Address—C. Hendricks
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It's chapter 2.
And verse 13.
Looking for that blessed hope.
And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior.
Jesus Christ.
We've had before us a little about the blessed hope.
Gazing on his blessed face, being in His presence.
We call that the Rapture.
But he's been cast out of this world.
He's been rejected here. He's been spit upon.
Crowned with a crown of thorns, struck on the face with the fists of the Roman soldiers, and.
Maltreated.
By his creatures, we're also looking for the.
Glorious appearing.
Or the appearing of the glory.
Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, when he will be crowned.
Down here in the scene where he has been so maligned and abused and mistreated, when he will have his rightful place.
And will be with him then.
Let's turn to 2nd Thessalonians.
2nd Thessalonians.
Chapter 2.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And our gathering together.
And through him.
That she be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us.
As that the day of Christ is at hand, the day of the Lord is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come.
Except there come a falling away 1St, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of Perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all.
That is called God, or that is worshipped so that he is God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things, and now you know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that wicked 1 be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness and of unrighteousness in them that courage, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this 'cause God shall send them.
Strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that the All might be damned who believe not the truth.
But had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The greatest judgment.
Far greater than that which fell upon Jerusalem, apostate Judaism will fall upon apostate Christendom.
The place on earth that has been so favored and so blessed for 2000 years now with Christian light and testimony. The greatest privileges and blessings that God has ever bestowed upon man.
The company I'm addressing this afternoon is probably the most favored of all, with all the light that God has given to us.
Is there anyone here in this great company that's still lost because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved? God will send them strong delusion. They should believe a lie.
That all might be damned who had, who did not receive the truth, had pleasure and unrighteousness.
It's hard to believe that there's anyone here that has been under the sound of the precious word that we've had before us these days, that still outside of Christ, still in his or her sins, still lost.
But it's possible. And so this first appeal that I would make is to your soul.
If you reject and continue to reject the love of the truth that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, God loves you. He's shown that in the gift of His beloved Son. He could not give more. He would not give less to despise that.
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Will issue in the greatest judgment this world has ever seen.
As the judgment of God will fall upon apostate Cusando. As we look around this, we don't have to have great discernment to see that Christendom is about to be judged. As our brother was bringing before us the coming of the Lord for us. The blessed hope to take us out of this scene is soon to come. It might be today.
Brother asked me the other day, when do you think the Lord is going to come? I said today. That's the only answer we can give that would be scriptural.
Don't put it off beyond that.
And then he's going to come back with us and this world which has despised us.
As well as him because it despises those that are his. If they have rejected me, they will reject you, he said.
So when we feel the rejection of this world.
The Muslims can pray five times a day towards the East. I don't feel any reproach.
Any rejection for that? None of the false religions feel a bit of reproach because Satan doesn't oppose them.
But it takes something to stand for Christ in an evil day, and we're living in an evil day. The end of every dispensation is darkest.
Of all because the light has been rejected and it issues in judgment.
The greatest delusion, the greatest deception is about to fall, and it is falling, and it's going to continue to fall upon Christendom.
We need discernment today more than ever to know what we are about and why we're here and what he's left us here for as of left us here to make a name for ourselves to get ahead in this world.
He's left us here to be a light, to be a witness for him. He's left us here.
To witness.
For the Lord Jesus.
As my Father hath sent me into the world, Even so have I sent you.
Father sent him, He was here for the Father, as the living Father hath sent me, and I live on account of the Father.
So he that eateth Me shall live on account of me, as He was here for the Father's glory, as he could say, The Father hath not left me alone, but I do always those things that please Him.
Why has he left us here? To live for self, no.
Has left us here to live for him, to be a witness for him. So this chapter begins with I beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him.
Tomorrow morning will be gathered unto his name.
That's the name of one who has been rejected here, not accepted.
Not a popular Jesus, but a very unpopular one. We're gathered to his name. Great privilege. Tremendous privilege, it supposes. He's not here. He's gone on high. They sent a message after him. We will not have this man to reign over us.
And so we have the privilege, during the time of his rejection, to be gathered to his name.
But this is looking on to what our brother was bringing before us, the rapture, I beseech you, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him.
Now, whenever we're gathered to his name, tomorrow, it will just be a few of us when we think of the whole church the world over.
But when we're gathered unto him, not to his name now, but to Him personally, all the Saints.
None missing then.
All the divisions.
All the ruin that the enemy is brought in will be done away with, and together with all the redeemed.
Will rise.
To meet him in the air.
Don't miss that.
The moment from which all other moments was made.
Will be when he calls his bride home to glory.
You're going to be there, aren't you?
I hope there won't be 1 here that we'd be left behind.
Are gathering together to him. He beseeches them. He says this must take place before, and then he names a certain number of things. Notice what he says.
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That he be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us. There was a letter that had come to them purportedly from the apostle Paul, and Paul says it didn't come from me.
That the day of the Lord is at hand. Day of Christ is when we go up to be with Him, but the day of the Lord is when He will come back and establish his rights in this world.
They were going through tremendous persecution.
And that was the mistaken idea. You know, when you're when you're going through persecution and trial and the enemy is has the upper hand and he's subjecting you to torture and even to death.
They thought that was the day of the Lord.
No, he says when the day of the Lord comes, you will be at rest in glory. That's what he says in the 1St chapter and he says in verse 6 of chapter 1, seeing it as a righteous thing with God to reconcile pence tribulation to them that trouble you. They were being troubled now by the enemies of the gospel.
And when that situation occurs, the day of the Lord hasn't come yet.
Because when the day of the Lord comes, the enemies of the gospel will be in trouble, and will be home and at rest.
It will be just the opposite to what was happening here. They misinterpreted the tribulations through which they were going as being the Day of the Lord.
And he says, no, the first thing that has to happen before the day of the Lord can come is that we have to be gathered together unto him all the same, raptured to himself in glory. And then.
Verse 3 it says, except there come a falling away first. The apostasy, that's what the.
The word apostasy means is a falling away.
Now there can't be the apostasy until we're gone.
As long as Christians are left here in this world, there will be faith. The apostasy can't come as long as you're here. That's what Paul is saying.
As long as Christians are here, the apostasy is the complete overthrow of Christianity.
That can't be as long as there are Christians here.
So you're the living proof that the day of the Lord has not come, because the apostasy has to come first. First our gathering together to Him, and then the Spirit will go with us, and then there will come the apostasy.
And then that man of sin be revealed.
The son of Perdition. That's the Antichrist, and he will not be revealed.
He has not been revealed. Don't let anyone tell you that he's been revealed. As long as we're here, he has not been revealed. He may be very much alive in this world, but he hasn't been revealed yet because we're still here.
And when he calls his home, he gathers us to himself, and then will come the apostasy. There won't be any Christians here to stem the tide of evil, You might say, Well, it certainly looks to me like the apostasies here now. Well, this is nothing compared with what's going to follow the rapture of the church, our gathering together to him.
Will be infinitely worse for this scene after we're gone.
There is a restraining power in the presence of the Saints of God, our presence here.
What good are they? The world says they are only troublemakers, and I believe that when we are gone, they will. After they realize what has happened, First of all, they'll look for us.
As it says with Enoch, he was not found. That means they look for him.
And they'll look for us. Where did all these people go?
Where did they go?
And when they realize we're not any longer there, they'll say now we can do what we want to do without any hindrance.
No more restraint, and then the full tide of evil will break upon this scene. Terrible. We've seen some awful things, upheavals of nature. We've seen some awful things while we're still here.
But they're nothing compared with what awaits this world apostate Christendom.
Is just right for the judgment of God to fall. It's in its unmitigated fury.
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Awful day awaits it. Glorious day for us. A terrible day for this scene.
Then shall that man of sin be revealed, the son of Perdition? There's only two men in Scripture called the Son of Perdition.
John 17 the Lord's Prayer. He mentions Judas Iscariot as the son of perdition.
And here the Antichrist has got that title, The son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped so that he is God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
When this power arises, Christianity will not be tolerated any longer. I mean the outward form of it, because after the rapture, I suppose that for a short time nominal Christians will still go to church on Sunday.
But the life of it, the vibrancy of it, the life of it, the reality of Christianity will be gone.
The Spirit will go with us, He who forms the assembly.
As the House of God and the body of Christ, He is the restraining power now, and your presence and mine is there.
They said good riddance, they'll find out what that means when we're gone.
They'll find out.
The awful judgment that will fall upon this Christ rejecting world when you and I are gone.
It will be terrible beyond words to describe.
So bad they will call upon the rocks to fall on them, and hide them from the face of the Lamb. The wrath of the Lamb, the wrath of the one they nailed to a cross, and set away with him. We will not have this man to reign over us.
So there's this man of sin. He's going to sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. God is going to bring about the greatest delusion that Christendom has ever seen.
Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. That could be the presence of the assembly here, though what that's withholding the full outbreak of evil. And then he goes on to say it could be also ordered government that is withholding it, and then he goes on to say.
And verse 6 And now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time for the mystery of iniquity that already work only he.
Who now letteth or hindereth or restrains?
Will restrain until he be taken out of the way. Clearly an illusion here to the Spirit of God.
So there is a what withholding and then there is he who withholds.
The assembly's presence here is a restraining power.
It might seem that the influence of Christians here is now in void. Not so. Not so.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work way back there in that 1St century.
Started working, only he who now letteth will let hinder till he be taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked 1 be revealed.
That's the Antichrist, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders. If you look at Acts 2, we won't turn to it.
But those are the very same words that are used to describe the true Messiah.
The works that he did, power and signs and wonders.
The Antichrist is going to imitate. There's going to be the greatest imitation and delusion that's going to settle over Christendom.
The most favored spot on the face of the earth is going to be deceived with the greatest deception ever.
And these power and signs and lying wonders, wonders of falsehood.
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth, not just the truth, but the love of the truth that God loves man and then he's provided in his love a Savior. They wouldn't receive it. If you have, if you're one of those, you're headed for the absolutely the worst, the worst judgment that's ever fallen.
Flee from the wrath to come. I trust there's not one here, but still lost, unsafe, undecided.
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Time is short. You don't have much time.
With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion.
That they might believe a lie.
That they all might be damned.
Who believe not the truth.
But had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Oh, what a judgment awaits this favored scene.
This sphere on the earth, not communism, not Muhammadanism.
Not Hinduism, but christened out.
Christendale bag, which has professed the name of Christ. If you're one of those and you're not real, you're going to be one of those who's going to be damned.
And deceived.
After we're gone.
May the Lord stir us up.
Realize where we are.
And how near we are.
To his coming, when he gathered to himself all the redeemed.
None missing them. All of our brethren scattered, gathered, no matter where.
Is going to gather them to.
Itself but a day that would be.