SATAN’S ATTACK ON THE CHURCH(THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY)

Series: WarfareLesson #2

We begin this little series today which has only 3 lessons in it on warfare. We have already covered most of this in our first series “The Conflict.” In “The Conflict” we dealt with what the war is all about, I mean the battle. Why are we in war. Why it will continue until we get to heaven. But I felt that is was very necessary that we look very personally, and talking to some here in the class I realize how necessary that is. It has really become a revelation to the heart. As we talked in this last lesson of some things that you’ve been passing through. So we begin our third and final lesson in this series.

2Thes. 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2Thes. 2:2 That ye 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.

2Thes. 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

2Thes. 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

2Thes. 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

2Thes. 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

2Thes. 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

2Thes. 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

2Thes. 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

2Thes. 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

2Thes. 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

2Thes. 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

I. The Mystery Of Godliness And The Mystery Of Iniquity, Though Opposites They Run Parallel Through The Bible All The Way To The End Time.

1. The mystery of Godliness has to do with God manifest in flesh, the true body of Christ. The mystery of iniquity is the counterfeit of Satan of the true church.

2. These two mysteries are seen in what the Bible calls the bride and the harlot.

3. The harlot makes up the terror and is Satan’s imitation of the real and flourishes in the end time.

4. In our scripture Paul said that a falling away would be one of the signs of the end time. Now this phrase “falling away” comes from the Greek word “apostacia,” which means apostasy. The term “falling away” implies a turning from truth to error. Turning away, they’ve lost the love of truth and turned away to error.

5. Paul said that before Jesus comes there will be an apostate church competing with the real church, and if you judge only by what you see you’re going to be deceived because smart boys of religion have learned how to imitate it. This is a strong delusion whereby many will be deceived. It is imitation by deception.

6. We’re talking about Satan’s attack against the church. His attack against the true church is by imitation - deception by imitation.

7. To Paul their apostasy was a thing of the future. He saw it by the Holy Spirit down the road. But it’s not future with you and I in this room today. You and I have such a church competing with us today.

a. They teach folks how to talk in tongues, they pretend gifts, they’ll prophesy over you anything, any way to manipulate. We have it.

b. The unity people look at all Christianity as one body waiting for Jesus to return.

8. The truth is within what is called the true church. In the church there are two bodies like the tares and the wheat, and they are all mingled together.

9. They who judge by human standards are sure to be deceived.

10. All of the parables of the Bible taught by the Lord Jesus Christ taught us that in the end time there is going to be a separation. We talk about that in the two messages “The Other Half of Pentecost” and “The Convictive Work of the Holy Spirit” how He is going to make us know what we don’t know. There are murderers sitting among us that haven’t took a gun and shot anybody but they’re still there. There’s adulterers

sitting among us that have never got into bed with someone else’s partner but yet in their heart they are that in the presence of God.

11. If we sin there is going to be this separation.

II. The Trademark Of This End Time.

1. The trademark of this end time harlot system will be the giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; itching ears that don’t want to hear the truth is going to be the trademark of this harlot system. That’s already out there. The tares of this age will have it so, heaping to themselves teachers after their own lusts having itching ears.

2. The lusts of the flesh sets the stage for much of what the Pentecostal church believes today.

a. We want somebody to tell us smooth things and tell us how great we are.

b. We want somebody to give us an excuse for what we are.

3. That’s the reason you have this awful doctrine of a generational curse. If that is the truth then there is absolutely nothing about being born again.

4. Some of the biggest names of Pentecost are preaching this, so called Pentecost anyway. They take the Old Testament scripture and they say visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the 3rd and 4th generation. They were not born again.

5. That person born again is created in righteousness and true holiness. God is my father. It doesn’t matter if my mother was a witch and my father a witch doctor. None of that is in me for I am a new creature.

6. Christ was the firstborn of this new race. The Bible says that the Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary, and planted the seed of Christ in that womb. She came from a long lineage and everything was in that lineage. Prostitutes were in that lineage, but the Holy Ghost cut between that baby and Mary and there was nothing of Mary in that baby. And there is nothing of my dad and mother in this new creation. There is no curse.

7. You cannot be demon possessed, if you could then Christ Himself could be. You have to backslide and leave God for that to happen.

8. Any teaching that doesn’t make a holier person is a doctrine of a devil. The text we read says for that will not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin, Antichrist be revealed.

9. I want to clear up some things as we go on because there are folks who run us through the tribulation living here with the Anti-Christ. I know you that know there is going to come a personal Antichrist who will sit in the temple of God in Jerusalem. That is going to happen. God said it would, and for a short time he is going to rule the world, but in our text Paul tells us of this man of sin who will sit in the temple of God. Paul and Peter both make it plain that we believers are lively stones, and as such, make up of that temple of God. I’m not talking about now of that man of sin, that Antichrist as a man, one of them is capitalized and the other isn’t but he is talking about that antichrist of self that sits on this throne in your body usurping the place of God.

10. When Paul wrote that the man of sin would be found in the temple of God he wasn’t talking about a temple of stone in Jerusalem, he was talking about you, in here, in this body.

11. Paul’s message was that when that man of sin is finally exposed he would be found in the church, think about that, not in a bar but in the church.

III. Satan’s Ambition Is To Be In The Church.

1. The man of sin has realized that ambition, now you listen, he’s reeling, he is in the church, according to scripture, before the coming of the Lord Jesus are gathering together unto him that man of sin must be revealed.

2. The word “reveal” means expose, uncover for what he is. That thing that’s in there manipulating causing the church to not love truth, all of that’s going to be uncovered. The covers must be pulled off of him so that every child of God can see what’s really been working in the church and why all of this phony stuff of telling you, you have a snake in you has found its way into a church. All of this kind must be pulled off and uncovered so that we can know what this is all about.

Is. 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Is. 14:13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

Is. 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Is. 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

3. Notice Satan’s ambition to ascend into heaven and to exalt his throne above the stars. Because of this and in that effort he was thrown out of heaven.

4. Now where and what is the mount of the congregation?

Ps. 48:1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

Ps. 48:2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

5. In the Old Testament it is Mount Zion, that is where Solomon built that temple, Mount Zion. In the New Testament, Mount Zion the city of the great king, is the church.

6. We are dealing with the church. Satan’s ambition is to sit on the throne in the church.

IV. Satan Came Into The Church In Moses’ Day In The Form Of A Golden Calf.

Ex. 32:2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.

Ex. 32:3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

Ex. 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Ex. 32:5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.

1. While Moses was up in the mountain with God the people were beginning to murmur, “we don’t know what happened to this man Moses and we don’t know about his God, but we want a god.

2. If you ever leave the golden rule you will wind up with the golden calf. There just isn’t any stopping place till’ you get there or come there.

3. Aaron gave in to the people and built that golden calf. He is exactly what we have today: “You just bring me your gold.” That’s the cry out there everywhere, “Bring me your gold and I’ll give you the kind of God that you want. I’ll make the theology that you want and I’ll fit it into everything.”

4. Aaron said, “If you want a god, bring me your gold.” He built an altar to this idol and said, “These be the gods that delivered you out of Egypt.” Then Aaron made the proclamation, “Tomorrow is the feast unto the LORD.” That word translated “Lord” in the King James Bible is designated with all capital letters because it is the word “Jehovah.” That golden calf wasn’t Jehovah but they called it Jehovah.

5. It doesn’t matter what you name it, it’s not Jehovah. You may call it Jehovah but it’s not. You may call it Jesus but it’s not the Jesus of the Bible.

6. Paul talked about another spirit, another gospel, another lord. All brought in in this mystery of Iniquity, Satan in that church.

7. You can sing He is Lord, but if you are singing before the golden calf then it’s not Jesus. Just because the worship is in a building called a church and you call the object of that worship Jesus it doesn’t mean it’s the Jesus of the Bible.

8. Men have invented a lot of them today. Men have built all kinds of golden calves.

9. If the god you worship isn’t the God of this Bible then it is an idol.

10. During that golden calf episode, God spoke to Moses on the mount and told him the people had corrupted themselves. Moses immediately came down and destroyed that golden calf. This always brings the wrath of the tares to life.

11. You begin to deal with their god and you’re going to find out who they are. You just begin to crush that golden calf and immediately the wrath of that tare is going to come up when you destroy their false Jesus.

12. They react violently. You just watch, when you begin to deal with the false and the thing that’s going on today. We hear all of the time spent on religious talk shows about those people known as “heresy hunters.” That’s what you become when you begin to deal with that which isn’t right.

V. Notice The Action Of Moses After He Destroyed That Golden Calf.

Ex. 33:7 And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

1. The camp had worshiped idols. It was corrupted. Moses moved the tabernacle outside. Every man which sought the Lord had to go out there and find God.

VI. Satan’s Strategy Is To Infiltrate.

1. Now Satan’s strategy is to infiltrate, to become a part of, to corrupt from within. It’s deception by imitation, to get inside and to become a part of it.

2. Satan conducts a fierce organized opposition to the building of the church. It’s called “The Mystery of Iniquity.” Now this mystery of iniquity represents the masterpiece of Satan, which culminates in what the Bible calls “the world church” or “the worldly church” or the ecumenical.

3. Satan’s only antagonism in this age is the church, the body, the bride of Christ. If he can neutralize that church by infiltrating it, setting up those tares, he’s destroyed his only antagonism. He has no problem then. He can run roughshod over the community or the nation. If you don’t believe it then look about you.

4. Some years ago in one of the world’s most prestigious newspapers The Wall Street Journal, one of its banner headlines, not the main one, but a front page headline said, “A Nation In Revival and No Change.” This was about 12 years ago. The writer had stated, “I’ve searched back the history of revival, and every true revival that I can find brought the most radical change to the people that were involved in it and a terrible restraint upon the community. Crime almost stopped. Things came to a halt. Things turned around. But today’s revival,” he said, “in America has no effect on the people involved in it, and totally zero effect upon the nation.” That wasn’t a preacher that was a newspaper writer that didn’t even profess to know God, but he had a look at what was happening.”

5. Those tares, the mystery of iniquity, are his strategy of resistance to truth and the building of the true church. The program of Satan has always been deception by imitation, to imitate the real.

VII. Since The Mystery Of Iniquity Is To Be The Masterpiece Of Satan, You And I Can Well Expect That Deception Will Become More Deceptive As This Age Closes. It’s Going To Become More Of An Art Form As This Age Closes.

1. We have then the divine sphere of supernaturalism operating in the earth known as the mystery of godliness, and a sphere of diabolical supernaturalism operating in the same earth as a counter movement known in the Bible as the mystery of iniquity. The one heads up in the bride of Christ and the other heads up in the harlot system of Revelation 17.

2. Whenever a man of God succeeds in building a local church, that at once becomes a scene of Satan’s most fierce activity. If that church resembles in the least the reality of God, I’m telling you Satan is going to be there, he’s going to come. A supernatural work begins, diabolical but supernatural.

3. But a second thing happens that we are not so aware of, it is a startling revelation that the children of the devil are likened unto tares, which means they look and act like the children of God. That’s a startling thing. Jesus said that they look and act like that.

4. Though deception is to become more deceptive. Look how it was in the beginning of the age, the tares looked just like the wheat. You couldn’t tell the difference. But yet we know it’s going to become more fierce, more artful, more deceitful as the end comes.

5. Deception then means imitation, and imitation is the art of counterfeiting. It is startling to see how well this program is working. Children of the devil profess to be children of the kingdom and in outward ways they look so much like the true children that only the angels of God can separate them in the final analysis.

6. So great is Satan’s power of deception that the tares often really suppose themselves to be children of God. They’re even deceived into believing it.

Mat. 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Mat. 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Mat. 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

7. Hear what God has to say: “If it were possible the very elect would be deceived” (Mat. 24:24; Mk. 13:22). The very elect if it were possible. That’s how deceiving it’s going to be in this end time. They’re going to learn how to do these things. In fact they are not just going to, they have.

8. We have watched all through the last the last two and a half decades especially, men feigning miracles, pretending the Holy Spirit. When I for the first time saw men teaching other people how to talk in tongues I said to my wife, “We are going to return to the Dark Ages.”

9. All along the line this working of this ecumenical, this putting together of all of the dead religions meant nothing, it was just an amalgamation of all those dead relics of the past, it was nothing, but today it is different.

I was preaching in the sixties. I said, “The day this thing takes on a Pentecostal flavor it will go straight to the demonic.” Then I saw a man teach another man how to talk in tongues and I said to my wife, “The black priest craft of Egypt will be shown again in the church.” I was in line, I was prophesying, I saw it happen. I’ve saw the same things weave their way into that body of Christ.

10. You cannot play with that Holy Ghost. You cannot toy with and manipulate God.

11. God said, “You may say something about the Father and get away with it. You may say something about the Son and be forgiven, but this Holy Ghost, He is the final revelation of God, and you cannot talk about Him and receive any hope in this world or the world to come.

12. The mystery of iniquity, that deception by imitation, tares, agents of darkness worshipping in our altar and we don’t know the difference. How much of it is real? You know we don’t realize how that can happen.

13. When you read the story of David and Bathsheba and the man Urijah, what an honorable man he was, David gave him his own death warrant in an envelope and knew he’d never open it. David had took that man’s wife while that man was at war. He then brought that man home trying to cover up his own crime, and the man was so honorable he wouldn’t even go into his own house while his brethren were out there at war. David then had to get rid of him so he sent and had him murdered.

14. Now there had to be a year pass before Nathan ever put that finger on end of his nose. That baby was born and that baby died before Nathan ever came. So there must have been at least a year went by before Nathan ever came to David.

15. But did you know that David was in that house of God. A murderer and an adulterer praising and worshipping the Lord. He said, “Great is this God,” carrying right on.

16. How much of that is going on in the house?

17. It will continue until we come back to where we know this Holy Ghost isn’t optional with any man. He alone knows what’s going on, He alone must again become the overseer of the house of God.

18. That mystery of iniquity, tares that look and act like we who are birthed of God, talk in tongues just like us, worshipping in our altars, yet they’re agents of darkness.

19. God help us. We are in a war, and that war is not all that you see. It’s not snuff and tobacco, it’s demons that have come inside, sit on our pews, look like we do, act like we do, talk like we do, and their whole intent is to make this church a product of darkness.