Well some years ago I took a break from my job unloading trucks in college and took my profits from that and treated myself to a princely vacation in celebration of my 21st birthday. And part of that vacation trip landed me at the Grand Canyon. 200 miles long, a mile deep, 10 miles from rim to rim. They named it right. It really is the Grand Canyon. So I took out my camera to take a picture. And maybe you've had one of these cameras through the years. It was a small Instamatic camera where you put the cartridge in you know and so I had my camera I took it out and I thought I'm gonna get a picture of the Grand Canyon Wow as I disappointed all I got was this little sliver. I thought I need to see more than that and And so I took what pictures I could, but again, all I could get was this little slice of the Grand Canyon. Most of it was left unphotographed on that day. Well, fast forward a number of years, and my dad showed me a camera he had gotten called a panoramic camera. And it is a camera that takes a picture that's the normal height, but it's really wide, almost 12 inches wide. And we used it to take a picture of our entire family one time. Everybody was there, us kids and the cousins. Everybody was there. Great picture. We still have that picture. It was taken with the panoramic camera. I wished I'd had that at the Grand Canyon, but of course, I didn't. Well, as you look at 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 1 through 12, it is a panoramic picture. It is a prophetic panorama of future events. And it is something that includes events from our time, possibly, all the way through to the end of time. The information in this picture is a message that is vitally important for every person living today. In fact, the events in this picture could affect every person living on earth today. But what is in this picture? Let's take a look at 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 1 through 12. And if you have your outline, feel free to follow along, fill in any notes that you would like to make. And so number one, the first of the high peaks in our prophetic panoramic picture is the rapture, the rapture. Now, the rapture is the next event in God's prophetic program. And there are a number of points of view on the rapture. I just was reminded of another one lately, which as far as I know, there are five or six different possibilities that Bible students have proposed as to the time of the rapture. But what we're going to propose here is that the rapture is an event that could occur today. It can take place anytime, and there's nothing that has to happen before the rapture of the church. Now, it has been argued by some that the word rapture does not appear in our English Bibles, and that is true. You cannot find the word rapture anywhere in the Bible. You also can't find the word Trinity in the Bible, and yet the Trinity is a foundation stone of our Christian faith, and nobody doubts the existence of the Trinity. Well, the word rapture does not appear in our English Bibles. But in fact, the word rapere is found in the Latin translation of 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17, talking about the rapture. And this is a word that gives us our English word rapture. Now, a rapture is a hawk type of bird, like an osprey that swoops down and gets its prey. I was fishing one time and I watched an osprey get a fish I should have caught. And it's amazing to watch them just swoop down out of the sky. They can see this fish under the water. They have claws that can Grab that fish and a one-pound trout just flew away and I'm thinking man that fish belongs in my boat But I never got to see that fish on my liner in my boat that day and that's the idea. It's a rapid forceful Snatching away, and that's the rapture of the church And the idea is that the Lord Jesus will return and snatch his church out of the world. And that is event number one in our prophetic panorama. And starting here at chapter two, verse one, we see that it is a two-part event. And part one is Jesus return. Jesus returned verse 1 now we request you brethren with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And so this is a literal physical return. It's not a spiritual event, but the Lord Jesus will personally Return and we learn from first Thessalonians that he will be in the air he will not come to earth at this first coming the the rapture of the church and Again, we read there that we will meet him in the air. And so part one is Jesus' return. Part two is the gathering of believers. Again, verse one, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him. And the Lord Jesus is coming to gather every believer who is living at the time when he returns, and also every believer who has died. 1 Thessalonians 4 says this, the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And so the dead in Christ will be raised. with new forever glorified bodies. And imagine this, the person that we have committed to the ground, to the grave, in that casket, in that place, will one day be raised by the power of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then again, in 1 Thessalonians 4, we read about those who are living. This could be us. It could be today. We who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And these are the words that describe the rapture in the Latin, rapere, in Greek, harpazo, in English, to be caught up, snatched away, to be with the Lord instantaneously. And we'll be with him then and forever. And this is Jesus' own promise. In John 14, he says this, In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For 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. And so we'll be snatched away by the Lord Jesus, and we'll be with him forever. And that's the return of the Lord Jesus at the rapture. Now, he may return today. In Titus 2 we read this, The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus. This is great advice for us today. People are wondering, what is the future of our nation? Will our nation get back to what it was in the past or what is ahead? And what influence can we have? What can we do to make our nation and our world a better place? Well, it tells us here. It says again, denying worldly desires, and there's a whole list of what those things could be. And then to live sensibly, to live righteously, that is doing what is right, that the will of God is the pattern, the template for our lives. and to live godly, to live to be like Christ in this present age, all the while looking for the return of the Lord Jesus. And so we're looking for the rapture. We're not looking for the antichrist, we're not looking for the tribulation, any of that. We're looking for the blessed hope, the return of Jesus Christ. And the promise of the rapture of the church is God's priceless promise to you and to me. This week in the news, they're reporting about some people who are losing a lot of money in the stock market. It's interesting how money comes and goes and it happens in a lot of ways. I think I told you about my transmission story. I went to the tax preparer, got a very nice refund after three hours of work. It was interesting. We were going over these taxes, and it was an unusual year for me, income-wise and otherwise. And the man's wife came in and said, how much longer will you be? And he said, well, Peter has a small income, but it's a complicated one. And so we got it all done. And as it turned out, I got a nice refund, $1,200. And I said, oh, this is nice. And in driving home, the car felt funny. It wouldn't shift right. And I was like, oh, I think I know what this is. And so I drove to the transmission place. They plugged it into the EKG or whatever they use on a transmission. They said, oh, it's about to die. I said, how much? $1,200. We'll see you in three days. And I was like, I never saw the $1,200. The check just went. Went from me to the transmission guy to buy new shoes for his kids and whatever else he had to do. And so that's how money just flies away, it's like that. And so you might be rich today and poor tomorrow, you never know. But one thing is true, we are wealthy with the promises of God. And the promise of the rapture is God's priceless promise to us. It gives a new perspective to every day. We're not waiting for the grim reaper. We're not madly working on the bucket list because time is running out, but we're looking for the return of the Lord Jesus. And it could be today. And it's a reminder to be looking, be ready and be holy as we await his return. And also as we stand at the graveside of someone we've known and loved, someone who loves the Lord, we know that they are with the Lord today and that that body will be raised in a new and glorified form. when Jesus returns. That's our hope. That's the great hope of the rapture. And then number two in our prophetic panorama is not an event, but it is a trend. It is a trend. And what we see in our time is a trend that includes deceivers and deceptions, spiritual deceivers and spiritual deceptions. And what you see here is that spiritual counterfeits really do create fear and panic. In fact, they can destabilize a person's Christian faith. Take a look at verse 2, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter, as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. And so the Thessalonians were very much affected by the message coming from these false teachers. In fact, what they were hearing was, you've missed the rapture. The persecutions you're going through now are the day of the Lord. It's the tribulation, and you've been left behind. And these people are shaken. They are rattled by what they have heard. And spiritual counterfeits use many methods. First of all, In verse 2, he says, don't be shaken or disturbed by a spirit, by a spirit. Now, in the days of the early church, the only Bible they had was the Old Testament. The New Testament was being written. 2 Thessalonians was a book of the Bible that was in the process of being written in the days of the early church. And so believers had to hear from the Lord with a message for that time. How did God do that? He had a plan for that. He had prophets that he placed in the churches, and they would speak during each worship service, and then the church would decide who had the message from God. They believed that the Holy Spirit inspired them and the messages they gave were God's word to them for that time. But what was happening was there were people who claimed to be inspired by the Spirit who were teaching a counterfeit message. And that's the thing about counterfeits. You know, when you have a counterfeit $20 bill or whatever it is, You don't realize it. It looks real. It kind of almost feels real. It's very real looking. And that's the idea of a counterfeit. It looks like the real thing, but it's worthless. And that's what counterfeit Bible teachers do. They teach, they don't invent something entirely new, but they take a Bible doctrine and they twist it just enough so that it becomes worthless to us. And then also, he said, another method is a message. And this is teaching that could be delivered in the church, in homes, various places where people gather to hear the word of God. And spiritual counterfeits use this method. They also, some of them, used a letter. Some of them posed as counterfeit apostles and would write counterfeit epistles. Someone asked the question, is an epistle the wife of an apostle? That's not true. An epistle is a letter. And it was, they had counterfeit epistles written by counterfeit apostles. And people would receive these thinking that they had missed the rapture, they were left behind. And so spiritual counterfeits are active today, using many methods to get their false messages out. And they distort Bible doctrine. Again, they don't invent something entirely new, but what they do is they twist an existing Bible doctrine. And so these counterfeits are talking about the day of the Lord and are saying, well, you're in it, which is, again, distorting what the Bible actually says. And so verse two, he says, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Now, the day of the Lord includes a number of events. It all begins at the rapture of the church. And the day of the Lord includes the tribulation. You can read about it in the book of Revelation, all kinds of judgments and catastrophes. brought on the world from God as a judgment, as a punishment for sin. And that's the Day of the Lord. Well, the Thessalonians were really suffering for their faith severely in a lot of ways. And someone said to them, you know what? You're in the Day of the Lord. You've missed the rapture and you've been left behind. Imagine that. Maybe you came home one day and nobody's home and you're thinking, what happened? They were all supposed to be here. Did I miss the rapture? Ever have that experience where you thought you missed the rapture? I've had that a time or two and I thought, wait a minute, I should be with them. What's going on here? And imagine the shock that they would be experiencing. And so again, spiritual counterfeits address biblical subjects, but then they distort them in a way that what they're teaching is actually false. And Jesus predicted the coming of deceivers and deceptions. We read this in Matthew 7. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Remember Little Red Riding Hood? And Grandma was actually the wolf, all dressed up like Grandma. He tried to be a counterfeit grandma. And counterfeits, again, they look like sheep. They look and sound and act like believers. They might call themselves pastor or reverend or something. They look and act and sound like believers. But in fact, they are ravenous wolves. They want to collect unsuspecting believers and devour them with their false doctrines. The early church was challenged by counterfeits from the very beginning. In Galatians 1, Paul says this. I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel." A different gospel. They called it the gospel, but what the Galatians didn't realize was it was a different one. It was counterfeit. It was not real and it couldn't save. Colossians 2, Paul says this, see that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. And so the heresy at Colossae, which involved a large area in South Central, what would be Turkey today. affected a lot of churches, a lot of people in the Lankes Valley. And this particular heresy had all the rules and regulations of the Old Testament. It sounded biblical, but it left out the finished work of Christ. It left out the sufficiency of Christ as the one who saved us and takes care of our salvation completely. And then also in the book of Jude, verse four, Jude writes this, certain persons have crept in unnoticed who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. I believe that Jude was about to sit down and write his own version of the book of Romans. He wanted to talk about salvation, wanted to talk about the gospel, and the Lord changed his mind. And he realized, wait a minute, there are these counterfeits, there are these infiltrators getting into churches, and what are they doing? They're turning the grace of God into license. The idea is, they're saying, well, you're saved by grace, all your sins are forgiven, so live any way you want. And that's what was being taught, among other things. And Jude said, you know, I'm going to have to put off my version of the book of Romans. I'm going to have to write something and address this problem of people infiltrating churches. And so this was a problem from the very beginning. And it's something that continues today. And so an understanding of God's prophetic program helps us to understand the times. And today there are many who are hard at work trying to spread false gospels, false teachings. Well, how do we respond? Well, number one, be informed. And we need to understand the reality of spiritual deceivers and deceptions. They are out there and they are at work and we need to be aware of that. Ever buy something online and it was a little too small and a little too tight, and it wasn't made where you thought it was made, and you thought, you know, it has the brand on it, but I think it's a counterfeit. We had that happen to us. And again, we thought it was the real thing, but it was not quite right. And there are people spreading gospel messages that are that way, that appear to be true, but on examination, they're not the real thing. So be informed and also be a student. Test what you hear with an open Bible. The Bereans were experts in what we would call forensic Bible study. That is, they listened to what the teacher was saying, but they listened with an open Bible. And they said, where's the evidence? We want to see the evidence, and we will go where the evidence takes us, and that evidence is found. in the Word of God. So be a student. Be a Bible student. Look for the evidence for the things that are being taught. So Paul corrects the panicked and frightened Thessalonians. They've been convinced that they missed the rapture, they were in the day of the Lord, they were in the tribulation, and they had been left behind. And Paul says, wait a minute. If you were in the day of the Lord, you would be seeing two things. Take a look at verse three. There are two things that you would see if you miss the rapture and land in the day of the Lord. First of all, number one, let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come, that is the day of the Lord, unless the apostasy comes first. The apostasy comes first. And so there is an event that is part of the day of the Lord. In fact, as you study this, and it is A pretty interesting study to try to pinpoint the beginning point of the Day of the Lord, and it was interesting this week. In fact, I had a good chat with the man who was my mentor in seminary about this apostasy. Pretty interesting study, and there's two or three main points of view, and he said, Listen, I have a different point of view on this and I'll tell you what it was There's basically two or three one is the apostasy has to do with churches today Turning away from the Word of God and we see this we've seen it throughout history Where churches get away from the scriptures and start endorsing and teaching things that are not biblical we see that and that's apostasy it's departing from the truth we see that and then also Another concept of apostasy is the idea that the apostasy is the rapture, that it is the departure, not from doctrine, but the departure of the church from the world. And so my friend said, you know, you really need to think about that. He said, that's really the correct interpretation here. And I said, well, I think it's something different. I think it is an apostasy that takes place during the day of the Lord, when the man of sin, the Antichrist, starts his world religious system and the world blindly turns from God and follows him. And he said, well, you should give some thought to what I have to say. I said, well, I should. I've only had this view for three days and I'm open to discussion. So we're going to go over this. He sent me a really nice paper that he wrote. I'm going to be reading that and looking forward to learning something. So it's really, that's one of the things that happens when you go through the Bible, you constantly are running into things you've never really seen before, and this is one of those cases. So you have really three choices on this apostasy. You can say that, well, number one, it is the apostasy of the church, which certainly is happening today. Number two, it could be the departure of the church at the rapture, or what I believe now for five days, actually, since I started studying this, is that it could be the departure of people from God following the rapture, with the emergence of the Antichrist and his world religion. So we'll get back to you on what the totally correct version of this is. But there's different points of view. But the point is, unless you see this apostasy, then you're not in the tribulation. You're not in the day of the Lord. And so Paul says, that's number one. And then also, number two, in addition to this worldwide rebellion against God, the man of lawlessness is revealed. The man of lawlessness is revealed. And this is the Antichrist, and we'll see more about him. But unless you're seeing a situation where there is one man ruling the world and people are blindly following him, then you haven't missed the rapture, you're not in the day of the Lord, and you're not in the tribulation. So these are two signs that say, yes, you're in the tribulation, and two signs that we will miss, because we've been taken out of the world prior to the tribulation. And number three on our list is a person, third of the high peaks in our prophetic panorama of end-time events. This next high peak here is the Day of the Lord, the Day of the Lord. It is an event and it's an extended period of time. It's not an event for believers or for the church because it is an event for the world and for those who are left behind at the rapture because they've decided to say no to God and say no. to Jesus Christ. And the Bible describes the day of the Lord as an event to avoid at all costs. And number one, it is a time of wrath. It is a time of wrath. Read about this in many places, including Isaiah 13. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation, and he will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light, The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. And so it is a time of the wrath of God, and it'll be poured out on this world. Number two, the day of the Lord is a time that is rapidly approaching, rapidly approaching. Zephaniah 1 says, near is the great day of the Lord, near and coming very quickly. And then also it is a time that will be unexpected by the people who will be in it. We read this in 1 Thessalonians 5, you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. And again, unexpected, something unanticipated by people. And that's how the Day of the Lord will emerge. It's also a time of no escape. Many people are concerned about disasters and what might be coming, and they're looking for ways to protect themselves, places they can escape to, places they can hide and be protected. There is no place of escape in the Day of the Lord. We read this in Revelation 6. than the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the commanders, and the rich, and the strong. And every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains." And so here you have people of every class, from the king down to the slave, all in danger from the events of the day of the Lord, all of them fearful of what's going to come. And so they hide in caves among the rocks. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of the wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" It's an inescapable day. There's no place to hide during the time of the day of the Lord. And also it is a time for the world. Now the church won't be on earth for the day of the Lord. The rapture is going to remove the church from the world. We read this in 1 Thessalonians 5, God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so wrath is not in God's plan for us. The Lord Jesus took the wrath of God for us on the cross. And so we don't have to anticipate the wrath of God. We won't be here. for the day of the Lord. Jesus said this in Revelation 3, Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, the hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. These are the earth dwellers, and these are people who think of this world as all there is. Someone said it this way, you know, grab all you can and can all you get. Just grab all you can, live for today because this is all there is. That's the earth dweller. Someone who has no place for God in his life or her life at all. And so those are the ones who will be here, who will be left behind when the church is snatched away. And those are the ones who will endure the wrath of the day of the Lord. And so the book of Revelation pictures where the church is going to be before the day of the Lord is launched. You see this in Revelation 4. Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and one sitting on the throne. And he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance. And around the throne were twenty-four thrones. And upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, golden crowns on their heads. So between their titles and their crowns and their gowns, you begin to realize this is a picture of the church standing around the throne of Jesus Christ in heaven. And there we are. And the day of the Lord doesn't begin until you get to chapter 6. with the breaking of the seven seals. And so the church is safely in heaven before the day of the Lord is ever unleashed. It is a time for the world, time for those who are left behind because they did not believe in Jesus Christ. So the Day of the Lord is the greatest disaster of all time. It is future. It is guaranteed to take place. It will not be local, regional, or even national. It will be worldwide. And the Day of the Lord has the potential to affect every person living on the world today. Every person who does not know the Lord Jesus may find himself or herself in the Day of the Lord should Jesus return today. The Lord has sent you and me to tell people how to be saved. We're the ones who know that the tsunami is coming, so to speak. And we are the only ones that God has appointed to bring that news to people who need to hear. And people need to hear how to be saved, that the day of the Lord is coming, and now is the time to be saved. And then number four. There is an event in our prophetic panorama, number four, and this event follows the departure of the church from the world. It is a worldwide rebellion against God. Again, verse three, the apostasy, the apostasy. Now with the church gone, there will still be churches. There'll be churches filled with unsaved people. You know, a typical church probably has within it a certain number of people who don't know the Lord. I remember hearing a story of a guest speaker, an evangelist, who came to a church and he was standing in the pulpit and he pointed to a distinguished looking man in the front row and he said, you must be born again. And the man looked really unhappy and he said, I'm the pastor of this church. And he said, don't let that stand in your way. And throughout the years, people have written about the importance of a converted ministry, the idea of having people in ministry who actually are saved. And so it's very possible that certainly attendance will drop dramatically in a lot of churches, but you could have places where there are unsaved people going to churches on Sunday. And so the idea is that these churches that remain will be filled with people who don't have the Spirit of God, don't have an understanding of scripture, and very quickly depart from the truth and begin to follow the Antichrist in his rebellion against God. And he will start a new world religion that people will blindly follow. And so the rapture is not going to bring the unsaved world to trust in Christ. Now there's going to be a lot of gospel preaching during the tribulation, and many people will come to the Lord during that time, but the rapture itself is going to trigger a rebellion against God, a departure from the truth. And then we have the Antichrist. Number five, the Antichrist. Verse three, he's called the man of lawlessness, the man of lawlessness. And the Antichrist is one who is the coming world ruler, and he's one who rejects all forms of law. I heard someone in an important position say recently, we are the law. And I thought, wow, that's what will be said. The Antichrist will say, I don't care about the laws of man. I don't care about the laws of God. He'll say that he's the law. And he makes the law. And so again, he's the man of lawlessness. And he'll be a world ruler. However, he's doomed even before his reign begins. Verse 3, he's called the man of lawlessness and also the son of destruction. And in his name we see his doom. And he'll be judged and forever punished for his rebellion against God. And his career is predicted here. The first thing you see about the Antichrist is that he will be in the world and will be unknown for a period of time. He'll be hidden and then he will be revealed. He'll be hidden and then revealed. Look at verse 3. It says, the man of lawlessness is revealed. And that is he'll be unveiled, if you will. And you think about, remember one year I built a table for my parents and I was not much for wrapping paper. So I took a bed sheet and I covered it up with the sheet for Christmas. And I said, here's your Christmas present. And off came the, it was unveiled. And they liked it. They thought the wrapping was a little strange, but they liked it. And the Antichrist will be unveiled. He'll be hidden in a sense that he'll be in the world. He'll be around, but people won't know who he is. He'll be unveiled. He'll be on earth, but unknown to the world. And then he'll be revealed. And he'll be a self-appointed leader, a self-appointed ruler. Verse four. who opposes and exalts himself. And he'll reject every man-made God, it says, above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. And so this is one who is self-appointed as ruler of the world and self-appointed as what he claims to be God. He's going to replace God and say that he is the God that people are to worship. And it says he'll take his seat in the temple. And you think, wait a minute, where is the temple? There is no temple. There's no temple in Jerusalem today for the Jewish people. In fact, in its location are other structures, and there's just, there seems humanly, no way that you could put a temple on the Temple Mount. And yet there has to be a temple in Jerusalem when the Antichrist begins his reign. Well, it's interesting today that there's a lot of preparations being made. Priests have been identified. The articles and items to go into the temple have been fabricated. Everything's been made. And there's a whole movement to rebuild the temple when the time is right. There is even a theory that there might be an alternate location for the temple that Israel does control. And it's some distance south in a location on a hill called the Old City of David. And that's controlled by Israel. And it is quite possible that that could be the actual location of the temple in the days of Solomon. We don't know for sure, but investigations are ongoing. And so really, when you think about Israel, Israel is God's prophetic clock. What time is it on that prophetic clock? It's one minute to midnight. When the rapture takes place, shortly after that, the Antichrist will be unveiled, and he'll reveal himself as a world ruler, and eventually he will proclaim, he'll be self-appointed, and he'll say that he is God, and people are to worship him. So keep an eye on Israel. It is God's prophetic clock. The events there will tell us where we are, and the clock is saying it's one minute to midnight. Jesus could return at any time, and today might be the day. And then also we have the mystery. Again, not a person or event, but a trend we see in our day. And one of the advantages of having an understanding of Bible prophecy is it helps us understand current trends. Take a look at verse 7. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. And this is a lawlessness that was concealed in the days of the Old Testament, but now has been revealed in the New Testament and in our time. And certainly, especially in the last year, we've seen lawlessness as we've never seen it before. people breaking laws of all kinds with impunity and wanting to do more and we're seeing lawlessness all throughout our world and even in our own country and it is distressing but the lawlessness of our day shouldn't cause us to to panic and the reason for this is that there is someone called the restrainer the Holy Spirit and he is restraining this lawlessness until the time that the church is removed from the world. And so verse seven, 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 so he is restraining lawlessness. He is restraining all of these things. And so again, we don't need to be overly panicked by the presence of lawlessness in our world. It tells us again, it's a sign of the times that again, the Lord Jesus is coming in that day could be today. And then we have the restrainer, and this person in our prophetic panorama, no ordinary person, this is the person of the Holy Spirit, restraining lawlessness in our time, but also restraining the Antichrist. You see, again, the Antichrist will be in the world, he'll be around, but he will be unknown and also unable to do anything until it is his time, the time appointed by God. Again, verse 6. We know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. And so there is a time on God's program when the Antichrist will be unveiled. Until that time, he may be in the world today. If the Lord Jesus could return today, the Antichrist is here. But again, who is he? We can't know. And there's always been candidates for Antichrist going back as far as I'm aware of. People have been saying, this man is the Antichrist, that man is the Antichrist. And so far, those predictions, of course, were not true, because it's something we can't know. He's concealed from us. He's unable to be identified until God says it is time. And then at that precise time in God's program, the Antichrist will be unveiled, and then he will begin his reign of terror. And that'll happen at the time that God chooses. So he may be in the world. He's the devil's man, but he's also under God's control. The time of his unveiling is set by God and his ultimate destiny. And every time you read about the Antichrist, you also read about his doom. He doesn't come across as somebody who's going to succeed for very long. In fact, his name, again, the Son of Destruction, he's somebody who doesn't have a bright future. And yet, he's under the control of God, he's Satan's counterfeit Messiah, but God is in control of all of it. He'll determine the time that he's revealed, and he'll determine the time when Antichrist's reign will come to an end. And then again, we come back to the Antichrist, and we have a prophetic preview of his career. Again, verse 8. It says, the lawless one will be revealed, again, whenever he's mentioned, who the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth. And whenever we see him, his end is mentioned. He's a world ruler who will not succeed, but he'll be in a confrontation with the Lord Jesus and he will be done away with. His entire career only takes seven years. For three years, the world will think he's a tremendous, great leader. And for three years, he'll be a total nightmare. And at the end of that time, three and a half years, first half of the tribulation, three and a half, the second half, at the end of seven years, he's done away with by the Lord Jesus. But while he has his power, his power, which comes from Satan, will captivate the world. Verse nine, the one who's coming is in accordance with the activity of Satan. So he is energized by Satan. This is no ordinary man. He has some supernatural ability that's given to him by the devil himself. And he's going to captivate the fascination of the world with power, signs, and false wonders. So he'll deceive people with signs and false miracles, with things that appear to be done by God, but they're done by the power of the devil. Verse 10. with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, so as to be saved." And so again, like the devil who owns him, he will be a liar and filled with sin. And he'll have a vast following again. It says, those who perish, masses of godless people will loyally follow the Antichrist. And again, they reject the gospel. They did not have the love of the truth. They rejected the gospel, the good news of eternal life. and they become followers of the Antichrist. And because they're unwilling to believe, they become unable to believe. Verse 11, For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure wickedness. And so here's the classic case of one who starts out unwilling to believe and ends up unable to believe. And it's so important to remind people that today is the day to be saved. Tomorrow might be too late. Now is the time. And so we see that you'll have these masses of people blindly following the Antichrist during his reign. And so the Antichrist will begin his reign as the devil's world ruler at a time when God determines. And when the Lord Jesus returns, also at a time that God determines, the Antichrist will be sent to the lake of fire, never to return. There was a Christian radio station that was broadcasting the gospel through powerful transmitters, especially into countries where Christianity is restricted. And they were broadcasting these gospel messages in various types of programs, and all of a sudden another station, a very powerful station, came in trying to interfere with the broadcast. And they just repeated again and again, there is no God, there is no God. But what to do? Here's a station with a lot of expensive equipment, a lot of effort going into beaming these messages into places where people can't easily get the gospel. What are they going to do? Are they going to start an argument? Are they going to start telling people to stop listening to this voice? What are they going to do? Well, what they did was they prayed. And then they turned to scripture, and what they did is they broadcast repeatedly the words from Psalm 53, verse 1. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. Well, what happened? It took about a week, and the jammers stopped their broadcast. They stopped their interference, and the Christian broadcasts were resumed. And so, again, Satan and the powers of evil will have their day, but God will prevail. Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther penned these words, and we sing them from time to time. A mighty fortress is our God. And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him." And so simply put, the devil and the forces of evil will have their day in the coming day of the Lord, and even to an extent during our time, the church age. But in the end, we win because God wins. So again, 1 Thessalonians 2 verses 1 through 12 truly is a prophetic panorama. And this amazing picture is a picture of future events that we are involved in. What does it tell us? Number one, be a student. Paul is going over this material with people who are new Christians, and Bible prophecy is essential training for every believer. Be a student of Bible prophecy. It's important. It's not just the future, it's our future. Understand the times. You know, our prophetic panorama tells us what we can expect these days before Jesus returns and gives us a biblical perspective on a number of things on the proliferation of deceivers and Deceptions we see people walking the streets in our neighborhood trying to convince us to become members of this cult or that they're out there They're busy all the time. They're using all kinds of message systems to get to you They're out there and that tells us where we are in God's prophetic program and then also We should expect anticipation. We should be anticipating Jesus' return. It could be today. And then also we should expect and understand that there will be cultural deterioration. One of the marks of our time is lawlessness. And we are seeing it in shocking ways in our time. And it is shocking. It is discouraging. But it reminds us that that is what we're going to see right now. And it tells us that Jesus is coming again. And then also, we're in a time where the Holy Spirit is restraining lawlessness and restraining the Antichrist. So lawlessness can only go so far, and the Antichrist can't be revealed until the Church is taken out. And so understand the times, and also be confident. Jesus is coming again, which means the dead in Christ will be raised, and we'll be caught up to be with them in glory. We look forward to that day. and be a witness. You know, the greatest disaster in world history is coming. The Bible tells us it is rapidly, rapidly approaching. And we are here. In fact, we are the only ones that God has appointed to get that message out to people who need to hear that today is the day to be saved. that Jesus Christ is the way to eternal life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word for this amazing prophetic panorama. Thank you for this view of future events that involves us and involves the world. Father, help us to be faithful messengers, getting the warning out to people who will be left behind when Jesus returns that today is the day to be saved and help us to be living holy lives, looking forward to the blessed hope in Jesus name. Amen.