The message is we need to find our comfort in Christ. Everything is happening under His control and we need to trust Him. He is in control of everything. He gives people according to the desires of their heart. Even a false version of Christianity chasing after signs, and wonders, and miracles, if that is what they want.
Transcript
Today we are continuing in II Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 6 through 12. This will be part two, as we took verses 6 through 8 last week. This week we take more important verses, verses 9 through 12 will be our focus this morning.
Remember that in chapter 1 Paul gave instruction concerning afflictions. The trials and hardships and afflictions are part of the walk with Christ because they are Christ’s sufferings. And those who suffer the sufferings of Christ and afflictions for Christ are those who He said were worthy of the kingdom. So we are living in an age where more and more you hear religious messages and religious teachings trying to help people get rid of hardship, when the Bible says hardship is part of the walk with the Lord. It is through those trials that we grow in Christ, we learn how to trust Him.
But some had come into Thessalonica and had told them that their sufferings were not normal and that they were in the judgment period. The seven-year period known as The Day of the Lord or The Tribulation Period. During that time they said God’s judgment will be on all the people who call themselves Christians. And Paul is saying here that he is correcting that, which is what chapter 2 is all about, which is The Instruction Concerning the Day of the Lord.
In verses 1 through 12 he gives The Prophecy Concerning the Day of the Lord. Verses 1 through 5, The Correction and is the introduction to verses 6 through 12.
He says in verse 1, Now we ask you, brothers, (regarding two things) the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and (secondly) our gathering together to Him. So the two things that, according to verse 5, Paul had already taught them about. And now he is bringing it up again for the purpose in verse 2, For you not to be two things:
1) quickly shaken from the mind,
The word mind is the word (noos), which represents and describes the perception abilities of the mind. So he says we gave you teaching, and you gained the perception of what the truth is, but then others have come along, and they have quickly shaken you from the perception that we gave you about these things.
2) or be troubled.
Secondly, I am writing to you for you not to be troubled. It is a troubling thing if somebody tells you, “Your trials are not normal, it is the judgment of God.”
It is very troubling through three ways: Neither through spirit, that is, somebody coming with a special message from God that is not according to God’s word. Nor through word, that is, some system of teaching that takes people away from the truth. Nor through a letter, as through us, as that Day of the Lord has come. So some had come into Thessalonica and told them that they saw Paul’s letter that told them that they were under the judgment of God. That it is not normal to have the hardships of life that they were going through.
And so Paul says, “Even if somebody comes with a false letter from me.” And we saw from Galatians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 that Paul says, If anybody preaches any other gospel than that which we have preached, let them be accursed. In fact, If we, or an angel from heaven, bring you a gospel that is different than what we told you, let them be accursed.
He says in verse 3, Anyone should not deceive you according to any way, because that day will not come unless the apostasy. Some texts say falling away, but he says apostasy. It is a falling away from the faith, not a falling away from the earth as in the rapture. But, unless there is an apostasy, people falling away from the faith, unless the apostasy should come first, and then secondly, the man of sin or the man of lawlessness as some texts say, should be revealed, who is the son of perdition. The word perdition means destruction.
This one, verse 4 says, is opposing and exalting himself above all things that are called God or worshipped; so as for him to sit in the temple of God as God, displaying himself that he is God. He is going to be the antichrist we saw that from I John. I John calls him the antichrist. Paul here calls him the lawless one.
Verse 5, Do you not remember that still being with you, I was saying these things? You see the phrase was saying? It is called the imperfect tense in Greek and it means that he was continually in the past telling them and teaching them about these things. It was not a one-time event. But this happened over a long period of time and now they are soon shaken from the perception that Paul gave them.
Verses 6 through 12, the correct understanding concerning the Day of the Lord. This is the premise for Paul’s conclusion. We saw last week, (verse 6) And now you know the one restraining, for him to be revealed in his own time. There is one who is restraining the antichrist, or the lawless one, from being revealed. And I mentioned to you last week the word the one is a neuter definite article; not masculine, it is not a man; it is not feminine, it is not a woman. But he is talking here about the Spirit of God, the Spirit is neuter. So the Holy Spirit is the one restraining, for him to be revealed in his own time.
Verse 7, For the mystery of the lawlessness is already working. Even as we speak today the lawlessness is already working. Only the One restraining, this definite article is masculine – he is talking about God. And the One restraining at the present, until he should become from out of the midst. So God by His Spirit is restraining the antichrist, the lawless one, from being revealed. Verse 8, And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume by the breath of His mouth, and will abolish by the appearance of His coming. When Christ comes at His second coming, He will destroy the antichrist. He will destroy the lawless one.
Now we have verses 9 through 12 for this morning. A very interesting section as he goes into detail. Verse 9, The coming of whom – that is, the coming of the lawless one – is according to the working of Satan (in four ways) in all power, signs, and wonders of falsehood. That is the literal translation and the fourth thing is in verse 10, And in all deception of the unrighteousness. So those four things are going to happen when this lawless one comes who is going to be working according to Satan. It will be Satan’s working through this lawless one. He is going to be doing four things. He is going to be doing works of power. Secondly, works of signs. Thirdly, works of lying wonders. And fourthly, in all deception of unrighteousness to one set of people, it is not God’s people. It says in verse 10, in the ones perishing. The ones who are being destroyed, not who will perish. The ones who are being destroyed are going to be taken in by this lawless one with works of power, signs, and wonders, and all deception of unrighteousness. That is, he is going to set himself up as being the righteous God and the righteous religion. And the only people who were taken in are those who are in the process – it is a participle showing the process – the ones who are in the process of being destroyed or perishing.
Now God’s people are not going to be deceived by him. And yet at the same time, as the statement was made several times over the last few days, the church on earth is really paving the way for the antichrist to step in. Because we have people today who are very impressed with signs and wonders. The fact is Satan can perform signs and wonders. He can perform miracles. In the Old Testament we study in the book of Genesis – remember when Moses stood before Pharaoh, that is the book of Exodus, and performed different miracles. When the magicians came in they also performed many of the miracles that Moses did.
Quite a few years ago when I lived in Glendale, or we lived in Glendale, we used to travel once a month down to Manhattan Beach for a Bible study on a Saturday night. For the Maranatha music group members who would gather together for a barbecue, and then we would have a Bible Study afterwards. We had a whole group of us travel down there. And in the morning, free donuts and coffee at the motel. So you know where we were, free donuts and coffee. Well, there was another man there having donuts and coffee. He was a Muslim and he asked, “Are you a Christian group?” because he saw some with Bibles. “Are you a Christian group?” I said “Yes, we are here for a Bible study.” He says, it is kind of interesting, “I am Muslim,” he says, “Did you know that we raise people from the dead?” And he says, “I have seen the dead raised.” He says, “I have seen people healed. I have seen miracles.” And I said, “That is no wonder.”
The real proof is when people come to Jesus Christ. In other words, if a Muslim can be raised from the dead by another Muslim in the name of the Muslim religion or Allah and that person does not come to Jesus Christ that resurrection from the dead means nothing. Everybody that Jesus raised eventually died again. Jesus was not trying to keep people from dying. He was trying to show that He is the resurrection life. That after people die in Christ, because of His resurrection as they are raised in Him, He is going to raise them up. Just because some dead person got raised up, he is going to die again. What are they going to do? Keep raising him up? One of these days he is not going to rise up. What then? Then he faces his eternity, whether he was in Christ or not.
So miracles in and of themselves are not proof. Let me repeat that. Miracles in and of themselves and not proof. Satan can perform miracles. You have to keep that in mind. Miracles in and of themselves can pull people into movements and never bring people to Jesus Christ, never follow Jesus Christ, or never come to know Jesus Christ.
There were those that Jesus healed that never came to Him, they took their healing and left. The ten lepers, only one came back to acknowledge Jesus after He healed them of their leprosy. The other nine left. One came back. Jesus said, “What happened to the other nine?” They left with their healing and never came to the Lord.
So you have to understand that when Satan, the antichrist shows up, he will be a working of Satan. He will present himself as being God – not opposing God, but being God. Now there is going to be one religion and one man is going to come. He is going to perform miracles, signs, wonders, and deception of righteousness. But it is only going to be among those who are being destroyed or perishing.
Notice at the end of verse 10, the reason why they are perishing, On account of which they did not receive the love of the truth for them to be saved. Powerful. Why are these people perishing and why are they being influenced by the deception of Satan? Because they did not receive the love of the truth for them to be saved. For them to receive it, God had to give it. God came to people. They refused to receive it.
Verse 11 tells us, On account of this, God will send them a working of error, for them to believe the lie. So God gives them over to be deceived by the antichrist. It says, they did not receive the love of the truth. Do you know that I cannot seek out the truth or want the truth until God gives me a love for the truth? Love is what motivates. Paul said that it is the love of Christ that constrains him. It is the love of Christ that motivates us. I love His word. It is not because I have a love for it. He has given me a love, for I have received the love for the truth. He did not say, they rejected the truth. That is interesting. It says, they rejected the love of the truth.
See, that is the first thing need God does to a person’s heart. It is not what you understand in your mind. He comes to your heart and says, “I am going to give you the love for the truth.” Like Paul says in Romans chapter 3 verses 9 through 18, we – in our natural sin nature, we are not interested in seeking after the things of God. We are not interested and we do not understand it. God had to actually interfere, and interrupt our life, and take us off that path, and whatever love and interest I have for the things of the Lord is because He gave it to me. He is going to give them over to the lie because they would not receive the love of the truth so that they could be saved. It is the love of the truth that they rejected.
Verse 11, And on account of this, here is the result of not receiving the love of the truth. And on account on this, God will send them a strong delusion (that is, a working of error) for them to believe the lie. Notice the text, the literal translation is the lie, for them to believe the lie. Because they rejected the love of the truth, God is going to send them a strong deception. It is not Satan who sends it, but God sends it upon people.
We know from Romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 32, in that text it says, The wrath of God is currently being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness… who when they found out the truth… they changed the truth of God – and they changed the glory of God into human philosophy and human reason – they changed it into a lie. So God’s judgment was that He gave them over to the lie.
If God does not open a person’s heart, we cannot talk them into believing. God might send us to speak to someone, but if He is not sending us we are wasting our time and it is going to be very frustrating if we think that our efforts are going to save anybody. God might send us in His Spirit to open their heart. But if that does not happen, we should not strive as if we have to get people saved. Is it not interesting that when Satan comes he is going to deceive those who are being destroyed. Therefore God sent a work of deception that they should believe the lie. He made them believe the lie because they rejected the love of the truth.
Verse 12 is the purpose. In order that all might be judged – the word condemned in some translations is the word judge – that is the ones who not having believed the truth, but having had pleasure in unrighteousness. And the reason God does this is because of judgment. When a person rejects the love of the truth God sends His judgment and that person will believe the lie. That is all of God. If God says, “Okay, you do not want the truth, do you want to lie? do you want to take pleasure in unrighteousness?” God gives them over to it. That is what Romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 32 is all about, He gives them over to it.
In conclusion. Now it has already being put in place and being prepared to be revealed. But it is God by His Spirit that is holding back and restraining the entire evil process. How do we know this? Because we are still here.
Now what the text says, the reason why Paul is correcting this about The Day of the Lord, or The Tribulation Period, is he is showing that God is in charge of everything. He is saying, “You are God’s people.” I Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 9 says, God has not appointed you to wrath, but for salvation. You are God’s people because you are still here. This cannot be The Day of the Lord or The Tribulation, because we will be taken up and removed according to I Thessalonians chapter 4 and I Thessalonians chapter 5. But the people who are left behind in the judgment or the tribulation period are those people that God has given over to judgment to believe the lie; to run after the antichrist, to worship him as god, and be deceived by his signs and wonders and miracle work.
So at the same time, we consider Deuteronomy in three places: Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 20; Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 1 through 5; and Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 15 through 22 tells us that the Lord says, “To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word there is no light in them.” So if it outside of the word of God, if it is different from the word of God, there is no light in them. But He also goes on to say He is going to allow false prophets and false dreamers to come, He says, “Just to see if you love Me or not.” Is that not interesting? He is going to let the false teachers come and the false prophets because there are some people that want it. He is giving people what they want. He is giving them over to it.
So it is interesting that God says that even the false teachers, even the cults today, they are there for people who have a heart for that kind of thing. They do not have a love of the truth. That is the key to everything. Not just Bible study or church, but it is the truth of Christ. Do people have a love for the truth and are they pursuing the truth of Christ, especially through His word? So it is not about Bible study or attending church, but the truth of Christ.
Now God also sends the false things because if a person rejects the love of the truth, He is going to give them over to that which is a lie. But God has brought the cults too, for the people want to believe the lie. It is all God too. It is called judgment. The message is we need to find our comfort in Christ. That everything is happening under His control, and we need to trust Him.
He is in control of everything, even Satan. We know that from Job chapters 1 and 2 where Satan had to come before the throne of God and get permission to bring hardship to the life of Job. God is in control. He gives people according to the desires of their heart, even a false version of Christianity, chasing after signs and wonders and miracles. Satan can perform miracles. Satan can deceive if that is what a person is looking for. But it is the love of the truth. When God comes, He gives a person a love for the truth. That does not mean we understand the truth, it is just a love for it. And if a person’s heart rejects that love for the truth, He gives them over to the error.
Let’s close with prayer.
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