For this day. Lord, I thank you for all the great gifts that you have given us, for our family, for our mothers, and for the truth in your word. Lord, be with us as we study. May our hearts be turned towards you. May our worship be rightful. Lord, help us to desire to grow and mature. Lord, may this sermon be your words and not my own.
And Lord, I pray that this would be an encouraging and a challenging text for us as we go forward here. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to be in 2 Thessalonians 2:es 1-12 today. And as we get into that passage, I want to start off with a story. There was once a man in 1961 named Michael Hall.
Michael Hall, by all accounts, was a thief. And his favorite type of art theft or theft was art theft. He went to museums and he stole paintings. This is what he did. And there was one picture in the Dolitch Picture Gallery, which is one of the oldest museums in England that he really wanted. It was a painting called the portrait of Jacob De III. It was it's a you can look it up.
It's a painting of a guy, but he really wanted this painting. And so he came up with a brilliant idea because the painting was about the size of a postcard and it would have been easy to smuggle, but he knew that if he took the painting, it would be noticed right away that the painting was missing and it would be very likely that he would have gotten caught. So Michael, being an amateur artist himself, decided to paint a replica of the of the painting and hung it in its place.
The replica painting hung in the museum for several days before anyone noticed that the real painting was missing. People came in and enjoyed the beauty of the counterfeit painting of Jacob Gine the III before a actual professional came in realized the discrepancies in the painting and it was unveiled that this painting was stolen. It's a funny story, but it shows us how bad we can be at recognizing what's real and what's fake.
Recognizing what is true and what is a cheap replacement. This topic today that we are going to be discussing is going to be on the heavier side of things. I want to just say that upfront. We are going to be talking about esquetology, the study of the end times and the reality of what this will look like. And we will be talking about the most evil and vile person who will ever walk the face of this earth. Yet my hope and my prayer is that in the midst of these tr of these truths of sin and wickedness that there would be encouragement to be found in who Jesus is and our savior, our Messiah and our King and Lord.
I pray that we would know that in the midst of turmoil and the mist that surrounds some of these difficult trees to understand that we would know that there is a solid rock to stand on and that we would not be moved from it that we would not be shaken in our courage as believers. So we're going to read 2 Thessalonians 2:es 1-12 in its entirety. I'll invite you to join me in that now concerning concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him.
We ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or spoken word or a 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 comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 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 when I was with you, I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now, so that he might 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 refused 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. So, we're going to dive into this passage, but before we do that, I'm going to give you just a little bit of background information of what we've already studied studied because it's going to become important for the rest of this passage. Paul is the author of this letter and he's writing to the church in Thessalonica and he loves this church.
This church is quite new, pretty young, at most a few years old and he wasn't able to stay there very long. He was able to go to the city, teach for about threeish weeks, and then he was run out of the city by persecution from the Jews most likely. And so he wasn't able to stay, and he's worried about this young blossoming church that is doing well, is grabbing on to his teaching. And he says, "Okay, I need to make sure that you are solid in your in what you believe before I before we leave you guys to your own devices."
Hence, he writes the letter of first Thessalonians to fill in some of the gaps that he was missing in his teaching from before. Now, we get to this second letter. And this second letter is pro approximately between 6 months to two years in between. And so, it's been a little bit of time, but not a crazy amount of time. And he's hearing that this church is actually still doing quite well, but they're going through immense persecution. If you look in chapter 1 verse 4, it says, "Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of our churches of our God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and the inflictions that you are enduring."
So despite all of these intense persecutions, the Thessalonian church is holding fast. They're doing well. But then we get into chapter 2 and we're going to look at what this persecution is actually doing to this church. How this persecution is playing out in their dayto-day and how it's causing a change in their thinking. Paul recognizes an issue and he says, "I need to deal with this quickly."
These people are being deceived and swindled into believing that somehow they are in the day of the Lord. That that day has come and that these people have been left behind, leaving them panicking in a state of chaotic confusion, thinking that the wrath of the Lord is about to come upon them. Paul, seeing the danger, is like, I need to deal with this. I can't let this new infantile church be swindled away from the truth of what's going to happen.
And so he writes this chapter to make sure that he can clear the noise that's going on in this church. Verses 1 and two give us the issue. It tells us in plain language he Paul is telling the brothers and sisters within the Thessalonian church to not be quickly shaken or in mind or alarmed. And he says, "Don't don't be shaken by a few things.
Either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to come from us to the effect that the L the day of the Lord has come." Now, he's not just picking a bunch of random things saying, "Oh, by the way, look out for these and make sure that you don't don't miss them." He's saying these things for a reason. He's picking out a spirit, a spoken word, or a letter because this is most likely what has already come to the church. There has probably been some sort of letter or some sort of preacher coming in the name of the Lord or there was someone who wrote a letter in Paul's name, a forgery, saying that the end of the world is coming, that there was some sort of new revelation that the day of the Lord is here.
Pretending to be Paul, pretending to be Timothy, using their authority to scare this church with their own agenda. We don't know who that would have been. All we know is that whatever happened left this church in a state of confusion and fear. They're not doing well. They're scared that they're in the end times. Now, it's super easy to sit back as us in Diamond Valley, Alberta, and be like, "Man, what a bunch of silly guys. How could they be deceived like that?
It's clearly not the day of the Lord. We have things pretty good." And, you know, h how could they believe something like that? So, let's take a second to put ourselves in their shoes. You are a new believer. You're a new church. But despite that, you're actually doing pretty well. This whole Jesus thing is you're loving it. You're maturing. You're growing. And to put it in our vernacular, you're on fire for the Lord.
You're excited about this thing that this guy Paul has shared about you. But it doesn't take long for people to begin to look at you differently. These looks eventually begin to bleed into probably verbal insults. You're called close-minded. You're called dumb and stupid for what you believe. Then you're ostracized and pushed out of your society or maybe even your family and called crazy for what you believe. Then there are those who come into your city and demand that you get back in line that you believe whatever was the common thing to believe.
You don't rock the boat and you don't believe in this crazy thing because this is the way of the world works. But you stand your ground now. Suddenly you go from these people go from hurling threats to now physically threatening you. You are beaten for what you believe. They actually want you dead. And now you're meeting in secret places. Now you can't ever let your guard down. You're constantly on edge for what you believe, but you know it's true. And you're convicted that it's the only way that you can truly be saved.
And then someone comes along and says, "Hey, all of this STUFF YOU'RE GOING THROUGH, GUESS WHAT? It's because you're in the day of the Lord. The end is coming. That's the reason for your persecution. The Lord's wrath is upon you. And if you're a new believer, be pretty easy to be swept out swept up in that kind of lie. But in order to fully understand this, we need to flesh out of what flesh out what this day of the Lord is and why would they be worried about it?
Well, to answer this question, we need to go to the Old Testament first. We get a picture of what this day is. So, I'm going to get you to turn to a book we don't go to very often. We're going to go to the book of Amos in the minor prophets. Go to Amos 5. In the book of Amos chapter 5, we're going to be reading from verses 18 to 20.
It says this, "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light." as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him or went into a into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord. Darkness and not light and gloom with no brightness in it. Here we get the picture that it's a day of darkness.
It'll be a terrible day where the Lord's judgment is doled out on those who don't believe. Many other prophets talk about this day of the Lord, including the book of Joel. In Joel 2:31, it says that on that day, that sun will be turned into darkness and moon will be turned into blood. That's a nice happy picture, right? In Isaiah 13, we're talking about how this is destruction from the Almighty that will come in and on all the unfaithful, those who haven't put their trust in the Lord.
This is the day of the Lord's judgment. It's even further supported by some New Testament passage that we read. Second Peter 3:10, where Peter says, "That day will come like a thief in the night." We also studied this exact same type of language in 1 Thessalonians 4. That day will be will come suddenly and you won't be able to predict it. There's no way to predict it. The Lord will come pronounce judgment on the unfaithful and wreak destruction on this world in terrifying ways.
This will be a final specific day of the Lord's divine wrath. Do you understand why this church would be so frightened of that? This is not a joyful thing. They feel how little they are in light of the judgment of the Lord. No kidding. There scared. Once when I was I was in grade five, so probably 10 or 11 years old, our my school was going on a field trip.
We're going to the zoo and I was so excited. We had this chance to go and see all the animals. I got to hang out with my friends. They had just built the butterfly thing at that point. And so it was like it was a big deal to go to the zoo. And I have been and like just waiting for weeks for this day to come. And so normally my mom would come and wake me up at 6:30 and then I would get up do my day. But there were some days where I fell back asleep and then my mom would storm in half an hour later and be like, "You need to get up."
And I'll be like, "Oh, I'm sorry." And or I would go and get ready for the day and head off to school. And so this day I woke up at 6:30 and fell back asleep. And then I woke up again. It was 8:30. I am in a panic cuz I know that the bus leaves for this field trip at 8:45. So I am just a flurry of panic. Putting on my shirt backwards, mismatch socks, running up the stairs and I'm living at my parents. I'm like, why did you not wake me up on zoo day so frustrated?
And I run into the kitchen up the stairs and I see my dad. I'm like, "Dad." And he looks at me and straight face is like, "Oh, man. You're sure up early for a Saturday." I was so terrified that I missed Zay. How terrified would you be if you missed the gathering up of the Lord? If that day came and went and now you're stuck in the Lord's divine wrath.
That's a lot worse than missing the zoo. This is how they're feeling. This is the emotion that they're in. They went from growing to wrath. In verse three of our passage, Paul doubles down on his on his re reputation. He refuts the argument here and the actual reason why they shouldn't be scared.
When we read that verse, it says, "Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction." He's saying, "Don't listen to what anyone else has to say. Don't listen to these people who are trying to pull you away from this truth cuz there are certain things that need to happen first.
These two separate things need to actually happen and you guys won't be there for it. This revealing of the man of laws is not for you. We know this because Paul has already taught them about this. Read verse 5. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? It's a strong way to start. Hey, you're there for 3 weeks and this is what you teach them. This is what you start off with. He taught them in the initial visit. And and let's go back to 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 17.
Probably just back a few pages unless you have a study Bible. Then it'll be like a mile and a half away. 4:17 it says, "Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them the clouds to meet the Lord's to meet the Lord in the air. So we will always be with the Lord." And then drop down to chapter 5:4, for it says, "You are not of in the darkness, brothers." Verse 5, "For you are all children of light, children of the day.
We are not of light, the night, or of the darkness. Now, how did the the Old Testament describe the day of the Lord? Darkness. We are not destined for that wrath. We won't be here for it. So, he says, "Take heart. It's not for you. Don't be worried that you're not that you're stuck in this day of judgment. You're not going to be there for it. The day of the Lord has not come. A little aside here is we can also glean from the way that Paul encourages them a lot of truth.
He says, "Don't be shaken. Don't be scared. The Lord's wrath is not here yet." Which allows us to infer a few things. And I'm going to say it allows us to infer that we will be taken up before this great tribulation described in Revelation 5-19, chapters 5-19 and Daniel 7-11. If we are to be caught up or dare I say raptured after the tribulation and the wrath of God is poured out, his encouragement would be very different. Instead of take heart, the wrath of God hasn't come yet, his encouragement would be take heart and get excited that the Lord is coming after this tribulation you're going through.
But that's not how he encourages them. He doesn't say, "Be excited. We're going to get through this persecution and then Jesus will come back and take you home." He doesn't say that. He says, "Take heart that it hasn't happened yet cuz you'll be taken up first." Now, I'll get off my soap box for that and leave you with that. Now, Paul reminds them that there are these things that must happen before the great day of the Lord. That they should not allow anyone to sweep them up into some sort of scheme that makes them believe otherwise.
So you congregants sitting here in this church, don't allow someone to sweep you up into believing that the day of the Lord has come. Don't believe any new revelation. Don't believe any prediction that the end is coming. We don't even know when our own lives will end. How will we know when the world will end? Don't let someone with a southern accent say, "I am convinced that the day is going to come on October 16th." DON'T BELIEVE IT. YOU LAUGH, but it's there's lots of people who are wrapped up in this s kind of thing.
And it's foolishness and it's sadness. These people are being deceived into believing that they the day of the Lord is coming and that they will endure it. This is not for the believer. This is what Paul says. This is not some game. This is the life of people. And so Paul ensures that they know this truth and we must ensure that we know this truth as well.
Paul says that before the end will come, there will be a man of lawlessness who comes, a counterfeit Christ, and all those who are left will not be able to name the fake. We must be able to. Let's go back to 2 Thessalonians 2. I'm going to reread chapters 3 to N or chapters verses 3 to9. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 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 when 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 when the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing 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.
The thing that must happen is the coming of the man of lawlessness who who we most most likely know as the antichrist. This antichrist must appear first. Now, this man is one of the most perplexing characters in all of scripture. And many people rightly so ask who or what will this man be? And there are many different interpretations of what it what it will be. Some believe that it will be like a more of an entity.
Could be a corporation or a group of people. Some believe it's more a specific man. I lean personally Joe Johar leans a little bit more that way that it's a specific man. But we know for absolute absolute certain that who or whatever this thing or man will be, it will be the worst person to ever exist. We get this from the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation. The book of Daniel describes the antichrist as the little horn.
This is in Daniel chapter 7:9. It's this horn that comes out of the head of this dragon and there's a lot of imagery there. But he is speaking great and blasphemous things. He is described as charismatic, speaking these wonders, speaking things that completely go against who God is pro disdaining his name. But he's a great order and the people will eat it up. He will win the people over with his speech.
And we also get this picture as the beast in Revelation 13 who once again will be given a mouth uttering audi and blasphemous things. We know based on Daniel 11, basically the whole chapter that this antichrist will be a friend of the nations. He'll lead the people in a rebellion against God. He will rise to global power and place himself as the leader of the world and he will reign for 42 months or 3 and 1/2 years and as Revelation 13 describes it until he commits what is what is described as the rebellion in our passage.
Now another way to translate this word rebellion is apostasy as the apostasy. Matthew Jesus describes this event in Matthew 24 as the abomination of desolation. It's this horrible act that this antichrist will do to spit in the face of God. This event, the apostasy, this singular event, will reveal the Antichrist for who he is and will spark the beginning of the end.
And the day of the Lord will come. This man will be the summation of all the evil that this world has seen. Verse 7 says that the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. And Chris read for us 1 John 2 18 and onwards and in there it says that many antichrists have come. This is a different word.
It's a lowercase a antichrist. Those who are against God. That spirit of the antichrist, the spirit of hating God is very evident in our world. And I don't need to stand up here and convince you that that's the truth. We can see it. Our world is riddled with sin and riddled with those who just hate the Lord. In first John 4:3, it says, "Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist which you heard is coming and is now in the world already."
So what is this spirit and what is the essence or defining factor of the antichrist? It's ultimately a denial of God. He will be the culmination of all the anti-God people who have ever walked this earth. But nonetheless, the Lord is in control even of that. Verse 6 says, "And you know what is restraining him now? So that he might be revealed in his time. So, there's something restraining this man of lawlessness.
Once again, lots of different people who are way smarter than I am have ideas as to what this is. I would say that in order to hold back something that is supernatural. You need something supernatural to hold it back. I would say that this is the Holy Spirit who is restraining him. Power of God who is not allowing Satan to release this man upon the earth. We have to remember that despite the fact that Satan has power, as John MacArthur would say, the devil is the Lord's devil. He's on a leash.
There's only so much he can do. We get this from the book of Job. He must request of the Lord to do what he wants to do. And so we get that also from verse 7 when the pronoun he who restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. Once again giving credit to the Holy Spirit holding him back. And I'm pretty certain in history there are multiple people who Satan would have loved to use as candidates for this role. But the Lord has the correct time for him.
We as pastors all agree that the day of the Lord has not come yet. And I contend that the antichrist has not been yet revealed. He may be on earth, but he has not been revealed as the antichrist yet. However, let's look at history. A few people who give us an idea of what this antichrist will be like. There's one man, I believe it was at about 100 100 AD, 100 to 160 AD named Antiochus Epiphanies. Antiochus Epiphanies was the king of Syria. And he came and he took over Jerusalem. And then in one great act of blasphemy, he took a pig up to the altar of God and slaughtered it on the altar, going directly against what the Old Testament has said.
You probably heard the name Genghask Khan before. One of the g one of the most brutal military conquest and one of the largest geographical kingdoms in history, taking over starting in Mongolia and taking over China and much of different areas like that. Historians estimate that he probably killed between 40 and 60 million people. Some scientists even suggest that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was greatly reduced in the world because of how many people were slaughtered under his rule.
And the one in our most me recent memory and the one that often people think of the most is Adolf Hitler who desired world domination was deeply immersed in the oult and hated the Jews, the people of God, killing estimated 6 million of them. Once again, gifted speaker, radical leader who is able to rally people to his side, get on his cause. Yet, the man of lawlessness will be even worse than he.
This is what we're dealing with. Finally, there is one other man who gives a picture of what this lawless man will be like. In verse three, Paul gives him an a title right at the end of verse three, the son of destruction. You probably have a footnote in your Bible on that word. There's a Hebrew idiom that goes along with this that's called the son of pdition. Essentially means the same thing, son of destruction.
That title is given to two people in the scripture. The Antichrist and Judas a Scariot in John 17:12. Even the man who sold out the Messiah for pocket change will pale in comparison to who this man of sin is. And this man is not Satan. This man is not the devil. He is a worker of Satan.
Verse 9 says that the Antichrist is one by the activity of Satan. That's what the ESV has here. But if you have the LSB, the Legacy Standard Bible, it I think it words it a little bit better. It says that the Antichrist is in accord with the working of Satan. To be in accord with means to work along with to to be working together. This means that he was working with him, alongside him, heeding his commands and doing Satan's bidding. But when we take a closer look here, we can recognize a pattern.
We can see what Satan's trying to do with this man of lawlessness. And he is trying to copy and counterfeit the second person of the Trinity, the son of God, Jesus. When we look at verse 9 at the end of that chapter, we can see that this lawless one will come with all power and false signs and wonders. I don't think this is trickery. I think this is more like the magicians in Egypt where they had actual demonic power and things that he could do. I don't think this is slight of hand, but is actually being fueled by the power of Satan himself to deceive the nations.
He has a coming much like Jesus. He has a revealing or a beginning of his wicked ministry like just like Jesus. And then he sits in the temple and here is the greatest act of blasphemy. He declares himself God. Sound like someone we've read of before, right? Except when Christ did it, it was true. When this man does it, it is lies and blasphemy. So once again, don't be deceived.
Don't be lured into some false notion that this guy has come. We'll know and we won't be here for it. Do not be tempted into thinking that the end is imminent because this blasphemer of all blasphemers must arrive first. The end is coming soon, but we are not in it. But there is a critical thing that we as believers must remember. And I can feel the weight in this room. But I want to remind you that we are not looking for the Antichrist.
We're looking for Christ himself. That's who our eyes need to be on. And while it is important that we as believers are able to name the fake, our primary goal is to chase the real. We need to look for that Christ. We know that while the antichrist comes in some power and that while he comes in some sort of authority, he has no chance of defeating the king of kings who reigns in glory right now. Let's look at chapter 8 cuz in there there's a lot of hope in the latter half of that of that verse.
It says he's talking about the antichrist coming and then it says whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. When Jesus arrives on the scene to mark the end of this time of wickedness and destruction, he will come in victory destroying the Antichrist with the breath of his mouth. That word for breath there doesn't mean speaking. It means movement of the air.
It's literally by his presence, by his breathing, the antichrist will be destroyed and Christ will reign. We read that of this event in Revelation 19 where the Lord comes on a white horse with a sword coming out of his mouth and destroying all those who rebel against him. And again in Revelation 20, we see the sealed doom of those characters, the beast, the dragon, all of them are thrown into the lake of fire and hell, and Satan is defeated. The beast is gone, and the head of the serpent IS CRUSHED JUST AS GENESIS 3 said it would happen.
So, my friends, this passage is heavy. But man, I sure hope that you find this reminder encouraging. You are not destined for wrath. You are destined for life and life abundantly if you're in Christ. >> Amen. >> This antichrist, you will never know. All you will know is the overwhelming love, glory, and presence of the Lord Jesus. How how I wish I could end there. This passage ends with bad news as there will be many who don't follow Jesus and many who will choose to remain deceived.
We're going to read verses 10 to 12 and with all wicked deception those who are perishing because they refused 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. There will be those who refuse to love Jesus and refuse salvation just like there are today.
These are the people who refuse to accept the truth of the gospel, refuse to accept the reality of their sin, and refuse to accept that Jesus has come to save them from that. It will be those people who see the work of the Lord in others and yet refuse to accept it and deny him. It will be those who see the joys that come with salvation and yet choose worldly pleasures. It'll be those who on that last day when the Lord descends from heaven and his feet touch the Mount of Olives and that amount is rent aunder by his mere presence, they'll say, "Huh, ah, I'm not sold.
Could this guy really be the Messiah? I'm going to go with him. I'm going to go with this guy who talks fancy. I'm going to go with this guy who's promised me all great things, all the desires in my heart, all the wickedness that I desire. They'll look at Christ and they'll say, "No, I refuse it. I will not follow him." All of you who are sitting here today, if you are not in Christ, do not allow this to be you. Do not allow you to be that soul on that day and turn to Jesus now.
There is freedom and hope available to the perishing soul. Christ went to the cross to buy it. He gave everything for that person. For you who don't, who are stuck in your sin, stuck in the mighty clay. Jesus paid it all for you to have freedom. Don't be like those who take active pleasure in unrighteousness, and scream at God and say, "I don't need you." Cuz you know what he'll say? You know what God will say to those who say, "I don't need you." You say, "All right, go down this path that you want so badly."
Romans 1:es 26-28 breaks my heart. They talk about how the Lord gives the wicked up to their own sin, allowing the wicked to just spiral. And how much do we see that today? People just loving their sin and refusing God. What a terrible destruction it is when the Lord just allows us to do what we want and it shatters me. Sorry.
The Lord sends them a strong delusion. And the way that that is talked about is we are already steering the car that way. It was already driving towards destruction. The Lord just steps on the gas. So turn and repent and walk away from whatever might be stopping you from denying Christ. Please. There is nothing on this earth that will satisfy you more than Christ will. There's no ruler, no future, no achievement, no man or woman or anything that will be able to fill that hole like Christ will.
There's nothing that will surpass the joy that comes with being in Christ. So I plead with you, judgment is coming soon. Don't allow that to be you. There's a poem/hymn written by Isaac Watts. You've probably heard that name before. And you've probably heard songs written by him. He wrote hymns like When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and Joy to the World, which I believe is a fitting way to end our time today.
This hymn is called When Satan Comes with Dreadful Roar. Now Satan comes with dreadful roar and threatens to destroy. He worries whom he can't devour with a malicious joy. Ye sons of God, oppose his rage. Resist and he'll be gone. Thus did our dearest Lord engage and vanquish him alone. Now he appears almost divine like innocence and love, but the old serpent lurks within when he assumes the dove. Fly from false deceivers's tongue. Ye sons of Adam fly.
Our parents found the snare too strong. Nor should the children try. Dear God, I thank you for this day. We thank you for hard texts. Thank you for the that Lord, you did not hide the truth of the reality of our sin from us and that you provided a way out. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you for the cross. Lord, give us a heart for those who are perishing. Lord, do not allow them to be deceived, to continue to be stuck in that sin.
We thank you that your power will destroy this man of lawlessness and that we will not be there for it, Lord. That you will rescue us out of that. Lord, in the midst of the trial and tough issues like this, give us immense joy. Help us to look at you and worship the almighty and the all powerful God. Thank you for your love and the blessings that you've given. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
