Many are too attached to this world. Delusion and deception plague minds. But Christ is lifted up, He will draws hearts to salvation. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-13)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12312
7:00 PM on 6/1/2022

P. Schaller –

Would you turn in your Bibles please to 2 Thessalonians 2. The message has to do with the Second Coming of Christ and I’ll read a verse from 2 Timothy 4:8. You can put it up on the screen. “Love his appearing.” That’s the
key phrase. Do you love his appearing? That’s a good question.

I believe that there are many believers that believe in Christ, but do they love his appearing? I
believe there are many people that believe in Christ. They do not go to a church. They do not
read the Bible. I hope they are born again. God knows. Let’s say they are, some of them. They
are born again, but do they love his appearing? Maybe they don’t know about it and maybe
also if they know about it, they are so strongly attached to their modern lifestyle that they
don’t love his appearing. Or they’re living their life and the coming of Christ is something that
they know little about it and they have very little interest in it.

Turn to Matthew 24 for another verse. Thanks so much for your prayers and your love. I appreciate it
very much. Matthew 24:44, we are to be ready for his coming. How can I be ready for his coming if I
have no sanctification going on in my life.

Sunday we did a message on sanctification, what that is. Justification is salvation. That is when
you are declared righteous 100%. And then the second part of your life is your growth and
development. Christians are different. There is one Christian very mature, Spirit-filled much of
the time, great courage, great faith, enlightened mind, a humble spirit and he walks often in the
Spirit. That Christian is different from another Christian who is largely carnal and does not have
much interest. He is living in his flesh, Galatians 5. Maybe complains a lot. He’s unhappy inside
internally and so on. God’s purpose for both of them is to be sanctified.

We read that in 2 Thessalonians 2. Turn there with me and that’s our text. I think we’re in it! Again,
looking at another portion! 2 Thessalonians 2, we’ll keep our finger there and we will look at vs. 13. The
whole chapter, you have to know this chapter in your Bible. You have to know 2 Thessalonians 2. You
have to read that chapter and read it slowly. You have to read that chapter prayerfully. You
have to read it and take it apart word by word and put it back together again and understand
this chapter regarding this subject. It is awesome.

Look at chapter 2:13. Wow! “Belief of the truth.” I want to write that word down here. We have
this word “truth.” What is truth? Pontius Pilate said that to Christ. What is truth? What is truth?
You have sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. You are a believer of truth. I want to
put here next to it “a lie.” A lie. Lies. But you are sanctified to truth not to a lie. We live in a
world of lies. And lies are increasing, 2 Timothy 3. Those that are deceiving and being deceived.
Another key phrase. Deceiving and being deceived. Deceiving. This is sleight of hand, being
cheated, being lied to. The fine print on a contract. The second phone call that is made. The first
one, the second one deceived. I’ll put here the word “guile” or “trickery” or “deceitfulness.”

And that is the nature of man. Even a good man. Very good people. Very good people. Morally
good people but are they sanctified by God by the Holy Spirit.
There is only one Spirit in the world that does not lie. There’s one Spirit in the world that does
not lie. Who is that? The Holy Spirit. You are sanctified unto the truth. Yeah! Yeah, God! Let’s all
say it. Yeah, God! Let’s turn to your neighbor and say, Yeah, God! Yeah God! We are sanctified
unto the truth.

I want to do a brief little pre-lesson here about the heart of man. This is Jeremiah 17. I want to say
what I want to say tonight and end the message. We’re going to get there so follow it with me
cause Jeremiah 17 is an incredibly profound text, another text of Scripture you must know this. Jeremiah
17:5-9, I’m not going to teach the text but I want to show you the diagram. The heart is
deceitful. I’ll put a hole in it. Why is there a hole in the heart? Because man lost God. God is not
in the heart. God is not in the heart of a fallen man. God said, where are you? Where are you,
Adam? Where are you? God knows all things. He knows very well where he is. It’s God’s way of
saying what happened? Where are you? I lost you. I lost contact. What happened to you? You
are an empty person. You are a sinful person.

You are a deceitful person. This is vs. 5-9. Because of time, I want to point this out to you. Many of you know this text but if you are new in the church and you are following this and you want to learn our teaching, this text is a very
fundamental building block for your understanding. There are two hearts only. There are only
two hearts in the world. There’s trusting God and there is the heart that is trusting the flesh.
This is Jesus Christ’s heart. He is obedient. You can trust him. He is the truth. He is not a liar. He
is the holy God, the Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He has the heart
of God. He came into the world to show us a man who had no sin. He is God. They that worship
him know him and they have his Spirit. And they are living in a world that is deceiving and being
deceived.

Why do you wait for his appearing? Because he has my heart. Why do I want Jesus to come?
Because I’m tired of the lie. It angers me or frustrates me. It hurts me. I am saddened by it. It
hurts when people are being tricked, lied to, deceived, misled and gravitate – the hole in the
heart means they have no capacity so they gravity to the lie. They do. They are selective about
it. They go to church cause they believe in God but they go to a church where they will not be
told fornication is sin. Homosexuality is sin. Adultery is sin. Lying is sin. Being deceitful is sin.
They won’t go to that church because they want to sleep around with whoever they want to
that night. But they’ll go to the church. They are not being sanctified by the Spirit of God to the
truth cause they don’t want it.

They are selective about it. When it comes to a business deal, they want their business partner to be honest. But in other areas of life, they are cheating. If I offend the law in one point I am guilty of all (James 2:10). You want to go to a church where there is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Whatever church there is, wherever you go, you want to have this Bible speaking to your heart by the Spirit of God. That’s how you are sanctified. When you are gathered together with other believers that have the same Spirit, that is 1 Corinthians 12:13. You drink the same Spirit. We encourage each other in what we believe. We embrace it and we are blessed and showered with blessing and an
increase in our life as we are being sanctified. It really is real.

Have you changed? The more you are walking in this new heart – you might say, I don’t have
that heart. Yes, you do, Ezekiel 36:26 says that we are born again. It says we have been given a
new spirit and a new heart. You have it. You say well I haven’t experienced it. Walk by faith in
him. You have it. God says you are a new creation. God says that he saved you by his grace. God
says that he fills you with his Spirit. God says that he is for you and not against you. He’ll never
leave you or forsake you. You have the new heart.

We have the heart of David. Remember that song? How does it go? Somebody sing it for me.
How’s it go? Come on. Who knows it? I don’t know it. I need help. Come on. The heart of David.
Come on. The heart. What is it? Oh, I’m so sorry. That’s not the one! Oh, my gosh. That is not
the one. Remember the heart of David, wasn’t it? Remember that? You sang it in the choir. Oh,
boy! Okay. Hey, it’s Wednesday night. That’s not bad. That’s not bad. We came up with two
different [songs]. Okay. Let’s go. Here we go.

Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2 and this is the text. Before I do, I want to read this: “A February gallop poll
found 7.1 % of Americans now identify as LGBTQ. It’s a 100% increase over 2012 and a 26%
over 2021. One year, the increase of people that are identifying with this ideology – “the
general consensus among experts is that this jump among all Americans is being driven by a
sharp increase among younger people. For example, last year George Barna found that among
those ages 18-24 an astounding 39% self-identified as LGBTQ. Here is the part that tis tragically
fascinating. Rather than claiming to be born that way” – that means lesbian, gay, binary,
transgender, queer, – “instead of being born that way, many of these young people for a variety
of reasons are choosing to identify with this group.”

In other words, they are seeing it as a popular choice as much as piercings and skinny jeans and
tattoos. “It’s not a coincidence that the rise in LGBTQ identity has corresponded with the
relentless promotion of the characters in story lines and entertainment. We all know that the
Bible has the answers for these confused, desperate young people. Now if only the church
would proclaim the truth and goodness of God’s design for human sexuality. However, here is
the truly terrifying thing. Far too many churches are abandoning biblical truth and instead
absorbing so called gay theology.” Wow.

That brings us to our chapter, 2 Thessalonians 2. We have the coming of the Antichrist who is coming
after the working of Satan in vs. 9. That’s very strong metaphysical, powerful expressions of

[the] supernatural. Vs. 10. So, there are people perishing. That means they’re lost. They are
dying in a lie. That means that the heart that they have is inventing, living subject to all kinds of
ideologies and religious ideas. Many different moral ideas. Many different ways of living and
thinking about things. We all have it. We all have that capability but we have thought a lot
about it. We study it. We meditate on it. We think about the truth.

Look at this picture up here. I have a heart. But I have truth. Where is the truth? Here it is. This
is the truth. Where am I? I am here. John 3 says, “if I be lifted up, I’ll draw all men unto me. It’s
your call. When I draw somebody to me, they see me hanging up in the sky, that’s it. It’s your
call. What do you think? I have two possibilities with my heart. I have one actually. I have a
fallen heart. I’m prone to say the guy hanging up there, I don’t know who he was: a prophet,
miracle worker, rabbi, deceiver, Beelzebub, a demon. I have all kinds of things to say about
Jesus. But there is something else there and that’s the Holy Spirit draws people and says you
are wrong. He’s not wrong. You are wrong. You are a sinner.

You are wrong. But people that love the lie walk away. I love a lie and I can go away and say anything I want to about Jesus on the cross. That’s the world we live in. But there are some, there are some that hear it. There are
some that hear the gospel. There are some that are afraid of God. They fear God. They’re afraid
of hell. They are convicted of sin. There are some that are saying maybe I got this wrong.
I was reading Timothy Keller yesterday. I was thinking he said that people complain because
there is so much evil in the world there is no God. But he said the atheists have a bigger
problem. There is so much evil in the world and there is no God and you don’t believe in God so
there you go. That’s your world. You have a great problem not believing in God. You got
nothing. You got no answer. You got yourself. You got your sin, your craziness, your abstract
mind, your heart. Ideologies and religions all over the place. All kinds.

But if you want to be serious with God, you can be and God will show you. That’s the rest of the
text. Read it with me, vs. 10. I want to put here “the love of the truth.” It goes beyond reason.
It’s Jesus on the cross and if that’s God taking my sin away, that blows my mind. That means he
loves me. And that means I decide do I love him? I decide to love him. I decide to say like depart
from me. I am a sinful man. And Jesus said no, I’m not going to depart from you. I save you. You
are my friend. I am for you. I give you my Spirit and my Spirit will guide you. I’ll keep you from
the deception.

But remember we are the church. We are not raptured yet. Wait until the Rapture goes and
how much deceitfulness will be in this world. How many lies will be propagated. People say
when we are raptured the world will be in shock at our disappearance. I don’t know about that.
They don’t have a clue about what’s going on. They don’t know. The tomb is empty and they
didn’t even go to bother. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. The wise men didn’t even – they said the
king is to be born in Bethlehem. They didn’t even walk five miles to find it out. When we’re
raptured off the earth, there will be some explanation for it.

The magnetic fields in the universe took out the bad people. I mean, what do you know? It is deception. Do you understand that? It is a lie. Do you get it? A trick. It’s a guy in a tuxedo who hates you. It’s a bouquet of flowers and
chocolate and a handsome man who is the most wicked man you can imagine who will steal
from you and destroy you.

Do you know what deception is? It’s a world that crucified Christ, that said he is bad. We are
good. Do you know what deception is? You have it in your heart all the time. You have it in your
heart. It comes in your heart. It’s our pride. It’s our disloyalty. It’s our abandonment to truth.
It’s our passivity and our indifference to the Bible. It’s our indifference to God. It’s the nature of
man. Okay. I think you understand me. I got to have some focus and love for the truth. If I don’t
have a love for the truth, here you go. God gives you a new heart.

Do you know what that new heart does? It loves the truth. It loves it. Even if it hurts me, I want
the truth. Even if it hurts me, I love the truth. Do you see that? That’s the nature, the
fellowship, that’s what God loves about us. His holiness. He loves this about us. So, if you got a
problem with our theology, you need to go to God and get on your knees before God and find
out what you believe, what God will tell you. We are not perfect people and all of our teaching
we do the best we can together as a Body. What is the Bible saying? Let’s live by the Bible. Let’s
embrace what the Bible says. Let’s submit ourself to God and find the blessing of God. Isn’t that
good?

Even like take a subject like missions. Actually, we have been so blessed that we have kind of
been thrown into the deep end of the pool as Christians, you know. You’re a new born Christian
and your mother and father take you to the deep end of the pool and throw you in. And that’s
kind of like what happened in our ministry with missions. We just graduated from Bible school.
We are 23 years old and go to a foreign country and start preaching. We’re saved for only four
years and we’re in a foreign country preaching the gospel and we’re hoping what we are saying
is true. Cause we are sorting it our ourselves.

Then the bubbles come up from the bottom of the pool. Little Junior is drowning right now and
mom and dad jump in – mom or dad jump in and pull him out and he gets his first swimming
lesson. That’s a dramatic illustration. Maybe it’s horrifying for you to hear that. But you know,
missions is from God. Missionaries are sent from God. The gospel is from God. With
stammering lips, we go and share our message and we learn how to talk and share our faith
with people. We do many things by faith. We lose our bad habits cause we are living by faith in
God. Some of our bad habits. But we are being sanctified. We are learning and he is having an
effect on us. And the local assembly is a big part of that.

I am afraid if I drift away from a local assembly and just kind of have a passe kind of indifferent
kind of I sleep the sleep of death David said. “Lighten my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death.”
And I wonder what that is. I wander out of the way of understanding; I will remain in the congregation of the dead. Imagine being in the congregation of the dead. Actually, I can imagine it. I can imagine it. Can you imagine being in a congregation of the dead? Okay.

Let’s finish here.
Vs. 11. Now this is like, I’m sure this is a causative phrase. This is the reason why God sends
strong delusion. Look up at my screen here. Because I don’t love the truth. Then I gravitate to
the lie. And this is where God will send, will send what? Strong delusion. What do you mean?
God will send a strong delusion? Yes. He will allow us to be deceived. He will be part of it. He
will allow the system to roll out. He allows the demons to be in the world. He allows the false
prophets, a false teachers. He allows the deception to roll out. You might say, not God. Yeah.
God will allow that deception to go rampant and they’ll be miracles, false teachers. They’ll be
deception. Different ideas and people will be embracing it and they will be suffering as a result.
One thing about this, one thing about this Spirit that we have is the benefits of it.

This is an incredibly great benefit of loving truth. It’s like you love it and you benefit from it. You have the
joy of it, the freedom of it. You love God. You love the truth. You’re protected. And when you
read these kinds of statistics and you look at this you say that is a sad thing that the church
would be absorbed in something that is obviously not biblical and contradicts our New
Testament. Contradicts the history of the Church. Contradicts our institutions.

Our society has evolved over hundreds of years. It’s not just a phase. We are in a trend; a phase
and we are reinterpreting reality. Why would I believe in a reinterpretation of reality that is
happening in a short time since the iPhone in 2006? There’s actually statistics on that. When
the iPhone came out in 2006 until now, there’s been this incredible wave of propaganda,
ideology, communication, social platforms, the I, the me, the deceit, the delusion, the lies, the
propagation of it. So therefore, why would I embrace what has happened in the last fifteen
years? Why would I embrace it as a radical change for my life when the institutions of the
human race have been proven over hundreds of years? Why? Because of pride. I am better.
This generation we are better than the other one.

Oh really? Oh really? This strong delusion will be stronger in time. But it won’t affect you and me. I mean it can but I want to close with vs. 11. Wow. Okay. What about us? Vs. 13. I’ll just close. I get worked up on this subject and I might be repeating myself a little bit. I want to finish.

It’s Wednesday night. You folks are awesome to be here. I love these Wednesday night
meetings. Sometimes it seems like God touches the Wednesday night services in such a special
way. This is what I want to say tonight. I think you know it; you see it and you understand it.
That means I believe that in our country there are a lot of sisters and brothers that say the
same things that we are saying here tonight. I believe that in our country there’s a lot of people
saying, take courage. That’s our theme for Convention. Take courage. Embrace it. love it. You
will benefit from it. You will be normal. You will be healthy. You will have good relationships.
You love people. You’ll have a mission. You’ll have a vision. You’ll prosper from it.

You’ll be healthy. You’ll have words that have meaning. You’ll have content in your conversation. You
can raise your family. If you are single woman or a single man, you are able to live with your
friends and have a vision and purpose in life and be sanctified and be prepared for meeting
Christ one day.

And isn’t that what Paul said? There is a reward for those that are anticipating Christ. Why do
we anticipate him? Because we love the truth. We get sick of what’s going on with the lies,
misrepresentations and you say I want the kingdom of God to come on the earth. I want that
kingdom on the earth. I want Jesus to come back. I want him to come back. I want him to come
back on a horse in Revelation 19.

I got to say this about that. I said if you ever want to make a big impression on your new family,
like a wedding and two families come together and you want to make a good impression on
them, tell them that you believe that Jesus is coming back on a horse. They’ll think what have
you been drinking? You know what it means to me? I have no problem with it. Cause God made
horses. I have no problem with the linkage of that kingdom with this world. And I have no
problem with horses at all. In my imagination, I am like a child. I believe that the world that is
coming is a very real one.

I believe that Jesus came and died for it. We will be his bride. I believe many other things that are written in this book and I anticipate it and believe it because we are the people that are being sanctified by his Spirit and saying to us in our hearts it’s true. Was Noah’s Ark true? You got to sort that out with God. Was Jesus raised from the dead? Is the
tomb empty? Did he ascend up into heaven? You got to sort that out with God. Maybe that’s
the whole meaning of my message tonight. There are many things in this book that you and I
have to deal with with God and he can speak to you and guide you and show you.
When you love that truth, it will protect you. It will encourage you. You will open your mouth.
You will have prayers that move mountains.

You’ll be part of a fellowship that really makes an impact. We have contact in the midst of our communication. And a motivation in our heart. We’ll be able to get up off the couch and go do something. Then we are able to come back to
the couch and take a nap with a big smile on our face. Cause life has meaning, everything about
it. Why? Because we are being sanctified by his Holy Spirit. We walk in the Spirit. We rejoice in
the Spirit. We know the sound and the voice of what the Spirit is saying to us and God loves to
speak to us.

Remember the voice walking in the Garden and Adam wasn’t there. And the voice said, where
are you? And I think that voice is walking in this world today and he’s saying to us, I found you. I
know you. You know me. We have the same heart. Amen. Would you pray with me.

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