We're in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 once again tonight, so take your Bible and turn there, and we'll read the first 12 verses. This should be familiar to you hopefully by now. We've already been in it a couple of weeks, so we'll be back in this section again tonight. I think this may be our fourth week. I'm not mistaken, but good passage. Let's read it together. 2 Thessalonians 2, and I'd like to sit down for a few minutes, so why don't we stand and honor the Word? Let's do that again, and let's read it together. Beginning in verse 1, Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 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 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." Let's pray together. Father, we thank You for Your Word once again. this church body, we thank you for this opportunity again that we can gather in your name and worship you. And Lord, we pray tonight for the Walling family. We pray that you would be near to them and Lord, that you would help us as a church family to minister to them this week. And Lord, we know that it is your grace that sustains in the loss of a loved one. And so we ask that you would be with them and help them in their grief. And Lord, we thank you for the hope that we have in Christ, that at whatever point we may face death, we know that we will immediately be with you forever. And so, Lord, we thank you for that assurance that we have in you. And Lord, we thank you that we know what is going to happen in the last day. We don't need to be confused about it. We don't need to certainly be fearful about it. But we have your word. And so, Lord, We thank You for the confidence that we have as we face the future. So Lord, we ask that once again tonight as we study Your Word together and as we worship and sing our praise to You, that You would be honored. When it comes to the subject of end times, there is often a lot of confusion in the church. There is all kind of teaching in regard to various prophecies that are recorded in Scripture. There are all kinds of systems of eschatology that are being taught today. But what can we know from a proper interpretation of Scripture concerning the last days? I believe that there is much that we can understand and we can know if we are careful to rightly divide the Word of Truth. And it takes some effort and we have to pull some things together, but I believe we can know much about God's plan for the last days. The Thessalonian Christians were confused about a number of issues, including the rapture of the church and the Day of the Lord. And so Paul wrote to them to clear up the confusion in the passage Scripture that is recorded in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 1 through 12 deals with these issues. And as we have seen, as we've been studying this passage, it contains six primary points, six main points, if you will. And we've seen the first three so far. First, we noted the problem. And we saw this in verses 1 through 3a and verse 5. They were upset because they thought that they had already entered into the day of the Lord. And they thought that for two reasons. For, first of all, the reason of false doctrine. There were those who were teaching them that they had entered the day of the Lord. And forgetfulness. forgot what Paul had instructed them in regard to these matters. And we won't go back over that this evening. But then we spent some time looking at the precursor. In verse 3b through 4, Paul said that the day of the Lord cannot come until the apostasy of the Antichrist comes first. When he sets himself up as God, to be worshipped in the temple, the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. He's going to set himself up to be worshipped by the whole world. And this is one specific act of apostasy committed by one specific individual in one specific place. It's not referring to a general turning away from the faith. But what Paul is talking about here is what Jesus refers to as the abomination of desolation. It will take place exactly at the midpoint of the tribulation period. And it is patterned after what took place in history in 167 BC when Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the temple and slaughtered many thousands of Jews. Then we looked at the preventer. Paul says that although the day of the Lord cannot come until the apostasy takes place first, there is something that is preventing the apostasy from occurring before the divinely appointed time. And we saw that in verses 6 through 8a, the first part of verse 8. And that restrainer is a person powerful enough to control Satan. And I believe that person must be the person of the Holy Spirit. And I gave you several reasons why I believe that. And if you weren't here for that, you can go back and go online and listen. But the devil cannot do anything until or unless God allows him to do it. And Satan would love to, I believe, bring His man on the scene even now. But this is all going to happen according to God's timetable and certainly not Satan's. But someday, at exactly the right time, God's time, the midpoint of the tribulation period, God will allow Satan to reveal the Antichrist as who he really is, the ultimate lawless one. Until that day, he cannot come onto the scene because the Holy Spirit is restraining him. The Holy Spirit is holding him at bay. I mean, look at the last part of verse 7. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way, and then that lawless one will be revealed. As we saw last time, the phrase, taken out of the way, does not necessarily mean that he will be taken out of the world. This phrase literally means to move to one side, to step aside, if you will, The Holy Spirit will not be taken out of the world, but He will simply stop His restraining work and He will allow them, the Antichrist, to be revealed in the fullness of His lawlessness. And then, like a dam that is suddenly opened up to allow the water to flood the plains below, literally all hell will break loose upon the earth as he unleashes his reign of terror. And he will put two-thirds of all the Jewish people to death. And he will force the world to receive his mark. And those who do not receive his mark will be martyred. But praise God, his time will be short. He will only be allowed 1260 days, three and a half years' time, and then his time will be over. That brings us to the fourth point in the outline, which is the parousia. Notice the last part of verse 8. Whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming." Now, the word coming there in the Greek is the word parousia. It simply means presence, but it is often used in Scripture to refer to a specific aspect of the eschatological events of the last days. And here it is not referring to the rapture of the church, but what we usually call the glorious appearing of Christ. This is the literal second coming of Christ. This will happen at the end of the seven-year tribulation. It will take place at the battle of Armageddon when all the world forces of Antichrist are gathered together to oppose God. And what Paul is describing here in verse 8 is that moment when Christ comes on a white horse with 10,000 of His saints and He will destroy Antichrist once and for all. It is important to understand the difference between the glorious appearing of Christ and the rapture of the church. Those are two different events. It's important we understand the uniqueness. The rapture will take place at the beginning. of the tribulation period. And it will be a secret event in which the church, all true believers, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The glorious appearing of Christ will take place at the end of the tribulation period, and it will be a public event in which every eye will see Him as He comes to earth to defeat Satan and his hosts. One of the classes I taught in the Bible Training Center, I gave a list of, I think it was 20 some odd differences between the rapture of the church and the glorious appearing of Christ. But don't confuse those two. Those are two separate events. But notice some things about this verse here in 2 Thessalonians 2.8. Notice some things here. First of all, notice that this really comes out of logical order in the text. In verse 9, he's going to continue to describe the Antichrist, but it's as if he just can't wait to get to the good parts. And so he has to bring in the destruction of Antichrist, the Lord's return, he has to bring that in, and then he's going to go back and talk about the Antichrist some more. So it seems to kind of come out of logical order in the text. But as he is describing this wicked, evil puppet of Satan, he just can't get all the way through this description without quickly proclaiming his end. You know, don't worry folks, he's going to see his end. And before he can even get finished with the explanation of Antichrist, he has to tell what is ultimately going to happen to him. 120 days will be all too long for his reign. Those alive on the earth at this time will say it is 1,260 days too long. What did I say a while ago? 1,260 days will be much too long for his reign. And so that the fragile Thessalonians won't be given to despair halfway through this description, he says, hey, don't worry. He won't last long. He won't last long. And Christ will appear, and when He does, He will slay him with the breath of His mouth. Now the word slay does not mean that the Lord will kill the Antichrist. but that He will overthrow him. He will overthrow him. The Greek word that is used for slay in this text means to abolish. To abolish. It means that every vestige of him will disappear from off the face of the earth. Now how do we know he won't be annihilated at this time? Well, because Revelation 19-20 tells us that He will be cast alive into the lake of fire. He's not going to be annihilated. He's going to be cast alive into the lake of fire. So we know He won't be killed in the sense of being annihilated. He will live on in eternity in hell. Now this concept of destroying enemies with the breath of one's mouth is a common theme in the Old Testament. For example, You might want to turn to Isaiah 11 for just a moment. Isaiah chapter 11. Notice in Isaiah 11, in verse 4, it says that the Lord will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. So this is common language in the Old Testament. And the book of Revelation uses some similar language. You don't have to turn there, but the phrase, "...and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming," gives another dimension to this judgment. The word for bring to an end is the Greek word katargeo. And you may have heard that word before. That word means to render inoperative, to abolish, or to render ineffective. It is the Greek word katargeo. And you may remember that word from 1 Corinthians 13, verse 8. Because there it says, if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. That is the word kathargeo, very same word. And when I did a series on tongues and the ceasing of tongues, we emphasized that. But this is saying that the rule and the reign of Antichrist will be done away with at the glorious appearing of Christ. He will be done away with instantly and without effort. And just a single word from the mouth of our Lord will render him abolished. Just a word or two from the mouth of the Lord Jesus and Satan will be done forever. You say, well, what words will he say? Well, I don't really know because we're not told, but I just imagine something like, be gone will be enough, and he will be gone. Dr. MacArthur writes this, he says, just as Antichrist will be revealed at God's appointed time, so also is the moment of his destruction divinely ordained. At the height of His power, when He seems invincible, He will meet His end. And here's how the prophet Daniel put it. In Daniel 7, verse 26, he said, His dominion will be taken away, annihilated, and destroyed forever. Now listen, He will not be annihilated, but His dominion will be annihilated. Daniel 11.45 says, He will come to His end and no one will help Him. And as I said earlier, Revelation 19 verses 20 and 21 says, And the beast, the Antichrist, was seized, and with him the false prophet, who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who worshipped his image, And these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone. And the rest, that is those who were gathered at the battle of Armageddon, were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh." That is going to be the battle of Armageddon. It is going to be over before it even begins, because Jesus Christ will slay. all the armies of men with the breath of His mouth." You say, well, so what is that sword that comes from His mouth? Should that be taken literally? Well, if you go back to verses 15 and 60 of that same chapter, you find, this is Revelation 19, from His mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it He may strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty." The sharp sword is likely a reference to the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And it is on the basis of the truth of the Word of God that the nations will be judged. spurned the truth of God, and so now it will come upon them in fierce wrath and judgment. And it is the Word of the Lord that will consume the nations. And it is the Word of the Lord that will destroy the Antichrist and will deliver Satan and his hosts into the pits of hell. The devil's man is going to flex his muscles And He's going to do all kinds of incredible signs and wonders and miracles. And everyone is going to be wowed. And He's going to set Himself up as God to be worshipped by the world. And then ultimately, He's going to gather all the armies of the world together to fight against the lords. But it will all be for naught. It will all be in vain. because just one word from the mouth of the Lord will slay them all." Folks, what a comfort this is. What a comfort it is. What a security we have that there is absolutely nothing that Satan can ever do that will ultimately thwart the plans of God. And God has everything under control. Well, Paul goes back now to his description of the Antichrist. He just couldn't wait, so he had to talk about the glorious appearing of Christ. But now he goes back and talks about the Antichrist again. So the fifth main point in our outline is the power. The power. Look with me at verse 9. That is, he says, the one who's coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness." Now, I'm not going to say a lot about this tonight, but notice that Antichrist is going to get his power from Satan. And he's going to be able to do all kinds of signs and wonders. And the false prophet is going to be able to do signs and wonders. This will be similar, I believe, the magicians in Egypt who were able to replicate some of the miracles of God that were done through Moses, and they were able to do everything okay until it came to the lice. And then they threw up their hands and said, sorry, this is the finger of God. We can't do this. But Antichrist is going to perform a number of deceptive tricks, including, I believe, falsifying His own death and resurrection. And you might want to look at Revelation 13, verse 3, verse 12, verse 14, and then Revelation 17, 8, and 11. I'll just give you those references. But the Bible talks about His appearing to have died and then coming back to life. And the false prophet is going to do miracles which will be empowered by Satan. The word false in verse 9 means that these wonders will be deceptive in nature. They will all be designed to get everyone to worship the beast and to accept his mark. And all the world, all the people of the world will believe the lie that Antichrist is God. They're all going to be deceived. And that's why he adds the phrase in verse 10, "...and with all the deception of wickedness." Satan has always been an imitator. He has always been a counterfeiter. Anything that God has, that He has given to us that is genuine, Satan wants to counterfeit that. And He will even counterfeit the death and resurrection of Christ by having His men appear to die and be raised from the dead. And this, along with many other miracles, will be all that the nations of the earth need to believe His lie. The deceptiveness, the satanic miracles, will be used to promote wickedness and lawlessness in the world. They will be wicked in their fraudulent deception, and they will produce greater wickedness as a result. Now, folks, there are going to be a lot of bad things that are going to happen during the tribulation period, but one of the worst is going to be the lawlessness and the wickedness that is going to be upon the face of the earth in that day. You say, well, who's going to be deceived? Who's going to be deceived? That leads us to the last point in the outline. I might hear an amen for that. But that is the perishing. The perishing. Verse 10 says, for those who perish. Now, we always quote John 3.16, but we seldom go on to verse 18, which says this, He who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Hebrews 3.13 talks about the hearts being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. If only we could learn that sin is not what it seems to be. That it's a deception. And that Satan tempts people with sin and he says, listen, this will satisfy you. And he tells us that we can sin and get away with it. And he tells us the lie that we can indulge in a sinful lifestyle and not be hurt by it. Oh, if we could learn. But the truth of God remains, the wages of sin is death. There's always destruction that comes. as a result of sin. And apart from the saving grace of God, sin will destroy people eternally. The whole program of Satan in the world is to deceive people into believing that which is not true. And his whole plan is to twist and distort God's truth and to tempt people to embrace false human philosophies and doctrines of demons. He is in the deception business. The battleground is the minds. And there is going to be a day, according to Scripture, when the entire world is going to fall into the trap of Satan's subtle deceptions. And by this time, the hardness of hearts will be nearly complete. The satanic system of the Antichrist will be so pervasive that the minds of men will be completely deceived. But notice why the world will fall into this deception. First of all, because of denial. Denial. Now the last part of verse 10 says, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. They could have been saved, by receiving the truth, but they rejected it. They would not receive it. And the Bible tells us that there will also be a large number of both Jews and Gentiles that will indeed be saved during the tribulation period. And there are going to be those who are going to refuse the mark of the beast, and they will, for the most part, lose their lives as a result of that. And sadly, the vast majority of the population of the earth will remain lost eternally. And many of them will receive the mark of the beast, and many of them will die during those terrible judgments that God will send upon the earth during that time. Others that survive will be destroyed ultimately at the glorious appearing of Christ. But all those who continue in their unbelief and rejection of the truth of God will perish eternally in a place called hell. And when they perish, it will be their own fault. It will be their own fault. The Bible says they had a chance to believe. They had a chance to accept and receive the truth of God. But they would not. The Bible says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But not all will repent. And not all will receive the love of the truth, that by it they might be saved. And many who perish will have heard the truth of the Gospel many times over, but rejected it again and again. And even Calvinists acknowledge that those who perish will do so because they reject the truth of the gospel. Dr. MacArthur writes this, he says, the Bible clearly teaches that those who go to hell do so because they reject the truth. Because they reject the truth. And he points to Matthew 23, 37, which says, concerning the Jews' rejection of the gospel, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." You were not willing. I wanted to gather you together. I wanted you all to be saved, but you were not willing. John 3, 19-20 says, You know, I quoted verse 18 a while ago, but verse 19 says, This is the judgment that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. They don't come to the light because they love their evil deeds. and they want to remain in darkness. In John 5, 38-40, Jesus said, You do not have His Word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. And you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify of Me. And you are, notice, you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life." God said, you can come. You can come. Oh, but they're not willing. They reject the truth. They reject the Gospel. John 8.24 says, Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. And then verses 45-47 say, "...because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me." Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them because you are not of God. And over and over again in Scripture we see the desire of God for all to be saved, But God allows a measure of freedom. God allows us to choose, and many will not respond. Folks, listen, every sinner who perishes will do so because he has not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. He has not believed. And those who perish in the last days will be just like those who perish today They do not love God's truth. They do not embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ by repenting of their sins and putting their faith and trust in Him for eternal salvation. They could, but they won't. And notice that it will not be because they have not heard the truth, but because they have not loved it. They have not embraced it. put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ to save them. Secondly, Paul says they will perish because of delusion. Delusion. Look at verse 11. For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false. Along with their own unbelief, and the hardening of their own hearts against the truth of God will come a judicial hardening and delusion by God. This is the same thing that we see in the Old Testament when Pharaoh hardened his heart and then God hardened his heart as well. There is a working of hardening on both sides, the human side and the divine side. There is a hardening of the heart of an unbeliever by his own rejection of the truth, but at the same time, there is a judicial hardening by God. And if there happens to be anyone here tonight who has yet to embrace Christ as Lord and Savior, let me just warn you that if you persist in your unbelief, the Bible makes it absolutely clear that there can come a point at which it will no longer be possible for you to believe. You will have hardened your heart and God will have hardened your heart to the place where you can no longer believe. And you will have crossed over that line of hardening your heart against the truth. And God will harden your heart in a judicial way to the place where you no longer then have that ability to be saved. You know, sometimes people wonder why their lost loved ones do not believe the Gospel and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. For some, It is because they have crossed over this line and God has hardened their hearts. Well, verse 11 is talking about judicial hardening of the entire world population in the last days. And I'm going to have to speed this up to get to the end. I'm going to finish this tonight, okay? So just hang in here. You say, well then, is God to blame for their perishing? Absolutely not. The first phrase, for this reason. Notice, for what reason? Because they did not have a love for the truth. Because they did not believe and embrace the gospel. And the King James Version says that God will send them a strong delusion. That word means a powerful working of error. You say, well, where will this powerful working of error lead them? It will lead them to believe the lie. The lie. Notice this is not a lie, it is the lie. You say, what lie is it? The lie that Antichrist is God. But it is the same lie that Satan tempted Eve with in the Garden of Eden. It is the lie of pride. It is the lie that says, I'll do just fine on my own, thank you. I don't need the Lord Jesus. It is the lie that says, I can be saved by my own good works. It is the lie that says, I am my own master. I will bow the knee to no one. It is the lie that says, God's Word is not true. That is the lie. It is the ultimate deception of Satan. And it is a damning lie. And the amazing part here is that it says God will be actively involved in sending this delusion. This is not delusion from Satan. This is delusion from God. And a part of His involvement will be in the removal of the restrainer that we talked about earlier. But another part of it will be His allowing the deceptiveness of the false prophet that will cause the nations to worship the Antichrist. And another part of it will be in the releasing of three powerful demons from the bottomless pit to spread their deception across the earth, as we see in Revelation 16, verses 13 and 14. So God is going to be actively involved now in judicially hardening the hearts of the unbelievers. And God will use all these things to harden their hearts so that they will believe the lie that is being propagated by the Antichrist. And because they choose error, God will give them over completely to this system of error. But you know, God does this all the time, even today. I mean, that's what it says in Romans 1. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. This is already going on. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give Him thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. That's happening now in our day and time. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. And for this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind. Folks, that's already happening. It is going to happen in an ultimate way at the end. But it's already happening now. And this happens all the time in God's permissive will. The words of Proverbs 522, his own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held in the cords of his own sin. There will come a day in which those who persistently reject the truth of God will be unable to believe it because God will judicially fix them in the path that they have chosen. And then the last thing we see here is destruction. And I don't have a lot of time on this one, but look at verse 12. in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness." Let me just say, because we're out of time, that the Word of God is clear that those who do not believe the Gospel will be judged, and they will ultimately spend an eternity separated from God in a place called hell. No lost sinner can afford to take God's truth lightly or reject God's Son repeatedly. Instead, I plead with you to do as the Thessalonians did when they received the Word, not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this passage. We thank you for what we see here, what we learn from this passage, and the warnings that are given here. And Lord, we pray You would help us to be wise and be sober. And Lord, that we would be firm in the faith. And if there's anyone tonight that does not know You, our prayer is that they would not put it off any longer. They would not reject the truth any longer. But they would embrace Your truth and love Your truth and receive Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior. The Lord, help us all to live for You this week. For Your glory and honor, in Jesus' name, Amen.