For the past two days we've been looking at a prophecy regarding the evil political leader who will be Satan's man during the last days known as the Great Tribulation. Paul said that this man will be given the ability to put on displays of "signs and wonders" so he can deceive people and gain followers from among those who have refused to follow the Lord. This is where we pick up today, but Paul will also speak of the glorious future that awaits those who have chosen to follow the Lord.
We begin with a passage that might seem puzzling at first, but we will see that the Lord is merely giving people what they really want. We are going to combine the last half of verse 10, which we studied yesterday, with verses 11 and 12 so that they will be made more clear to us. "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not loved the truth but have delighted in wickedness." (2 Thessalonians 2:10b-12) What "lie" is Paul talking about? The lie that the Antichrist will tell---the deceptive show that he will put on for the world. Those who have rejected God's truth will believe the lie because they will want to believe it. Basically, what's going to happen is that God will say to them, "Fine. Have it your way." Or, as the late evangelist and author C.S. Lewis put it, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'"
God isn't going to force anyone to be deceived and to fall for a lie, but He's going to allow those who love the darkness rather than the light (John 3:19) to have what they want. The Apostle John said that people who prefer darkness to light are doing so because their deeds are evil. Darkness conceals; light reveals. If you recall from the Old Testament, King Saul chose darkness over light, and God allowed him to descend into madness. God took His blessing and the throne of Israel away from Saul and gave them to David instead because David was "a man after His own heart". (1 Samuel 13:14) David was not a perfect man, but he was a man who sought the Lord with his whole heart. He loved the Lord and wanted to understand His laws and wanted to have a close and personal relationship with Him. Because David wanted these things, God granted them to him. Because Saul did not want these things, God allowed him to be who he really was: a man who was wicked and so pathologically insecure and so jealous that he eventually was overcome by paranoid delusions. Paul is saying that when the Antichrist lies to the world, those who have no heart for God will fall for his lies because they want to fall for them. They don't want to know God or to understand and obey His laws. Because they will love the darkness rather than the light, God is going to allow them to be who they really are and He's going to let them do what they really want to do.
In contrast to the fate of the wicked, the fate of the Lord's people is going to be glorious. "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14) Paul says, "My friends and I are thankful for you. God loves you too, because you believed the gospel that we preached to you. Because you believed, you will share in the glory of Christ." We who believe have become children of God, which makes us "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ". (Romans 8:17) We can't even imagine the glorious things our inheritance contains! God is going to give His Son nothing but the best, and the Son is going to share it with us. We are going to have to wait until we get to heaven and see this wonderful inheritance with our own eyes before we can fully understand it. "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no mind has conceived---the things God has prepared for those who love Him." (Isaiah 64:4, 1 Corinthians 2:9)
"So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." (2 Thessalonians 2:15) Paul instructs them, "Don't stray from the doctrines we've taught you. Don't listen to false teachers or fall for their lies. If you keep the truth of God's word in your hearts, you won't be deceived." Earlier in the week we talked about why Paul has been giving additional information regarding the last days. It was because some were teaching the Thessalonian believers a false doctrine. These people were telling them that their present troubles were a sign that the Great Tribulation had already begun. Because this lie worried the believers, in his two letters to them Paul restated the way events are going to unfold in the end times. He first described Christ calling the church out of the world, then he moved on to the subjects of the Antichrist and the Great Tribulation. He discussed these events in this order because that's the order in which they will come to pass. We will be taking a closer look as these things when we arrive at the book of Revelation. And when we do get there, we are going to dispel the myth that Revelation is too symbolic and too difficult to understand. We're going to look at it with an easy, step-by-step method by which we can all understand what the Lord is telling us. He wouldn't give us a book that's impossible to understand; what would be the point of that? He gave us the book of Revelation because He wants us to understand it.
"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17) This is a beautiful prayer! We are living in a harsh world where everyone faces discouragement from time to time. There have been days in my life where I don't think I could have even gotten out of bed if I had not known that my Redeemer lives and that He loves me. Because of Him, there is always hope---hope for this life and the certain promise of a glorious eternal life to come. We will all face at least one situation in our lives that looks hopeless. And perhaps it is hopeless if it depends only on human ability. But with God all things are possible. Nothing is too hard for Him. I've had some situations in my life that truly were hopeless if they depended only what a human being could do. But God stepped in and miracles happened. All the glory goes to Him. So, my friends, may our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. May the God of all comfort be with you. May the God who can do all things step into your impossible situations and turn them around for your good and for His glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment