believe must guide us in our understanding of what is going on and what God's intent is in the chronology of these events. 

Turn to Daniel 9 with me, please. Daniel 9 at verse 24. This is a revelation given to Daniel for his understanding concerning what will come of his people Israel. Verse 24, "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy." 

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. The streets shall be built again and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood until the end of the war desolations are determined. 

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate. Seventy weeks are determined for your people and your holy city. The seventieth week of Daniel that is still to come, this seven-year period is about Israel. It's about Israel, and it concerns Jerusalem. This will be the focus. 

And we see the purpose in this verse as well. Several things that God is going to do in this time, but I want to point you to the first one mentioned. He says "to finish the transgression." God is following the pattern that he has set forth since the beginning of the nation. The pattern of chastening for the purpose of turning His people back to Himself. It happened in Egypt. God got Jacob and his sons down to Egypt, and Israel spent four hundred years in bondage. God chastened them with a power that He raised up and then He delivered them in the great exodus and destroyed Pharaoh's armies. This is the pattern. It's consistent through time with Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. 

And it will be this pattern fulfilled fully and finally in the seventieth week of Daniel with Israel in Jerusalem. God will gather up all His people who have been scattered throughout the world. So many scriptures speak to this. He will bring them back to their land. He will gather the nations. We see this in the day of the Lord prophecies. He will enter into judgment with the nations. And my friends, He will finish the transgression. The word means rebellion. It speaks here of a long time rebellion of Israel against God. Their unwillingness to believe. 

In this seventieth week, God will end the rebellion of Israel, and He will accomplish salvation for His people and fulfill His promises. This is the second vital purpose of the seventieth week. Turn to Romans 11 with me, please. Romans 11 at verse 11. Paul asks the question, you know, we have these people quite prevalent in Christendom who teach that the church has replaced Israel. Paul asks the question directly here in Romans 11:11, "I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Have they fallen to a point where they can't get back up? Is it over for them because they rejected their Messiah?" Paul says, "Certainly not. No way. Forget it." Notice what he says next. This always fascinates me. "But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles." You almost feel slighted somehow by that, don't you? 

God's focus is still on Israel. "Now if their fall is riches for the world, their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? For I speak to you, Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those whom I flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If they believe, they're able to be grafted in again, right? They were grafted in as wild branches into the cultivated tree. They were broken off, but if they believe, they will be grafted in again." 

Paul clearly says that the setting aside of Israel in this time and a focus on the Gentiles is meant to provoke the Jews to jealousy to save them. Verse 25, "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." It's partial, there's a remnant today, it's temporary, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Then what happens? Verse 26, "And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, 'The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away in godliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.' Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." 

So important. So clear. God's focus will again turn to Israel when? When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. When would this be? How would we characterize such a turning from the Gentiles back to the nation of Israel to accomplish her salvation at the second coming of Jesus Christ? This is the focus and the purpose of the 70th week of Daniel, the seven-year period determined for Israel and Jerusalem. 

All these events are taking place in Jerusalem. Why? Because the focus is Israel, not the worldwide church, but the nation whom God has chosen to end the transgression, to bring salvation to His people, and to judge the nations and to set up His kingdom on this earth where Jesus will rule and reign for a thousand years. The point of the tribulation is to end transgression, to turn Israel to faith in the Messiah Jesus, and to usher in the kingdom and anoint Christ as King. "Anoint the Most Holy" is the last of six things He's going to do in that passage. 

What would be the point for the church, the believers in Jesus Christ, to experience this persecution? What would be the goal? You have to ask yourself, what is going on in this time? What is God doing? He's working salvation for Israel and manifesting His righteous rule and judgment over the whole creation. That's what He's doing in this time. 

Listen now, I want to be clear. I don't think that any of this has to do with whether the church will suffer persecution. It will. It has. It does. This is the clearest promise of the Scriptures, and the rapture is not primarily about deliverance from persecution. All who desire to live godly in this ungodly age will suffer persecution, and there's more ungodly ages coming. This is about what God is doing in salvation history, in His plan, in Israel, in the seventieth week of Daniel. 

And the revelation of God tells us that this is about Israel. Paul's main point here again is that the rapture will precede the day of the Lord. We all say amen to that. We can talk about the timing next week, alright? We see the context of 2 Thessalonians 2. We see the creative intent of God in the centrality of Israel. We next see the catastrophe that is coming upon this earth and upon God's people.

Second Thessalonians 2:1 again. "Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 

Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved."

Daniel 11:36 says a willful king is coming to rule this earth. To persecute God's people, to set himself as God to be worshipped. A great catastrophe is coming on the earth in the last week of Daniel's prophecy. It will follow the pattern of the day of the Lord. God will raise up the Antichrist, allow him to come to power and rule over this earth. The Antichrist will persecute Israel. He will seek to destroy them. In Daniel 7:21 it says, "I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints and prevailing against them until the Ancient of Days came and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom."

In verse 25 it says, "He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into His hand for a time and times and half a time." After the abomination of desolation at the midpoint of the tribulation, intense persecution of God's people ensues and continues until Jesus comes and delivers Israel, judging the Antichrist and the false prophet and all who offend, and setting up His kingdom on the earth. 

Catastrophe is coming upon this earth in a great time of trouble such as the world has never seen. But in the end, God's will and purpose will be accomplished through all of these things. And when Jesus comes in the clouds, when He destroys the Antichrist with the brightness of His coming and Israel looks on the one whom they pierced, all Israel will be saved. God's promise will be kept, and the kingdom will come. There will be catastrophe, but through this, there will be salvation for Israel. 

Through this 70th week of Daniel that God has ordained for Israel and for Jerusalem, He will accomplish His glory, the manifestation of His rightful rule and power over all. And it will accomplish the salvation of Israel and God's promised kingdom for His people. In this time, the day of the Lord, He will bring to consummation all things.

So what is the application for us, for the church? The application is clarity of doctrine, of promise. The application is consolation and peace. The application is comfort. Why? Because we see that God keeps His promises. His unconditional promises to Israel, found in Genesis 12 and reiterated again and again to Isaac and Jacob, Israel. And we can know and trust that He will keep His promises to us in Christ. But also comfort. Comfort in knowing that we are not to endure the day of the Lord events, that we are not appointed under the time of wrath, but to obtain salvation at the rapture of the church.

According to the New Covenant church in Revelation 3:10, Jesus said, "Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth." I will keep you from the time of testing to prove what kind of people they are, is what the word means. And notice it says it shall come upon the whole earth. The believers will be caught up before the time of the day of the Lord, and Paul says comfort one another with these words.

If He said, "You will have to endure this great time of trouble," it will be a great time of tribulation, but God is faithful to keep you through it by His grace. If He said anything like this, we would have a different understanding. But what He says is that we will be caught up whether we wake or sleep, that we are not appointed to wrath but to obtain salvation, that He does not want us to be deceived by false teaching.

The rapture, our gathering together to Him, will come before the day of the Lord. And He ends these great teachings with these words, "Comfort, comfort one another with these words." But we'll study the details of what Paul says in this text next week, Lord willing, and we'll try to discern the marks of the beginning and the end of the day of the Lord and what events will occur in this final consummation of the salvation plan of God. 

These words are for our assurance, my friends, assurance of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. That's our great promise. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You that You're so patient, so patient with us and thank You for teaching us and guiding us and continually bringing us back to the truths of Your Word. And thank You for Your Word that does not change. Thank You that we are bound by those words as we study, as we learn, as we grow, to rightly divide them, to seek to know what You say and to expound that to others. Thank You for the truth of our salvation. Thank You for the truth that You keep Your Word, You cannot lie, that we can trust You in all these events, whether it be today, in our world, in our country, in our culture, whether it be this great time of trouble, we can trust You. 

We know that You're faithful and You're working out Your will. We love You, we praise You, in Jesus' name. Amen.