2 Thessalonians 2 Deception part 3 Addendum
2 Thessalonians 2: Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of [a]Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of [b]sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits [c]as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the [d]mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only [e]He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are [f]bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through [g]sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our [h]epistle.
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and [i]establish you in every good word and work.
This is part three of “deception.” But it really is just an addendum not a full-blown sermon. So, I just want to finish up some thoughts from the text that I was not able to in the last message. First, recall our outline for the entire letter to the Thessalonians. I called it, “Three Debilitating Conditions in the Church.” The first we found in chapter one; discouragement, the second in chapter two; deception, and the third we will find in chapter three; disobedience. And with each of these Paul not only describes the problem, he addresses it. He addresses discouragement with encouragement, deception with clarification, and disobedience with discipline. Now getting back to the issue in chapter 2; deception. In the last two messages we got a description of the deception and began to see how Paul addressed it with clarification. The deception was that certain individuals in the church were circulating a lie that “the Day of the Lord” had already come. In other words, they were saying that they were living in the prophesied apocalypse; the last seven years of history before the return of Christ when God unleashes great plagues and judgments against the world for its sinfulness. We described that in great detail. But then we began looking at how Paul addressed this deception in the church. It is important that we know how he addressed deception, so we know how to do so ourselves.
What did Paul do about the deception and what are we, as the Church to do with deception/false teaching among us? 5 things
1.Don’t let it happen, 2.Refer to the Word, 3.Affirm your identity, 4.Encourage strength, 5.Pray for each other
A. Don’t let it happen, confront it, address it
Verse 3: 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of [b]sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
Don’t let it happen. Well, how do I not let it happen? You’ve got to confront the lie, and the liar. First, go back and make sure you know the truth. Then stand for the truth.
We covered this before. What is the second thing to do?
B. Refer to the Word
Paul referred to the Word to clarify the issue. He said that the Day of the Lord cannot have come yet because two other events, which come first, hadn’t yet occured: the great apostasy, and the revelation of the man of sin.
The great apostasy is a massive falling away from the faith. It is a time in the end when great numbers of professing Christians will walk away from and deny the faith that they had claimed. Now, I say that Paul referred to the Word. Is “the great apostasy” prophesied in the Word? Yes, Jesus said in Matthew 24,
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
The second sign that will come before the end times will be the revelation of the man of sin; the son of perdition. This is the rise to prominence of the antichrist to the world stage.
Again, I said that Paul dealt with deception by referring to the Word. But where in the Word is the rise of the antichrist prophesied? In a number of places, but here is one in the book of Daniel.
Daniel 11:36-45
“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done. He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all. But instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones and treasures.
So, Paul confronts the deception. He refers to the Word. And now I just wanted to give you the remaining 3 ways he deals with deception. This is not going to take us very long. There is enough material here to comment on, but not enough to make an entire sermon. So, I didn’t preach the remainder of this from the pulpit in my church. I just told them they could listen to this podcast. So here are the last three points.
C. Deals with deception by Affirming who they were
I’m looking at verses 10-14, but it is helpful for you to remember what Paul was saying just before these verses.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
He says that the antichrist will be revealed but then after his time, he will be destroyed. Then he describes the antichrist as the agent of Satan, who elevates him to his world position by power, signs, and lying wonders.
Lying wonders. Paul is setting up a contrast here. The contrast is between who the antichrist, the world and Satan are, and who we, as believers are. Satan, the antichrist, and the world are liars, believers of lies, and deluded people. Look at verse 10-12
Verses 10-14: (Satan and the antichrist come) 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they (the world that will perish) did not receive the love of the truth, (they believe lies not the truth) that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, (Because they reject the truth and choose to believe the lie, God sends even deeper delusion)
The world of that day will be like the Pharaoh in Moses’ day. When God sent Moses to Pharaoh to demand the release of the children of Israel from slavery, first it says in chapter 8 of Exodus, that Pharaoh hardened his heart twice against the message and judgments that were wrought by Moses. But after he hardened his own heart twice, in chapter 9 it says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
Then, once more in chapter nine it says that Pharaoh, and his servants, hardened their own hearts against God. Then after that we are told that God hardened them further.
What does that mean? It means that initially they had a choice. But after choosing to disobey God twice, now God would judicially set a path to destruction for Pharaoh, his servants, and the land of Egypt.
And the same will be true in the end times. The world will be given a choice, and they will choose not to believe the truth, but to believe lies. Then God will judicially harden them in order that they will be brought to their own righteous judgment and destruction.
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
So, where’s the contrast you are talking about preacher? Paul deals with the deception in the church in Thessalonica by reminding the Thessalonians that they are not the deceived. They are those who have known and believed the truth.
13 But we are [f]bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through [g]sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is essentially saying to the believers in Thessalonica, “Don’t believe these lies, that’s not who you are. You are people of the truth. So, find the truth and hold on to it.”
D. Deals with deception by Encouraging strength
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our [h]epistle.
The words “stand fast” here are the opposite of the words in chapter 2 verse 2.
2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled,
They had been letting the words about the end shake them up. It was troubling them, upsetting them. He is saying that they can’t let men’s words make them unstable or unsure, they have to stand strongly on the Word of God.
The same is true for us. I frequently have people ask me Bible questions. For example, the old conundrum about God is, we believe He can do anything.
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
So, someone will propose the question, “Can God make a rock so big, that He can’t pick it up.”
My answer is no, He cannot. Then the reply is that the statement that God can do anything is invalidated.
Now, we can go round and round with this question and other questions about God. I could present valid arguments about how we interpret that passage in Matthew 19:26.
I could tell you things that the Bible says God can’t do.
He can’t sin.
He cannot misunderstand.
He cannot make mistakes.
You say, then doesn’t that contradict the statement that nothing is impossible with God. No, it doesn’t, and I could explain that, but that’s not the point.
People let this questions shake them up. They let them eat away at their minds, their confidence in God, and in the Word of God. But, at some point, you have to simply make the decision to stand on the Word of God. Even when, in our minds, we don’t entirely understand how it all works out.
E. Pray for them
The last way that Paul deals with the deception in the Thessalonian church is to pray for them. 16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and [i]establish you in every good word and work.
To a great degree, there was nothing that Paul could do to dissuade the Thessalonian believers away from this lie about the end times, or to quiet their quaking hearts, if they would not listen. Ultimately it would be the work of God’s Spirit in them that would strengthen them. So that’s what he prays for. He prays for God’s direct intervention in the hearts of these people.
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, …. comfort your hearts and [i]establish you
And that really is the best thing we can do to withstand deception. After we confront, open the Word, affirm, and encourage, we have to pray that God will cause the seed of His Word to sprout and flourish in the hearts of the wavering.
Well, that’s where we conclude today. Let’s pray