Hope for the End Times Series
Strong Delusion
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
It is the prediction of 2 Thessalonians 2 that in the end times multitudes of people in the world will fall for the Antichrist. They will fall for his counterfeit miracles, and they will worship him as God. He will establish himself on the throne in the temple of God and the multitudes of the world will bow down and worship him as their ultimate deity.
The question arises -- why in the world would people do this? Why would intelligent people fall for something as obviously satanic as the appearance of the Antichrist at the end of the age?
Every so often a movement or sect comes to the surface that draws attention to this phenomenon. A few years back it was Jim Jones and those who drank purple Kool-Aid, committing suicide in Guyana. Then there was David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX. You may remember the Heaven Gates cult out in California, who followed the teachings of a man named Marshall Applewhite. Thirty-eight of them followed him in suicide. They believed that they were going to have a rendezvous with the Halle Bop comet or with a space ship behind that comet and that they would be lifted to a higher level.
You might say they just weren't intelligent people, they were simple minded and uneducated and that's why they fell for it. But that is not what the indications are when you read the biographical background of these people in the cult.
You will find that many of them were computer wizards. Many of them had graduate degrees. These were not uneducated, simple people. Why would people, normally intelligent, people of above average intelligence, fall for such kind of teaching?
It is an illustration to us in the end times of the tremendous power of deception. Deception can do things to people and cause them to believe things and act in ways that you would never imagine normal people could believe and act.
Have you ever had anybody say to you --it really doesn't matter what you believe, just as long as you are sincere? Ten years ago today Muslim terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and crashed one in Pennsylvania because they believed in the cause and teachings of the Muslim faith.
It does matter what a person believes because what a person believes affects what that person does and what a person does affects other people.
That's why these verses are so tremendously interesting to me. That's why you need to be very alert and attentive as we read these verses and as we study them in this service.
Listen: there are lots of choices being offered today. There are many who deny there is a God. Others have this image of God as a loving grandfather who doesn’t care what you do because He’ll make sure it all works out OK. Still others embrace Islam and give there worship to Allah and live by the teachings of the Koran.
And in stark contrast to all of that there is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And what you decide to believe and embrace and follow is of the utmost importance because if you say “yes” to Jesus Christ, then things turn out one way. But if you choose any other way, then things take an entirely different direction.
Now what Paul is primarily dealing with in regard to the anti-Christ is deception. And what I want to do on this anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in US history, is deal with deception. How can a person or persons become so deceived that their faith would bring them to that kind of decision?
Here’s how: What a person believes affects what a person does, and what a person does affects those around them.
It is true now in the circumstances we find ourselves in and it was true in the time of Paul, and it will still be true whenever these verses come to pass sometime in the future. How do I know that? I know Satan, if nothing else, is predictable.
What he always has done and is doing, he will do through the anti-Christ once he is in power.
Now Paul identifies three different phases of deception and within these three phases, there are six steps of deception that lead a person from deception into damnation.
Let me give you the three phases one at a time and and we'll move through them carefully.
The first one is
I. Satanic Deception
verse 12
That's step number one in deception. That's how it all begins. The truth he is referring to here is the truth of God's Word. It is the truth about the existence of God Himself. It is the truth about man as a sinner in desperate need of a Savior. It is the truth about what Christ has done on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. It is the truth about the terrible deadliness and deception of sin.
But, this verse says that individuals sometimes will not believe the truth because they have pleasure in unrighteousness. That means they make a conscious choice. They choose sin instead of Jesus Christ. They choose the pleasure of sin.
I don’t know of anybody who will tell you there is no pleasure in sin. From person experience, as well as the teachings of the Bible, you and I know better.
The Bible very clearly talks about the pleasures of sin and our personal experiences testify of the pleasures of sin.
There is something tremendously tantalizing about sin. There is something very intensive about sin. There is something that is captivating about sin -- enjoyable about sin. Don't every get the idea that everybody out here in this world, outside of Jesus is miserable. They are not. There are some who are having a big time. They are living it up. They are taking pleasure in sin, enjoying their sin.
In fact, ever so often I meet a professed Christian who seems like they miss the pleasures of the world. They look so miserable at church and in their faith, it’s depressing. I’ll bet if we could see them at the casino they would look completely different! Satan has done a masterful job of convincing us it we get saved, God takes all the fun out of life. Listen that is Satanic Deception.
Now his tactic is to deceive. How does he pull it off? Very often, the deception is moral before it is intellectual. Many people get into an intellectual problem in their relationship to God because they have a moral problem in their relationship to God.
Now think about that. A moment ago I said to you it is important what you believe because what you believe determines how you behave. But think about this: How you behave will also have an effect on what you believe.
Let me explain. If you want to live a life of sin, if you are enjoying a sinful lifestyle, then in order to remove any conscience and any responsibility and any accountability for that, then intellectually you have to do away with the standards of God. You have to do away with the absolutes of God. You have to do away with the authority of God's Word and even possibly the existence of God Himself.
Let me give you an example: Many of you have heard of Margaret Sanger. She was the founder of Planned Parenthood. If you study the lifestyle of Margaret Sanger you will find that she was a very corrupt and immoral individual. She was evidently a bi-sexual.
Her lifestyle is so abominable I wouldn't even discuss in mixed company some of the things that she did.
Evidently, because of that lifestyle she adopted certain intellectual beliefs. She denied certain absolutes in the Bible in order to excuse the way she was living.
Do you see what I'm saying? That's where it all begins. They believe not the truth, but they have pleasure in unrighteousness.
The same thing is taking place today with the whole homosexual issue. I want to make it very clear that
Bible-believers do not hate homosexuals. That is ot the issue at all. Bible believers love sinners whoever they are, whatever their sin might be.
It is not the sinner, but the sin that is at issue. But in the whole homosexual issue today the reason we have people in the liberal church who are saying that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, when it very clearly does, is because they are trying to remove the standards of the Scriptures in order to make people feel comfortable in an unrighteous lifestyle. That's what is going on.
But it goes beyond that. In Romans 1 it talks about sin and you read that terrible passage about the degeneration of mankind. It comes to the conclusion of it in Romans 1:32 and says there, "They not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."
Those people who reject the truth and do not believe it, and enjoy sin instead of Jesus, not only are sinners themselves but they become pushers.
They want other people to be sinners also. They want to get other people pulled into the web of deception.
That's exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden. When Eve took of the forbidden fruit, what did she do? The Bible says she gave it to Adam. A sinner always becomes a pusher. So, step number one in this satanic deception is “they believed not the truth, they have pleasure in unrighteousness”. deception.
Then notice verse 10
Here we find step number two. The devil and God have different agendas. God has one desire for man; the devil has another desire. Those two different agendas are revealed in verse 10. God's desire for man is that we might be saved.
For every person here, God's desire for you is that you might be saved. The Bible says that He will have all men to repent and come to the knowledge of the truth.
The devil has an entirely different agenda. His agenda is in verse 10 in the word, perish. The devil wants you to perish. God wants you to be saved; the devil wants you to go to hell. God wants you to go to heaven; the devil wants you to be doomed.
God’s goal is to get the Gospel, the truth of the Gospel, to every individual. Not a person in this building can walk out of here and not be responsible to God because you will hear the Gospel in this service. You cannot walk out of here saying that God didn't give you a chance.
You have a chance today.
Chances are you have had many, many chances.
But I know you have had one today if you are sitting
in this building and you are hearing this message.
So here we find step number two which is they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. So first, they didn’t believe the truth, but instead took pleasure in sin, then they do not receive the love of truth so they can be saved.
Now what does he mean here by the "love of the truth?" I think he's talking about the truth of the Gospel. The truth of the Gospel is that Jesus died on that cross for your sins and Jesus was buried in that tomb to put away your sins forever. Three days later the Lord Jesus Christ rose again from that tomb and He is alive and real and in this world today to save whosoever will come unto Him. That's the truth of the Gospel.
But, it's not enough to just hear the Gospel, you must receive the love of the truth of the Gospel. In other words, you must respond to it. God initiates the process of salvation in love, and in love, you must respond to it and receive it.
The word, receive, there carries the idea of to welcome or to embrace. Have you embraced the truth? Have you said I do believe Jesus died for me, I accept what He did for my sin payment. I accept what He did when He put away my sin. I do believe that Jesus rose again from the dead. I believe He's alive and will come into my heart and change my life. God loves me and I love Him because of what He’s done for me.
If you have received that you are saved and going to heaven when you die. Hallelujah.
But for those who are in this downward spiral of
deception "do not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved."
So they love sin. They take pleasure in unrighteousness. Therefore, they do not receive the love of the truth.
Then we find step number 3 in verse 10 with the phrase “unrighteous deception”.
That’s what we’re talking about - satanic deception.
Now this statement in verse 10 about unrighteous deception is tied to verse 9 where we are told that the Antichrist will have a coming that will be according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders.
In the Great Tribulation period these who have rejected the truth will receive these counterfeit miracles. They will fall for these counterfeit miracles.
It is always that way. When you reject God's truth you open yourself up wide open for the deception of the devil. That's why it is so serious for a person to quit coming to God's house to hear the Bible. When you turn away from the truth, you are now open for deception. You have opened yourself up for satanic deception.
So that's the first phase in three downward steps. They love sin rather than Jesus. They do not receive the love of the truth. They are deceived by sin. That’s satanic deception.
That leads us to phrase number two which is
II. Strong Delusion
Verse 11
“And for this reason God will send them strong
delusion." What reason?
Having been deceived by Satan, they now reject the truth and make their decision. They choose the devil's counterfeit instead of God’s truth and because of this, or for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie."
Now in that verse you find the next two steps in the downward spiral to damnation.
First it says, "God will send them strong delusion." Literally, God shall send them a powerful working of error. God shall send them an energy or literally, a power that goes to work.
Now notice who does it. God does it. This brings us into the atmosphere of some of the strange ways of God. What does the Bible mean when it says it is God who will send these people strong delusion?
Ultimately it means, even though God is still in control, he gives them what they want.
In the Great Tribulation time, when men have rejected the truth of the Gospel and have chosen satanic deception, God says, "Okay, I'll just let you have what you want."
And God sends strong delusion, a powerful energy of evil, and in so doing, God says, “You asked for it.”
And these hearts that have rejected God and denied the Scripture just fall for it and fall for it and fall for it. That's why in this great tribulation time, at the end of the age, the masses and the multitudes will fall before the Antichrist and will worship him as God. The choice is very simple. You either choose God's Christ or your choose Satan's Antichrist. It’s just that simple.
So we’ve seen four steps so far:
- 1.They choose unrighteousness
- 2.They reject the truth
- 3. They fall for unrighteous deception
- 4. God sends strong delusion
Next comes step five.
- 5. They believe the lie
There's a definite article there -- THE lie. Similar terminology is used over in the book of Romans 1. Amazing how many parallels between Romans 1 and II Thessalonians 2.
In verse 25 of Romans 1 it says, "who changed the
truth of God into the lie and worshipped and served
the creation more than the creator."
He's talking about humanism there. Humanism is the dethroning of God and the deifying of man. That's why the Antichrist is going to be the epitome of humanism. What's the number of the Antichrist? 666. Six is the number of man. 666, the trinity of man. He will be the epitome of all that man is able to do.
That's why it says God will send strong delusion that they will believe THE lie that man is his own god. That's what is being taught today. Man is his own god.
There are folks who will tell you that right and wrong is just up to you, whatever you think about it. They will say nobody has the right to impose their religion or morals on you. But the problem with that is we are not in charge; we are not God. We are not the authority.
God is God. His Word is Truth. Right and wrong are determined on the basis of what God says in His Word.
So we see Phase number 1 - Satanic Deception. Three steps: They choose unrighteousness; they reject the truth; and are deceived by Satan.
Then comes Phase number 2 - Strong Delusion. God allows this great energy to rise to power and multitudes believe the lie.
Finally we see Phase number 3 and that is -
III. Sure Damnation
Verse 12
- "That they all may be condemned who did not
believe the truth."
Listen: if a person makes a conscious decision that they are going to enjoy sin, and love sin instead of Jesus, they are opening themselves up for the next step which is to reject the truth. The next step is to fall for satanic deception and the next step is strong
delusion. The next step is to believe the lie. But the
final step is condemnation.
What does that word “condemnation” mean? It means to be God-abandoned. Hell really is to be forever without God. There is no light in hell because God is light. There is no life in hell because God is life. There is no love in hell because God is love. What an awful thought to be forever and forever and forever without God.
I read a story years ago about a plantation owner in the Civil War days who had a wayward son. He did everything he knew to do to reach that boy to turn his life around and get him going in the right direction, but the boy insisted on a wayward, godless life.
One day that plantation owner, father, walked out into the cotton fields on his plantation and all of the workers on that farm heard the most awful screams human ears had ever heard. He screamed and he screamed and he screamed. He turned and walked out of that field and never mentioned his boy's name again.
God in heaven has sent His Son, Jesus. And with a voice of love God has called out to you, "Come, all things are now ready. Come, I'll save you. Come, I'll change your life." God is crying out.
And you’ve got a choice. You walked into this building of your own accord; you can walk out the same way. Maybe you’re not too interested in the things of God. Maybe you didn’t have any idea what was going to happen today. But now, you know.
And because you now, you now have a decision to make. You can reject the love of the truth and become a prime target for deception and destruction and damnation.
Or you can receive the love of the truth. You can say, yes, to the Lord Jesus Christ. When you do, you become a prime target for life and for love and for forgiveness and for peace and for power and for heaven and all of the good things that come from the heart of a loving God.
It's your decision. What will you do with it?
