2 THESSALONIANS 2 (SECOND READING)
2 THESSALONIANS 2 (SECOND READING)
CAC The two mysteries are going on side by side, God’s mystery and Satan’s mystery. There is the church, the wonderful product of divine working where Christ is expressed, all the blessed qualities of the obedient One coming out in His body; and then just the perfect contrast, the mystery of lawlessness. Christ is being continued in the saints in this world in spite of the devil; “hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”.
There are two things restraining the development of the mystery of lawlessness: the Spirit in the saints, and divine [p. 299] government in the world. As long as divine government is maintained we could not have the lawless one. As long as the saints are here, indwelt by the Spirit, God will see to it that such conditions are maintained that they can remain in it. After the church has gone the powers, instead of being divinely supported, will be satanic. As long as the powers that be are ordained of God there is the outward restraint of government, and the lawless one is held in check. Then there is the restraint of the saints being here, for as long as Christ is here in His body, the man of sin cannot be revealed.
It is the most wonderful fact as to the condition of the world that the Holy Spirit is here; He is the Spirit of the obedient Man. Think of a company on earth, moved and controlled by the Spirit of the obedient Man! Such a company so holds the ground that the devil cannot bring his man in. Outwardly God makes no show but He is effectually holding the ground against Satan by preserving His saints here as His habitation in the Spirit.
Rem There will be a time when it can be said, “This is your hour and the power of darkness”, Luke 22: 53.
CAC That is an illustration of what we are speaking of. The Lord went on with His blessed works of grace and power and they could not touch Him; His hour was not yet come, but there came a moment when He had to say, “This is your hour”. Now evil is restrained, but there will come a time when Satan will bring his man forward and everyone will applaud.
Rem God will send them strong delusion that they may believe the lie, that is, that the man of sin calls himself God. You could not have a greater lie.
CAC It is as the Lord Jesus gets His right place with us that we are delivered from this hateful principle of lawlessness. The lawless one will be annulled when Christ comes; His very presence will wither up the man of sin,
[p. 300] and it is just as Christ comes into our hearts that the whole principle of lawlessness withers up. There is no other prescription for deliverance except to have Christ in our hearts.
It has been pointed out that the same words are used of the working of Satan as are used in Acts 2 of the working of God in Christ. “Power and wonders and signs”.
Rem Only falsehood is added in this chapter.
CAC You would connect that with what is said of the second beast in Revelation 13: “It had two horns like to a lamb, and spake as a dragon”. If you look at him there is a certain resemblance to Christ, but when you hear what he has to say it is a dragon’s voice. It is a striking correspondence to Christ that when antichrist comes on the scene he is marked by power and signs and wonders. The dragon has seven heads; that is Satan characterised by having diabolical wisdom in perfection as far as it can go. The dragon is that aspect of Satan in which he is always seeking to devour the man-child. You see it in Herod directly the man-child is born, and you see it in Revelation 12; he stands by to swallow up the man-child. The man-child is Christ, ready to rule the nations with a rod of iron.
Rem It is beautiful to see that when the lawless one is gone, there is a vast company found who are blameless.
CAC Yes. I do not know any book more comforting than Revelation; it has often been noticed that in times of martyrdom saints have turned to it for comfort. The comfort is to see how everything is under God’s hand, and everything is measured. Smyrna had ten days persecution, and not all the power of the devil could make it eleven. Everything has its limit. You find that judgments come on a fourth part of the earth or on a third part, and there are a fixed number of days and months. God holds it all in His hand and as soon as the limit is reached the history of that thing is finished. F.E.R. used to say, ‘God will have the last word’. God will finish with Christ. We all believe that He is the Alpha, but He is the Omega too. How simply God puts it! Christ is the Alpha and the Omega; God begins with Christ and He will finish with Christ too.
Rem The difficulty with those that perish seems that they did not receive the love of the truth (verse 10). People may give a mental assent to it without loving the Lord Jesus.
CAC Yes, the truth did not become precious to them. It is everything to have the affections set on Christ. You see the working of truth in the affections; it does not work in the head but in the heart, and if people do not have the working of truth they will have the working of error. “God sends to them a working of error”, that is the right reading in verse 11. Because they do not allow the working of truth, God sends to them a working of error.
Ques. Is that at present?
CAC The present time is the acceptable time of salvation. In principle if people turn away from the truth they become the playthings of the devil, but you cannot say that God is sending now a working of error. The coming of the lawless one is the working of error. At the present time God is presenting Christ, and all who receive Him get blessing. The working of truth is going on now; God is seeking to work the truth into the affections of poor sinners: He “desires that all men should be saved”. Satan is sending a working of error now, but God is sending a working of truth. Every time the gospel is preached God is working to put Christ in the hearts of men. If they refuse it, then the working of error will come. We must warn men that if they do not receive God’s Man today, they will receive Satan’s man tomorrow.
We sometimes urge young people to confess Christ; what I look for is that their hearts should be drawn to Christ. It is far more than what they say, to have their [p. 302] hearts drawn to Christ. You must get something in before it comes out.
It is rather striking that sanctification comes before belief of the truth. It is looked at here from the divine side; God is working by the Spirit in order that the truth may be believed. Sanctification by the Spirit is that certain souls are marked off for blessing, just like a woodman going through a forest marking the trees to be felled. So God is working by His Spirit, setting people apart from the world for blessing, and there would not be any belief of the truth if there was not this working of the Spirit first. You see a thousand people listening to the gospel and only two believe. How is it? Are these two more open to be divinely persuaded? Not a bit! God had worked, and had them ready to believe the truth. The nine hundred and ninety-eight said, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways!” Job 21: 14.
Ques What is “the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 14)?
CAC It is the great blessedness of the glory that God is calling His saints to. One could not imagine a wonderful glory that was not that of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the finish that is in view; what sort of glory is it? The glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, a risen, glorified Man in heaven. You have to take in all the glory of that blessed Person in heaven in order to understand what God has called you to. There are different spheres of glory but nothing so supreme and excellent as the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not sufficiently impressed by the astonishment of heaven. I think it has been filled with astonishment for almost two thousand years. All heaven has seen that glorious Man come up in all the power of resurrection, and take His seat on the throne of God. There is nothing like it in all eternity, and it is His glory we are called to!
‘[p. 303] Trembling we had hoped for mercy —
Some lone place within the door’.
What a difference, the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ! Just think of a Man on the throne of God!
Rem God has been misrepresented in this world.
CAC Yes, the atmosphere has been deeply affected by it. If Satan cannot give the lie to all God is, he will make God as small as possible. He is always working to diminish the thoughts we have of God, but if we look at that blessed glorified Man, what a thought it gives one of God! The glory of God and the glory of man go together in Christ. The glory of God is the light and blessedness in which we shall live eternally in a rapture of joy, and the glory of Christ is the holy acceptance in which we shall enjoy it.
Ques What is “called... to the... glory”?
CAC It is not what you are going to be, but what you are attracted by. He has set the glory before us, called us by it. It is like a mighty magnet by which God is drawing souls out of this world. The apostle may well say, “So then, brethren, stand firm”. We have something to stand for.
These last two verses come in very like the end of 1 Corinthians 15. That gives one the resurrection glory; that is the finish, and then the apostle says, “So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord”. In this chapter after the apostle has brought out the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ on the divine side, then he says, “So then, brethren, stand firm, and hold fast the instructions... But our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us, and given us eternal consolation and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts, and establish you in every good work and word”. This is a fine contrast to the way the devil was depressing them. He is always carrying on a campaign of depression among the saints; if he can get us [p. 304] to hang our heads he is satisfied. He was seeking to bring these Thessalonians under a cloud of depression; he was using the severity of the times to depress their hearts, but this is a wonderful tonic! “Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us, and given us eternal consolation and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts”. Nothing can interfere with that; there is to be no giving in, no depression! The apostle has to speak of bad and evil men in the next chapter, and also of brothers walking disorderly, which was worse, yet he was to have everlasting consolation through it all.