The man of sin

II Thessalonians 2

Introduction: According to James Bradley in his book, Flags of our Fathers, Iwo Jima is just “a trivial scab barely cresting the infinite Pacific…” The Japanese words, Iwo Jima, mean ‘sulfur island’, for the 8 square miles of this island are “a dry wasteland of black volcanic ash that stinks of sulfur.”
One of the most famous pictures in American history was taken on Iwo Jima, on February 23, 1945, by an AP photographer named Joe Rosenthal. This immortal photograph is of six men, 5 Marines and a Navy Corpsman, raising the American flag on the top of Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest peak.
In his book, Bradley tells the stories of the lives of these six American heroes, and for our purposes this morning, I want to draw your attention to the man on the far right. He is a bit separate from his friends, his right knee is near his shoulder, and he is jamming the base of the flag pole into the hard Suribachi soil.
For two years after this photograph was taken, this man was incorrectly identified. Oh, he knew who he was; his fellow Marines knew who he was; and of course, his mother, Belle, knew that this young man was her son. Though Belle was convinced that this famous Marine, with his back to the camera, was her son, no one else believed her, not her husband (the boy’s father), not her family, not her neighbors. To this day we would not know the real identity of Harlon Block if “a certain stranger had not walked into the family cotton field near Weslaco, Texas, and declared that he had seen this son Harlon put that pole in the ground.”
When we come today in our study of 2 Thessalonians to chapter 2, we are introduced to an unidentified man. Unlike the Texan Harlon Block, this man is still unidentified, though almost 2000 years have passed since Paul first made reference to him.
We want today to understand as much as we can about this figure of history-to-come, and we want to draw some lessons that will have application to life for us today.
Our text is 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. In the NASV, it reads like this: “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 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. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.
For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.”
In a nutshell, this is what the text seems to be saying to the Thessalonians: Contrary to what you have heard, the day of the Lord has NOT come. Don’t believe the false reports you have heard that it has. There are several things that have to take place before the coming of that day. According to verse three, there is a coming period in time when there will be a great apostasy, an aggressive, stubborn, climactic revolt against God Himself by most of mankind. After this time-frame has begun, the Anti-Christ has to be revealed before that day of the Lord can come.
This Anti-Christ is known in different parts of the Scriptures as the man of sin, the man of lawlessness (vs.3), the son of destruction (vs.3), the lawless one (vs.8). He has to be identified; he has to be revealed before the Lord returns. His identity will be known.
But before this man of lawlessness can begin to function, the restrainer has to be removed (vs. 7). There is a force in place that suppresses the evil outworking of this man’s purposes. That constrainer must be moved out of the way before the evil one can do his thing.
Paul’s point is that since the restrainer has not yet been removed (vs. 7), these Thessalonians can be certain that the day of the Lord has not yet begun, regardless of what the false teachers were saying.
If we were to lay out a chart on a time line of the Lord’s coming again, we would see first the coming of apostasy. Sometime after the beginning of this period of world-wide rebellion against God by men and women all over the world, the restrainer would be withdrawn from the world. After the restrainer is removed, the Anti-Christ would be revealed. He will have some time to hold sway over the world before the Lord Jesus returns to slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by the appearance of His coming.
If the Thessalonians just considered this information, they would not have to be worried about missing the return of the Lord.
For us today, looking from our vantage point, we could add another element to the chart/time line. Verse 4 makes it clear that there must be a temple rebuilt in Jerusalem before the anti-christ can be revealed, because (vs.4) “…he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.” Currently there is no temple in Jerusalem, though we would not be surprised if construction on one began at any time.
Now before we move to some lessons for us by way of application, we ought to consider a few of the details that Paul has included in this part of our text. By understanding a few other facts, we can be better prepared ourselves for that coming day of glory and judgement.
In verse three, Paul makes reference to ‘the apostasy’. Notice the definite article ‘the’ being used here. Paul has reference to a special time of apostasy that is coming. ‘Apostasy’, as used by Paul here, suggests more than just a time frame of unbelief. This term implies revolt. Men and women of this apostasy will be actively, aggressively, violently opposed to God and His kingdom. In I Timothy 4 and 2 Timothy 3 and 4, Paul describes what this revolt against God looks like.
He says things like people falling away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, people having their consciences seared as if with branding irons. Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. In this time of ‘the apostasy’, people will turn their ears away from truth, preferring instead myths.
We see evidence of these kinds of things all about us. When these kinds of things become more the norm, and when the temple begins to be rebuilt, we will be very, very close to hearing the trumpet of the Lord and being snatched away to the heavens. ‘The apostasy’ must come in with a vengeance before that important day of the Lord.
Another key term in Paul’s revelation is ‘the restrainer’. Paul says in verse 6 that these Thessalonians know who he is. It would have been nice if he had told us! The participle in verse 6 is a neuter participle with a neuter article. The one who restrains in verse 7 is a masculine participle with a masculine article. (See how important it is to be good students of English?)
It seems to me most logical to identify the restrainer as the Holy Spirit of God. Only God is powerful enough to constrain the devil and his evil influence and schemes. The use of the neuter may have been chosen because the Greek word for Spirit is in the neuter case. The use of the masculine in verse 7 points to the Spirit being a person, as we also see in John’s Gospel and in Paul’s Ephesian letter. (John 15:26, 16:13-14, Eph. 1:13-14)
So if this is true, then after ‘the apostasy’ begins, the restrainer will be withdrawn, i.e., the church will be raptured and the Holy Spirit will leave this evil world with the departing church. He has been resident in the church, in the bodies of believers, and when the church goes, the resident Holy Spirit goes with it. Until the church is called to heaven, evil cannot ultimately prevail, for the Lord Jesus had said in Matthew 16, “the gates of hell will not overpower the church.”
Notice, thirdly, ‘the man of lawlessness’. This title reveals his basic character as one who is absolutely opposed to God. His being called ‘the man of sin’ fully supports this characterization. If we are in the last days these days, then this man is probably alive and thriving somewhere in our world today. In the series by Tim LeHaye, Left Behind, we see a very plausible, though fictitious, account of the coming Anti-Christ. His revelation or his being revealed comes when he makes a covenant with the nation of Israel as described by Daniel in 9:27. With that revealing, the great tribulation begins.
Paul clarifies again for us and his Thessalonian friends the power of this man of sin. In verses 9 and 10, he is seen to have great power, able to perform counterfeit miracles, and to do false wonders. ‘False wonders’ is literally ‘wonders of lying’, or as Charles Ryrie interprets, “things which cannot be explained.”
This great evil power will promote deceit throughout the world. With the church gone, with no world-wide defender of the truth, people everywhere will perish! See how verse 10 says it? “…and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”
There is a final element to this man, and Paul tells us of his judgment. We see in verse 8 that he is doomed already. The breath of the Lord Jesus at His return will be like a hurricane, sweeping away this man of sin from his position of power and arrogance. It is like this man of sin is standing before a furnace when the door is opened. He is blown away. Paul also says that the brightness of the coming of the Lord Jesus brings this man to an end, or renders him inoperable, or sets him on the sidelines. His great power will fail him in the face of the return of the Lord Jesus.
There is one last detail we need to understand. That is the group of people who will perish because they do not know the truth. In verses 10-12 we see that these people will perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. Paul also says that God is their judge. It is God Who sends upon these people a deluding influence so that they believe what is false. His judgment is certain because they took pleasure in wickedness and did not believe the truth.
Interestingly, the phrase, ‘those who perish’ is a present tense participle, meaning they are already perishing even though they are still alive. To take pleasure in wickedness is a silent poison to the soul; those being poisoned don’t even know it is happening to them. They think they are really alive; in fact they are perishing. A day is coming when it will be impossible to be saved! God has no more patience, and there is no way to escape His judgment.
Now, let’s consider some lessons that we can take home out of a passage primarily concerned with future things.
One, A life of victory requires a good memory. When Paul writes in verse five his question, “Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?”, he is really saying, “Don’t you remember that I repeatedly told you these things?”
Friends, one of the reasons Art and I work so hard to present truth to you each week in audio AND video form is so that we can better remember the truth we’re exposed to. Take notes on the Sermon Supplement; make notes in the margin of your Bible; tell someone else during the week what you learned on Sunday: in the retelling is strengthened memory.
And better than all these is the practice of the truth. What we put into practice we don’t forget. Who among us this week sought to think on Jesus one second out of each minute, like Frank Laubach in the sermon from last week? Those of us who did have more resolve for goodness now than we had last week. A life of victory requires a good memory.
Two, Truth has always been designed to keep us safe and stable. Paul did not want his friends shaken or disturbed, as he relates in verse 2. The phrase ‘shaken from your composure’ carries the image of a ship being tossed by the sudden appearance of a tidal wave. And the term ‘disturbed’ portrays a continuing state of agitation resulting from the shock of the previous ‘shaking’. The picture’s rather grim, isn’t it. Falsehood, lies, and rumors that are embraced have a way of unsettling us. They first shock us, then they keep us agitated so there’s no rest for our souls, no peace for our hearts, no quiet for our spirits.
Friends, God never intended life to be like this for any of His children. The Lord Jesus had said in John 8:31-32: “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’” One dimension of the freedom Jesus had in mind was the freedom from being shaken from our composure and being disturbed by falsehood. Jesus would go on to say in John 14:6, “I am… the truth.”
Let’s make it our goal to remember the truth we’ve been taught and to enjoy the protection, the buffering, the refuge that it provides.
Three, Today is the day to be saved, before it’s too late. The day is coming, and it could be very soon, when God decides that salvation’s offer is to be withdrawn. Then it will be too late to be saved. ‘Being saved’ is a good Biblical term, regardless of whether our church background is Presbyterian, Methodist, Wesleyan, Catholic, or Baptist. We see it here in our text in verses 10-12. To be saved means to be delivered from the power of sin, and it means to be delivered from the wrath of God coming upon this world of sin. Verse 12 reminds us that judgment is coming, but those who have received the truth will be saved from that judgment. Those who have not face unspeakable horrors. Those who are not saved will encounter the most terrible of holocausts, like nothing the world has ever seen before.
Wouldn’t today be a good day to acknowledge our sin, to accept God’s provision for our sin, the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross, and to be saved? Being saved in a Biblical sense is as simple as that. Forgiveness for our sin from God is still available today; it may not be available tomorrow.
(Conclusion) Let’s give attention to truth. It’s the greatest life jacket known to man. And it will deliver us from that coming day of the wrath of God.
Harlon Block, from the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, died on the slopes of Iwo Jima six days after the famous picture was taken. He was buried in the 5th Marine Division cemetery there on the island, Plot 4, Row 6, Grave 912. There is an inscription just outside that majestic burial ground that says this:
When you go home
Tell them for us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today
Let’s not waste our today, bought for us with the lives of others, by being careless with the truth, by being shaken and disturbed, or by remaining separated from God and unsaved.

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