Turn with me again to 2 Thessalonians 2, and these 12 verses that we've read together. We've seen already in 2 Thessalonians that Paul is writing. There's some specific reasons that he's going to address. That's what we're coming into now. But we've seen the introduction to this letter. Paul is encouraged by the exponential growth amongst the Christians in Thessalonica. And he reminds them that although they are suffering persecution, Jesus Christ is the judge who will avenge them. We've thought over the past two weeks, first of all, of the judgment of Christ against the wicked. We've thought of the horrors of hell. And then also of Jesus Christ, the judge for his people, for his sins. And we've thought with delight of how we will marvel at him when he's appeared, when we see him. But now we come in chapter two, really to the occasion for the letter itself. Why is it that Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians so quickly after writing 1 Thessalonians? Well, we see in the first two verses that there was something that had alarmed the Christians in Thessalonica. He gives a few options here. Verse two, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. There were some who were teaching that Jesus Christ had already come, that the day of the Lord spoken of in 1 Thessalonians chapter four and five had already or at least was very soon to come. It was imminent to come. It seems that some people were speaking as if they had a spirit of prophecy to declare these things. Or they were speaking as if they were Paul's representatives. We have the definitive word from Paul on this matter. The day of the Lord has come. Or perhaps someone had forged a letter and sent it saying it came from Paul. And understandably, God's people in Thessalonica are alarmed by this. What does this mean? The church is in a state of agitation. Has Jesus indeed returned? Has this day of the Lord come? Have we missed it? We haven't seen all that Paul is speaking about in 1 Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 5, remember how Paul described the day of the Lord as coming as a thief in the night? It would take people by surprise. Sudden destruction would come. But we should remember, and we thought of it at the time, just because there's sudden destruction does not mean that it was something that was going to come imminently. It would take them by surprise, yes, but Paul is here saying, that there are certain signposts along the way. Yesterday on our tour, I think I was talking to Ross, and we were looking at a signpost that told us how far it was to Edinburgh. But you know those signposts that the place that you're closest to is at the top, and then the next one, it comes next, And then the place you're furthest away from comes last. And you know that if you're going down this road, you first have to come to the first place, the closest place. And then the next place, the medium distance place. And then lastly, you can come to the one that's furthest away. There's a signpost along the way. You will not get to Edinburgh unless you come to these places first. And that's what Paul here is saying. The day of the Lord is the final thing. Jesus will return like a thief in the night. But there are signposts along the way that must be accomplished first. And particularly here, he says in verse three, the rebellion must come first and the man of lawlessness must be revealed. These are two things that must happen before Jesus will return. The word rebellion there is really the word apostasy, the falling away. It's not thinking here of a rebellion of people who are outside the church, of pagans and heathen, people who don't know the name of Christ. It's thinking rather of a rebellion inside the church, within the visible church, a falling away, an apostasy amongst those who profess to be Christ's people. And this apostasy is intimately connected with this man of lawlessness, or man of sin, who is to be revealed. That is, as you can see from your sermon title, the Antichrist. And it's this Antichrist that we're considering today. First of all, and the longer section of our sermon, is to consider the identity of the Antichrist. The identity of the Antichrist. Anyone can make their own guess, anyone can have their own opinion, and frequently people do as to the identity of this man of sin. Some people think that it's Satan himself. Some argue that it was Nero. Some consider the most wicked people they think of in modern human history, Hitler, Putin, surely they are Antichrist, the numbers of people they are responsible for killing. In America, depending on who was in the White House, you had some who thought Obama was the Antichrist and others who thought Trump was the Antichrist. There are so many people who have been guessed at. We don't have to make guesses. If we can simply work through what the scripture here teaches, we can understand the mind of Christ and see for ourselves who this man of sin is. I want you to note first of all in verse 9 that the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan. In other words, we can already rule out that this Antichrist is equated with Satan. Satan is distinct from this man of sin. Satan is behind him. Satan is motivating him. Satan is active at work. The father of lies is using this man of sin, certainly, to bring deception. But the Antichrist is distinct from Satan, a different person. He's called here in verse three, the man of lawlessness or the man of sin. That means that he is characterized as sin itself. He's also called the son of destruction or the son of perdition, if you're using the King James version. That's really a Hebrew expression, the son of something. The sons of thunder, for example, James and John. The son of perdition or destruction means that he is devoted entirely, set apart, marked out completely for eternal damnation. This is someone who is fit for eternal punishment in hell. But we don't have to wrestle too much with this phrase because it is used elsewhere in the Bible. And it's an important lesson for us. When there's something in the Bible that we find is difficult to understand, you should be thinking, is that word or is that phrase used elsewhere? Because perhaps in that place, it will shed light on this place. And indeed, the term son of destruction is used in John chapter 17. Jesus, in his high priestly prayer, prays, to his father, he says, I have guarded them. That is, I have guarded my disciples. I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled. I think about that for a moment. Jesus says, I have guarded my disciples. Not one of them has been lost except who? The son of destruction. That is Judas Iscariot. We were singing of Judas Iscariot there from Psalm 41, weren't we? And that's part of the reason why. And so we can take the light from John chapter 17 and shine it here in 2 Thessalonians 2. Who is the Antichrist? Well, he is someone that is like Judas Iscariot. He's obviously not Judas Iscariot because Judas hanged himself. We know he did that and he was buried and so on. But this person, this Antichrist, this man of sin is someone who is like Judas Iscariot in his treachery. That fits in very well with what is said in 1 John 2 about the Antichrist. It says there in verses 18 and 19, children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, So now many antichrists have come, therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. Okay? So John, speaking about the antichrist, there is an antichrist, the antichrist who is coming. But even now, there are many antichrists along the way. They went out from us, but they were not of us. What's he saying there? They were part of the church. They came out of the church, out of the visible church, but they were not part of us really. They were members of the visible church, but they weren't converted. They didn't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for the saving of their souls. They weren't wheat, they were tares. They weren't sheep, they were goats. Just like Judas Iscariot, they have apostatized from the faith. And that's why I think in verse three, it's important to remember that word in our version here, rebellion. The rebellion must come first. I want you to highlight in your mind that that is the word apostasy. They went out from us, but they were not of us. They apostatized from the true faith. So when we're trying to ascertain who the Antichrist is, We're looking for a figure like Judas Iscariot, who is treacherous, one who is within Christendom, but has apostatized. And so, just as we've ruled out Satan, so we can rule out Nero, who is a popular one. as being the Antichrist. Nero was never a part of the visible church. He was not someone who went out from us, but was not of us. He's not one who has apostatized because he never professed the true Christian faith in the first place. And so we can rule out as well any political figure that is suggested as well who was not part of the visible church. No, this Antichrist is someone who would betray the son of man with a kiss, just like Judas Iscariot did. But we see more about him in verse four. The Antichrist is someone who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship. He exalts himself over everything that could be called God or everything that is worshipped. And we can take this in the broadest senses as well as the specific sense. In the broadest sense, this Antichrist is someone who exalts himself over false gods. Anything that anyone in all the world may worship, this man of sin exalts himself over those. But think also in the Bible, Sometimes the Bible calls angels gods. This man of sin exalts himself over the angels. The Bible also sometimes calls political leaders, kings and presidents and prime ministers, gods, just because of the authority that they have. This antichrist is someone who exalts himself over these political rulers too. So although he comes out from the church, yet he is someone who has his eye on political power too. But also and especially, he exalts himself over the one true God, the only suitable object of worship. This Antichrist considers himself to be greater and worthy of the worship of God. And he takes it to himself with delight pleasure. Notice here in verse 4 it tells us that the man of sin takes his seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God. Now some people have assumed that this is speaking of the temple in Jerusalem and therefore we must be looking for a figure who existed prior to AD 70 when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. I don't think that's at all what it's saying here. It's taking the temple of God as being the church of Jesus Christ in this world. Because it was the Romans, wasn't it? The pagans who came into the literal temple of God. And we've already ascertained that this Antichrist is not a pagan. He is someone within Christendom who is apostatized. So it's not the Romans in AD 70 who fulfill this criteria. No, this temple of God that verse four speaks of is the true church of Christ. that the usurper comes and takes to himself. He brings mass apostasy and rebellion within the church to proclaim himself to be God. He takes, in other words, the throne of Christ, if he could, as much as he can. He usurps the position of Jesus, our King, as much as he can. He is opposed to Christ. And it's important that we remember here the word antichrist. You might on first thought think that antichrist means that he is against Christ. And that is true. This figure is so wicked and he is so opposed to Jesus. That's true. But the Greek preposition anti also means in the place of. This man of sin is anti-Christ, not just that he's opposed to Christ, but he seeks to set himself in the place of Christ. That's what it's telling us here, really, when it says that he takes his seat in the temple of God. He tries to put himself in Christ's place and on Christ's seat. But then we have to see something more to help us understand the identity. of this man of sin. Verses five and six, Paul is telling us that in their day, there was some force restraining the revelation of this man of sin. Let's read verses five and six. 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? Something was restraining the revealing of this Antichrist. Something was restraining him from coming to full prominence. Something that, when we read these verses, Paul is a little reluctant, isn't he, to spell it out on paper, isn't he? He doesn't put it down exactly what it is. Why is it, do you think, that Paul was reluctant to put down on paper what was restraining this man of sin. Perhaps Paul is wondering whether his letter will fall into the hands of someone else. But I think the thing that is restraining the man of sin is the Roman Empire. It is Nero who is the emperor. It is those who have political power who are restraining this apostate from coming to full prominence. That's consistent with what we're taught in Daniel chapter 7. We don't have time to go into Daniel 7, but it's a prophecy about these times. There are these horns which signify political power. And the last we see, there's Rome. Rome is described. There are 10 horns, but then there's a little horn that comes out, a little horn that is puffed up and speaks pompous words. That is the Antichrist. And so this little horn comes out, as it were, out of the Roman Empire. We've seen it's an ecclesiastical figure, a church figure within Christendom, but coming out of the Roman Empire. And I think therefore we can say that this that is restraining the Antichrist is the political empire of Rome. But notice there in verse seven that Paul says that the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. So we have this Antichrist who is yet to be revealed, but the mystery of lawlessness, the embryonic form of this apostasy, is already evident in the church in the first century. Again, that's consistent with 1 John. As you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists are here. There are many people who are similar in their theology, similar in what they do to this great Antichrist who is still to come. This is a, verse seven, Paul describes it as the mystery of lawlessness. A mystery is something that's hidden from outsiders, but it doesn't mean that it can't be known at all. Paul calls himself a steward of the mysteries of God. There are things that are mysteries which are revealed for us to understand. I want you to think for a moment in your own mind, what heresy was there in the first century church? What is there that already, a mystery of lawlessness that was already at work, that Paul could point to? Can you think of anything particularly? Well, surely the big heresy in the first century church was that of the Judaizers. The Judaizers came to these young Gentile churches and told them, you are not a true follower of God unless your men get circumcised, unless you submit to the ceremonies that we believe you should follow, unless you become as a Jew, unless you fit in with our form of religion, unless you work like a Jew and do the works of the law, See, the Judaizers were teaching that the faith was all caught up in ceremonies and works. And that was the heresy that Paul addressed. Think of the book of Galatians. I am astonished that you've turned aside to this heresy so quickly. Who has bewitched you that you've turned aside from the true gospel of free grace, forgiveness through Jesus Christ alone, and you've turned aside to works and ceremonies? Paul just can't understand it. How can the churches in Galatia have abandoned the gospel so easily? It was because of these Judaizers with their false gospel, their religion of works, and their ceremonies. They were opposing Christ. And so if we take all of this together, you have to do a bit of detective work here. It's a bit of a mystery. But you take it all together, point by point by point, and you think, who is there that can fulfill all these criteria? Who is there who is such a wicked person? Who is a Judas-like figure, one who apostatizes within Christendom, one who claims to be part of the visible church and yet goes out from it? One who betrays Christ with a kiss and exalts himself in the temple of God, in the church, proclaiming himself to be God and worthy of the worship of God. Someone who exalts himself over angels and over political rulers. One who claims to have the power of God. One who was, for a time, restrained by the Roman Empire, but since that Roman Empire is no more, has now come to prominence. One whose heresy, whose sin was evident in the first century, a religion of works and ceremonies. Who is there that fulfills all those criteria? Because they must fulfill them all if we are to identify them as the Antichrist. Who is there, friends, who is a big figure in Christendom, who offers a false gospel, who has a religion of ceremonies and works, and who is pompous enough to claim the prerogatives of Christ. Who is there who claims for himself to be the vicar of Christ? I know in the Church of England there are many vicars. I would never be called a vicar. Don't call me a vicar. I'm not. A vicar is a substitute. Think about the phrase vicarious atonement or substitutionary atonement. Jesus was the vicar. He became the substitute for us, for our sin. But this person calls himself, this Antichrist calls himself the sole, unique vicar or substitute for Christ. Who calls himself the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church. That is the Supreme Priest. The Great High Priest of the Church. Who is pompous enough to call themselves that? Who claims the ability and the right to speak with infallibility when he speaks from his chair? And when he does so, he says that his teaching is to be adhered to with the obedience of faith. And what he says must be adhered to with your obedience and your faith. Who claims the privileges of supremacy over the church? Friends, if Jesus Christ is a prophet, is the prophet, priest, and king, the Antichrist will seek to be a prophet, a priest, and a king. If salvation comes, and it does come through Jesus Christ alone, by faith alone, through his grace alone, by his blood alone, the Antichrist will devise an alternative gospel, offering different blood, offering a different way. If Jesus is the great priest, this supreme pontiff will offer a different, a rival priesthood, so that salvation can be achieved. Friends, who is he? I think our confession of faith is absolutely clear in chapter 25 and section six, where it says, there is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ, nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be the head thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalts himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God. It is the papacy. It is the papacy throughout the generations. It is the man of sin, the man of lawlessness, this son of perdition, one who has taken to himself the prerogatives of Christ and has been a usurper of all that belongs to our Savior and our King. And I'm convinced, friends, we haven't had time to do it today, but if you examine Daniel chapter 7, 1 John 2, and everywhere in Revelation where the Antichrist is spoken of, you will see that the papacy fulfill all these criteria. It is evident. And the Antichrist must fulfill all these criteria. It's a position that as a church we believe, it's in our confessional documents. And yet it's a position that's mocked today, a position that's often not held to And indeed, in many reformed churches, it's a position that's being abandoned. It's very common in some churches that when ministers or students present themselves for the ministry, and they're about to take their voice, they say, well, I believe in the confession of faith, except for the bit where it says that the pope is the man of sin. And so often, people are let in without believing in the whole system of doctrine. But yet, despite the fact that it's scoffed at, I hope that what we've seen today is that it is biblical. I haven't taken my Northern Irish past and tried to ram that into this sermon. I hope you've seen that. We have worked through phrase by phrase in 2 Thessalonians 2. You live in the west of Scotland. You know I'm from Northern Ireland. You know there's sectarianism. You know that those who claim to be Protestants will say all sorts of things about the Pope, but it's done from a spirit of rivalry and bitterness, an ugly sectarian spirit that I hate with my being. And that is not why I've spoken these things today. I've spoken them because they're biblical. They come right from this passage in front of us. So that's the longer section, the identity of the Antichrist. the papacy, the man of sin. But secondly, let's move on in a more encouraging way to the destruction of the Antichrist, the destruction of the Antichrist. It's terrifying to think that this man of sin has so much power and influence and he is exalted to such a degree that he has been responsible for killing the souls of many people who have been deluded by his and idolatry and false gospel, but not only killing souls, but also burning bodies. We thought of our Reformation tour yesterday. We thought of the martyrs and so on. How many martyrs there have been whose death warrant was signed by a Pope? A terrifying thought of all that this man of sin is able to accomplish. And yet, friends, I want you to believe that the Lamb of God is not meek and my own. The Lamb of God is the King who sits upon the throne forever and ever, and all his enemies must be put under his feet. He will not suffer a usurper in his place. The Lord Jesus Christ will not allow this pompous, arrogant man to take his prerogatives. Now we can be encouraged, no matter who Christ's enemies are, whether political rulers and ideologies, whether Satan himself or this man of sin, this Antichrist, no matter who is opposing Jesus, he comes in judgment. Isn't that what we read in chapter one? Isn't that what we thought over these past few weeks? This Antichrist may be powerful, but our great king is greater by far, and we have no need to fear. Look at verse 8 and we'll see the way in which this man of sin is destroyed. It says there, 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. It is Jesus who destroys the Antichrist. And he does so with the breath of his mouth and the appearance of his coming. What is the breath? Christ's mouth. Well in Psalm 33 verse 6 answers that for us. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their host. The breath of the mouth of Christ is his word, it's his voice. But I don't think here we're to expect an audible voice from heaven. Jesus has returned to heaven not to return until the last day. He doesn't speak audibly, but he does speak through his word, and through the ministers of his word. And so the Antichrist will be destroyed, not by an audible voice from heaven, but through the word that has been given to us, and particularly by that word being preached and applied. And where the spirit of God brings that word in power, the dominion of Antichrist will be diminished and more and more destroyed. As the doctrines of grace are proclaimed, well then the doctrines of Antichrist and his false gospel will be destroyed. As more and more people are rescued out of that false system of religion, the voice of Christ will go forth. But not only his voice, also it tells us here the appearance of his coming. Notice it's not the coming of Christ that destroys the Antichrist, but it's the appearance of his coming. I think that's what it's telling you there. It's something prior to the coming of Christ that destroys the Antichrist. That's consistent. If you were to look at the last few chapters of Revelation, you'll see that that's true. The order of things. The Antichrist is destroyed before Jesus returns to take us to be with him forever. It's the appearance. It's as his coming comes closer that Antichrist is destroyed. Now there are two different senses I think you can take that in. There's a sense, the ultimate sense, that in the days closest to Christ's second return, second coming, Antichrist will be destroyed by the appearance of Jesus' coming. But I think there's another sense in which we can say it. Because when the word of God is preached, sometimes it's preached with power, and sometimes not. Sometimes it seems that Christ comes near in the preaching of the word, and sometimes it doesn't. There are times of revival and reformation, and times of declension. And when Christ's word comes with power, the appearance of his coming is there before you. And it's evident. Jesus is coming again. And in such times of reformation and revival, the power of Antichrist is diminished. Think about it in our own land. We were blessed to have a first reformation. We didn't talk about that yesterday, did we? It was the second reformation we were thinking about. But we were blessed to have a first reformation where the power of Antichrist over the political system of Scotland was abolished. Roman Catholicism was no longer the state religion controlling our government, but we became a Protestant country. We saw the declension that followed, the need for a second reformation. We saw the need for a covenanted work of reformation. And all that fits in here, that where Christ comes in power, the power of antichrist is diminished. And it shows to us that today we need a third reformation in Scotland. I'm not saying that from sectarianism. I'm not a sectarian. I don't believe that sectarianism is right. We're in the position in our denomination that we're in one sense disagreeing with both sides, aren't we? And both sides disagree with us. We can speak against the man of sin on the one hand, but we can also say that members of the orange order can't be members of the church. We take that as a stance. We're willing to do what we believe to be right and biblical, even if people don't like the positions we hold. It's not sectarianism that drives us. It's the Word of God. And may Christ come. But then just briefly, having seen the identity of the Antichrist and the destruction of the Antichrist, just a few words of application. It's been a sermon primarily trying to think through these theological positions. But what for you? And what for me? First of all, I want you to see that ecumenism is wrong. Ecumenism is any time in which the Christian church, the Protestant church, tries to minimize the differences that we have with Roman Catholicism. And you have this, there are various councils of churches where Protestants and Roman Catholics sit side by side as if there's no difference at all, as if our gospels are the same. They're not the same. Christ and Antichrist cannot sit together on any platform. And it's interesting, in our own land, one prominent minister of the Free Church of Scotland, which is a Reformed denomination, spoke out favorably about the previous Pope's book on Jesus Christ, and called that man of sin a brother in Christ. is wrong. We must not compromise in our positions. If salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone, any time we compromise and sit side by side as equals with Roman Catholics and with their system of doctrine, we are compromising. We're showing that these things aren't important. And I want to be clear. I'm not saying that we can't talk to Roman Catholics. We can't sit with Roman Catholics. We can't. I'm not saying that. Of course we do. We show love to everyone. But I can't sit as a minister of the gospel beside a priest and say that we're the same. We're not the same. We have two different religions. But then secondly, not only is ecumenism forbidden to us, we ought to witness and evangelize to all men, but particularly to those who are deluded by this false gospel. Our hearts should go out to all people who are lost and perishing, but particularly to those who are blinded by the doctrines of the Antichrist. And so we should preach, and so we should witness, and we should not hold back. You see, that proves we're not sectarian, because a sectarian bigot would wish the worst upon his enemy. And what do we do? The love of Christ compels us to go out to them and to try to rescue them from their sin. May the Lord bring them in. And then thirdly, we should pray. We're compelled by Christ to pray, thy kingdom come. And in our larger catechism, it shows us that praying thy kingdom come is praying that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed. That's one part of praying thy kingdom come. We're not just simply praying that more people will come into the church, that's true, but we're praying that the powers of opposition will be destroyed. May the Lord be pleased to destroy Antichrist, to destroy the man of sin by the breath of the mouth of Christ and by the appearance of his coming. And we have every reason to pray it because we have the promise here in black and white that Jesus will destroy the usurper of his throne. And so we can pray, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.