Christ is the Remedy for this Troubled
Age
II Thessalonians 2:9-12
June 5, 2022
The Love of the Truth
I did a couple of paragraphs on this previously - you can see it at 1b
Living in Ungodly Times - May 22 - I am resisting to do them again
so I start here:
Read
Ii Thessalonians 2:9-12
·
IT IS AN EVIL HEART THAT PREVENTS MEN FROM
RECEIVING
THE LOVE OF THE
TRUTH.
condition of those who reject the love of the truth to the fact that
they “had
pleasure in unrighteousness.” The
pleasures of sin cannot exist side by side
with the love of the truth. Evil hates the light (John 3:19). Moral
corruption has no sympathy for the thirst
for truth of a pure soul.
Hence it may be concluded that indifference to
truth is a sign of moral evil.
Jesus said, “He that is not with me is against me; and
he that gathereth
not scattereth
abroad.” (Matthew 12:30) The corrupt
life is a false life,
and its departure from truth reveals the baseness of the character beneath.
This is why the rejection of the
truth is blameworthy. Intellectual doubt is
of quite a different character. Indeed, it often arises from
genuine love of truth,
while self-satisfied orthodoxy is often quite indifferent to
verifiable facts,
preferring respectable error to painful truth. (Concerning verifiable
facts,
I spoke of the Progressive
Movement recently, this movement teaches
children that a she or a he is to be referred to as they or
them. At a
graduation of
representative was jeered for mentioning male and female. CY - May 17,
2022) Must be widespread
for I might expect this to be in Ivy League
schools [a sign of apostasy which this chapter deals with is these
schools once were theological seminaries - one of the last places
I would expect this would be the
·
REJECTING THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH BRINGS ON AN
INCAPACITY TO KNOW TRUTH FROM ERROR. God punishes men
in this condition by sending “them a working of error, that
they should
believe a lie.” This
is an awful fate. Truth is too precious a
pearl to be cast
before swine. They who do not love it shall not
have it. Liars become
incapable of knowing truth. The habit of
indifference to truth so grows
upon some people that the whole idea of truth
becomes obscure and
meaningless to them, and they ask with Pilate, half
bewildered, half
scornful, “What is
truth?” Is not this a veritable destruction —
the
spiritual eye blinded and burnt out by the fires of
falsehood and
unrighteousness; the highest
intellectual faculty, that of grasping truth,
killed by corruption and falsehood? God save us all from this hideous
DOOM!
THIS IS TO WHAT
THE EXCLUSION OF THE TRUTH LEADS!
Satan’s antichrist will stamp falsehood upon the whole system
(politically,
economically, religiously,
etc.) and will use
superhuman craft for the
MISGUIDANCE
OF MEN. (we are dealing with spiritual wickedness
in high places -higher than you and I can
comprehend or admit it we
did comprehend the theater in which this is panning
out. Guile
marks Satan’s
whole career,
and unrighteousness is the aim and
result!
Already, people are saying that President Biden’s appointment of a
Disinformation Czar of the last week is suspiciously Orwellian. (CY -
May 1, 2022)
Biden 'disinfo' czar Nina Jankowicz ripped over TikTok (nypost.com)
·
THE HIDDEN MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS WILL BE REVEALED.
The volcano must break into
eruption some day. Evil cannot
slumber forever. Hypocrisy will tire of its meek, innocent demeanor.
(As is evidenced in the
Progressive Movement in in the
any man put his confidence in the secretness
or slowness of the processes
of evil. The
more they are hidden now, the worse will be the
appalling
outburst of them be when the restraint under which they groan at
present
is released. (This is what
Fundamental Christianity has done since
the inception of The United States of America! The progression of
evil in American government and culture is mind-boggling and
it has occurred in my lifetime! Does it not make you wonder
which generation Christ referred to when He said, “This
generation
shall not pass till all these tthings be fulfilled.” Matthew
24:34;
Luke 21:32 - CY - 2022) The longer the wild horses are held in by
the leash, the fiercer will be their mad gallop when they
break loose.
·
CHRIST WILL CONQUER THE MYSTERY OF LAWLESSNESS.
“....whom the Lord
shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and
shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” (v.
8) Compare with
what the angels of the Lord told Lot prior to the destruction
of
(Genesis 19:12-17) Evil will not long be rampant. One
fearful rebellion
and then a tremendous defeat.
Ø
Christ is to be the Conqueror of it. He came to destroy
the works
of the devil. (I John
3:8) It is obvious we
could not effect this great work.
He, our Saviour,
does it for us.
Ø
Christ is to come again for this object. When the mystery is
revealed,
(Do you think that Joe Biden’s
new czar of disinformation, Nina
Jankowicz, head of the new Disinformation Governance Board will
discover the mystery of evil? Or is she even interested for national
security reasons to put the FBI, IRS, CIA, Google, Facebook, Instagram,
Tik Tok, or the old time Twitter algorithms (a process or set of rules to
be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations) on
the anti-christ? Will he qualify to be monitored? Will he be on their
list? or will the attention be directed against Christians? We seem
to be a nation that puts a lot of stock in polls. [many suspect that we
have come to the place where even so-called polls of American citizens
themselves, are skewed to disinform?] LET ME TAKE A POLL. If
Ms. Jankowicz discovers the mystery of sin, or the man of sin, the
anti-christ, do you think she will reveal the data? Or out of personal
privacy or personal “civil rights issues” will she go to great extremes
to cover him/them up? Under the Biden administration, or if the agency
survives, will under future administrations, will the “man of sin” make
the hit list? CY - 2022) Just remember! After this Christ’s
“manifestation” follows.
Ø Christ conquers with a breath. (As the precedent was set
at creation when
God spoke the words “Let there be...”
so at the end the same He will “...consume with the spirit of His
mouth......”.
Proverbs 29:18a
- “Where there is no vision, the people perish” - rather,
cast off restraint, become ungovernable, cannot be reined in (Exodus 32:22,
25).
“Vision” (chazon), prophecy in its widest sense, denotes the
revelation of God’s
will made through
agents, which directed the course of events, and
WAS
INTENDED to be coordinate with the supreme SECULAR AUTHORITY.
The prophets were
the instructors of the people in Divine things, standing witnesses
of the truth and
power of religion, teaching a higher than mere human morality.
The fatal effect of the
absence of such revelation of God’s will
is stated to be
confusion, disorder, and
rebellion; the
people, uncontrolled, fall into grievous
excesses, which nothing
but high principles can restrain.
(IN THIS INSTANCE
CHURCH-STATE
RELATIONSHIP)
Contrast no restraint and restraint. A restraint is a measure or condition
that keeps something or someone under control or within limits.
29 Being
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness,
C4ovetousness, maliciousness;
full of envy, murder, debate (εριδος - eridos -
strife, contention, dissension, heresy; deceit (δόλος - dolos - literally a bait;
a snare; craft; subtility,
trickery; false appearance; disguise - remember
that in Revelation 13:11 John saw another wild beast “....coming
up out
of the earth;” that
had two horns like a lamb but it spake like a
dragon),
malignity (κακοηθείας - kakontheias - evil
wickedness; bad manner or
disposition that tends to put the worst on everything - a companion of
δόλος -
guile - cited above;
whisperers ψιθυριστάς - psithuristaes -
whisperers; under the breath - (you know, it would be bad to get suckered
in by a wink, to
being a human sidekick of Satan and doing his dirty work in
what is an angelic
war or undertaking - the Scripture calls it “...spiritual
wickedness in high places” Ephesians 6:12- You know how some
Americans
think this way
about the war in
about
OWN SOUL IN YOUR UNGODLY OR
ANTI-GOD ATTITUDE.
Two examples:
bad disposition;
bad manners; third generation of kids coming up who
have not been
taught manners or morals - work ethic -
Uncle Lewis’
funeral - someone told me of a daughter teaching at a
school - first
grader kicking a teacher very hard in the shin telling her
to get out of the
way with a racial slur calling her a the B-word with
a skin color
associated with it.
The whoopla over
the Uvalde tragedy - worthy of consideration -
yet we foolishly
espouse or ignorantly ignore the 3,000 abortions
per day in the
Jeremiah 5:29 God
says “Shall
I not visit for these things? Shall
not my soul be avenged on such a nation as
this?”
The remedy for
this, it looks like to me, would be for the
Supreme Court
(who is representative of the God of all the
earth WHO ONLY DOTH RIGHT!
(Genesis 18:25)
Whether the leak
is true or not, apparently there are some promoting
violence and
others afraid there will be violence when the decision
is rendered next
month. VIOLENCE IS ONE OF THE SIGNS OF
THE DAYS LEADING UP TO THE ANTI-CHRIST
AND
CHRIST, HIMSELF COMING to do as stated in ch.
1:7-10:
1:7 And to
you who are troubled rest with us (the
remedy), when
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with His mighty angels,
1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God,
and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ:
1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power;
1:10 When he shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be
admired
in all them that believe (because our
testimony among you was
believed) in that day. (The Remedy -
believe - today is the day of salvation)
Hypocrisy -
30
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers,
without natural
affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who
knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such
things are worthy of death, not only do the same,
but have pleasure
in them that do them.
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Put in order important things that I missed
II Thessalonians 3:10
·
HE INSISTS ON THE DU TY OF HONEST LABOR.
Ø
He had done so during his stay at Thessalonica. He had given his
opinion in the words of a short, stern proverb, “If
any will not work,
neither let him eat.”
Labor is the ordinance of God; a punishment at first
(Genesis 3:19), but it is turned
into a blessing (Psalm 128:2) to
those who accept it as the will of God, and use it as a
discipline of
obedience and self-denial. Work, in some form or other, is a
necessity
for us; without work, life soon becomes dreary, full of
restlessness and
dissatisfaction.
To have nothing to do is far from enviable; it is
full of
boredom and weariness.
Time is a priceless talent, given us that we
might work out our own salvation; to waste it day after day, to
“kill time,” as the saying is, is a
miserable misuse of the good
gifts of God. We must all
work, if we would be happy here,
if we would be ready to meet the Lord when He cometh. Mental
labor is the lot of some, manual labor of
others. God has
ordered our lot and appointed our work. Work of some sort we must
have. None have a right
to eat their bread without labor, neither
the rich nor the
poor.
o
If
God has given us worldly means, still we have no right to eat the
bread of
idleness. We must find work to do, the work which the Master
has set
us. If we need not work for
ourselves, we must work for others.
There is work
enough for all in the vineyard of the Lord; only in work
can we
find peace and satisfaction. Without work, we are eating the
bread
which we have not earned; without work, we must in the end
be
restless and unhappy; without work, how can we bear to read those
awful
words, “Thou wicked and slothful servant”?
(Matthew 25:26-30)
o
And
the apostle forbids indiscriminate almsgiving. When the Lord said,
“Give
to him that asketh thee” (Matthew 5:42), He did not mean to
the idle and
the worthless. Give freely, but give to the old, the sick,
the helpless. It is a difficult thing to give rightly;
it needs study,
thought,
prayer. We must not encourage idleness, but neither must
we allow our
heart to be hardened by the imposture which we meet
so often. Be generous, full of sympathy to the afflicted, but let the
idle
be corrected by the stern discipline of hunger. To give to
such is doubly wrong;
§
it
encourages the slothful in their sinful idleness, and
§
it robs
the really poor.
(v. 11)
o
He repeats his exhortation now. There were busybodies
at
Thessalonica, who neglected
their own business, and busied themselves
with matters which did not concern them, or with curious
questions
which were beyond their reach. It is always so with the idle; the
restless thoughts must find occupation, and
commonly find it
in mischief.
them to themselves; he longs for their
spiritual welfare. He exhorts
them, and that in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, to work with
quietness; not to let excited feelings interfere with the quiet, well-
ordered life of Christian duty; but to eat their own bread, the
bread
earned by honest labor; not to live on the alms of others, when
they might
preserve
a manly, Christian independence.
(v. 13)
Ø
They must not be weary in well doing. There is much to
make Christians
weary; their own helplessness and sinfulness; the
disappointments,
misunderstandings, ingratitude, which they meet with in their work. But
they must persevere in the quiet walk of duty;
they must do good,
seeking no reward save that which comes from our
Father who
seeth in secret. (And who rewards “openly” - Matthew 6:4 - CY - 2022)
Weariness is hard to bear; it will
press heavily upon us at times. We
must un with patience the race that is set before us, looking
always unto Jesus. (Hebrews 12:2)
ON WORK:
LOOK UP SCRIPTURE CH. 3
summarize heavily
·
DUTY ENFORCED BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE PREACHERS.
“For yourselves
know how ye ought to imitate us: for we behaved not
ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat bread for naught
at any
man’s hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day,
that we might
not burden any of you.”
An appeal is made to what was within their own
knowledge and observation. They were aware, without their requiring to be
told, that there had been nothing disorderly in the behavior of
the
preachers among them. They had practiced what they had taught. They
had
been an example in all particulars of the order of which they
had been the
medium of delivery. Special reference is made to their being an
example of
independence acquired by manual labor. It could not be said of them
that
they had eaten bread for naught at any man’s hand. They had
eaten bread
in labor and travail, working night and day, to be raised
above the point of
being burdensome to any of them. Very similar language is used
in the First
Epistle. “For ye remember,
brethren, our labor and travail: working night
and day, that we might not burden any of you.” The thought there is that,
by their having adopted this course, they were placed above
all suspicion of
selfishness. They were only givers to the Thessalonians, as mothers to
their
infant children. We are here told what led to their supporting
themselves by
the labor of their own hands. It was the consideration of
example. In the
excitement into which the
announcement of the coming, there had been early observed a tendency to
neglect the duties of their worldly calling, which could only result in their
making themselves a burden. To counteract this tendency, they had thrown
the influence of their example into the scale of industry. As
they were not
burdensome to the Thessalonians, let none of them be burdensome to
any.
“Not because we
have not the right, but to make ourselves an example unto
you, that ye should imitate us.” As preachers they had the right to be
maintained by those to whom they ministered. In preaching they were as
much labouring —
giving out their strength, even the
strength of their
bodies — as
when they were tent making, or engaged in
other manual
labor. And,
according to the principle which is brought in elsewhere, the
laborer is worthy of his hire. In certain circumstances they felt free to accept
of maintenance from those among whom they labored, and thus to give
their
whole strength to spiritual work. Even at Thessalonica they felt free to
accept of a gift from the
of maintenance from the
necessary, by their example, to encourage among them a spirit of
independence in connection with diligence in performing the duties of
their worldly calling.
·
DUTY ENFORCED BY THE PLAIN MANNER IN WHICH THE
PREACHERS HAD TAUGHT. “For
even when we were with you, this
we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat.” (People
who will not work are a burden to modern society. That could be remedied
right quickly if those who don’t work don’t eat. Entitlements are a dead
end street. CYH - 2022) In the First
Epistle it had been said, “And that
ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your
hands, even as we charged you.” The Thessalonians are now referred
back, beyond that point, to the time when the preachers were
with them.
In prescribing starvation as the remedy for the shirking of labor,
Christianity has a certain
aspect of severity. And yet, in this respect,
Christianity is only sanctified common sense. There may be
doubt in particular cases whether a man has the
ability to work or the
opportunity to work. But there can be no doubt of
this, that if he has the
ability to work and the opportunity and will not work, then
he should be
allowed to starve. That is to say, let the struggle go on
in him between
hunger and indolence. There
is no call for our interposing in the name of
Christian charity, which needs
to be salted with salt, if it would not lose its
flavor. We may expect that the struggle will end in hunger gaining
the
mastery over his indolence. And there will be an experience gained which
may make him a profitable member of society for the time to
come. It is
well that the Christian rule is so plainly laid down. For there
is a false
spiritualism that looks with skepticism at labor. It has even been
attempted to
throw a Christian halo around idleness in the order of the
mendicant
monks. But there is a sensible practical tone about Christianity
which must
commend it even to those who are not in sympathy with its central
teaching. We do not need to engage in our worldly business with a
grudge,
as though all the time gained to the body were lost to the
soul. We may feel
free, with Paul and Silas and Timothy, in labor and travail, to
work night
and day, that we may not be burdensome to any. There is indeed
danger,
and very great danger, of our going over to the other side,
and neglecting
our spiritual duties, becoming worldly in our business. But
that is to go
beyond the intention of Christ. He means that, by attention to
our spiritual
duties, we should be fitted for our worldly
duties. He means that we should
be mindful of Him, and loyal to His laws
in our worldly duties. He means
that, through the right performance of our
worldly duties, our highest
spirituality SHOULD BE PROMOTED. And
blessed is he who can work
out this problem aright in his life.
·
OCCASION FOR LAYING DOWN THE DUTY. “For we hear of
some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are
busybodies.” There were
some, the few among them, who did not observe
the order given by the Lord. Specially, they did not
observe the Lord’s
appointment of labor.
They are described as
working not at all. They were
not idlers pure and simple, to begin with.
They did not work, because they
thought the coming was already commenced. They
were really in a high
state of tension. And, as their energies
were not allowed scope at all within
their proper work, they had to find scope in
work beyond. This is brought
out in the Greek as it cannot so well be
brought out in the English
translation. It is literally, and in a paradoxical
way, “working nothing, but
working beyond.” They did not busy themselves with work that belonged
to them; they even energetically busied themselves in a
meddlesome way
with work that did not belong to them.
·
THE DISORDERLY BRETHREN ADDRESSED. “Now them that are
such we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with
quietness
they work, and eat their own bread.” The Lord’s authority and suasion is
brought to bear on them as a class. It was not sufficient excuse
for them
that they took the Lord’s coming to be imminent:. Even though
their
impression had been well founded, they were not therefore justified
in
freeing themselves from the Divine ordinance. If we knew when
definitely
we were to die, it would still be our duty, our strength
being continued to
us, to work up to the very last moment. That would be in the
way of
preparing for our change. So they should rather have thought of
being
called away from their ordinary work by Christ at His coming.
They would
thereby have saved themselves from much sinful; and disquieting
speculation and intrusion into what did not concern them. When we work,
and work with all the might of our nature, within our own
proper sphere,
we can have the accompaniment of quiet. We
can have restlessness
banished from our mind; and we can avoid the
annoyance that comes from
meddling with the affairs of others. When we work, too, with a diligent
hand, we are put in a position of honorable independence. We do not need
to be a burden upon others. We can eat our own bread, eat
what we have
earned by the sweat of our brow. To orderliness, then, in the form of
attention to the duties of their worldly calling, with all the
weight of the
Lord’s authority, with all the
charm of the Lord’s persuasion, the preachers
sought to bring back the few among the Thessalonians who had been
disorderly.
·
THE CHURCH ADDRESSED AS RIGHT MINDED. “But ye,
brethren, be not weary in well doing.” From the way in which the Church is
addressed, it can be seen that the right minded from their numbers
were
properly represented. From the context, “well doing” is to be understood
in its less restricted sense. Those were doing well, in honoring the
Lord’s
appointment of labor. The position in which they were placed was trying.
It was hard for them to work on
amid all the excitement that prevailed,
especially if they themselves had the impression that the coming was
impending. What need was there for work, when a new order of things
was
being introduced? Was it not more commendable to lay down their tools
and devoutly wait for the heavens being opened over them? By
this
unsettling influence some of their number had been carried away. And
the
position of matters was aggravated by the support of these
unprofitable
members being thrown upon the Church. All the more honor, then, to
them, the right minded, that, amid temptation, they held to the
old order,
that they thought it the right thing to labor on diligent]y,
till they actually
heard their Lord’s voice on earth commanding them to cease from
labor.
Let them not weary in following an upright course. When an upright man
sees his unscrupulous neighbors taking many an advantage which
in his
conscience he is not free to take, he is tempted to ask what
advantage there
is in uprightness. But, though the disadvantages were a
hundred times
greater than they really are, it would still be our duty to follow the
Divine
leadings. Let
us not weary in the path that leads to God and life. There is
nothing that is in the end wearying and wearing out but a mind that is
conscious of wrong doing.
·
FURTHER SPECIFICATION OF THE COURSE TO BE
FOLLOWED WITH THE DISORDERLY BROTHER. “And if any man
obeyeth not our word by this Epistle, note that man, that ye have
no
company with him, to the end that he may be ashamed.” The right minded
being numerous could act in the name of the Church. The disorderly
brother could be called before them, or before a court
representative of the
Lord’s authority in the Church.
In some way his attention was to be
specially directed to the part of the letter which pertained to him.
And
obedience was to be demanded of him to what was laid down in the
letter.
The ground was taken from under
the position he occupied by the
announcement that the
coming was to be preceded by an apostasy and the
revelation of the man of sin. That put the coming into the distance, and
gave an aspect of stability to the old order of things,
including the six days’
labor of the fourth commandment. But it was not easy to get rid
of all the
false excitement at once. And the habit of idleness had to be overcome, so
far as it had been formed. Against these hindrances the
authority of the
teachers was to be brought to bear. If after trial he persisted in
neglecting
to work, then the course to be followed was to note that man,
and have no
company with him. He was to be dealt with even as others who are
mentioned in l Corinthians 5: “But now I write unto you not to keep
company if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or
covetous, or
an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one,
no, not to eat.” (I
Corinthians 5:11) The idler among them was to be a
marked man
(Isn’t it strange how evil does not want to be ostracized for
their behaviors, even to the point of psychologically attempting
to give
them false self-esteem.
- A ploy of the National Education Association -
CY - 2022) even as the greater
offender; the whole sentiment of the Church
was to be brought to bear against his idleness. They were not
to have free
social contact or
companionship with him. They were not to admit him
into their privacy. (It is
called “peer pressure” - CY - 2022) They were not
to invite him to their houses, to contribute to his support,
or in any way to
show him countenance in his disorderly course. They were to
do this with a disciplinary end in view, viz. to shame him out of his
idleness. It was a shame for a man, being
able-bodied, to be idle and to
throw himself as a burden upon others. It was especially a shame in a
Christian, who was surely not to
be behind his heathen neighbor in the
ordinary duties of life. By producing in him a feeling of shame his
amendment would be secured. However, Caution has to be observed.
“And yet count him
not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
They were not to take the
extreme step of cutting him off altogether from
Church fellowship. He was not hopelessly removed from
good. There was
nothing decisive against the reality of his Christianity.
They were therefore,
while withdrawing from him, to acknowledge him as a
brother, giving him
to feel that, on returning to orderliness, they
would welcome him back to
freedom of the Christian family. There is a rule laid down here for our
guidance in Christian society. We are only to have free interaction with
those who are at one with us in the great essentials
of the Christian faith
and life. We are not to be on easy terms with those of
whose sentiments,
or of whose mode of life, we cannot approve. That would
be to tolerate
their sentiments, to tolerate their conduct, and thus to
compromise
our
position and open up the way for our own deterioration. It would also
be to encourage them in their position and prevent their amendment.
Our duty is to withdraw from them, so far as
it is necessary to conserve
our own position, and so far as it is necessary to convince them that we
do not countenance them in their position. But
we are not to go to the
extreme of bearing ourselves toward them as though they did
not belong
to the Christian circle.
We are not to treat
them as enemies. But we are
to perform toward them the brotherly duty of trying
to remove sin from
them, so as to open up the way for the restoration of all suitable
Christian fellowship. It is to be feared that many Christians are not
sufficiently careful as to those with whom they freely associate.
They look to position, to
convenience, to companionableness, to
sympathy in smaller matters, and not so much as they should do to
the
great ends of relationships. There are even those belonging to
the Christian
circle against whose ideas and conduct it is necessary for us to
protest.
When they are habitually
worldly, or unsettling, or uncharitable, or
unbrotherly
in conversation, or given to intemperance, even as we love the
order which Christ approves, and as we would not be partakers
with them
in their sins, we must withdraw from them, while not, in moral cowardice,
shirking the duty of speaking out what we think
and admonishing them for
their good.