In this sermon, the preacher shares a personal experience of encountering a young girl who had been attending the church services consistently. The preacher emphasizes the importance of focusing on the word of God rather than worldly distractions. He warns against being deceived by false prophets and encourages believers to stay rooted in the Bible. The preacher also expresses his disagreement with the portrayal of people who reject the gospel being saved in the "Left Behind" series.

2 Thessalonians chapter number 2 and verse number 1. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 1. Paul is writing, he says, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 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. 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. 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. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? Now ye 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 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 of unrighteousness, and them that perish, because they received 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 they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. I want to preach tonight, and I hope you'll pardon the English by way of a title just a little bit, but tonight I want to preach from 2 Thessalonians 2 on this subject. You ain't seen nothing yet. Thank you very much. You may be seated. Let's bow our heads in hearts and pray, and see what the Lord will do in our midst tonight. Father, please help me as I preach the Bible. And sure as I'm standing behind this pulpit tonight, I know this is the text that you've asked me to preach, and so I pray that I would be obedient and yielded to the Spirit of God. I pray that you would empty me of myself, you would fill me with the Spirit of God, you would help me as I preach, you would help these, my friends, this congregation as they listen. And, oh, dear God, if there be one here tonight who has never been saved by that glorious love that we heard sung about tonight, I pray, Father, that you would convict them desperately. And even during this sermon, they would be miserable until they get their heart right before God. And, Father, tonight I pray for God's people that you would stir us, that you would convict us, and, Lord, that you too also would change us. Father, use the Word of God tonight in a very special way. We'll thank you for everything that you'll say and do, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. If you study the writings of the Apostle Paul, you will find out he was a man that was consumed with Bible prophecy. He was a man that was consumed with talking about the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's something you must understand whenever a preacher preaches on the second coming of the Lord Jesus. The second coming basically entails everything from the rapture through the millennial reign. We're talking about the battle of Armageddon, we're talking about the marriage of the Lamb, we're talking about the rapture itself, we're talking about the judgment seat of Christ. All of that is included in the second coming. I am not necessarily preaching on the format of the second coming tonight. Although 2 Thessalonians 2 deals some with that, but mostly it deals with the rapture of the church or the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon to figure out that when the Apostle Paul writes all of his New Testament books, 14 of them, if you believe he wrote the book of Hebrews, and I do, but if you study his writings, it will not take you long to figure out he was consumed with one thing, Jesus Christ is coming again. The Bible says in John chapter 14 and verse number 3, I will come again. Acts chapter 1 and verse number 11, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? This thing Jesus which ye see rising into heaven shall so come again in like manner as ye have seen him go. And then we have the Apostle Paul saying, let your moderation be known unto all men for the day of the Lord is at hand. And when we get to 1 Thessalonians, there is five chapters. When we get to 2 Thessalonians, there are three chapters. You put them together, obviously you have eight chapters, and every one of them have one theme, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a few things tonight in 2 Thessalonians that I would like to share with you as we kind of digest this chapter and kind of expositorily, if you will, go through it together. Look in your Bibles, if you would, please. For sake of an outline, write a couple of things down. They all begin with the letter R, so we'll be on the same page. Verse number 1 and verse number 2 is what I call the rapture. The rapture. Now, please understand, we use the word rapture reverently, but please understand the word rapture is never mentioned in your Bible. Matter of fact, it is a Latin word that means rapier, to snatch away or to kidnap. And thank God one day, like a great electromagnet, Jesus Christ is going to kidnap me out of the cesspool of this world. And so here in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, notice what Paul is telling these people. He's writing them. They were concerned about some things, and so the apostle Paul, as he did much of his ministry, he fixed bad doctrines. He said, now we beseech. The word means beg, please, pray, urge. Now, we beseech you, brethren. Who's he talking to? He's not talking to wicked people. He's talking to God's people. Now, we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, notice the phrase, and by our gathering together unto Him. That is the same phrase that we use in 1 Thessalonians, the snatching or the calling away. So he says, I beseech you by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not too shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ, the day of Christ is a reference to the tribulation period, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by notice any means. For that day, speaking of the tribulation day, the day of Christ, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. And so, number one, the apostle Paul begins to doctrinalize with these people, if you will, about what we refer to reverently as the rapture or the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, please understand something about the rapture. We as Bible believers have a big fancy word that we call eminence. It simply means that there are no signs that have to be fulfilled for Jesus Christ to come again. At any moment, He can split the eastern sky and before you can blink just like that, you and me will be out of here kicking up glory dust on the streets of gold. There's not one sign that has to be fulfilled. There's not one thing that has to take place. All the signs in Matthew chapter number 24 point to His coming back to the earth, but here, ladies and gentlemen, we're not preaching in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 about His coming to the earth. We're preaching about His coming to the clouds and our gathering together unto Him. And so, I believe that any moment, Jesus Christ could come again. He may come in 50 years. I'll be honest. He may come in 50 days. He may come in 50 minutes. Or He may come in 50 seconds. But the theme of the New Testament is lift up your head, your redemption draweth nigh, and at any moment, Jesus Christ may come again. You say, well, preacher, you can't prove that He's coming tonight. That's right, but you can't prove that He's not, so you better live like He's going to. And so the Apostle Paul wrote these people and explained to them the rapture, but there was a problem. You know what the problem was? Somebody had written to the church at Thessalonica. Go to your Bible. They had written them, and they had signed the name of the Apostle Paul to that letter. They were heretics. They were liars. They were false prophets, just like the liars, heretics, and false prophets we have of the day. As a matter of fact, Pastor was saying a moment ago that when the devil fell out of heaven, he fell into a choir loft or on a piano or on an organ. Well, I've been in a few churches where I think he fell in the pool pit. And I do believe there's some heretics and some prophets and some false prophets in the land. And so here the Bible says that the Apostle Paul is telling them, do not be shaken in your mind. Do not be shaken in your spirit. He says, neither by word, notice, nor by letter, as from us. Somebody wrote them a letter, signed the Apostle Paul to it, and told them that the Thessalonians in church had missed the rapture and that they were then living in the tribulation period. So Paul wrote back to them with all the compassion that he could muster up. And I'm sure he was a little bit flustered and his danger was up at those false prophets. And he wrote back and said, don't let them shake you. Don't let them quake your faith. You stand firm upon the principles, the standards, the convictions, and the fundamentals of the word of God. He said, because you are not living in the tribulation period, because God's people will be delivered from such a terrible time on this earth. He said, as a matter of fact, before that day can ever take place, there must first come a falling away. The word falling away is the Greek word apostasia. It means a departing or a going or turning away from the truth. And certainly we see that in the day and age in which we live. I'll just take this one church right here, for example. Every church that's represented tonight, we could say the very same thing. But did you know, Pastor Reynolds, if you had every single member that you've ever had from the inception of the Temple Baptist Church, you'd have to build an auditorium that would seat 5,000 people. But there's been a falling away. Gradually, people leave church. Gradually, people quit reading the Bible. Gradually, people gravitate towards falsehood and wickedness and depravity. And certainly, if there was a falling away in the day of the Apostle Paul, how much more, ladies and gentlemen, 2,000 years later, is there a falling away and apostasy in the day and age in which we live? And so the Apostle Paul wrote to encourage them, to let them know that they were not in the tribulation period, that Jesus Christ had not come, and that furthermore, they didn't even have to worry about the tribulation period because God's people were going to be delivered from such an awful time. Did you know your Bible says in Romans 8 that we've been delivered from the wrath to come? Did you know that it's the same word, wrath, that is translated in Revelation 13? And God poured out His wrath upon the earth without measure. Now, when you men got married, your wife walked that aisle and she had that long wedding gown on. Now, I mean, she was as pretty as a princess, and your heart was about to beat out of your chest, and your eyeballs were bigger than that clock on the back wall, and your knees were knocking back and forth. I mean, it felt like you'd been sucking on cotton swabs for weeks. And that woman comes walking down there, and you thought to yourself, breathe, just breathe, just breathe. And everybody's standing there, and they're all nice and decked out, and you've got the bridesmaids, or whatever they call them people, and you've got your best man, and you've got the ring bearer, and you've got the little flower girl, and you know, the kids are always cute. They never do anything right, but they're cute. And so, you have that wedding, and man, you marry that woman, and I mean, you begin to flutter inside, and he says those famous words, you may now kiss the bride. And you rip that thing off her head, and you lay a great big wet one right there on her lips, and then everything's beautiful, and everything's fine. And you know what? You're so happy, because she's your bride, and I mean, she's pure, and she's holy. What kind of man would you be? If you took her back to the house, and as soon as you got back to the house, you doubled up your fist, and busted her right in the jaw. I mean, knocked her right on the ground, and kicked her in the ribs, and pulled her hair out of her head, and bloodied her nose, and bloodied her mouth, and took one of her high-heeled shoes off, and just about beat her to death with it. What kind of man would you be? I'll tell you what kind of man you'd be. If you ever hit your wife, you're lower than a snake's nail in a wagon track. I'll tell you that right now. A man that'll beat his wife, I'll tell you, he's wicked as a devil. He's wicked and vile and ungodly, and he don't have any of God in him. I don't care how long you've been in church. You've beat your wife, you're crazy as a devil. And so, let's say you went home and beat her to death. You say, preacher, I would never do that. Okay, then please tell me why you think Jesus is going to do it to His bride. You think He's going to marry His bride and beat her to death with a high-heeled shoe? You think He's going to let the antichrist bloodier your jaw? And you think we're going to have 666 on our foreheads? Hey, before I got saved, I smoked a lot of dope, but I've never been that stupid. I wouldn't believe that crash before I got saved, and I certainly ain't going to believe it tonight. I am not going through the tribulation period. Now, I've met some fundamental Baptist preachers who don't agree with me, but I'm not interested in agreeing with Baptists. I'm interested in agreeing with the Bible. I'm not going through one day of the tribulation. I'm not going through three seconds of the tribulation. And if you think you're going through three and a half years, don't get your boots on. You're going through the last three and a half years. I'm not going through any of it. And Paul said, Thessalonians, don't you worry one wee little bit. You ain't going through a bit of it. Not one single bit of it. And so he told them about the rapture, which, by the way, is not a blasted hope. The Bible calls it a blessed hope. Why is it a blessed hope? Because one day, we're getting out of here. One day, the trumpet's going to sound. And I like to hear him play the trumpet. And he's trying to teach me, and I emphasize the word trying, to teach me how to play the trumpet. But I'm going to tell you what, as much as I love to hear Brother Noel Robertson play that trumpet, one day somebody's going to play that trumpet, and it's going to be right on note, right on key, and buddy, I'm going to hear every bit of it, and I'm going to be up and out of here before you can say hallelujah, amen. Gone. One one thousand. That's crooked. You can blink your eyes. You're gone here one moment, gone the next. You say, you really believe all that fairytale business? You better believe, I believe. Somebody told Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., they said, we think you live in a dream world. He said, well, if I'm dreaming, bless God, don't you pinch my cheek and wake me up because I'm having the time of my life. And if you think I'm living in a fairytale land, that's fine, brother, but I'll guarantee you one thing, I will be happy never after one day. He encouraged them by preaching to them about the rapture, the gathering together, the snatching away of the blood of Christ. I believe that just as sure as this pulpit's made out of wood and just as sure as this section needs to be nailed down, amen. I believe that Jesus Christ is coming again tonight. And I know it's kind of trite just to say it, Jesus is coming again, but guess what? He is coming again. I love the simplistic truths of the Word of God. Jesus Christ is coming again and it could be at any moment and that's why I want to live right. That's why I want to live holy. I don't want to be caught dead in a place I shouldn't be, doing something I shouldn't be doing with somebody I should not be with. Hey, I want to be caught faithful because Jesus said, when I come back will I find any faith on the earth. And He's not talking about defaith, He's talking about the faithfulness of His people. I want to be found faithful in the eyes of my Savior when I stand at the judgment seat of Christ. Much more could be said, but we've got to hurry, look in your Bible please now at verse number three again. 2 Thessalonians chapter number two and verse number three. Number one, we've seen the rapture, but secondly, please write down what I call the revealing. The rapture and the revealing, verse three. 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. Notice His revealing. Who opposes and exalteth himself above all that is called God. Oh, that is worship. So that he has God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Now by the way, I want to remind you, the tribulation is not for the church, it is for the Jewish nation. The Jews do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. That is why they will believe this man is God because they will think he is the Messiah. So when he sets himself up as God, they will worship him as God. Now no doubt, not only is it a time of Jacob or Israel's trouble, because the church is not going to be around, not one bloodlust born again, child of God will be left behind. Not one. And so when God pours out His wrath, which by the way the Bible says without mixture, and I believe that speaking of the mercy of God, there's going to be no mercy drops mixed in that wrath. It's just the unadulterated wrath of God being poured out upon this earth. It is not only for the Jews, but it's also for the Gentiles, the Gentile nations, who have never heard a clear presentation of the gospel and we will deal with that tonight at the conclusion of our sermon in just a few moments. But the Bible says this man will set himself up as God and notice what he does when he does that. Verse 5, Remember ye not, Paul said, 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. You see, ladies and gentlemen, the simple kindergarten fact of the matter is that when all of this takes place, when thousands, yea, millions of people immediately spontaneously disappear, somebody's going to have to give an answer for the mess that's taken place. And there will be a satanically energized superman by the name of the Antichrist who steps on the stage. Many people come to me and they say, Brother Lockwood, what do you think about the seven heads and the ten horns, and what do you think about the dragon, and what do you think about the beast, and you know, what does this represent? I'll be honest with you, I don't know who the Antichrist is. I don't really necessarily know where he's coming from. I've got my ideas. I don't know if he's alive today, but because I've got good news for you, Temple Baptist Church, I'm not looking for the Antichrist, I'm looking for Jesus Christ. I don't care what he looks like, what he smells like, and he can wear the best clothes in all the world that money can buy, but I'm not going to see the joker that doesn't make any difference to me whatsoever. I'll not be under his reign, I'll be under the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he will be revealed in his time. And this satanically energized superman comes out of the Bible in Revelation chapter number 6. The Bible says he's riding on a white horse. Please understand, that is not the same rider of the white horse as it is in Revelation chapter 19, that is Jesus Christ. You say, well, why is he on a white horse? Because I want to remind you, he's an Antichrist. He's a mimic. He's a chameleon. He can fit in with any crowd out there. And the Bible says when he steps on the scene that he has a bow. Revelation chapter 6 studies sometimes. He has a bow in his hand. Why does the Bible say that he comes forth on a white horse with a bow in his hand? I'll tell you why. Because the bow was a symbolization of how he's going to conquer the world. But you'll notice it had no arrow. Because he's not going to conquer the world through war. He's not going to conquer the world by dropping A-bombs. He will conquer the world around a conference table. He will be an economic, a religious, a political, a governmental genius. He will be the Don Juan Suave of mystery. And this satanically energized Superman is not coming on a platform of war. He is coming on a platform of peace. And Daniel 9.27 triggers the tribulation period. I used to read my Bible and I used to preach when I first started preaching that immediately when Jesus comes again, the tribulation starts. That's not true. You read Daniel chapter number 9, verses 26, 27, and 28, and you will find out that the rapture does not trigger the tribulation, but the Antichrist making a seven-year covenant with the Jews triggers the tribulation. And so he tells the Jews, you can worship God in the temple. He tells the priests, you can dress the way you want to, walk the way you want to, talk the way you want to. He reinstitutes the sacrifice there. He rebuilds the temple. He starts bringing the world together in that one world global economy. And they set him up as the high man, if you will. He'll be the president, not of the United States of America. He'll be the president, the prophet, and the pope of the world. The Bible says the nations of the world will bow down before him. And for seven years, he will make a covenant of peace with the Jews. And you hear every time he comes out of this preacher's mouth, they've never had peace in their life. And that will be false peace. They will be crying, peace, peace, and sudden destruction shall come upon them, Psalms chapter number 36. There will be no peace until the prince of peace, the king of kings and Lord of lords, comes back to rule and reign for a thousand years in Revelation chapter number 19. And for seven years, this revealed one sets up a covenant of peace. Ladies and gentlemen, after the first three and a half years, he commits what the Bible calls the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet. And he goes into the very temple, the very place where the Jews consider to be holy. And as Antiochus Epiphanes, back years and centuries ago, offered a vow on the altar for four hundred years, the temple was enclosed because it was a disgrace and he had depraved the very altar. And so this man will set himself up, declare himself to be God in the very temple, commit the abomination of desolation. And that's when Matthew chapter... Because after the first three and a half years, which by the way are bad, water turns to blood, famine and inflation. You read Revelation chapter number 6, that whole chapter, you know what you find out? You got a white horse, you got a black horse, you got a red horse, you got a pale horse, and not one of them does anything good for this human race. Inflation and taxes. You think gas has been fluctuating? No, you wait for the tribulations here, it'll cost you $27 a tank, friend, or $27 a gallon. Bread will probably cost about $12 or $15 a loaf. I mean, it'll go through the roof. The Bible says, if we estimate the amount of people that are living now, that will be living then, the Bible talks about one-fourth of the population dropping stone-cold dead. And that's just the first three and a half years. After that three and a half years, the Bible says that God's wrath will be poured out without measure, and that man will begin to slay all of those who will not take the mark, and you won't be able to buy, and you won't be able to sell, you won't be able to go to Walmart, they'll take your kids away, they'll remove your social security number, they'll take your house away, they'll take your car away, they'll take away everything that you have. And some smart aleck says, well, I'll tell you one thing, brother-in-law, I've got enough sense to know that I won't take that mark during the tribulation period. Sometimes we're on the road and we like to go to a theme park. And you go to a theme park and you know you pay $25, $35, $45 to get to the theme park. About four, five, six, seven, eight hours of time, and after about the first two or three hours, I'm out of that place. That's all they got is roller coasters. And bless God, I don't like a one-up. I never have. I never have. I like them, drive them, and so on. They're smiling right now and I don't even look at them, and I don't like roller coasters. But you know what you do when you go over there to them places? We used to go to Opryland. You know, God pity my soul, I've been to Disney World before, but you know you go to Disney World or something like that, Dollywood, guess what they do when you walk in and tell your mother you stamped your hand? You know what that means? That means when you go out, they better see that mark and when you come back in, they better see that mark. Now you hear me, hear me well. If you think that you're not gonna be somebody that doesn't take the mark when you're starving to death and when you ain't got a vehicle to drive and when they take your kids away, hey buddy, if you'll take a mark for four hours of pleasure in a theme park, I promise you you'll take a mark so you can feed your belly. Oh, I never take the mark. If you're left behind, you will take the mark because God will make you take the mark. He'll make you believe a lie. And this wicked one will be set up. We don't have time to go there, but if you read Revelation chapter 13, it is interpreted by Revelation chapter 17. In Revelation chapter 13, the Bible says that the beast gives this false anti-Christ, which by the way, you have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, if you will. Well, in the New Testament, in the book of the Revelation, you have an unholy Trinity. And here is this beast, and here is this false prophet, this wicked, vile, ungodly anti-Christ. And the Bible says he has power to call fire out of heaven. The Bible says that the beast gives him this power and that one time he has a wound in his head, more than likely he gets shot and tries to be assassinated and he dies and he lays there on the street and then by the power of that satanicness and that ritualism and witchcraft, he's raised back from the dead and the world declares that this man truly is God. Everybody believes the phony, baloney, malarkeyism, if you will, that he spits out and spews to the people like a venomous snake in everybody. But if you read Revelation chapter 17, you know what your Bible tells us? It says that around the conference table, if you will, that the nations of the world should give him their power. Now, I'm not going to preach for the next few minutes to be mean. God knows my heart. I don't want to be that way. I want to be the most spiritual preacher in the face of God. I'm against anything in one world. I'm against one world, everything. Jesus did not come to unite. He said he came to bring us toward. Anything that unites this world back together again is anti-God. And you can tell everybody I said that. You hear me, friends. There's going to be a one world government under this man. That will mean there will be a one world economy. There will be a one world currency. That is why I'm against, you hear me, a one world army. I have never been for the UN and, bless God, I will never be for the UN. If I was in the military, I would drop stone cold dead of a heart attack before I would ever remove American flag from my body and put some stinking UN symbol on me. I ain't fighting for no UN. Some of you liberal Democrats that voted for Bill Clinton, your president, didn't even go to war so don't put your lips out tonight while I'm preaching. I'm against anything and everything that is one world. I'm against all of it. I'm against a one world government. I'm against a one world political system. Now you hear me, I am definitely against a one world religion. And that will be the main platform of this man's message. Now you know, I say this all the time but I'm not real smart but I'm not real stupid either. And I've got enough sense to know that the stage is already being set for this one world religion. It's already coming together. Now if you're in here tonight and you're not a Baptist, you're just as welcome in this building as anybody else. And I'm not going to heaven because I'm a Baptist. Not that whatsoever. I've told them over at Valley Drive, somebody accused me and said, well, you think only Baptists are going to heaven. I said, you're kidding. Most of them I preach to are lost. But I'm going to tell you something, I'm not going to heaven because I'm a Baptist but I figure since I am going, I might as well fly first class. I'm not preaching Baptist doctrine. I'm preaching Bible doctrine. But you hear me, ladies and gentlemen, this is the honest truth. If a preacher's ever told you and I do my dead level best to tell you with a heart of love, there are two organizations right now that are pulling together to bring what will come about as what God calls the great whore of Revelation chapter 17. It's the two C's. It's the Catholic and the charismatic. I ain't never been an ecumenical preacher and I never will be. It's the God's honest truth. If I've ever told you, I had a man come to me one night and he said, Brother Locke, he said, how would you like to be a nationally known evangelist? I'm going to tell you something. I was 23 years old when he asked me that and I've taken years for a couple little bit. I mean, there's a little bit of area of pride that starts lifting up and he starts telling me you can fill up football stadiums and preach to thousands of people rather than just preaching to some little old church to a hundred people. And I said, well, tell me a little bit more. And the more he started talking, the more I realized I didn't want any part of it. There is no person that speaks in tongues that's going to support my belief. No Roman Catholic is going to give me a dime of their money. I don't want it. I don't care what Jack Vanity says. I don't want a dime of the Roman Catholic's money. I don't want a dime of the tongue slapper's money. I don't want a dime of it. If a person won't line up with what the Word of God says, I'll preach in a rescue mission to five people before I fill up a football stadium and preach to a bunch of people that don't even believe the Bible. Now, I know we get called warmongers and hard-headed and hard-nosed and mean and mean-spirited but I'm going to tell you something. If you think I'm yolking me up with this ecumenical movement, you're crazy as a box of biscuits, friend. There's no way. I ain't yolking up with the Pope. He don't believe what I believe and furthermore, he don't believe what the Bible believes. There's only one city on the face of God's earth that is on seven mountains and in Revelation chapter 17, it is the city of Rome. And the Vatican is the very place where everything is coming together. By the way, if you study history, you will find out that all the Protestants are going right back to Mama. All the Protestants are going back to what they call the Mother Church. That's all your Methodists. That's your Presbyterians. That's your Episcopalians. Now you hear me. I didn't wake up one morning and say I think I'll just be a Baptist for convenience sake. I'm a Baptist for conviction sake and if you can show me anything close to the Bible, I'll yolk up with it tomorrow morning. I'll yolk up with it before I'm through preaching if you can help me. But I'm going to tell you something, I'm not a Protestant. Baptists have never been Protestants. They never have been. They never will be. I ain't never protested nothing. I ain't never come out of the Roman Catholic Church and bless God, I ain't never going back. Before the first Pope ever put a robe on, Baptist preachers were having their tongues cut out for preaching the everlasting gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before John Calvin ever wrote his book, there were Baptist preachers that were running up and down the land and they were having rags jumped down their throats and having their innards ripped out by the Roman Catholic Church and one of the best books I've ever read on the face of God's earth is Fox's Book of Martyrs. You read that book and buddy, you'll go on a bear hunt with a swift. I mean that book will stir you up. But guess what happened last year? I was at the Cold City Baptist Church of Cold City, North Carolina and I went and bought the new edition. The first printing of the new edition of Fox's Book of Martyrs and guess what it's called? The Catholic Trinity Edition. If you're a Catholic here tonight, you're as welcome as any Baptist in this building. You're as welcome as any Baptist in this building and I'm glad you're here. But you are in a religion that is anti-God and the anti-Christ is using the Catholic and the charismatic to bring everybody together. And I ain't never been a part of it and I never want to be a part of it. People don't understand why we give Billy Graham a hard time. I'm going to tell you something, Billy Graham's one more soul to Christ and Greg Lott will ever win. But it's never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right. I'm not having Bishop Pike on my meetings and my platforms when Brother Robertson gets through singing and getting up and praying to the Virgin Mary. You can forget that mass. I've never done that and by the grace of God I never will. And if you ever find that I go that way and start filling up football stadiums by the day D, you take a baseball bat and bash my brain dead. Because God knows my heart, I don't want to have any part of anything that the anti-Christ has a part of. And all these churches coming together nowadays and all of them loving and they all have their little praise and worship choirs and they don't preach the Bible anymore and they let their standards down. Hey, that's why we've got such an argument over the Bible nowadays. They're trying to do away with the whole thing. You see, if they can change the Bible enough, they can make you not believe the Bible is even the Word of God and the Word of Israel is still the thing in a trash can like most fabrics have anyhow and they'll just get rid of it and say, well, it's not relevant anyhow. What big deal is doctrine? That's where you get your promise keepers by the way. Your promise keepers say that doctrine is not important. It's all to get together for the sake of love and for the sake of unity. Hey, I believe in loving people. I believe the local church ought to unify but if you think I'm loving and unifying at the expense of doctrine, no sorry Bob, that's against the Bible. This man's going to bring all the armies together. He's going to bring all the nations together. He's going to bring the currency together. When I was in Africa, you talk about being in a kind of a European area. You know, Great Britain and Europe and all that, they own all of Africa. When I was over there, you know, when the Europeans are at the new part of the year, when they change over their currency, I'm telling you, Africa went up over that. I'm telling you, little bit by little bit, everything's just kind of changing over, starting to set the stage, starting to set the pace. Everything's coming right to the time when it's going to be a new world. This man's going to ring the bell of millions of people and they're going to think he's the best thing since Christ. They're going to think he is honky-donk. They're going to think he's the greatest man that ever walked on the face of God. By the way, he'll be able to perform miracles. People will think this man is God. They will believe that this man is the great power of God. That's why I believe tonight we as Bible believers need to get our noses out of the newspaper and put them into the word of God and we need to keep our prophecy straight and we need to keep our preaching straight and we need to keep these prophets hot and these choir lads hot and we need to keep them shoes warm, not just come and be cold and dead and formalistic. I believe we're living in the last days whereby we're going to have to get faithful and we're going to have to get honest and we're going to have to get humble and we're going to have to serve the Lord because it won't be long we're pulling out of here and the end of Christ can have all of it. He can have all of it. There's a church I've preached in I don't know, probably 15 times. Brother Robinson's been there with me just once and we'll be back this next month. It's a little bit of the old church in Indiana. They have got about $250,000 in the bank that's been there for years and the people won't touch it. They won't touch it. So, Preacher Horton came to me and he said, Oh, he said, Preacher, don't give them their money. I preached on Luke 6, 38 and you got $257,000 in the bank. You better believe I'll preach on giving in your church, amen. Yes, sir, I just bought my travel center about right then and I said, I'll preach it all night long. You owe me, dude. I preached on Luke 6, 38 giving it shall be given, amen. When I was done preaching, I'll never forget what Brother Horton did. He got up and he said, Folks, what Brother Robinson said tonight was the truth. Never heard that word before. He said, It was the truth. He said, You know what's sad about all that money we got in the bank? And I didn't act like I knew anything about it. I didn't preach it. He got $257,000 in the bank and I said, I'll never forget what Brother Robinson said tonight. He said, Folks, what Brother Robinson said tonight was the truth. He said, We got all this money in the bank. He said, We might as well spend it for God because when we pull out of here, the Antichrist is going to use every resource. And I thought, That's exactly right, brother. That's exactly right. He's going to use every resource he has to pull this world. And I want to show you something tonight and I want to get back to your Bible. It's in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Please understand something about this sermon tonight. I've got four points. I've been through two of them and I'm not going to preach much longer. I promise. Don't look at your watch. I'll preach 15 minutes longer just for you. But in other lands, I want you to understand there could be a thousand points given tonight. This preacher up here, he's taught on prophecy more times than I'll ever even dream of. I guarantee you. There's men of God in here. They know more about prophecy than I'll ever know my whole head and heart. There's a lot that could be said tonight. We're just scratching the surface. We barely even skim in the water. But I believe it's important. But look at your Bible and notice what it says if you would please now. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse number 7. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse number 7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. I'll say it does. All you got to do is read the newspaper for that. Only he who now letteth will let until notice. He be taken out of the way. The word letteth is an old English word. It literally means only he who now hinders will hinder until he be taken out of the way. The word let is not the idea of letting you do something but rather he is restraining. He is hindering. He is compressing things together but the Bible says when he that's the Holy Spirit of God when he is removed from this earth then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the brightness and glory of his coming. So we have the rapture, we have the revealing but tonight please understand there's also a restraining. There is a restraining for tonight that is keeping all the minions and devils of hell from overtaking this country. I'll tell you something tonight. I was reading the other day in the newspaper and this is despicable. Robertson started doing little things just yesterday and I think it's a wise thing. Aaron learned something yesterday in Sunday School about the thousand year millennial reign. He came out and said Mama Lang you never told me that before. Sometimes we take for granted what kids can soak up and understand in the preaching. So they told my wife you're going to keep him in the service sometimes and let him hear some of the preaching of Brother Greg because he's always back there with my wife and certainly he learns plenty back there but just get him under some old fashioned preaching but I told them tonight there's a couple of things I'm going to say that I've been reading it's a little bit graphic and so that's why he's not here tonight. And I'm going to tell you something friend we're all adults we can understand this and we can handle this. I'm telling you there are some despicable things going on in America. I mean some of the most godless things on the face of God's earth. I was reading the newspaper just last week when I was over at Valley Drive and you know what I read? In Chicago Illinois there's a 16 year old girl 72 years old. She was in a wheelchair. She couldn't hardly move a leg and she couldn't speak. 72 years old. He, his mother and his sister lived there. Daddy ran out years ago. While his sister was at school and while his mother was at work he cut classes that day, stayed home, beat his 72 year old crippled grandmother to a bloody pulse and raped her dead body. And I read that and I thought that's the most despicable bunch of garbage that ever crossed my eye. Two years ago I was in a meeting in Tennessee and I'll not even tell you where it was. The pastor came to me and he said there used to be a man in our church who's now in prison and he'll be there till the day he dies. Said he was a drunkard. Ran around on his wife but he was a doctor. Here's a man that probably made $125,000, $150,000 a year, drove a Rolls Royce, a Mercedes, lived in a great big house in a nice richy fancy part of Nashville. And so he said this guy's in prison for the rest of his life, he will never get out but he was a drunkard and a fornicator although he was a doctor. One night he was on one of his little drunken spurts but his wife didn't really look at him much and didn't smell him much and didn't look into his eyes and didn't see that glazed lip. And some of you fellas that didn't say that about that crash know what I'm talking about that glazed lip. She didn't notice that and she had to go to the grocery store or Walmart or something like that and he said blah blah blah. He said as sure as I'm standing here that lady got in her vehicle pulled it out and left and said that man in the drunken rampage went back in the bedroom where their two year old baby girl was, took her in the living room and set her down on the couch and put a teddy bear in her hand and heated up the hot poker in the fireplace and burned that little girl's eyes out the back and I'm telling you that's worse than being a reprobate. That's worse than being a sinner, Fred. Even sinners and lost people don't do that crap. I'm telling you that's demonic. That is wicked. That is full of the devil. That is hell itself. You think the newspapers read that kind of mess now, you just wait until the Holy Spirit of God pulls out of you. You wait until the one that's hindering all this mess from falling apart and blowing to pieces, you just wait until the Spirit of God leaves. And by the way, when He leaves, by process of elimination, you can't about the most unadulterated wickedness you could ever imagine. You can't even imagine the fornication. You think we're full of pedophiles now, you wait until the Holy Spirit pulls out of you. You wait until the church pulls out Pentecost and goes to the kingdom of God. You've never seen wickedness life you're going to see in that day if you're left behind. I'm telling you, the newspapers will be full of some of the most despicable stuff you've ever read in your life. I mean, wicked, foul, ungodly, unreframed. I mean, we get together and we play for revival in America because America's in a mess. I mean, how many school shootings have we had in the last month? Your state has had two of them. I mean, people are dying everywhere. Pedophiles are going free. And the whoremongers, and the harlics, and the drug addicts, and the crackheads, I mean, they're killing people and killing themselves. And the NA clinics, and the AA clinics are full. And the dry-out clinics are full. And every hour and 28 seconds, a teenager blows their brains out. I'm telling you, we're living in a wicked day, friends. I mean, we're living in a horrible day. I mean, you pick up the newspaper, and I mean, you almost blush for embarrassment. There is no shame. I mean, you sit around the house and watch Hale's Box Office, and Send to the Max, and David Lettermouth, and Oprah Winback, and the rest of that mess on TV. It won't take you long to figure out we're in a mess, friends. You wait till the Holy Spirit of God leaves, and He's no longer hindering the devil. He's not hindering the anti-clients. He's not hindering these hideous, vile, wicked people on the street. He's not hindering depravity and the sinful. Man left to himself causes shame, and he'll be left to himself in that day, and he'll cause a whole lot of rest, the restraint. He's going to be pulled out of here. The antichrist will be revealed. He'll give all the super-duper answers, and everybody will believe. And that brings me to the last and final point of my message. Look, if you would, please, in verse number nine. Even him, that's the antichrist, who's coming as after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. In them that, notice the word, perish. Why are they going to perish? Why are they perishing? It's the same word perish that's used in John 3, 16. They're not perished, but have everlasting life. But why are they perishing? Well, notice what it says. Because, here's the reason, they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause, because they receive not the love of the truth, and for this cause, God, notice that doesn't say the devil, it doesn't say the beast, and it doesn't say the antichrist. Read your Bible, it says, and for this cause, God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie. Why, pray tell me, dear neighbor, God wants them to believe this lie? Well, at 12, as it may sound, look at verse number 12. That they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. The rapture, the revealing, the restraining. Who is the apostle Paul referring to in this portion of Scripture? You compare the word of God with the word of God. The best commentator on the Bible's not Matthew, Henry, it's the Bible itself. You compare Scripture with Scripture, line upon line, precept upon precept, hear a little, bear a little, and guess what you will find out? Almighty God, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God moved in the apostle Paul, 1 Peter 1.21, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit of God laid it upon the apostle Paul's heart to write that those who knew the truth but would not listen, Jesus Christ smashes this church away from him when the hinderer is no longer hindering, but the Holy Spirit of God goes back to heaven and takes the blood-washed bride of Christ, the church with him. Those who knew the truth but did not receive the truth can never be saved by the grace. I know those people would disagree with me, and that's fine. If there is one thing that I have studied in my Bible is that very thing, because God knows my heart, I want to be right on this more than anything else. And if I'm wrong, you show me a verse of Scripture, and bless God, come on, tonight I'll apologize and preach the Holy Spirit. But as sure as I'm standing here, I believe with all of my heart, if you know the truth of the gospel, the Spirit of God convicted you, and Jesus comes tonight, if you're left behind, not only would you not get saved, you won't even want to get saved, and even if you did, God wouldn't let you. He would not let you. You say, well, that's not the God of the New Testament. I want to remind you, the Holy Spirit of God leaves this earth for the first time since he's been here, and God begins to do things a little bit differently in the book of the Revelation. You may not understand it. You may not know all about it. I may not understand it and know all about it and be able to explain it as a preacher, but I'm going to tell you something. If you tonight have never been saved by the grace of God, if Jesus Christ took His blood-washed bride home to church tonight, if He came in the rapture, and you were left behind, not only would you believe a lie, but God would make you believe a lie, no matter how big it is, and you could never get saved. You'd hear all the preaching you want to. You'd scream, holler, rant, and rave, and kick and swallow, and you can do anything you want to, but you cannot get saved. Now, I know there's a lot of people in here who've been left behind. Seriously, you know what? The other day, I picked one up. I started skimming. It's a pretty good book. I've never seen anything in it, for the most part, that doesn't agree with the Bible, except one thing that I don't care for, and I believe they put it there just because they need to sell the books, and so I understand that. It's a novel. It's not true, and so we can't really jump on their back too hard about it. For the most part, Tim LaHaye has one of the best prophecy Bibles I've ever read in my life. You pick it up sometime, and I'm telling you, it'll stir your soul. Some of the stuff I'm preaching tonight, I got out of that prophecy Bible. If he got out of the Bible itself, but you understand, I borrowed some information. Like Pastor said today, milk everybody else's cats, turn your own butt. And so, but you know, this Left Behind series, I've seen the movie about two or three times, and you know, there wasn't a whole lot of gospel in the movie. I understand there's more gospel in the books, and I know some people that's been saved who've been reading books, and I praise God for it. Hey, you know, say, really, I'm against that kind of business. You know, Paul said Christ is preached in pretense, and some preach him as falsehood. He said, but nonetheless, thank God Christ is preached. People can be saved through reading those books nonetheless. They got Bible verses in them, but the one thing I don't agree with is what I saw in the movie. Here's these people that openly rejected the gospel. Jesus came, and they still got saved. That doesn't happen to them. They make me good novels, and you know, I might sell that at Walmart for $14.95, and that's all fine and good, and golly, well, you can read them, and that's fine, but I'm gonna tell you something. If you get left behind, you're not gonna get saved by the grace of God, because the Bible says, God will make you believe a lie, and because you did not receive the level of truth, you will perish, and you will be damned, according to the word of God. Not only can you not be saved, you will not even have any inclination. You won't even want to be saved by the grace of God. Oh, don't you misunderstand me. You'll know what happened. You know those funny, dirty, funny men of Bible something, that this were right, and it's not that we were right. You'll know that God was right, and you should have listened to what God had to say, because friend, he's coming to you. I give you this, and I'm done. It's two years ago, I was preaching in Memphis, Tennessee, at the great Baptist Tabernacle. I've been there, a great Baptist temple, rather, and I've been there several times, two or three times. One time, I was there for a 14-day revival meeting, had a week in between, but we went back and had a wonderful time, 13, 14 people saved in a week and baptized. That week, I was preaching. The second week, on Wednesday night, I preached on the main event. I looked at my record just yesterday. I preached there on Wednesday night, about two years ago here. It's on the rapture of the Lord Jesus Christ, because believe it or not, the next main event on God's prophetic calendar is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what an event on God's calendar that's gonna be, and I'm looking forward to it. That's why I preached that way that night. Gave the invitation, and two or three people came, nobody was saved, nothing happened, nothing unusual. Well, you know, I'm not a prophet, nor a son of a prophet, and I don't believe in visions, and dreams, and premonitions, and all that kind of stuff, but you know, I just felt in my heart that I need to keep giving invitation. You know, and Pastor said last night, maybe somebody needs to come. God told me to give another birth, and so, Pastor started coming up, and I said, Pastor, I think we just need to sing another verse. And so, we sang another verse. Got about down to the end of it, and there was this dark, complexed little girl. She was about 14 years old or so. She was an Indian woman, and she was sitting there about 14, 15, something like that, sitting long, long, jet black, too, all the way down her back, and she had been every night of the first week, and so far, every day and night of the second week. Now, we're on Wednesday night for the second week. So, I preached on the main event, gave the invitation, felt like God wanted me to continue giving the invitation, And I was looking around. There was only about 45, 50 people there that night, and she was shaking like a leaf on a tree, holding her daddy's hand. His arm was just shaking. You know, he's kind of looking at her like this, and maybe he thought she was sick. I don't know what was going through his mind. I don't know what was going through mine, and so I said, Lord, please make it right. About the time I got that out of my mouth, that little girl popped out of that eye, and I'm telling you, she didn't walk, she didn't strut, she didn't jump, but it, boom, she sprung right down her back. She fell right down on her face. She got on her knees and she started to cry. I walked over there, and I knelt down beside her, and the preacher's wife was there, and the pastor, and other people, and I walked down beside her, and I called her name, it slips me now, but I was there, and I knew her family then, and I said, so-and-so, I said, what in the world is happening to you? She looked up at me in big old tears, well up her eyes, and she said, brother Locke, she said, I was in there in this invitation holding my daddy's hand. She said, I love my daddy more than any man on the face of God, sir. She said, he's the apple of my eye. And she said, I knew if what you preached tonight was true, if Jesus came again, my daddy would be gone, and I wouldn't be holding anybody's hand. But I'd be left. That was a tragic night. Oh, and that girl's heart was broken. She got saved, she got baptized the next night, but I'm gonna tell you something. I know something more tragic than that. You ain't gotta worry about leaving daddy behind. You ain't gotta worry about leaving daddy behind. Because when we pull up 10 states and leave this place, you've just left salvation behind. You'll be left behind with no hope whatsoever. And excuse me, but you ain't said nothing yet. Every head bowed, please, every eye closed, thank you for allowing me to preach my heart tonight, and I know we've covered a lot, and a lot more could be covered. How we desperately need jobs, people to get their hearts right, realizing that Jesus is coming again, and we should beat the bushes to win people to Christ. And I'm not one of these evangelists that preach a sermon like this to scare everybody, but I am one of those evangelists that preach a sermon like this to prepare everybody, that He's coming again, dear friend. Miss Robertson will begin to play in just a moment. Little Robertson will begin to sing. I wanna ask you a question tonight. Are you here tonight without Christ? I didn't ask you if you were wicked, I didn't ask you if you're religious, if you're a church member or not. I didn't ask you what your marital status was. I didn't ask you what your marital status was. Are you saved? That's the question. Are you born again? Have you believed the truth of the gospel of the Word of God? Have you turned from your way and by faith turned to God's way? Have you been saved tonight? How many of you would say tonight, preachers, I know as sure as I'm in this building, I'm not perfect, but I know tonight if Jesus were to come in the next five seconds, I know I'd be going in the rapture. I don't have to worry about being left behind. I'm a blood-washed child of God. Right now, I know that right now. Put your hand up in the air. High enough so I can see it. Keep it up a moment, would ya? Preacher, I know, I know, I know. Please, if you do not know that, don't raise your hand. All right, you may put your hands down. Several hands were not able to be raised tonight and I thank God for your honesty. Maybe some people didn't quite understand. I understand that. Maybe you didn't quite hear, but I believe there's people here tonight who need a touch from God. You need to be saved by God's grace. You honestly, before God, could not raise your hand and I don't judge you for that. I thank God that you were honest enough to admit your need tonight. That's the first step. Now, the next step is being willing to accept the truth that you've heard tonight, to accept the Lord Jesus, because if you don't, if Jesus comes, you will accept the lie of the antichrist. Maybe you're here tonight as a child of God and you've not been living right and if Jesus were to come tonight, you'd be ashamed of the judgment seat of Christ. You know you would. There's things in your home, there's things in your heart, things down at the house, there's things in your mind right now that God's Spirit's convicting you and trying to change you and work on you. And He wants you to be a James 122 Christian, not just a hearer, but a doer also. And maybe there's some things you need to repent about, Christian. Repentance is not just for lost people, it's for God's people. Maybe you need to repent of a few things tonight. I want everybody in the building under the sound of my voice to stand to your feet, if you would, please. Your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed. Child of God, I extend this invitation to you as Brother Robertson begins to sing, you step out, but dear sinner friend, please hear me. If you are not able to raise your hand and say that I know I'm saved, pastor is here, I am here. We'll have a man with a man and a lady with a lady. As others begin to pray, you step right out, you make a beeline and you come and grab my hand, grab the preacher's hand and you let us know tonight that you would like to receive Christ as your Lord and as your Savior. If you don't know Him tonight, please get that settled. Brother Robertson, would you sing for us as He does tonight? Would you come? Would you come? What about it, dear sinner friend? You couldn't honestly raise that hand. Would you come tonight? I beg you, please come. Let us take a Bible and help you with tonight. It would be our joy to love you to the Lord Jesus tonight. Would you come? Would you come? Some are praying tonight. Want it being dealt with? Please, set us free. You've got a different place tonight. What you've heard tonight is the truth of the Word of God. Would you come?