Spirit of Lawlessness

Lawlessness, anarchy in America, was it foretold in the Bible? For the answer to that question, stay tuned. Here's Brian C. Thomas for today's message. Greetings in the name of our wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My name is Brian C. Thomas. I am so honored and delighted that you are joining me today on God First. We're going to look at the topic, the spirit of lawlessness. When the disciples came to Jesus Christ as his earthly ministry was coming to an end, they asked him the question. They said, tell us what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And Jesus gave them a very thorough answer.

He gave them a series of answers. He said things to look for as the sign of my coming and the end of the age. He said that would be earthquakes in various places. He said there would be pestilences. He said there will be false Christs. And then he said there would be nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And we often see that verse and we think about nations such as the United States of America against Iraq or maybe China versus Venezuela.

But when we look at the Greek, we actually see that it is ethnos against ethnos, meaning ethnicity against ethnicity. Jesus said that would be one of the things to look for as a sign of his coming, as a sign of the end of the age. And then our Lord also said that the time would also be marked by love growing cold. The love of many would grow cold.

And he gave the account in Matthew chapter 24, verse 12. He said, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Well, you don't have to look far to see the love of many growing cold here in the United States of America. We see racial tensions that are just continuing to rise and continuing to escalate. And as I look around the climate, I see the fact that lawlessness is in place. The spirit of lawlessness, because we're at a time in which people are upset with the police.

We're at a time in which blacks are accusing whites of racism. We're at a time in which people are defying orders of the police simply because they feel that there is an unjust inequality. And so we see lawlessness.

The rulers are saying you must be in by a certain time by being by the curfew. And people are choosing to ignore it. We see looting. We see rioting in the streets.

Businesses are being destroyed, burned down that had nothing to do with the controversy that is at hand. And so we see that spirit of lawlessness in the Bible says that that is a time in which the love of many would grow cold. And we certainly see that happening today. The love of many is growing cold because of the racial tensions that are taking place in our nation. And we've seen another sign that shows the love of many growing cold as you look at relationships, marriages, divorces continue to rise. These are people that at one time they love one another enough to lie down and have sexual relations, but then they end up getting married. But then they end up in divorce.

They end up hating one another oftentimes. And Jesus said that in the days leading to his return, the love of many would grow cold. He said that would be one of the many signs to look for. And so we certainly see that taking place in our society.

We certainly see that taking place in our nation. And one of the things that I want the church to do is to wake up to see that these things are signs that our Lord said to look for, to see the connection between what is taking place in the world and what our Lord said would mark the second coming, would mark his return. And my question to you today is, will you be ready?

Are you ready for the return of Jesus Christ? Do you recognize the signs that he said would be the things to look for concerning his return? He said the love of many would grow cold. And we certainly see as incidents happens and tensions rise and people are getting upset. We see the love of many growing cold. We see that spirit of lawlessness that is sweeping the planet, that is sweeping our nation and is sweeping across the entire planet as one of the things that our Lord said would be a sign of his coming.

Do you recognize the signs? Do you see the spirit of lawlessness? And there are many people that are uptight. There are many people that are concerned.

There are many people that are worried about anarchy in the streets and what is going to happen to our nation. But I want to tell you that God is calling us to repentance. God is calling us to repent. He's bringing judgment upon us for all the babies, the millions of babies that we have aborted in the womb. He's calling us to repentance for not supporting the nation of Israel in the way that we should in trying to push legislation that says divide his holy land. He's calling us to repentance for our immorality, for the way that we push pornography around the world. I'm calling on you today to repent for the spirit of lawlessness is at hand and is going to increase as we get closer and closer to our Lord's second coming.

God is love and the love of many is growing cold because God is not in the heart. And that is why we need to accept our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I'm calling on the church to be that shining light today because the Bible says that a time of great apostasy would come. That would also be a sign of our lower second coming, a time in which the church would fall away from the faith. And we find that account in Second Thessalonians chapter two, verses seven through 12, where our Lord says here, the Bible tells us for 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 then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned, who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Well, I tell you, that is a mouthful. And there are so many things there that the Bible tells us to look to that we see taking place in our society today. We see taking place in the church today because there are many in the church who are embracing unrighteousness. And it says the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But there is a restraining force.

That restraining force is the Holy Spirit and that restraining force, the Holy Spirit keeps the evil spirit of lawlessness from spreading. But so fast, it's sort of like if you're driving a car into a commercial parking lot and you'll see what we call speed bumps and you drive a certain speed and you're trying to pick up speed, but then you have to slow down because there's a speed bump. So you have to slow down in order to get over that speed bump without damaging your vehicle. And so then you go over it and you pick up speed again and there's another speed bump, but you have to slow down again. So you can't pick up so much speed.

You can't get up to 70 miles per hour because there are the speed bumps. The Holy Spirit is working likewise in our world today. Evil wants to run free, free will, free without any hindrance over the earth. But because of us Christians that have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, that's that evil spirit has to slow down whenever it runs into one of us. But a restraining force, that restraining force that we know is the Holy Spirit, the day is going to come in which the Bible says that there will be a shout from heaven, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God, and then our Lord Jesus Christ is going to descend into the clouds. And then the Bible says that the dead in Christ, that means those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but have passed away. The Bible says their bodies will rise from the dead. They will rise and they will be reunited with their soul and spirit that is coming out of heaven. And then the Bible says that those of us who are alive and remain, who have put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we will be called up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.

And thus we shall always be with our Lord. That is what we call the pre tribulation rapture of the church. When that comes, if you think of this chaotic in the society today, when that day happens, it is going to be evil unleashed upon the world that we have never seen before. When that time comes, the spirit of lawlessness, all the evil spirits will be able to run unhindered throughout the earth. If you think that looting and violence is bad right now, that day is going to have a time in which the earth has never seen or ever will see.

And the Bible calls it the time of Jacob's trouble. And Jesus Christ said it will be the worst time that the earth has ever seen. I encourage you today to give your heart to Jesus Christ.

I'm encouraging you today. I'm urging you today, if you have not yet accepted him, to accept him because a time is coming like the world has never seen. And then if we look here at this text, it says the coming of the lawless one with working of Satan with the power, according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs and lying wonders. Satan is going to come and he's going to bring a great deception.

He's going to show signs and wonders, and many people will be deceived. And then the Bible says that the unrighteous deception will be among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth. We see today people don't love the truth. People are willing to run with a lie, a speculation, things that are unfounded. We see taking place in our nation today things that people are making assumptions that there is a racial problem or that acts by the police are motivated by racism. And therefore, people just take it and run with it, even if it's unproven, even if it's unfounded.

And so you see the spirit is there. The condition is there to which people will believe the lie. And the ultimate lie that is coming is the lie of the Antichrist in which he will say that he is God and that all must worship him. And many will believe that lie. Many will go along with that lie. And the Bible says that because so many today are consumed with their wickedness or refusing to repent, that God will send strong delusion that they will believe the lie, that they will come when which, because they did not believe the truth, they had pleasure in unrighteousness.

And so they will believe the lie and that will seal them to eternal damnation. I'm urging you today to understand, see the signs that we are living in. Understand if you think it's bad now, just wait until the rapture comes.

If you think that what we see in society now is a tough thing to swallow when the rapture takes place, we are going to see unhindered evil all across our planet. Now is the time to get right with Jesus Christ, because our Lord said, woe to hypocrisy. He warned against it in Matthew Chapter 23, verse 28. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Jesus was speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees who went to the synagogues.

They act like they were so holy and so righteous. But Jesus said you are full of hypocrisy because you don't care about man's hearts. And so I want to tell you today as a warning for those of you who are just going through the motions of church, for those of you who are going through the motions of religion, the Bible warns about hypocrisy. Are you today living by way of lawlessness or are you truly living by the righteousness of Jesus Christ?

Are you a lover of the truth or are you embracing the lie? You know, as I think about lawlessness, we see it on so many levels. And I think about the fact that when I'm out driving in my car and I see people just blowing by me at a high rate of speed, I'm trying to follow the law. I'm trying to obey the speed limit.

And I see people just zooming by just one after the other, one after the other. And I think to myself how bad it is that people cannot follow something as simple as the speed limit. And then I've even heard pastors stand in church and make fun of those who follow the speed limit. I've heard pastors stand up in church and joke about speeding.

I've even heard a pastor once speak to children and he was speaking about speeding and he told the children not to speed. But the reason he gave, he said, was so that you do not get caught by the police. But you see, the real reason why we should not speed is not because of getting caught by the police, but it's for our own safety. It's for our own protection.

You see, the laws are put in place for our own good. The engineers who designed the roads know that the safe speed is 70 miles per hour. But yet we find people constantly every day that say, no, I can run at 80 miles per hour. I can run at 85 miles per hour because they think they're smarter than the engineer. And what they're not thinking about is what happens if you have a blowout?

Because you see, the engineers understand that controlling a car at 70 miles per hour when you have a blowout is much easier than at 80 or at 85 miles per hour. But we go out there and we speed and we we break the law and we think that is funny. We think it's something to joke about. We think it's something to ridicule those who want to obey the speed limit. But then what happens when you have an accident and someone gets killed?

It's not funny anymore. But that is what Satan does. Satan deceives us into thinking that things are not a big deal. Satan causes us to want to go against laws. He goes against law and order because he is the father of lies.

He goes against law and order because he is a deceiver and the truth is not in him. So I want to encourage you, lead by example as Christians. We should be ones that are following the law. We should not be out there breaking the speed limit.

And I know you may say, oh, you're being legalistic. What's the big deal? Well, again, when someone has a fatal accident, it is a very big deal. Don't tell anyone who's ever lost someone in a car crash that was a result of excessive speed.

Don't tell them that it's not a big deal. We should be of order. But the spirit of lawlessness is coming upon the world. We need to repent because Jesus says that there will come a time in which he's going to say, I never knew you.

In Matthew Chapter seven, verse twenty three. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Our Lord is speaking and he says there is a day coming in which people are going to say, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not do all of these great things in your name? And Jesus is going to say, depart from me.

I never knew you. You who practice lawlessness. We're talking about people who are going to church every Sunday.

We're talking about people who are singing in the choir, people who are ushering, people who are trustees, even people who are in the pulpits preaching. They're doing great things. They're doing things, even casting out demons. But Jesus is going to say, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. We keep seeing this word lawlessness. Our Lord is a God of law and order. That is why God gave commands and he gave commands for our own good. But there are so many today that choose to go by their own will. There are so many today that want to live in a way in which the people of the Old Testament, in which the nation of Israel and the Bible says that everyone did right, everyone did what he saw was right in his own eyes. People are trying to live according to their own laws.

People are ignoring the authorities now, ignoring the police. It is a spirit of anarchy. It is a spirit of lawlessness. And it is the spirit of the Antichrist that is coming upon the world. Do you recognize what is taking place? Jesus said this would be one of the markers of his second coming.

He said this would be one of the signs to look for. But there are many today that are going along with the crowd that are going along with the PC culture. But Jesus said, no, you must not be of the world.

You are in the world, but you are not of the world. So I'm calling on the church today to lead the way and to repent and not be ones who go along with this lawlessness, because our Lord also said that a time would come in which in Matthew chapter 13, verse 41, the son of man will send out his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness. That we see that word again. The Bible tells of tells us of a time in which a farmer planted wheat. And as the wheat germinated and began to grow, his workers came to him and said, Master, there are tares growing in the wheat.

And tares are nothing but weeds. And they said, did we not plant wheat? Did we not sow good seed? And the owner of the land, he said, an enemy did this to me. And they said, well, should we go and gather out the tares? He said, no, don't do that, because in doing so, then you would also uproot the wheat, the good crop.

He said, no, let it be let it continue to grow. And then when it is time for harvest, we will we will separate the wheat from the tares and the tares will be cast into the furnace. Our Lord said this is what will be at the coming for his coming into the kingdom. He said, the enemy that is Satan has sown tares among the wheat. Jesus Christ has placed good seed.

He has placed those who are truly believers in him. But Satan, the enemy has sown tares throughout, even in the church, to create chaos, to create confusion, to be those who promote and practice lawlessness. He said that in his second coming, he will send out his angels to gather those wicked ones, to gather the weeds that have grown up and they will be cast into the fire. This is a grim warning for those out there who are practicing lawlessness. This is a grim warning for those out there who are being lovers of unrighteousness. This is a grim warning for those out there who are going along with the crowd, because our Lord says that there will be a time coming in which it will be a great deception. There is going to be a time coming of lawlessness. And we see that spirit spreading across our society today. The spirit of Antichrist is already upon the earth.

We already see it is influencing many. Do you recognize the signs? Our Lord said you will know the season of his return.

He said we cannot know exactly what day or what hour, but he said we will know the season. But there are many today that are as if they're driving asleep at the wheel. And I'm calling on those in the church to wake up and to understand what is taking place. Wake up and understand that there is a great deception that is taking place. And it's all because of the spirit of lawlessness.

It's because of the spirit of the Antichrist. And it's only going to increase in time. As I've been seeing over the past week, the past couple of weeks, as a matter of fact, with the rioting and the looting. And I've seen video of looters beating a business owner who simply was trying to protect his business. But he had worked so hard for his life. He's invested in it and he's trying to protect it. And they're just beating the man unrelentlessly.

He had nothing to do with the police controversy. But we see that spirit of lawlessness that is upon the earth. I saw another video of a woman, an elderly lady who was handicapped. She was in a wheelchair. She was crying. She was heartbroken.

She was sitting outside looking at the community, at how the streets and in the stores and the businesses had been destroyed. And she was saying, we live in this building. We're handicapped. We have a hard time getting around. And she said, these are the places that I go to get my medicine.

I can't go there anymore because they're not there. And she's saying to you, you people out there saying black lives matter. She said, I'm a black woman.

I'm handicapped. And you are here destroying things that are harming and hurting other blacks. But it's because of the spirit of lawlessness. And that spirit is going to increase as time goes on. And again, we as the church need to stand up. We need to be the salt and light of the earth. I want to leave you with Romans Chapter 13, verses one through three, which tells us what our attitude should be towards the government. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good words, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?

Do what is good and you will have praise from the same. Our Lord says, if you resist authority, that you will be judged. And I know there are people out there that are saying today, well, the authority is corrupt. And it's simply a lie. The narrative out there that all police are racist, the narrative out there that all whites are racist, it's simply a lie because I personally know born again believers in Jesus Christ that are in the police force.

I personally know born again believers in Jesus Christ who are white and they're not racist. It is simply a lie, folks. But there are people out there that are being deceived by the devil. They're going along with the great lie. And there's going to be an even greater lie that is going to come in the end in which many will be deceived. In Second Peter, chapter two, verse 10, the Bible tells us, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.

They are presumptuous self-will. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. Without a doubt, we see that spirit upon our nation today.

Without a doubt, we see people today who are speaking evil of the leaders, evil of those who are in authoritative positions. What we have today is not a race issue. What we have is a sin issue. It's a heart issue that needs repentance, and we're going to continue to have problems.

Yes, racism exists and racism is going to continue to exist, just like thievery will continue to exist, just like murder will continue to exist, just like lying will continue to exist. All of those scenes will exist until Jesus Christ returns and brings it all to an end. And he will do just that. But we must understand what is taking place, the spirit of lawlessness. We must recognize the signs. Our Lord says these would be the signs that will mark his return.

Are you ready? This is a heavy topic and it's a serious one. But, you know, when I think about the fact that it's going to conclude with our Lord Jesus coming back, that puts a joy in my heart that brings a smile onto my face because I know that our Lord says he's coming back again. He's going to make all things new. He's going to recreate this earth. The earth will never be destroyed. Notice that our Lord, when he answered the question by the disciples, they said, what would be the sign of your coming in the end of the age? They did not say the end of the world. So many incorrectly believe that the world is going to come to an end.

But it's not coming to an end. Our Lord's creation is not going to be destroyed, but it's going to be renovated. He's going to renovate it like a ball of hot wax. He's going to burn it up and he's going to renovate it to be something great and new. And that is why the Bible says there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And I look forward to that day where there will be nothing but righteousness, nothing but peace, nothing but joy.

He'll wipe away every tear. Are you ready for that day? Are you on the side of Jesus Christ?

If you've not accepted him, I encourage you to do so, for the spirit of lawlessness is already at work and it will continue until our Lord's second coming. I want to thank you for joining me today. And as we close, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. And to the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God First reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our website, Godfirst.org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God. And. And. And. And. And.