you Welcome back to Bible Time. We're in 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. This verse is shrouded in all kinds of question and doubt and speculation and we're just going to look at what the Bible says today. Our goal here is to tell you what the Bible says. Our goal is not to try and so much define what the Bible means as much as to say what it says. We believe that the Bible is a self-defining book, and that if we will look at what the Bible says and let God say what He says, then we seek to understand what God means by comparing what God says with what God says, and we come to an understanding of what God means. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that You would open our understanding today and help us to learn the truths that You'd have for us today, to embed them in our hearts, Father, to keep them, and that they would carry us through the dark and devious days that we live in. Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Our scripture here again, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way." It really isn't a very complicated verse, but it really does have a lot of potential complication in the meaning. Let's look at the context again, as we have every time we've opened the Bible for Bible time. The Word of God says here in 2 Thessalonians 2, "...let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." The church of Thessalonica was struggling with an attack that had been made upon them, threatening them, with a false idea that they had missed the return of Jesus Christ and that they were basically on their own. And they were very concerned that they had been left behind, that God had not taken them with Him. Now, the Apostle Paul sent them this letter to comfort them says let no man deceive you verse 2 he had said that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us is that the day of Christ is at hand and he goes on to tell this church don't you remember I told you all this stuff whenever I was there and he'd only been there two weeks we looked at all this in some previous lessons and if you need to review that or haven't gotten it maybe you're listening online go back and find those other lessons you can get the context much better and if you go through verse by verse in order as we have done it, and that's really how this study is designed, and it's actually not really designed. We're just going verse by verse through the Bible. What does the Bible say? We read the verse, we look at the context, we look at other verses, we bring the scriptures into comparison, and look at Bible against Bible, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, so that those who don't love God can fall and go backwards. and be snared and broken, which we'll let you look up the context of that because that's actually what the Bible says. Most people don't realize that, but... Moving on. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, he says. He had said in verse six, and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. He's saying now you know what's holding back. You know now what is yet to happen before that mystery of iniquity is revealed, or I'm sorry, before that man of sin is revealed, not the mystery of iniquity. that man of sin that he spoke of back in verse 3, the man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. So this great man of sin is yet to come, and the Apostle Paul assures the church of that, gives them some markers to show that he hasn't come yet, some very clear markers But then he makes this statement, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Now, the mystery of iniquity is what we're going to begin with looking at here. There's kind of three parts, the mystery of iniquity, he that letteth, and then he that letteth mean taken out of the way. Three aspects. We're just going to look at what the Bible says about these. Father, in Jesus' name, please open your word to us as I preach and help us to understand. We, without you, we can do nothing. In Jesus' name, amen. Mysteries are found throughout the Bible. A mystery is not necessarily only spiritual, as if it has no practical reality, but a mystery is rather just a fact A practical reality that is unexplained. I don't know if you follow that or not. A mystery is not necessarily a spiritual truth that is hidden from our eyes because we're physical beings, though that may be. But a mystery is merely a fact that is not readily discernible. Does that make sense today? So it could be a physical fact. It could be a practical application fact. It could be a spiritual fact, but it's a fact. And it's a reality. You think of the great mysteries of time and we were, I just saw a title to a book talking about the mysteries of ancient man. And what is it that makes ancient man a mystery? If you could go back in time and watch the men build the great pyramid of Giza, there would be no mystery as to how it was constructed or who constructed it. you would understand it perfectly and it really wasn't a mystery to the men at the Pyramid of Giza when they built the pyramid. They knew exactly what they were doing and why they were doing it and they had their plans and they had their program. Now it might have been a mystery to some of the slave boys and it might have been a mystery to some of the men's wives why they would even bother with such an undertaking that seems so impractical. But nevertheless, it was not a mystery when they were building it. Nowadays, our great learned minds go over and stare at this big stack of rocks built in the form of a triangle, half diamond shape rising up out of the sand and they scratch their heads and they rub their chins and they say, what a mystery. What is it that makes the Pyramid of Giza a mystery? What makes it a mystery is that we no longer have access to the records of how it was done and why it was done and who did it. That's what makes it a mystery. A lack of information is what makes a mystery a mystery. If you have all the information, it's no longer a mystery. There are mystery books out there and people will go and get a fictional mystery book and they will spend hours reading 300 pages that do nothing but build questions. A really good quote-unquote mystery book is going to build questions and pique your interest and rise your curiosity until you can't stand it anymore and you can't figure out what's going on. And people will sit there and buy these books that make them wonder. and ask questions and at the end of the book they tell you what the mystery is and people like my wife will open the book and they'll notice that it's causing tension and this rising desire to know the end so they'll just flip right past the 300 pages and get right to the end and read the answer to the whole book and somehow then still enjoy reading the book. Which is something that's beyond me. I don't understand that. If you're going to bother with a mystery book, then why would you want to ruin the whole book by revealing the mystery? A mystery is a mystery because you don't know what it is. Isn't that pretty simple? Now it is absolutely essential that you understand Bible mysteries are different from the mysteries that you normally find in the fiction line at the library or something like that, which I do not advise that you waste your time in. The Bible has mysteries that have a point. The Bible has mysteries that are real. The Bible has mysteries that are eternal the Bible has mysteries that will affect your life and the Bible mysteries are mysteries that are not unsolvable a lot of human mysteries are unsolvable because of the destruction or loss of artifacts or information but the mysteries of the Bible are Discoverable if not in this life in the next when we see him We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and we will know all things whereas now we know in part So as we struggle, as the Bible says, looking through a glass darkly, reading our Word of God, trying to understand things that our human minds can literally not comprehend, and piece together the workings of God, we come across doctrinal truth in the Word of God that is fact, But it is hidden from our understanding. You say, why in the world are you belaboring this point? Because just because something's a mystery doesn't mean that it is a fantasy and there's a difference between the two. Do you understand that today? A mystery is a mystery if it is tangible and real, but not understandable. And there are a lot of mysteries in the world today, even with basic scientific understanding that you're trying to find new ways to do things. People encounter mysteries every day when you're dealing with facts. I cannot stress enough that mystery does not mean fantasy. Mystery means this is a fact, this is reality, but it is hard to understand and you're not going to get it without special help. The Bible says that the book of Proverbs was written to understand the words of the wise and their dark sayings. Those dark sayings are mysteries, but they come from the wise. The wise would not say them if they were not real. The fools babble useless information. That's what most of the media is. That's what most of the stuff you see on TV or on the internet is. It's just useless, senseless, ignorant babbling. It has no effect, no power, no help for anybody, no good, and most of it's just bald-faced lies. So this here the mystery of the Word of God is factual it is the words of the wise it is dark sayings but it is truth that is as Certain as the earth standing here and more the truths of the Bible the mysteries of the Bible are deep truths that are hidden from the eyes of men we could talk about the mystery of the church, which in other ages was not made known. Ephesians talks about that. Colossians talks about, I believe, the mystery of Christ. And there's many, many references to mysteries in the Word of God. The Bible says in Matthew, in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 10, And the disciples came and said unto Jesus, unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. You will never understand any of God's mysteries unless God Gives you understanding of his mysteries in first Corinthians 125 God says because the foolishness of God is wiser than man and the weakness of God is Stronger than men and he says the reason God did this that no flesh should glory in his presence He can run over to Daniel chapter 2 I want to look at something there real quick as we're going there I want to also stress to you that it's okay to not have all the answers when you read your Bible And in fact, I'm really leery of anybody that does have all the answers because there are things in the Bible that God has not yet given full understanding of that I don't believe anybody's going to really know until God reveals it. Now if you think that that includes whether or not you're going to heaven when you die, you're defying the clear Word of God. John says these things were written that you might know that you have everlasting life. God says it's His will for you to know whether or not you have everlasting life. So I'm not trying to be kind of super spiritual and take away the Word of God from you and say that you can't understand it. What I am saying is that there are things in this book that no matter how much you do understand there are words that are sealed until their time and they're not going to be plain until their time. Jesus said that the day and the hour of his coming of his second coming knoweth no man and then he said a mystery not even himself but the Father. Total mystery and yet Jesus Christ is One with the Father, and these three are one. And Jesus said to Philip, if thou hast seen me, thou hast seen the Father. Not one in essence, not one in activity, not one in ideology, only one in everything, both spiritual and soulish and any degree of physical, they're one. Jesus is one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. That's another mystery in the Bible. And that's a sealed mystery. You want to try and tell me, oh, I can explain the Trinity. It's just like an egg. Well, that breaks down real fast. And pun intended, right? Just like an egg. You see, the shell is completely separate from the yolk and the white, even though it is part of the egg. And you say that explains the Trinity. But the thing is, the shell and the yolk are not in each other. And Jesus said, I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Now that's something that you just don't explain with a egg and a yolk and a shell and a white. There are things that are beyond our ability to comprehend. We can start to get some ideas and some comparisons of some of these mysteries. But at the end of the day, we're left scratching our head. And that's why it's called a mystery. You say, what's the big deal? What's your point? Just tell me the mystery. I'm telling you, I'm going a long way around to tell you I can't tell you all the answers to the mystery, and I'm telling you it's okay that I can't, and I'm probably just doing that to justify myself, right? So that you want to keep listening. No, that's not it. What I'm telling you is there are mysteries in the Bible that are mysteries, and they're mysteries because we don't understand them, and if we understood them, they wouldn't be mysteries. And so God put them in the Bible, He called them mysteries, and sometimes God reveals some of those mysteries as He did there in Matthew, and sometimes He doesn't reveal those mysteries. Go to Daniel chapter 2. What was the verse I needed there? That was, we were gonna look at verse 27. Here Daniel has been called to do the impossible, The king had a dream, he forgot the dream. He wants his soothsayers, magicians, and astrologers to not only interpret the dream, but to also remember the dream for him that he forgot. And they all, their heads are blown. And that is where a mystery comes in. And this great mystery was impossible to unravel. The king allowed Daniel time to fast and pray. The Bible says that God revealed the thing to Daniel in the visions of the night. And in verse 27, It says, Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king. But there is a God in heaven. that reveal his secrets and maketh known to the King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days." And he goes on and he tells him exactly what the dream was and then tells him the interpretation and thereby verifying and validating that it was God that had not only given that vision and dream, but that it was God who had given the interpretation. This would have been impossible to verify if it had not been for these obscene circumstances that the king imposed on these wise men, telling them to remember his dream for him that he could not remember. Absolutely outrageous. And the astrologers and magicians would have been outraged if they had any right to be outraged in that totalitarian dictatorship. Instead, they were just terrified because they knew they were dead. Nebuchadnezzar was gonna kill them because they could not remember the dream. And they were frustrated, they were terrified, they didn't know what to do. One man knew what to do. What did he do? He went and he fasted, he prayed, he talked to God, and God told him. And what does that tell you? God's ways are higher than our ways. God's mind is higher than our minds. Who can know the mind of the Lord, saith the Apostle Paul? Who can know the mind of the Lord? And then there's an amazing verse in the Bible, but we have the mind of Christ. How about that? And that's really the key. God's gonna have to show you. And when God shows you, he's gonna show you with the word of God, and it's gonna line up with the word of God, because the things that God doeth, they last forever, the Bible says. And God is unchanging. He never changes. His Word never changes. He's promised to preserve it forever. So if your idea or revelation from God doesn't line up with the Word of God, you need to go back to the drawing board. You missed it. Now, the answer, if you come up with an answer, You got mysteries, right? We're talking about mysteries this morning. And if you have a mystery in the Word of God, and you get up and your answer involves long drawn-out opinions and excerpts from different commentaries of other men who don't have the answers, but you act like you have an answer because you're telling everybody what everybody else thinks, then you're worse off than just saying, I don't know. You'd be a lot better saying, I don't know. You ought to just practice that sometimes by yourself when nobody can see you and your reputation isn't at stake. Just sometime in the bathroom, look in the mirror, and it'll be hard, but look in the mirror and look yourself right in the eye and say, I don't know. It'll do you real good to admit, I don't know. There are things we do not know in the Bible. The key to understanding the word of God is humility. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So we go to God and we go to God and we go to God and we go to God. Pride is more destructive than ignorance. Do you hear me today? Ignorance is not a sin. Pride is a sin. If you go to God ignorant and say, God, I need to know, you have a heavenly father that wants to teach you. And the apostle John said that the anointing which you had of God teaches you all things. And the Bible says you have the mind of Christ. Not that you have it available like a book on your shelf, but rather that it is available through the power of the Holy Spirit to access the very mind of Christ that is within you if you're born again. Holy Spirit of God and dwells a man upon salvation Jesus Christ moves in and Jesus said I am the father will make our abode in him right now this day through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ and his Reconciliatory work on the cross of Calvary. I have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. His death is burial is resurrection and The Holy Spirit of God moved into my heart, and Jesus and the Father moved into my heart, and God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are living in me right now, and I have the mind of Christ. I have access to it. That does not mean that everything I think is Christ's thought, does it? Obviously. Who would dare blame the Lord for every thought that they ever thought? That would be ludicrous. And yet, that's how we act. We act that just because we're saved, we're going to be know-it-alls now. The reality is that though you have access to the mind of Christ and the mind of Christ living within you, it takes a seeking of God and a soaking in the Word to Get that truth from Christ's mind within me to my mind within my head and make it something that I can grasp in a way that's useful and applicable. And I might have lost some of you there, but that's just the reality of it. We have the mind of Christ, but to access that mind of Christ is a whole nother matter. This mystery of iniquity, that we're dealing with here in Matthew 13, the mystery of iniquity that we're dealing with in 2 Thessalonians is different from the other mysteries in the Bible. The mystery in Matthew 13 was the mystery of the kingdom. Christ said unto you, it is given. And he expounded his parables. And today you can go and read Christ's explanation of his kingdom parables and the mysteries of the kingdom have been laid open to those who would desire them, but still somewhat shrouded because you must come to the word of God humbly to even grasp Christ's explanations. His explanations still leave me scratching my head regularly. Now this mystery of iniquity that we find is already at work. this mystery of iniquity. It is a mystery, number one. That's the first part, A, of our first point, the mystery of iniquity. It's a mystery. We covered that. Secondly, this mystery is a mystery of iniquity. This is the only mention in the whole Bible of this phrase, mystery of iniquity. This mystery of iniquity is a mystery and it is of iniquity. Now what is iniquity in the word of God? Now don't be mad at me today or get offended if I don't jump on your bandwagon or private interpretation or even revelation from the Holy Spirit of what you believe that this is. I don't have that. I'm just gonna preach what the Bible says today and I hope you'll go along, read along, follow along, and the Lord will teach you something today, even if you can't get anything from me and you say, that guy's ignorant, he doesn't know anything, I'm miles ahead of him. Just stick with the Bible and God will teach you something. Jeremiah 3, verse 13, God says to the Jews, only confess thine iniquity that thou has transgressed against the Lord thy God. In this particular case, the iniquity that God was calling on them to confess, their transgressions were that they had left God for the world. Iniquity is deeper than sin, but iniquity is always involving sin. Iniquity deals with the power of sin, the draw of sin, the desire for sin. It falls in with these other words like concupiscence in the Bible. Concupiscence is a love for sin itself. So, for example, someone might say, oh, I love that woman. Well, that's not your wife, sir, you can't have her. And he says, but I love her, I must have her. And then finally he leaves his wife, steals this other man's wife, runs off with her, and three months later he's saying, I love this other woman, and he doesn't love the woman he ran away from home for. What happened? He didn't really love that woman ever. What he loved was the sin, the thrill, the excitement, the chase, the stealing, the thievery, the distraction, the wickedness. Inner drawing power of sin is what iniquity is more dealing with. It's that drive of sin, the desire for sin, the bent for sin. If I understand how I've read it in my Bible, I encourage you to look it up. It takes almost a full page of a full size concordance and then some just to cover the word iniquity. It's all through the Bible. Iniquity deals with that inner heart condition. of sin and this is a mystery of iniquity. The Word of God says that the whole world lieth in darkness. Now why does the whole world lie in darkness? We were just talking last night amongst our family about old King Tut's tomb over in Egypt and how they found him lying in a sarcophagus and they had pulled his brains out and stuck them in a jar and they tried to pickle him and embalm him and do everything else they could do so that he could take his body with him We talked about how ancient cultures would bury alive the wives of kings and rulers so that they could take their wives and their slaves with them. What kind of sick mind thinks of that kind of stuff? See, and you can, every kind of sin is sick. Every kind of sin is sick, but somehow sin just keeps on prevailing. It keeps on advancing. You don't have to do anything for sin to gain the upper hand. It's constantly working behind the scenes. And this is what is being spoken of here in the Word of God, a mystery of iniquity, a non-understandable, inconceivable, incomprehensible, reality of the drawing power of sin. Now the culmination of this mystery of iniquity will be the Antichrist, so it does relate to end times, but I'm dealing with it exactly just how the Bible says it right now, because we need to understand what the Bible says. And then it'll help you understand how it applies to other things once you get that. This mystery of iniquity is already working right now. It already was present tense when Paul wrote this epistle under inspiration of the Holy Ghost to the Church of Christ at Thessalonica. This mystery of iniquity doth already work. So let's consider this today at face value. The devil said to Christ, all this power will I give thee in Luke 4 6. all this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me. Now we could get into how he got it and whether or not God delivered it to him, which God did not, but that's for another lesson for another day. But here the devil was offering Jesus Christ, all the power of all the kingdoms of all the world and all the glory of all the kingdoms. And he claimed, for it is delivered unto me. The Bible says, as we mentioned, the whole world lieth in darkness. Another place calls it this present evil world. So you have this wicked world that naturally, organically, intuitively pursues darkness with everything that is in them. You have a little park and you have families, a mom and a dad, a little boy, a little girl. They take their little doggie on a walk. They're sitting there enjoying the sun with a little blanket spread out and their little tuna fish sandwiches that they set aside a little extra money to make. Just normal people, not hurting anybody, not doing anything wrong, and all of a sudden a thug comes out from the bushes, demands the wallet from the husband, shoots him in the head, leaves him in a pool of blood in the middle of his blanket, all over the tuna sandwiches, the little kids are screaming, the dogs barking, the wife's weeping, and the man runs off into the darkness. Why? Why? What sick mind would do it? Why? I'm telling you today, the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Doth already work. Consider the mystery of abortion today. What greater blessing can a woman ever receive in this life than a physical child in her womb and yet women all over the world clamoring for the so-called right to butcher their own baby in the womb? What kind of a sick mind would do that? How could you live with yourself ever? How could you look at yourself in the mirror without breaking it and cutting your face with the shards if you had done such a sin? I'm serious today. You say that wouldn't help anything. No, it wouldn't, but I'm trying to tell you that sin is a monster! It's a monster. Yes, there's forgiveness in Christ, but the sin is abominable. It's wretched. It should make you scream in terror whenever you see such things even talked about as abortion, the murder of an innocent little baby. There's nothing hardly more freakish and wild and disgusting on the face of the earth. According to the word of God and the law of God, anyone committing abortions or allowing abortions is commensurate to murder and should be tried under the court and sentenced according to the word of God to death for murder. It is murder. And yet people not only do it, they justify it. They advertise it. They make laws to try and get it forced into areas and communities where it has been outlawed. Why? Because the mystery of iniquity does already work. It is a mystery. Listen to me. We can understand it's there. We can understand its results, but we cannot fathom the depths of this mystery. It's a mystery of iniquity, the drawing power of sin, that tingle, that drive, that desire that comes over a person and overwhelms them and turns them into a beast, a vile creature, a demonic, sadistic freak. The mystery of blasphemy that fights God who's freely given us all things by whom we exist, the one who gives us the very air we breathe and causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine. And yet man blasphemes God. What would induce a created being to raise his fist against the almighty creator? Except a mystery of iniquity, the mystery of hatred, that will literally destroy one's self just to spite the one that is hated. I remember the story of a young man who's riding down the road with his mother in a great argument with his mother. And in a heat of rage, he opened the door at 70 miles an hour and leapt from the vehicle, crushing his body on the asphalt just because he hated his mother. That's a mystery. If you say you understand that, I don't believe you. That is a mystery. Sin is a monster. That's why the Bible warns us against sin, and that's why you should stay away from sin, because you don't know how far sin will take you once it gets you in its grip, because there is a mystery of iniquity at work in the world today. consider the mystery of adultery. We already mentioned that one. Where a man will leave the wife he vowed to love forever, who he swooned over, who he bought gifts for, who he pursued and who he loved. And oftentimes, even to the perplexity of everybody around, a man will leave even a wealthy, beautiful, fit wife for some kind of ugly harlot. A mystery of iniquity. It goes beyond the scope of reason. the mystery of addictions, the mystery of greed. There is an unseen power at work today, moving throughout this world, alluring, deceiving, tempting, drawing, enticing, persuading, arguing, lying, a self-destructive, self-abasive, self-dishonoring, self-abhorring, twisted, sadistic, satanic mystery of iniquity. at work today. Jesus Christ said when they came to take him, this is your hour and the power of darkness. How sadistic would you have to be to take an innocent man who could heal the sick and the blind and the lepers, who never took a bribe, never did one dishonest thing. He would not respect persons. He would not turn away the poor, nor would he turn away the rich that came humbly. He treated men equally and gave to all freely and taught them the things of God with mercy and grace. And they wondered at the words that came out of his lips. And yet in that hour and power of darkness. hundreds of men gathered with torches and took the most beautiful person this world has ever seen. Though he was of no form or comeliness that we should be drawn to him physically, the most beautiful person this world has ever seen, the very son of God himself. And they took him and mocked him and spit upon him and smote him and finally crucified him. And when he rose from the dead, they lied about it and covered it up. How ignorant, how wicked, how stupid do you have to be? When you realize that the man that you killed just had angels roll back the stone, and the angels just sat on the stone and your soldiers fell over like dead men, and this man that you put to death came out as the very son of God out of the grave, and revealed himself alive so you're gonna pay to cover it up and then die and stand before that God who has just proven himself beyond all doubt to be the very son of God by the resurrection from the dead and yet you will fight against him and lie about him? What a mystery. Do you hear me today? It's a mystery. As surely as any other mystery in the word of God is a mystery, the mystery of iniquity is a mystery. Why anyone ever would sin is a mystery I Know we have our basic answers, but when you dive past the basic answers, it's a mystery. I Our second part of this text says, only he who now lateth will let. This word let has changed primary meaning in the last hundred years. You find it in Romans 13. If you go there, it will say, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. We read it with our modern twist of a passive permission being granted. Let every soul. Just go on and go along with them just because. Go along with the flow. Let every soul be subject. But that word is actually an authoritative command. In reality, there's nothing passive there. God is saying let every soul be subject. Restrain yourself and obey. Do what you're told. Again, in Romans 13, 13, he says, let us walk honestly as in the day. And ironically, in modern America, we read this again passively and permissively, like it's a good thing if you manage to walk honestly as in the day, but if you don't, that's okay too. It's just kind of passive and permissive. But the reality is that the word let is a commandment. The word let comes with restraint. The word let us walk honestly means do not allow the mystery of iniquity to work in your heart. Do not allow your sin, your rebellion, your wickedness, your sin to take over and control you. Let us walk honestly. And you might think I'm stretching that and then we can go to Romans chapter one. Paul says there, I purpose to come unto you, but was let hitherto. I wanted to come to you, but I was let hitherto. And if you go to Romans 15, 22, Paul gives us a synonymous use of the word let, and he uses the word hindered. He says, for which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you. So the word let is synonymous with the word hindered and strongly. The apostle Paul wanted to go to Rome. He attempted to go to Rome. He was hindered. He was stopped. His purpose was allayed and sidetracked because he was let. He could not get to Rome because he was lat. This is not a weak force or a passive permission, but a powerful intervention that physically altered the direction of the apostle. And now in our text, we have a powerful intervention that is going to physically alter the direction of this present evil world. Hallelujah. We have a powerful force at work in the world today. Only he who now leteth will let. This is a promise. This is a comfort. This is a wonder of God that though sin be so strong and the draw be so great, yet there is a greater power at work in the world today. Christian, this is your key to victory. This is your key to a victorious life. Not to live in the energy and the power of your flesh that can be easily manipulated by the mystery of iniquity, but rather to yield yourselves as servants unto God and to yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto holiness, the Bible says. So as you yield yourselves to God, and the Holy Spirit of God moves in and takes over. Now there's a more powerful force at work in your life and your heart than all the power of the mystery of iniquity. This is hallelujah ground. This is the place where I stop and give thanks and praise to my Lord and my God. I know all too well the power of the mystery of iniquity in various little areas of my little life. And I know that I'm no match for the seducing spirits of this world and for the wickedness of that wicked one and for that spirit of Antichrist and for the influences of an ungodly world system that will draw and drag and coerce and force a man into sin, but I know from the Word of God that there's something stronger, there's something greater, there's something more powerful in the world today, and it is He who will let. Now in the individual life of a Christian, this is the Holy Spirit of God, this is Jesus Christ living and indwelling the believer, this is God the Father taking up residence in the heart of a man. Hallelujah. This powerful force of God in the man is a miracle that makes a slave to sin free from his sin. This is what allows a man to live without sin in this present evil world. This is a power that restrains The evil that is inerrant inside our bodies, unchanging, unridable, unmovable, drives to sin, but they can be restrained, they can be hindered, they can be let by the Holy Spirit of God. Now, right now in the world, this power is at work. Jesus said, in the world, you shall have tribulation. but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. In the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Jesus Christ is the overcomer. This is why the Bible says, you are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. Paraphrase, I didn't look that verse up and refresh it. Probably quoted it wrong. But the concept of being more than conquerors in the word of God is possible because we have a more powerful force at work on our behalf than the world does. This one who lets is the great point of hatred and bone of contention for the world and its systems. Christ has overcome the world and try as it may, the mystery of iniquity cannot come to fruition. It is stopped over and over and over and over again by Christ. It has stopped time and again. I was just thinking about this bill, this amendment. They tried to shove down the throat to the people of Missouri. And at the moment, the amendment has a stay. They put through a law, they bypassed the bulk of our legislative system and put through a law to try and bring all manner of sin into Missouri under constitutional protection. And God has stepped in the gap, answering the prayers of his church. Now the world, They don't see God. So understand this today. The world is under the influence of the mystery of iniquity. The world is being drawn to spend millions of dollars trying to infect a state with their sin. They're not happy enough to sin in California. They've got to spend all their money trying to get Missouri to sin. That's insanity. That is the mystery of iniquity. And they're under this drive, this sadistic drive to inculcate their filth into our lives. And God put up a hand and said, stop. And we need to thank him. And we need to continue praying because we have on our side one who can stop them. And we know who it is. Now, the irritating thing to the world is they look at the church and they see a weak mass and they see a bunch of weak, normal people and they see people with propensity to sin. And then all of a sudden their plans get blown up again. and their plans get blown up again, and their plans get blown up again, and they know that the church is fractured and divided, and the church doesn't act like it says, and the church is full of hypocrites, and they know there's all kinds of problems all over the place with Christianity so-called, and they despise and reproach and revile Christianity. They don't really think much of it, but somehow, time after time after time, God stops the Hitlers, God stops the Mussolinis, God stops the Lenins, eventually He stops He stops them, not always on our timetable. He stops them, and he stops them, and he stops them. So what does the world do? The world turns its fury and its rage against the church. And it comes against Christianity, especially true Christianity, with a rage and a vehemence and seeks to destroy the church. Century after century, millennia after millennia, but what happens? He who now letteth, lets. and there they are stopped again. Just when they thought they had them again, they get stopped again. And God will continue. Now if God allows in his infinite wisdom that wicked amendment three to go through in Missouri, he will judge the perpetrators and he'll judge those who are commensurate and he'll judge because he's the just judge and he'll take care of us through it. And remember, he who now letteth will let. But boy, is it a comfort when you see him letting. When you see the hand of God stopping the wickedness and the violence and the sin, you say, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. I need that in my life. I thank God for times that he has let me. whenever I was going to sin and he stopped me. There's other times he let me sin in the modern sense and let me see how weak and wicked I was and I had to go crawling back begging for mercy and forgiveness back to the throne of grace and thank God he didn't kick me or stone me when I got back. He accepted me just like he said he would. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But I thank God for the power to stop sin that he has. Look at this final phrase here in our text, the third phrase. It says, the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let, and the third phrase, until he be taken out of the way. We're almost done here. We're going to end probably early today. But this last thought I want you to think about for just a moment is probably the most sober of the three phrases, until he be taken out of the way. People say that this, he who now letteth will let, they say different things about who that is. They say things like that might be the Holy Ghost or et cetera, et cetera. And I can't honestly say absolutely dogmatically that I can prove to you that that is the Holy Ghost. But I know one thing, it is Christ and His Spirit. And God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are one. And there's going to come a day whenever he who now letteth is taken out of the way. I want you to think about that for a minute. We talked a little bit today about the drawing power of sin. You don't get to choose how you sin. You just get to choose whether or not you yield to sin. You say, oh, I do the sin that feels good to me, but let me ask you, why does that sin feel good to you? It feels good to you because of the mystery of iniquity. It feels good to you because the devil opened up your file somewhere along the way, or one of his devils, and they said, let's take this guy down with this one. And they present the sin to you in a way that attracts your flesh and with a power that you don't understand. Why would anybody take a needle full of crystal meth and stick it in their arm and shoot their body full of chemicals that are going to kill them? Because they say it feels good to them, but it's going to kill them. Why does it feel good to them? Because of the mystery of iniquity. Do you understand what I'm saying today? People do what feels good, but why does what feels good feel good? Why does it feel good Why does it feel good to sin? Why does it feel good to butcher your body? Why does it feel good to get slobbering drunk and have hangovers and the sores and wounds of drunkenness? Why does it feel good to have broken homes? Why does it feel good to sin? It feels good to sin because of the sin, the mystery of iniquity. and the mystery of iniquity is going to culminate someday in the revelation of the man of sin. That next verse says that when he that now let us shall let, that doth let, we shall be taken away. The next verse says, then shall that wicked be revealed. The culmination of the work of the mystery of iniquity is the rise of the Antichrist. Why will people follow the Antichrist? Listen, I don't know if I'm communicating this at all. Lord, Holy Spirit of God, please communicate this to somebody that needs it. Why will anybody follow the Antichrist? Because it feels like they should. Why will it feel like they should? Because of the mystery of iniquity. If you think you can handle that mystery of iniquity, you're a fool, just a plain raving fool. You don't know what you will do if the Holy Spirit of God lets you go to do it. Do you hear me today? Half of you went on a doctrinal mess right there and got all bent out of shape at me. Let's stick to the context of what I'm talking about, please. I'm not going to chase all the rabbits that that could have brought up in your minds. If the Holy Spirit lets you sin, you don't have any control over how deep you will go and how fast you will go there. Do you hear me today? If any Christian is still standing and able to go to church on Sunday and not be run out on a rail and tarred and feathered, it's because the Holy Spirit of God has restrained them from gross and filthy sin. That's the only reason. The only reason you can still go to the store and buy food without getting raped and mugged in some places in the world is because God has restrained the wickedness. I can't communicate this. It's impossible. Lord, help me. I hope you're getting this. I hope you're seeing the absolute helplessness of the human race, and the absolute hopefulness of Christ, and the absolute destruction that's going to come without him. What are you today? Are you saved or lost? Who's your master? Who are you serving? Because let me tell you something, someday he who now letteth will, and that doth let, is going to be taken out of the way. And when he is taken out of the way, when that force that is more powerful than the force that can make a man jump off of a building and kill himself, when that force that is more powerful than the force that makes a woman butcher her own baby when that force that is withholding and restraining the wickedness of this world is removed from this world. I don't care what your eschatology is when that force is removed. If you're not with that power that goes away, you will fall. You better know who you're serving. And you better make peace with God while you still can. Because when God stops your straining, there's no depth that you won't sink to. Or I, sin is a monster. It's a mystery. The mystery of iniquity doth already work. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that you take this message and that you would use it to provoke people to think. To think and to thank you for restraining them from diving into depths of sin they don't even comprehend or can imagine. Lord, we look at these people dancing around, parading their filthy sin, and we stand in shock and horror, but Lord, every one of us is capable of that if you take your hand off of us. And so I thank you now, Father, for the restraint that you've put on my life, that you didn't have to put on my life. As bad as I've been and as sorry as I've been, Lord, you've restrained me from the depths of sin that I could have sunk to. And I want to thank you for that right now. And I want to live my life for you. And I want you to keep me from falling. I pray, Lord, that you'd put that desire in our hearts and put a fear of sin in our hearts, not a fear, a slavish fear, Father. ignorant fear of sin, but a fear of sinning against God because of a fear of God. Help us, Lord, not to play with sin. Help us to be holy. Restrain us from wickedness and evil. Lord, you said in your word that we were to pray, Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And this I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. you