Our reading is taken from the book of Second Thessalonians. Chapter one. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting because your faith is greatly enlarged and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater. Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication. of God's righteous judgment, so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which indeed you are suffering. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well. When the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord. And from the glory of his power, when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed for our testimony to you was believed to this end. Also, we pray for you always that our God will count you worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you and you and him. according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that you be that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter, as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was with still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now so that in his time he will be revealed for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. That is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness. Well, let's pray. Our glorious and living God, we come to you. You are our creator and our sustainer. You called all things into being, you created from nothing and you have fashioned them according to your pleasure. You have maintained all things, you have ruled all events and people. You have even used the rebellion of humanity for your glory. We think of the cross and the hatred and the insane rejection of hope there. And yet we see that even that was used by you according to your plan for the redemption of a people that no man could number, men, women and children from every tongue and tribe and nation. And so, God, we come to you and we lay our worship before you. You are worthy. And we want to see your worth again this morning in the scriptures and we want to respond to it so that having seen you afresh. Every believer might be impacted by those truths that that that there would be an energy to this word this morning. That as we study what you've said about faith and about unbelief, we might be held in the grip of the real and for a Lord, For Your namesake, we might be delivered from what is only surface. Set our hearts above earth and our moods and the present circumstances. If we are in happy conditions, God, let Your Son be our greater treasure. When You find us in hardship, God, we pray that Your Son would be our solid foundation. God, we have nowhere to turn but You. And nor do we wish anywhere else. We pray, God, that you would continue to give, that you would speak and we would hear, that you would lead and we would follow, you would give, we would take, you would promise and we would trust, you would command and we would obey. God, we want that living relationship with you that comes through faith. We don't want a Christianity that's only made up of signs and buildings and church clothes and religious phrases. God, what good would that do us? We're a bankrupt people without you. We are in a sad, broken world and we would be without hope if we were without you. But God, we cannot read the scriptures and see what you've provided. How you prepared the world for your son through centuries of lessons. We think of the old covenant with all of its sermons and laws and songs and prayers and rituals. And how you explain that for us in the New Testament, having watched Christ accomplish all you gave him to do. So, God, how could all that be? And you not mean to give your people abundant life. We pray that you would cause the gospel to spread this morning in our souls so that every area would be thrown open to King Jesus, all of him. Having all of us, but not just here. God, we pray for the churches down the street and across the world. incontinence in languages that we couldn't understand, that the gospel would go forth with an irresistible strength. And today would be the day that many would look back on as the first time they heard the voice of Christ and like Saul of Tarsus, they would look up and cry out, Who are you? and they would follow. God, we ask this of you because this is your kingdom and not ours. Your power accomplishes it and your glory is the goal. So help us, our king. We are the sheep of your pasture and the people in your hands. We are created in your image and not you and ours. So we turn to you. Amen. Well, we are returning to the theme of faith taken from that last verse of the practical applications in the book of Romans where Paul talks about that we would receive from God all this joy and comfort in believing. So what is faith? Faith is an action by which we believe that God is telling us the truth to the point that we really respond to Him. We live. think, desire, and choose differently because of what the Scripture says. We've looked over the last few weeks at some of the activities of faith. In John chapter 10, faith believes God in such a way that when it hears the voice of Christ, it follows. Song of Solomon chapter 8, faith leans on the beloved and leaves the wilderness. And John chapter 1, faith receives or takes Christ to himself or herself. Now, I want us to spend this morning looking at the activity, not of faith, but of unbelief. Unbelief has to be exposed if we're going to really repent of it. It is not easy to really spot it in our life, even though it wouldn't be so hard to write down a definition on a piece of paper, because unbelief goes by many names, and it wears a lot of masks in our lives. So it can look like it's something else, something really very reasonable. And at times, especially when laid aside, kind of a false, hypocritical version of faith, Unbelief can look very noble. So let me just give you a few examples. Unbelief can wear the name of weakness. So we don't think of unbelief as a willful rebellion against God, but just as something in us, we just don't have what it takes. And so we say it like this, well, I really want to believe. I just can't. So unbelief calls itself weakness. Unbelief might be considered ignorance or a lack of information. Where we say, well, I would like to believe, but I just have some questions that need answering and I'm not yet convinced. Unbelief can go under the mask of honesty. I've seen so many hypocrites. I don't want to be a fake, too. Now, if those are true, again, unbelief looks pretty reasonable. But what does the scripture describe unbelief as? Well, I mean, we could say it's the opposite of faith. So it is the willful choice not to believe that what God says about himself is really the truth, or what he says about you, what he says about marriage, kids, money, time, food, clothing, worship. What God says is true. So unbelief is the willful rejection of God's voice and preference for other voices. You could just reverse the things that we see in Scripture where we see faith's activity and say, well, that would be a good description of unbelief. So unbelief is not listening to the voice of Christ. It is listening to other voices, and it is following other leaders. It is leaning on other arms. It is a refusal to take Christ with all of his claims into the life because your life is already crammed full of everything else you're taking in. Now we see a description of unbelief in Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians. You remember the Thessalonian church started well. The earliest letter we have from Paul, we believe, is 1 Thessalonians, and Paul has a lot of good things to say to them. But by the time we come to 2 Thessalonians, trouble has entered the church. There's been a great deal of persecution, but that's not really the problem. Paul brags on them for the way that they've clung to Christ through the hardest of times. But what has happened is there's a misunderstanding regarding the Lord's return. And so Paul has to say to them, Christ has not come back yet, alright? Don't let people say that's already happened and you've missed out. And in the midst of Paul's explanation, he talks about the rise of Antichrist or the man of lawlessness who deceives. And later in Scripture, especially, you know, we read in John's first epistle about many Antichrists, many deceivers. Paul's kind of talking about the end of time here. And he says, this does have to happen before Christ finally comes back. And so that's the general explanation. Now, inside that explanation is the passage we want to look at. Verses 9, 10, and 11, and 12. Because Paul describes the kind of people that will be deceived by those who are anti-Christ, who are against Christ. Now, that can be a person who is You know, a person in another religion that could be a preacher in a church that looks like he's pro-Christ, but really when push comes to shove, he's not. So those who have deceived for the last 2000 years, there have been many antichrists, many liars, and who listens to them? And who is judged? And Paul's description here is of the unbeliever. All right. And we find in this passage three things about them. All right. First is actually in chapter one, verse eight. Look at Paul's description. He talks about God dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. So that's not two groups of people, all right? So Paul's saying, I know that you're being persecuted, but God will show his righteousness in the way that he rescues you, prepares you for this eternal glory. but also in the way he deals with those that persecute the church. Well, who are they? Well, it's the people that don't really know God, who don't obey the gospel. And that's one group of people described two ways. So that's the first description. And then in chapter 2, verse 9. He talks about the coming of this antichrist or this man of lawlessness, and he says, that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish. Because they did not receive the love of the truth, so as to be saved." So that's our second description. The unbeliever is one that will not receive the love of the truth, so as to be saved. Verse 11, for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false. in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. And that's a third description. What is unbelief? Well, it is the refusal to believe truth. Why? Because deep within, we really prefer wickedness. Now, those are hard descriptions to accept. If you think they might be talking about you or people you love, people that are often in church, people that have clean, outward lives, But this is Paul's description and Paul's not a heartless theologian who writes from some kind of ivory tower about people out there. We know that Paul has given himself over and over risked death to take good news to the very people he's describing here. People who do not know God or obey the gospel. People who will not receive the love of the truth because they prefer the pleasure of wickedness. Well, I want us to look at the first two of those this morning. They won't obey the gospel and they won't receive the love of the truth. Unbelief in its activity. What does it look like? It looks like hearing, maybe agreeing, maybe appreciating emotionally the gospel. But in the end, you just don't obey it. It's good to be reminded that the gospel is not merely in the scriptures for us to be emotionally moved. I mean, you think of Christmas coming. All right, I already bought my Christmas present, but Christmas is coming. And for some, it will be a very emotional time. I mean, I think really, especially for unbelievers, the thought of family being able to get together and time off from work. And so each year this comes, and there are a lot of hopes that are raised. It'll be different this year. Very few would really be benefited and at the end of the Christmas season, the vague hopes that things are going to get better are smashed again and then the new year comes around with all of its reality. We're not allowed just to look at the account of Christ like the world looks at the Christmas account and become emotionally moved at the baby. but not obey the king. The gospel is also not merely a set of facts that we accept. How many professors in seminaries, how many preachers in pulpits or authors of so-called Christian books have been able to recite the facts of the Bible better than us, but when it comes to the response of the soul to God, they do not know God, and they prove it by not obeying the gospel. So the gospel is a revelation of God and the good news of Christ, but it is a revelation that requires obedience or a wholehearted response. Can you imagine Christ coming to the early disciples, to Matthew at his tax collecting booth and saying to him, follow me? And Matthew hears that and he turns to his fellow workers and he spends the rest of his lunch break witnessing to them, telling them what a great guy Jesus is and how he's now going to profess faith in Christ and ask Jesus into his heart. But he doesn't follow. Or James and John, or Peter and Andrew, who what if Christ said to them, follow me, but they never do. They just say, yes, Jesus, we believe. In John chapter 3, at the end of that wonderful chapter where we have verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. At the end of the chapter, it describes unbelief and the danger of that. But in verse 36, we read that John places unbelief and disobedience almost as synonymous. They're not exactly equal. One is the root and one is the fruit, but they are so inseparably connected. for all of us, that John can use the words interchangeably. So he says this, in verse 36, he who believes in the Son has eternal life. Now, we don't have any problem with that kind of a statement, but then he reverses, he flips the statement, but he who does not, and we would think, He's going to plug the word belief in. He who does not believe the Son will not see life, but John doesn't. He uses the word obey. He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life. But the wrath of God abides on him. That's why James can write in his epistle, what use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but has no works? Can that, that kind of faith save him? Someone may well say, James goes on to write, you have faith and I have works. And he challenges them, show me your faith without the works. I will show you my faith by my works." So James is not saying that good works earn us the love of God, but James is saying that good works and faith always travel together because if a person really believes, there is a response to the King. And if a person doesn't believe, then there is an unresponsiveness. They do not know God. They do not obey the gospel, Paul says. James makes a statement in that passage that I didn't read that we all know if we've been in church for a while, but it is a statement that bothers us. James says, if you have a dead faith that never responds, that never acts, that never obeys, that never does anything, how are you any different than the demons who also believe and tremble? So accepting facts about God, acknowledging truths about Jesus Christ, his person as God and man, When that doesn't result in a changed life, it is a demonic type of faith. When there isn't a coming, a trusting, surrendering, following, leaning, resting. Then how are we any different than fallen angels who do recognize the deity of Christ? But there's no response from them to him. Now I hope that that's clear to us because that means that no monotheistic religion that claims to worship the same God that a Christian worships. No Muslim really knows the creator regardless of the claim that he worships one God and we worship one God and so it's probably the same God under a different name. And no Jew knows the true God. unless they obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course, no person in a Christian church knows God if their faith doesn't obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it's a good place to stop, isn't it? And ask yourself, are you obeying the gospel? Are you responding to what Christ says? So in the gospel, there are statements about you and your sinfulness. There are statements about your guilt and there are statements about the hopelessness and the helplessness that is you. That it's not just what you're doing that's wrong, it's what you are that's bent. It's what you are that's twisted and unacceptable to God. Do you hear those things and say, I don't have any time for that kind of thing? Do you respond correctly to those? There are statements in the gospel about God, about His purity and His unbending justice. There are statements about His mercy. There are statements about His strength. Do you respond to those obediently? Are you being altered in the way you live at home and at work because you believe the gospel, because you obey the gospel? But if not, Then you have to go back to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 8 and listen to a man that knows, Paul, who says, there are people who do not know God. They are the ones that will not obey the gospel. So unbelief hears the calls of Christ, come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden. Or if anyone wishes to follow me, let him take up his cross. Let him die daily. Follow me. And there's no obedience to those commands. Well, that's one act of unbelief. Unbelief just won't obey. It won't even obey the gospel. But let me give you a second one. Unbelief won't receive the love of the truth. So look back at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, right? Look at verse 10. Speaking of the liar who comes with all that deception of wickedness, for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved." Now, last Wednesday evening, Chuck was out with David then, and so I was able to kind of squeeze in an extra sermon on the faith series. And we looked at John, chapter 1, verse 12, where John remarks that when Christ comes, when the God-man is here among us, The world did not recognize him, but really neither did the Jews, and he was rejected. But to those who received him, and the word receive is what we spent time on, that was the activity of faith. It is a word that describes receiving a person, not just a set of statements. So, it's not just saying this, those who acknowledged statements about Jesus Christ were able to be God's children. It's those who received Him were given the right to be God's children. So, receiving is taking a person. It is permanent and unrestricted kind of nearness. So, we gave the illustration that Real faith is not like a person whose house is falling down around them and it's about to be condemned. And, you know, DHS is about to come and say, you can't have your kids in this house, it's too dangerous. And then you call a repairman and he comes and he fixes everything. Now, let's say he does a great job. So you're really grateful for all the repairs he does. But if he brings his luggage in and moves into your house and says, I just thought I'd live here now that I fixed it, you would say, you can't live here. I mean, when a repairman comes to your house, they call and say, will you be here at this time? When they do come here, they say, I need to go. You know, if they're working on the electricity, I need to go to your electrical box. Is it back? Is it OK if I walk back there? A repairman comes, limited amount of time to do one task, and then leave, and restricted access to your home. And that is not how Christ works. We don't come to Christ when we say, I've become a Christian. It doesn't mean this. I was a mess. I came to Jesus. I handed myself over. I asked him to fix me and clean me up because I don't like this kind of life. It's embarrassing. And so he did, and he handed me back, and now he's gone back to wherever he lives. And I am a better, cleaner, happier me. But I'm still in charge. So that's not Christianity. To receive Christ is to actively take him with all his claims. And bring him into all the rooms of the life and say to him, fix me and own me. Now the description that Paul uses here is unique. It's not found anywhere else in the Bible, so it's the kind of thing we want to stop and look at. Verse 10, it says, they did not receive the love of the truth. All right? Now there are two ways to understand this. I think both are certainly Possible both are in the scripture, but one is probably what he means in this place Let me give you just both right the first one and that's not the one I think is the particular emphasis here But we do find it in other parts of the Bible When Paul says you will not receive the love of the truth, he can be saying it this way. You will not. You refuse to receive the love that comes with the gospel. And that certainly is true. Every person who refuses the claims of Jesus Christ may think that they're rejecting authority, just this naked authority, this justice and this king that claims to have the rights to rule my life. But that is not all you're doing. You are also driving divine love from you. You separate yourself from the heart of all that is hopeful when you hold the gospel at arm's length. So you will not, you refuse to receive the love that comes with this truth. But there is another way to understand the passage, and I think that's the main emphasis here. You will not love, you will not receive to yourself the love of the truth. There's a Greek scholar who's my all-time favorite. His name's John Eadie. Now, if you haven't studied Greek, he's a hard go, all right, because half of his commentary is Greek. So you're reading along, you hit these great English sections, and then there's a Greek paragraph, and I think, whew, it's been a long time. So I just jump back down to the next English section. Let me give you some English from John Eadie, Scottish pastor and professor from Late 1800s, he writes this, to receive the love of the truth is more than just to receive the truth. To lack the love of the truth is to be wholly indifferent to its claims, to be wholly unsusceptible to its beauty and power. So the truth might be received in some faint, fragmentary form, held so lightly, understood so superficially that no true love exists. Do you hear that? When Paul says to the Thessalonians, God will judge those that persecute you, he will send people who lie and they will embrace those lies. Who is he going to do that to? Well, to those that will not receive the love of this truth, who will not love this truth. To those who are indifferent to the claims of the gospel, to those who are wholly unsusceptible to the beauty of the gospel, to the power of the gospel, who hold religion and the words about Jesus Christ and the cross with so light a grip, and they understand it just so superficially, that no real love in their heart exists for this gospel. Do you understand that this definition of unbelief is much more shameful than the one we just gave? So the first one, chapter one, you don't know God and you won't obey the gospel. What, you won't obey the Ten Commandments? No, you won't obey the Ten Commandments. You won't obey the Golden Rule. You won't take the Sermon on the Mount seriously. But that's not all. You won't even obey the good news. But here it's more extreme. You will not love the kindest and most desperately helpful things that are said to you through Jesus Christ because you prefer sin and it's momentary fun. You are indifferent to the gospel's claims, unmoved by its beauty and power. You hold it lightly and superficially, even though you show up in church. Now, look, if you have to say honestly, and I do appreciate it when you're honest, but if you were to have to say, I'm not really a follower of Jesus Christ, then you need to be clear about what you're saying. You need to get your identity right, all right? I am indifferent. to the claims of Christ. I am unmoved by the beauty and the power of his labor for sinners. And I hold these Bible words so lightly. I am happy with such a superficial description of the cross that I have no love for it at all. We are grateful, though, that because of the kindness of God, he doesn't leave us there. And the Christian speaks differently. If you have your hymnals, Stoop down, reach down, grab one. 622. We're going to sing this at the end of the service, but this is not the end of the service, all right? So 622, a hymn that describes faith's response by Gerhard Terstegen. But look at verse 3. This really describes what Paul's saying and the difference that God makes in our hearts. 622 verse 3. Even whilst I hated, thou didst love. And or thy rebel creature yearn for me, thou pleadest still above, and shall I not such love return? Verse four, thy sufferings I embrace with thee, thy poverty and thy shameful cross, the pleasures of the world I flee and deem its treasure. Worthless dross be daily dearer to my heart and never let me feel thee near. Then willingly with all I'd part. nor count it worthy of a tear. Oh, keep my heart, the Christian praise and love. Keep my heart and love with thee until my mortal work is done. And then in heaven thy face I'll see to be with thee forever. One very different attitude of a believer. Now, let me ask this question. Here's the description. You prefer sin and lies and you will not receive the love of the truth. You will not love this truth of the gospel. Why would anyone not? Why do we pray in a prayer meeting every Sunday morning and ask God to somehow intervene in a way that only God can do so that people would go from being indifferent to the gospel to loving the gospel? Well, perhaps if you find yourself in that condition, you say, well, I'm not so sure it's true. But that is in spite of the hundreds of fulfilled prophecies in Scripture and the empirical, empirically, I don't say that word all the time, you know. Testable. I feel like Porky Pig. Those things that you can test. You look at the statements of scripture about things you can test. All right. So you say, well, I don't know what happened in creation. I mean, Genesis says this, but who knows if that's true? And I don't know what's going to happen on the judgment day. I mean, nobody's been there. And so who knows if what the writer says is true? And I'm not so sure if I really can, if I cast myself upon Christ, that he could wash the sin and change the attitude of my heart. But look at the things that you could test. How has God described sin to you? Has he ever lied to you? Has he not described everything in your life that you can look at and you read the scriptures and you lay it side by side, you say, he's told me the truth. But it's easier to say, I'm not so sure that what Jesus says is true. Another reason we reject the love of God and we don't love the gospel is that we don't like the kind of love it is. We really do prefer a conditional love, don't we? I mean, do you want unconditional love? We need it, but it's hard for proud people to accept unconditional love. So we'll go back in time. Philip meets Sandy. I actually know how they met, but we don't have time for that. Probably not the place. Philip meets Sandy. What if Philip said to Sandy, Sandy, I will love you forever if you'll be my wife, even though I just don't see anything about you that's very attractive or lovely, but I'm just that kind of guy. Do you like that kind of love? Someone comes to you and says, there actually isn't anything in you that I find at all likable. There's nothing attractive in you. There's nothing desirable in you. There's nothing about you or what you do or what you are. I just there's nothing. But I am willing to love you. We're offended at that. But the love of God does come to people like that. All the reasons for God loving any of us are reasons that He finds within Himself. He has chosen to love the unlovely, and the reason is not found in you. It's not that you have somehow made yourself attractive to a being like Him. We don't like that kind of love, so we let it pass by. Let me give you another one. We don't like love that conquers, rules, possesses. You think about it. Hosea, chapter two, Israel has been loved by God with this extraordinary love of all the nations. Only Israel has been loved like this. And then we find by the time of the prophet Hosea that she is giving her heart to all these other foreign gods, like a wife who is adulterous. And what he does is, in his love, he takes her, and he describes it as taking her aside into a wilderness area. He makes her life miserable, where she only has him. She can't get to her old lovers anymore, and she only has him as the option. And so finally, she does turn to him. And in chapter 3 of the same prophet's book, he says to her, I will be for you, and you will be for me, and you will not have other men. Hebrews chapter 12, the love of God disciplines us. Is that the kind of love you want that comes, conquers, rules, possesses, disciplines? Well, the Christian does. We sang it in our first hymn this morning when we talked about in the hymn that said this, let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, like handcuffs, like a chain, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Let Your love bind me to You. Now, in verses 10, 11, and 12, there's a danger that comes with unbelief. It is a terrible present danger, and we've got to quit thinking that if we reject the claims of Christ, and we will not take this lovely truth to ourselves and let it work itself through all of us, We've got to quit thinking that the danger is in the future, that one day there could be a judgment. And at that judgment, I would be in trouble. Because John, again in chapter three, says that those that do not believe Christ are presently under wrath. That is, they are constantly under the displeasure of their creator. Now, what Paul describes in verses 10, 11 and 12 of this passage is what we've called when we've seen it before, especially in Romans recently, chapters 10 and 11, we call it a judicial hardening or a blinding. And that is that God responds to you in judgment for your sin, but the response is in keeping with the nature of the sin. So if you put your fingers in your ears and say, I don't want to hear what God has to say about this. then God, the judgment would be that God no longer seems to say anything to you. He just lets you go along, deaf. If you cover your eyes and say, I don't want to see what God says about this, then God then just allows you to have your blindness. So God gives you the lie that you love and doesn't bother you anymore. And that's a terrible form of judgment. Look at verse 10, 11 and 12 in 2 Thessalonians. And with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth, so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them, upon the unbeliever, a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. So, God will send a deluding influence. to the unbeliever so that they'll believe lies because they've rejected truth. We find this in other places. In John chapter 12, Jesus is teaching, and listen to what we read. While you have the light, he says to the crowd, believe in the light so that you may become sons of the light. These things Jesus spoke, and he went away and hid himself from them. But though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him. And this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah, the prophet, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this reason, they could not believe. For Isaiah said again, he that is God has blinded their eyes and he, God, has hardened their heart so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted. And God healed them. Romans chapter 10, verse 17, we read, faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. And then the next verse, Paul asks a question, but I say, surely they, speaking of the Jews who have rejected Christ, but surely they have never heard, have they? I mean, why would they reject their own Messiah? And Paul's answer, indeed they have. And he quotes the Old Testament, their voice has gone out into all the earth and their words to the end of the world, but I say surely Israel did not know, did they? Well, first Moses says, I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation. By a nation without understanding, I will anger you. And Isaiah is very bold when he says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I became manifest to those who did not ask me. But as for Israel, he says, all the day long I've stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. Now, that's kind of a difficult passage to listen to. But basically, Paul's summing this up. Why don't Jews seem to love Christ? Maybe they haven't heard the gospel clearly. No, they've heard it. The voice of the gospels crossed the world. Well, maybe they didn't understand that God would also say Gentiles. No, they were told that, too. But the problem is that God has stretched out his hand not to a confused. Not to an ignorant people, but to a people who are obstinate, who will not love the truth. Now, back in 2 Thessalonians 2, 10 and 11, we find three times that Paul describes the justice of this. Is this really fair of God? Well, look at this. Look at verse 10. With all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, he says, all right? Now, the phrase those who perish is not really the best way to translate it. It is a verb that is present and active, but it's middle. It means the people are acting in a way that affects themselves. They're doing something upon themselves. So you could translate it this way, in those who are acting in such a way as to bring death to themselves. So those who perish are the people who are acting in such a way as to kill themselves. So the first evidence Paul gives that this is justice, look, God, if God were to give you over to lies, why would you have any right to complain? You have spent your entire life rejecting the gospel. In other words, you have lived in such a way as to daily destroy or bring death to yourself. Second, or we'll just give you one more in verse 11. He says, and for this reason, it is because of the unbelief of the people that God's activity is a response of letting them have the lie. Now, let me give two applications this morning for us, for the unbeliever. When we talk about God's judicial hardening, God responding to you in the way that you have responded to him, I want you to understand that that does put you outside of all hope, unless something changes between you and God. There's no hope in you. Because the problem is not just something you're doing, like, well, I shouldn't have done that or I should have done this. The problem is what you are. At your core, you don't love the gospel and you don't want to obey a God. You are infatuated with the lies of the culture that flatter you. No hope in you. Well, we say there's hope in God. Yes. not unless you quit refusing Him. Paul uses a word in that passage in verse 11, a deluding influence, the word influence. It's not what we might think. It's the Greek word for energy. So we, our word energy. In Greek, it's spelled the same way, except in Greek letters, all right? So it's energy. There is a deluding, deceptive energy that is let loose by God. I wanna read other passages where this word shows up, all right? It usually shows up translated working. So listen to Ephesians 1, 19. Paul prays that they would know the surpassing greatness of God's power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working, the energy of the strength of God's might. Ephesians 3, verse 7. Paul talks about the gospel of which he was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working or the energy of his power. Ephesians 4, 16. Paul talks about the church as a body, a living body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working or energy of each individual part. Philippians 3 verse 21, he says, our citizenship is in heaven. From which also we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble estate into the conformity of the body of His glory by the exertion, there's the word, by the energy of that power. that he has even to subject all things to himself. One more, Colossians 129, we proclaim Christ admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. And then Paul says this, for this purpose I labor, striving according to his power, that's the word, energy, which mightily works, that's the word again, energizes me. Now, the reason I gave you all those verses is this. You may think it's a small thing. To reject the gospel today, you may, if you were to make a long list of sins, put it way down on the list of sins on one being not a big deal and 10 being extreme. So you may say, well, there are some sins, seven, eights, nines, I wouldn't want to do those, but it wouldn't bother me at all this morning to say to God, you know, really God, I just, I'm just not, I just don't get it. I don't get why people want to give their life to a Jesus they can't see. I am unmoved by the beauty of the gospel and its power. That certainly doesn't seem as horrific as murder, adultery, You know, embezzling your boss's money, going to jail. But when Paul uses the Greek word for energy over and over in these passages, and then you see that it's the same word he uses there. God will send an energy of delusion, an effective outworking of delusion. So that you who repeatedly prefer lies to the gospel will be deceived by those lies that you love and you will be destroyed having loved wickedness. That is a terrible place to be. All the antichrists, all the liars over the last 2000 years, not one of them is outside of the control of God. He allows their rise. He allows them to lie and to deceive so that those who continually mock the kindness of God by rejecting the gospel of Christ, refusing the light that's there, they become blind and they are ensnared in those lies. Is it hopeless? Well, no, of course it's not hopeless. Why would Paul explain all of that if there's no hope? I mean, you do have a letter that he wrote 2,000 years ago to a small church in Thessalonica, and you probably don't even know where that is, and you've got it in a Bible now. You can read it for yourself so that you don't go down that path. You can come to God and say this. You have the right to send forth a mighty, energized lie that would destroy me. But if you go back to what he wrote earlier to the Thessalonians, you find in 1 Thessalonians 1, he says, oh, I'm praising God for what I see in your lives. You've turned from idols to the living God. You are steadfast in faith and loving labor. You imitate Christ, and you follow those who follow him, and you've become a model for others. You're happy when you receive God's word, even though you're surrounded by people that are making it hard on you. and you yearn for the return of Christ, what could make any Thessalonian like that? And Paul says it. Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction. In other words, while there is a terrible energy and effective working of lies when you want to be lied to, You have the opportunity to go to the same God and say to him, but there is a greater power that comes with the gospel and the Holy Spirit and full conviction. And you could turn me from a man or a woman or a child who prefers lies. And you could show me the beauty of Christ for your glory. Now Christian, the application for us, of course, this is not you, so to speak. But when we talk about all those things, I think that every Christian would say, yes, but I see some of those things in me. I mean, when I look at my faith, it's imperfect. So does that mean I'm an unbeliever? Well, no, it's not the whole picture of the Christian life. The Christian stumbles. We struggle to believe at times, but the general picture of the Christian life is that you what you know God and you do obey the gospel and you do receive the love that comes through the truth. And you do love the gospel truth, even when it says things about you that are hard. God began. God started it. God initiated it. God opened your eyes. God drew you to himself. God explained things in a way that you could understand and you could not resist. But that's not all God does. Your response to God through faith started with an act of God's power, but it is maintained by the same act of power. That is that God is continually exerting the divine power in your life so that you can wake up every morning and turn your eyes away from self and the world to Christ and find him altogether lovely all over again. So for the Christian, though we do see that our faith is imperfect and sometimes we may feel like we look more like an unbeliever than a believer. What's the cure? We go back to him and say, you started this. You've got to help me. I'm going to open the book and I'm going to get on my knees and I'm going to stay before you until I find my heart embracing all the love of God in all the truth of God from Genesis to Revelation. And we don't leave God alone until he gives us everything we need to hear, follow, lean, receive, or whatever faith is required to do. Well, may the Lord help us. God, we pray that you would accomplish what is needed, that you would not use your strength for our destruction. but that the word would go throughout this week with power by your spirit. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.