Hi, and thanks so much for listening to the latest episode from the Hemi Proclaim podcast. The main activity of this man of lawlessness is to deceive many within the visible church on a massive scale. And he will deceive many professing believers in the visible church. By satanically empowered false signs and wonders, he is going to lead a, quote, counterfeit revival in the church. Hi and welcome to Hymn We Proclaim with Pastor John Fawnville.
I'm so glad you're joining us today. I hope you've been enjoying our series on the glorious second coming of Jesus. Last time we dove into what Christians can expect when the Antichrist is revealed, a crucial topic for these times. We're continuing in that same vein as Pastor John takes us through the powerful little book of 2 Thessalonians. We'll be exploring how Christians can stay rooted and grounded in their faith, equipping themselves to recognize counterfeit beliefs and avoid being led astray.
This is such a timely and practical message, one that is sure to encourage and strengthen you in your walk with Christ.
So, without further delay, let's dive into today's message about standing firm in the truth of our faith.
So let me review with you just a little bit, give you some context so that you see where we are because we're looking at the Antichrist in chapter 2. In contrast to much of contemporary teaching about the end times events, Paul's purpose in 2 Thessalonians is not to speculate about all these end time events. But his purpose was pastoral. His purpose was to calm And comfort believers, very young believers, who. Who had become upset, shaken, he says, shaken and alarmed in their faith because of false teachers who had come into the church and were plaguing the church with false teaching about the return of Christ.
We know that the return of Christ is the hope of the gospel. I'll come back to that. It is the hope of the gospel. It is the consummation of all of God's saving work in redemptive history. And we know that it's going to occur, that it's not.
You know, maybe some of you have been struggling with the whole idea that Jesus is going to come back, and it just seems so fanciful, and like a science fiction movie or something, that this just seems so kind of strange. But remember that right before his ascension, two angels came to the disciples. And they speak to the disciples and they say, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
So this isn't science fiction. Jesus is coming again. And when he comes again, Paul's point here is that you're not going to miss it. You can be comforted, young Thessalonian believers, that these false teachers that have shaken and alarmed your faith, I can promise you, when Jesus comes again, you will not miss this. And so he's calming and comforting these believers, and he does it.
Look at verse 3. He comforts the Thessalonians because he reminds them of two unmistakable events, two signs, that must take place before the Lord returns. He says in verse 3, he says, Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day, that is when Christ returns, will not come. And here are the two events. He says, unless the rebellion comes first, And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.
So these two events have to take place prior to the return of Christ and since Paul's reasoning, his pastoral reasoning is because these haven't taken place, you can take comfort, you haven't missed the event. And so the day of the Lord, he says, will not come. Unless this rebellion occurs first, that is, this great end-time apostasy that will take place in the church. A great falling away from the faith will occur. In the visible church, amongst professing believers in the visible church.
And this falling away from the faith occurs in connection with the revelation of the man of lawlessness, which is Antichrist. And so, the second point that Paul makes is he comforts these believers when he says, The day of the Lord will not come. Unless the man of lawlessness is revealed.
So the questions that we've been looking at is: this man of lawlessness is Antichrist, the Antichrist.
So, how do we recognize this man, not fall prey to his deception? What will he be like? What will he do? Who will he lead in the rebellion? And what is his final outcome or fate?
So Paul answers all of these questions in chapter 2, verses 3 to 12. And here he outlines for us five features of the Antichrist, five features, and that's what we looked at, started looking at last week. Uh in verses three to four Last week, we spent time looking at the character of the Antichrist, which Paul tells us here. He says that he reveals to us that this Antichrist, this satanically empowered end time figure, what will he be like?
Well, he tells us that he's going to be a counterfeit, a counterfeit Christ. He's going to look like the real thing, but in the end, he is a counterfeit. And then Paul describes him as a man of lawlessness. He is characterized by lawlessness. And we saw from the book of Daniel how this Antichrist will appear on the scene.
And he will begin to change the morality, the moral will of God in the Bible. And he'll rewrite the Bible's morality and teach a different standard of God's law in the church. And we saw examples of that last week, how that is already occurring. And then Paul says, third, that he is the son of destruction. He is doomed to divine judgment.
And then lastly, He says the Antichrist is a usurper of God. Look at verse 4. It says that he opposes and exalts himself against every so God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
So the Antichrist enters into the temple of God, that is the church. And he sets himself forth as God. And he demands to be worshipped, and so he commits the ultimate act of lawlessness, which is idolatry. He breaks the first commandment: you shall worship no other God, you shall have no other God before me. And then he leads his rebellion, and he leads these false professors in the church to commit also this act of lawlessness, this act of idolatry, the breaking of the First Commandment.
And so that's what we looked at last week. This week, we're going to look at two other features of the Antichrist. Look at verses 9 and 10. This is the activity of the man of lawlessness. What will he do when he appears?
Well look at verses 9 and 10 and look what Paul says. He says, The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing.
So, when the Antichrist is revealed, what will he do in the church? How can we recognize his activity?
Well, Paul says, to sum it up, the main activity of this man of lawlessness is to deceive many within the visible church on a massive scale. And he will deceive many professing believers in the visible church. By satanically empowered false signs and wonders, he is going to lead a quote counterfeit revival in the church. His false, deceptive work is foremost in the Apostle Paul's mind. Let no one deceive you.
We're going to come back to that. Let no one deceive you. And he's speaking of Satan and Satan's chief agent, which is this man of lawlessness working in the church.
So let's look at this activity. First, Paul says the activity of the Antichrist will be satanically empowered. He says that the Antichrist will incarnate Satan's character and his person more than anyone who's lived yet in human history. Let me just say a couple things about Satan. Satan, his personal name is Lucifer in the scriptures, and at one time Satan, the Bible teaches, was the most glorious and powerful angel of God's creation.
Yet, the scriptures teach that Satan was filled with pride, and then he plotted. and attempted this heavenly rebellion against God. And so Satan is this personal figure behind every Antichrist. John says in 1 John 2.18 that has come into the church. He is the personal figure behind every Antichrist in the biblical narrative since Genesis chapter 4 and the murder of Cain.
And Abel's the story of the murder of Cain, murdering his brother Abel.
So Satan is presented in the Bible as the chief opponent of God. who is seeking to destroy the seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3.15 because this seed of the woman will ultimately crush his head. And so he has been seeking to lead a rebellion against God and God's people ever since. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 2, Paul calls Satan the prince of the power of the air. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, he calls him the God of this world who has blinded the mind of humanity.
The Bible sets forth over and over again that the devil, the Satan, is the chief instigator of all human rebellion against God. And so Paul tells us that Satan Is the one who is working through the man of lawlessness, empowering him to lead a final end-time rebellion, apostasy in the visible church. Look what Paul says here. He says that the coming of the Antichrist is in accordance with the activity, the powerful energy of Satan. This Greek word is where we get the English word energy from.
Look at verse 9. He says, The coming of the lawless one.
Now, the word coming is important because back in verse 1, look what Paul says. He says, now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Greek word parosea, which means coming, the second advent, the second coming of Christ. This is important because the coming of Antichrist, Paul says, will be Satan's attempt. to counterfeit the second coming of Christ.
And we know from the scriptures that Satan's chief desire and strategy, what is it? His chief desire and strategy is to blind people to the truth of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, Paul says, In their case, the God of this world, Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. What is his chief strategy in your life to keep you from hearing and receiving and believing in Christ through the gospel? Blinding people to this truth through false deception.
And so it comes as no surprise that Paul would tell us that Satan in the future is going to empower with his energy, his powerful activity, this man of lawlessness who will come and corrupt the hope of the gospel. the second coming of Christ. And he'll do this to lead sinners away from the light of the gospel in the church.
Now, how will he do this?
Well, to make Antichrist's coming appear as the genuine thing, as the genuine second coming of Christ, Paul says Satan will empower this evil man. To perform all kinds of impressive, alluring, yet counterfeit false miracles, signs, and wonders.
So this leads us to the second activity of the Antichrist, is that his activity will be characterized by false signs and wonders in the church. Look at verse 9. Paul says that Antichrist counterfeit second coming will be accompanied by a display, a visible display, look what Paul says, of all power. That word power means miracles. and faults, signs, and wonders.
Why is this important? Because in Jesus' first coming, what did Jesus do to authenticate who he was and what he had come to do? Authenticating miracles, signs, and wonders were a key part of Jesus' activity during his earthly ministry. Let me give you an example. In his gospel, the Apostle John uses the word sign over and over and again.
And the word sign means miracles, and he shows you that these signs that Jesus performed, these miracles, were intended. To demonstrate and clearly reveal to people that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, come to save. and from their sin. And so to lead unbelievers to saving faith in Christ. Let me just give you one example in John chapter 2.
Jesus performs his, John says, his first sign, his first miracle at the wedding in Cana when he turned water into wine. But in verse 11 John says, this is the first of his signs. Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and through it He manifested His glory. And because of that, his disciples believed in him.
So the purpose of Jesus' performance of signs and wonders, of miracles, was to authenticate his identity and lead people to saving faith in him. In contrast to what Paul says, The purpose of the signs, of these false signs and wonders by the Antichrist, is to deceive people. Into worshiping him as the true God. Look at verse 4 again. He will oppose and exalt himself against every so-god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, that is the church, the visible church, and he proclaims himself to be God.
And he will seek to authenticate his proclamation that he is God by. Jesus' aim was to lead people to faith and to keep God's law. The man of lawlessness, this lawless one, his aim is to lead people to worship him, break the first commandment, and thereby be lawless, break God's commandments in the church and commit idolatry. And so this is why Paul describes this miraculous activity of Antichrist as false signs and wonders. They're not false because they're not real.
They're real, but they're false because of their motive behind it. Says And so this leads us to a third description of his activity. Look at verse 10. Paul says that his miraculous activity will be carried out, verse 10, with wicked deception. Wicked deception.
Verse 10 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception. His display of supernatural acts originates from falsehood with the intention to deceive. In John chapter 8, verse 44, Jesus describes the character of Satan and he calls him a liar. He says he is a liar. And so of Satan, when he speaks of Satan, Jesus says, there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks out of his own character. For he is a liar. and the father of lies. Matthew chapter 7, verse 15, Jesus warns against the deception of false teachers. And listen to what he says.
He says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. In 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13 and 14, the Apostle Paul is warning the Corinthian church against false teachers that are in their midst. And listen to what he describes him. He says, For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen. You see that deceitful workman.
Disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. False teachers who are empowered by Satan, who are empowered, but what Paul talks about in 2 Thessalonians 2 is this mystery of lawlessness. They never profess to be what they really are in the visible church. If false teachers came into the church to profess what they really were, they would lose their objective. Right?
False teachers never walk into the church on Sunday morning from the pulpit or in catechism class or whatever and announce everybody, everyone, I'm here to deceive you this morning, and I'm here to lead you to condemnation and ultimate destruction.
So, please open your Bibles and let me teach you some deceitful falsehood. It never works like that. They nib false teachers False doctrine, this mystery of lawlessness that Paul talks about that is at work in the church. never appears it to be your mortal enemy. Never.
It never appears to be opposing your salvation. False teachers and Satan always made use, Calvin says, of quote, some cloak of truth for the purpose of deceiving and ensnaring us. Every false teaching in the church has a cloak of truth to it, or else it wouldn't be accepted. Calvin says this, that Satan does not immediately show his horns. Not that he has horns, but he's just making the point that he's evil.
But Satan does not immediately show his horns, but rather makes it his endeavor to appear as an angel of light. Calvin also observes that Satan and false teachers, this mystery of lawlessness, this spirit of Antichrist that is at work in the church now, he says gives poison to drink in a golden cup. gives poison to drink in a golden cup. And so, therefore, we must always be on our guard against masks in the church. Satan is a liar.
And deception lies at the root of all he calls, Paul calls his wicked activity through this man of lawlessness. And his goal is to lead. This end-time rebellion. Why? Because his goal, which led to his eventual fall, is to take God's place in the church and to be worshipped.
Verse 4. And then to lead a rebellion against God's people. And so Satan will stop at nothing to deceive as many people as possible by every means as possible by opposing to everyone as being the real thing. And so this deceptive activity of the Antichrist is already at work in the church, and Paul says it will culminate one day in the revealing of this man of lawlessness, but until then, he is being restrained.
So let's look at this second, this third feature. Uh of the man of lawlessness.
So that's the activity. But now we're going to look at the restraint. Look at verses 5 through 8. The Apostle Paul says, Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed.
So here, this is the restraint of this lawless man. He's not come yet, and he's being restrained.
Now, look at verse 5. Paul is mildly rebuking these young believers because he tells them, you should already know about the restraint of the men of lawlessness because it was part of this instruction that I had given you already during my previous visits. He says to them in verse 5, he says, Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And so Paul repeats the fact that Antichrist's deceptive activity is currently being restrained. At the present time, Antichrist deceptive activity is partial and it is incognito in the visible church.
It is working, verse 7, he says, through this mystery of lawlessness that is already at work in the church. It has been wisely said that the first generation believes and proclaims the gospel, the next assumes it, and the third denies it. That is why it's essential to rediscover and proclaim the core truths of the gospel in every generation. You're invited to join us at the Reformation Conference hosted by Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida from January 17 to 19, 2025. This conference presented by the Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies will focus on the five solas: scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and glory to God alone.
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So, let's look at this second, this third feature. Uh other men of lawlessness.
So that's the activity. But now we're going to look at the restraint. Look at verses 5 through 8. The Apostle Paul says, Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed.
So here, this is the restraint of this lawless man. He's not come yet, and he's being restrained.
Now, look at verse 5. Paul is mildly rebuking these young believers because he tells them, you should already know about the restraint of the men of lawlessness because it was part of this instruction that I had given you already during my previous visits. He says to them in verse 5, he says, do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And so Paul repeats the fact that Antichrist's deceptive activity is currently being restrained. At the present time, Antichrist deceptive activity is partial and it is incognito in the visible church.
It is working, verse 7, he says, through this mystery of lawlessness that is already at work in the church. In 1 John 2, verse 18, John speaks of the same thing using different terminology, and he says, Many Antichrists have already come. And so both Paul and John say that this mystery of lawlessness that is at work in the church, this spirit of antichrist, these antichrists that have already come. It's anyone in the church who's spreading heresy, false teaching. And so Paul has got this pastoral concern for the church.
He is warning these young believers that even though this final man of lawlessness has not yet come, They must remain alert because the mystery of lawlessness, verse 7, is already at work in the church, and this mystery of lawlessness is a forerunner. That will lead to the culminating appearance of this man of lawlessness. And so Antichrist will come and go in the visible church, and there are yet echoes of this final Antichrist who is yet to come. Yet He will not come until this Paul says restraint or restrainer is taken out of the way, and that is when literally all hell will break loose in the visible church.
So let me say a brief word about the identity of this restrainer. Just as we saw last week, there's been an abundance of speculation as to the identity of the Antichrist. There has also been an abundance of speculation as to what is this restrainer, who is this restrainer. And so there are at least seven different views as to the identity of the restrainer. I'm just going to read them for you very quickly because you'll see in a minute.
But here's the list.
Some have said: is the Roman Empire personified in the Emperor of Rome? Others say there's no specific empire in mind. The restrainer is just simply civic government. Others have said, no, it's the Jewish state that restrains the power. Others say it is Satan or one of his evil angelic demons that is the restraining power, which is...
Not even an option, really. The power of false teachers trying to grasp for prophetic control of the church is the restraining power because they're all fighting each other, and so therefore it doesn't really break out completely. That that's been um uh recommended.
Some have said that the Holy Spirit is a restrainer. And others say that the restraining force is the proclamation of the gospel in the church. Ultimately, as one Bible scholar notes, one brilliant New Testament Bible scholar, he says, quote, it is difficult to determine with probability the precise identification of the stranger, so we're not going to do that today. In other words, let me tell you what the scholar is saying, we don't know. Um So again, the difficulty lies in the fact that the Thessalonians knew what Paul was referring to.
And we don't.
So, we have to affirm what is certain and show very due caution where we don't know.
So, what can we say with certainty about this restrainer? Ultimately What we can say is restraining Antichrist and his deceptive, satanically empowered activity is this. God is the one who is ultimately the power behind whatever historical agent is going to be used to restrain this man. It's gone.
So, whatever this particular historic agent is, it's God working through that agent to restrain here. Paul says the manifestation of the Antichrist is based on the restrainer's removal, and this removal of the restrainer coincides with the revelation of the Antichrist. Paul says, listen carefully in verse 6, listen. You know what is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time. There's been debate about what this phrase in his time means.
Well, if you look at the whole context, Paul's argument seems to be best understood as God's own time. In God's own time, this men of lawlessness will be revealed. The sovereign time set by God. God is the one who ultimately holds back this men of lawlessness from appearing. And so, in God's own sovereign time, Paul is teaching us a comforting truth.
God Will bring his history to a climactic conclusion, so rest. But when this restrainer is taken out of the way, this man of lawlessness will be revealed. And when he is revealed, he will direct his deceptive false signs and wonders against members in the visible church and lead a great end-time rebellion.
So, as we reflect this morning on Paul's characterization of the man of lawlessness, what are some lessons that we can learn from this?
Well, first of all, last week, just to review, we said we can be alert.
Okay, verse 7, Paul says this mystery of lawlessness is already at work in the visible church, so we need to remain alert. But second, this week, I want to go back to Paul's pastoral concern as well. Look all the way back. Look all the way back at verse 3 and look what the Apostle Paul says. He says, let no one deceive you in any way.
It's a pastoral concern. In other words, the first is be alert. Second is, do not be deceived. Do not let yourself be led in deception. Paul's motive is not speculative, as we said, it's pastoral.
He's seeking to comfort these alarmed believers and to comfort you. To not be concerned about all the end-time speculative details, but to rest in the fact God is in control. And therefore, when he's in control, do not be deceived because of this mystery of lawlessness that is already at work in the church. Let no one deceive you in any way.
So how do we avoid being deceived? How do we grow in our discernment? He tells you in verse 5, look at verse 5. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? Those who have genuinely been taught in the truth of God's word need to continually recall that truth to prevent deception.
So what is the source of deception? Why do false teachers and false teaching continually plague the church and deceive so many? Why is there deceptive teaching so compelling and attractive. What is it that continually empowers lawlessness in the church? Paul tells us, verse 7: it is the mystery of lawlessness that is now at work in the church.
It is the spirit of Antichrist that is to come. This spirit of Antichrist, this mystery of lawlessness, will continue to deceive. And the deception will reach this high point in the future when this man of lawlessness is revealed.
So Paul is telling us, let no one deceive you, be alert. Because God's people can sometimes fail to perceive subtle shifts away from God's truth. That's incrementally how it works in the church. Just a little tiny subtle shift. A little nuance.
A little correcting of, like, we don't quite believe that, but here's what we believe, and let's talk about it. And I'm telling you, when you're in those conversations, It is so compelling. And it seems so, well, well, yeah, I mean, that just, it's so, so deceptive and compelling. And it attracts and allures, and it confuses your mind. And you're just sitting there going, well, well, maybe.
And so, when false, deceptive teaching comes, we sometimes do not readily recognize it, and therefore we leave ourselves open to being deceived. Therefore, Paul says, be on guard against being deceived. How? By continually reminding you of what you have already been taught. Verse 5, do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?
So let me tell you one more time. How easy is it to forget the gospel? Martin Luther preached to the whole book of Galatians. He ended chapter 6, he turned back to chapter 1, and the next Sunday went into his church and said, please open to the book of Galatians. Why do you do this, Martin Luther?
He says, Because we forget the gospel, so I must. pound it into my people's thinking.
So we need to be equipped to recognize the genuine as opposed to the counterfeit. And the way to spot a counterfeit and avoid being deceived is to be thoroughly trained in being able to see the genuine. Let me give you an illustration of that. Federal agents who work in the counterfeit department of our government. They do not learn to recognize counterfeit money by studying all the possible counterfeit currencies that are currently in circulation.
They spend no time studying counterfeit currencies. Rather, do you know what they do? They master the security and design features of the genuine bills. And having been thoroughly trained and mastered in the genuine. They're able to immediately recognize counterfeit currencies when they see it.
And in the same way, Paul's saying, if we are to avoid being deceived, we must focus our attention continually on the truth of the gospel and be continually reminded of what we already know. And the more thoroughly we are trained in the genuine, the easier it will be to identify what is counterfeit and avoid being deceived. Because remember, The devil and false teacher, Satan, never come into the church and announce to you, We're here to deceive you. We're here to be your master opponent and chief arch enemy and destroy you. We hate you and want to send you to condemnation, eternal judgment.
It doesn't work like that. They always look like the real good thing. If Satan, the man of lawlessness, right, was to walk in here today, he would be. Highly compelling. And you would be looking at his signs and his wonders.
And you go, well maybe we should worship him. Maybe this is the Messiah. And you have to be very careful. And so Paul perceived that these young believers, these new believers in the faith, were becoming vulnerable to false teaching because they were in the process of forgetting the truth that they had already been taught by Paul and the apostles. They had become susceptible to deceptive false teaching.
Because they were not reminding themselves of the key truths of the gospel, namely the hope of the gospel, the second coming of Christ, that Paul says, I've already told you these things.
So let me refresh your memory again. Peter gives a similar warning to believers in 2 Peter 1. And these believers that he was writing to were also threatened by false teaching about the second coming of Christ. Listen to what Peter says. He says, I intend always to remind you of these qualities.
Always remind you Though you know them In our established in the truth that you have. You know it, you're established in it, but I'm going to keep reminding you anyway. Over and over and over. Why? He says, because it is right.
As long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, and so I will make every effort so that after my departure. You may be able at any time to recall these things. That is the chief pastoral strategy of a pastor, right there. Remind the people of what matters over and over and over, so that after his departure, they can grow in the maturity of their faith and recall what they had been taught. And that's what protects them from being deceived.
So it's vitally important to be reminded constantly of the truth of the gospel, established in the truth of God's word, because in 2 Thessalonians 2:15 we'll see, Paul says, I want you to listen, stand firm. And hold to the traditions that we have been taught by the apostles. Stand firm. Hold to the apostolic truth of the gospel and don't waver. You see, the gospel is always the paramount issue, isn't it?
It's always the issue. What is a practical thing that you can do? Right? So that these truths are always being fully inculcated into you, so that you're well versed in the orthodox truth of the Christian faith.
Well, here's one. Attend public worship faithfully every week and be taught. Come to catechism class and be grounded in the truth. Come to corporate worship, the meetings of grace. Take full advantage of that because Paul says in Ephesians 4: this is God's gift.
to you. And who wants to turn down a gift? But secondly, do this. Go home and spend time reading the Creeds and Confessions of the Faith. Be well versed in the Orthodox Creeds, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the definition of Chalcedon.
Creeds and confessions are public statements of what a church and a denomination believes that the scriptures teach in a Summary fashion. Let me just give you one example of how this works: the Heidelberg Catechism, which we've taught in this church, question 21. What is true faith? And then it gives an outstanding definition of what true faith is. It says: faith is a knowledge that accepts the teaching of the Bible so there's content.
It also says it's trust and confident assurance that Christ is my Savior, but it says there's content. What is faith? Faith is believing in the content. And so question 22 reads: then, what then is necessary for a Christian to believe? Do you hear that?
What is necessary? for a Christian to believe. And here's the answer, all that is promised us in the gospel. Which the articles of our Catholic, that is universal, believed in all times and places. The articles of our Catholic undoubted Christian faith teach us in summary.
So, question 23 naturally asks: What then are these articles? And then the answer that the Catechism gives to us is to provide the Apostles' Creed, which questions 22 through 58 go on to explain in greater detail. It exposits for us the Apostles' Creed. And so the catechism is developing the content of faith in this long section, and it uses the Apostles' Creed to do this, to establish believers in the church and listen in the genuine orthodox articles of what is necessary to believe, so that you are well grounded in what is genuine, so that you can spot what is counterfeit. These early creeds preserve and teach the most basic building blocks of the faith.
Let me just give you some examples of what they preserve. They preserve for us the very identity of God. They address the central point of Christ's identity. They reveal to us that God has revealed himself to us in Scripture as three distinct persons, yet one true eternal God. The doctrine of the Trinity.
It's necessary to believe to be a Christian. They teach that Christ is one person with two natures and that His divine nature is co-equal with the Father. He's fully God. He has no subordination to God whatsoever. They teach that the Holy Spirit is co-eternal with God the Father and God the Son, and that the Holy Spirit is the Lord.
He is the giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is worshipped and glorified. He's eternal God. And so, simply put, these creeds guard the genuine and exposed counterfeits, which is why they were written in the first place, because in the early church, First couple centuries, there was an explosion. Of false teachings about God and the nature of God and Christ and His person and His nature and His work. And so they had to define these truths to protect the church.
And ultimately, what all of those creeds were about was the protection of the gospel. As Athanasius says, we guard this because we want people to have a pure gospel. And so we must be grounded in the orthodox truths of the faith, and therefore by doing that, we protect ourselves from deception when it enters into the church. And I can just tell you from experience. That when you sit down with people who want to make subtle shifts, it is very, very difficult in the moment to detect it.
And you have to Think and pray and remind yourself, as Paul says, over and over, rehearsing the truth of this gospel so that we are not led astray, but we stand firm. We stand firm in the traditions that the apostles have given to us.
So let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have given to us the truth of your word. We pray that you would help us to always stand firm, that we would receive in this church the traditions of the apostles, the purity of your gospel that has been granted to us. We pray that our church would always have a hunger In a desire to be fed and to learn and to grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So keep us faithful. Help us to be alert and help us not to be deceived, but to be thoroughly immersed in the genuine so that we can always spot the counterfeit. We pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. John Fawnville sends his thanks for listening today.
And before you hit the next episode, can I tell you about an encouraging book you might want to get soon? It's called Hope and Holiness: How the Gospel Enables and Empowers Sexual Purity. You're not alone if you've tried to conquer sexual temptations and tried all the methods available, only to find yourself feeling defeated again. This book may be just what you're looking for. In His Shepherding Heart, John shows that the gospel, not practical steps or more self-discipline, is God's provision for the power to live a life of sexual purity.
and it's available to every Christian. What I like is the book is available in three convenient ways, paperback, audiobook, or Kindle. Please look for the links that I put in the description and get a copy today. Does anyone come to mind who may like this episode? Please share with them and listen again to the Human Proclaim podcast.
