This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're in day three of our
look at 2 Thessalonians chapter two. Today we're looking at verses six to eight.

You might remember yesterday we introduced this guy called the man of
lawlessness. This evil one who would proclaim himself to be God and in the end
be defeated by God, doomed to destruction. Let me read for you what verses six
to eight have to say about this person.

And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the
proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. But the one
who now holds it back will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way.

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow
with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. I think
most of us love that last verse, verse eight, where it talks about Jesus coming
and the splendor of his return. Because I can understand that.

Earlier in these verses there's things that they have us waiting in some deep
water. You know what is holding him back, it says. I read that.

You probably read that and think, no, I don't. I don't know what's holding him
back. The reason we don't know, by the way, is that Paul had talked to them
about this when he was with them.

And now he's reminding them of something he'd already talked to them about. And
it's like we're listening to one side of a telephone conversation. You know,
I've already told you, but we're trying to figure it out from what he's saying
here.

And there are things that we can understand from what he's saying. These are
verses about holding back of this lawless one and the revealing of this lawless
one. And the lawless one, because he's going to come at the end of time, it's
also about the holding back of the end of time and the revealing of God at the
end of time.

When the lawless one is revealed, soon after that, Jesus will be revealed. Well,
let's talk about those two subjects, holding back and revealing. Holding back,
it says here, something is holding him back.

You know, it says, we wonder. The one who holds him back, these verses say, will
continue to do so until he is taken out of the way. So it tells us there's
something that holds him back, until he is taken out of the way.

The literal idea there is until he is removed from the midst. So what is this
restraining force that's holding him back? Well, I would just say to you, no one
knows for sure.

There's some strong interpretations of this, but everyone would say there's some
weakness in every interpretation of exactly what this means. Some people think
that it had to do with that day. It had to do with the Roman Empire.

And somehow the Roman Empire was holding back evil from the Thessalonians.
Others think it's literally one of the emperors in Rome, Claudius, who was
keeping Nero, an evil emperor, from coming to power. Some think of this as the
Church, and that when the rapture comes and the Church is taken out of the
world, that evil is going to be unleashed in the world.

Some people think of this as the Holy Spirit. And when the Spirit's influence is
taken out of the world, Satan will have a greater power to work evil. Now, these
are the verses about which Augustine wrote in The City of God, "I admit that the
meaning completely escapes me.

" And so I will admit that I don't totally understand the meaning here. But most
likely, as I've studied these verses as talking about the Spirit of God, that
when God's Spirit is removed from the world, there'll be a new power of evil at
work in the world. And obviously, God's Spirit is in God's Church.

So this has to do with the rapture and the Church being taken out of the world
also. With all that you might scratch your head at about this, there's a bigger
question here. The bigger question is, why doesn't God just keep holding him
back?

Why doesn't God just keep holding this evil at bay? That same question asked in
a different way would be, why didn't God keep Satan out of the garden in the
first place? Or another way, why does God allow evil at all?

We choose evil, but we couldn't choose it unless God somehow allowed it. So why
doesn't God always hold it back? And the answer is, the answer is to provide us
a choice.

There is no love without choice. And God has allowed evil in this world. I don't
understand all the reasons why.

I wouldn't pretend to understand all the reasons why, but I do understand this.
God has allowed evil in this world, and one thing that it does is it allows us
to choose. I can choose for him, or I can choose against him.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve could choose to follow him, or they could
choose to eat of a tree that God had told them not to eat of. There is no love
without choice, and evil provides us a choice. How does this whole idea of evil
and choice relate to the return of Jesus Christ?

God is providing a choice. He always is. It's a choice that fits the historical
circumstance.

In the garden, he placed a tree and he allowed a snake. In life today, he allows
evil circumstances in this world and in your life. And you can choose the evil
or you can choose God.

And in the end, in the end, he's going to allow a man of lawlessness, an
antichrist, and people will have a choice to follow him, the evil one who
promises so much and even seems to deliver at the beginning, who has power that
is evident. Or they can choose to follow God by faith, the one who is good. The
principle is the same throughout history.

God allows evil, and one of the reasons is to provide a choice. And then it
becomes personal. The question in it all, behind it all, for each of us is, do I
love God?

In light of the reality of evil, am I mad at God? Do I ignore God, or will I
love and trust God? At the end of time, that's the choice that this evil one,
this lawless one, is going to bring to this world.

But right now, I have to make that choice also. One day, by the way, God's going
to do away with all evil. You wonder, okay, he's holding it back, he's going to
allow it.

But that's only for a brief time. One day, he does away with all evil. The only
reason he holds it back for a time is the moment he allows it, it starts the
clock ticking and he's going to do away with all evil.

So why would he wait? He waits. The only reason he waits is to allow more of us
to choose to love him.

Can you imagine how deeply God is hurt by the evil in this world? Sometimes I
hear people talk as if they're hurt by the evil in this world more than God is.
That's a very arrogant attitude.

God is holy. God loves us more than we can imagine. And he hurts over the evil
in this world in ways that we will never be able to experience or explain.

And yet he allows it because he wants more of us to choose to love him. He's
holding it back right now. But one day, these verses say, one day it will be
revealed.

It's interesting, the phrase is, he will be revealed at the proper time. Notice
he will be revealed, he doesn't reveal himself, at the proper time, God's time.
Note here, this man of lawlessness, he's not in control.

He's not in control of the timetable. He is not in control of his destiny. God
is in control.

He thinks he's in control, just like people who are not following God and living
life their own way think they're in control, but they're not. And neither is
this man of lawlessness. He thinks he's in control, but he's not.

And God will reveal him at his proper time. Now, by the way, these verses say
that even now there's a secret power of lawlessness at work. It's not as if
there is no evil in the world until that day.

This secret power of lawlessness is different than the man of lawlessness. It's
the evil that we see in the world today. Secret just means a mystery of,
something that is hidden that will one day be completely revealed.

Even before this man is revealed, we already see evil at work in the world.
That's pretty obvious. What's also obvious is what's going to happen at the end.

The Lord Jesus will overthrow him with just the breath of his mouth. That's all
it takes. If you're afraid of evil, if you're afraid of Satan, just the breath
of his mouth will overthrow all of Satan and all of evil and all of this man of
lawlessness.

You and I who believe in Jesus Christ and trust in him, we have nothing to be
afraid of when it comes to evil. Oh, it may affect our lives today. It may even
hurt us deeply.

But we have nothing ultimately to be afraid of because in the end, he is going
to win out. You see, the point of these verses is not the man of lawlessness.
The point of these verses that we're looking at these few days is not the
rebellion.

The point of these verses is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ will overthrow him with
just the breath of his mouth. And Jesus will destroy him just by the splendor of
his coming.

All Jesus has to do is show up and it's over. The point is Jesus. The point is
God's power.

The point is hope. Let's take a few minutes to pray together. Lord, if we look
at the reality of this world today, we admit that evil is real.

We don't pretend that it doesn't surround us, but we also admit before you
confess before you that you understand it and that, God, you have it in control.
God, you are in control. You're in control of my life.

You're in control of my family. You're in control of human history. You're in
control of eternity.

And God, as we read these verses, we are reminded that Jesus will certainly
triumph in the end. And we hold on to that truth. We hold on to that hope.

Thank you for the truth that God is in control. Whatever I'm facing right now,
whatever you're facing right now, God is in control. And so right now, trust
him.

You may be in a situation that seems hopeless. But there's nothing that's
hopeless in him because he has your eternity in his hand. Trust in him right
now.

Thank you, Jesus, in your name. Amen.