SATAN’S TWO-PRONGED ATTACK
2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-17
#2Thessalonians2
INTRODUCTION… TWO-PRONGED TRAVEL PLAN (p)
It is always a good idea to have a plan. When I went on a road trip at the end of April to Colorado for a funeral, I had a plan. I decided to take my time driving and stop at different places along the way for the purpose of enjoyment, but also spiritual renewal. Kelly looked up neat places to eat and to see. I wanted to stop in Kansas and Colorado at towns where my family is from. I got to see the Cathedral of the Plains in Victoria Kansas and eat some good BBQ featured on the Food Network and see my great grandfather’s barber chair in a museum. I was able to pray and read and spend time with the Lord at a beautiful outlook over Kansas. Some of what I did was happenstance, but most of it was a plan to rest and rejuvenate in a spiritual way. A two-pronged plan of enjoyment and renewal helped me know where to go. A plan helped Kelly to know where I was. A plan helped me to be safe. It is always good idea to have a plan.
I mention having a plan because I believe a two-pronged plan is mentioned in 2nd Thessalonians 2. It is a good plan because I think it is an effective plan. It is a bad plan because it involves evil. It is a good plan about being bad. 2nd Thessalonians 2 describes the enemy of God trying to derail all that God wants to do in the world. Paul describes that Satan has a program of opposition to what God is doing through the Gospel in the world.
Let’s read.
READ 2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-17 (ESV)
“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. 16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.”
SATAN’S TWO-PRONGED ATTACK
Before the end of all things, Satan has a good plan to be bad. His plan, described in this passage, centers on two points. In the military this is called a two-prong attack. It is also called a pincer movement or double envelopment. The Zulu warriors in Africa call it the ‘buffalo horn formation.’ Your grandma called it ‘not putting all your eggs in one basket.’ The two-pronged attack forces simultaneous attacks on both sides of an enemy dividing their attention and effort and many times leading them to be surrounded.
Satan has a plan to try and derail everything God is doing in the world through the Gospel. Revelation 12:12 says, “the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” Satan knows he is on the wrong side of eternity and he is causing as much damage as he can before the end. Chapter 1 of 2nd Thessalonians describes Jesus coming in fire and purifying the earth. We talked about this last week. Chapter 2 of 2nd Thessalonians tells us that Jesus will come and bring to nothing, with the breath of His mouth, everything that Satan has been trying to build. Jesus will huff and puff and blow all of Satan’s houses down. Satan will come to nothing.
Yet… before the end Satan has a good plan to be bad. His plan centers on two points. The first point is ‘lawlessness.’ The second point is ‘believing what is false.’ We need to know this plan so we do not get caught in it, trapped, and end up coming to nothing ourselves.
LAWLESSNESS (verses 4-9)
The first point of Satan’s attack is ‘lawlessness.’ In 2nd Thessalonians 2, the words rebellion, lawlessness, destruction, and deception form a chain of words that are related. Rebellion. Lawlessness. Destruction. Deception. Lawlessness means disobedience to the will of God. Call it ‘sin’ if you want. A phrase from Judges comes to mind when I think about the word ‘lawless’: ‘every person did what was right in their own eyes’ (Judges 17:6, 21:25).
Lawless is doing what I want when I want and disobeying the Lord.
Lawless is rebellion against the will of God and laying aside His way for another way.
Lawless is destruction at our own hands because we thought we knew better.
Lawless is being deceived away from God.
It is Satan’s plan to get all people opposed to God by putting themselves on the throne of their own life. This attitude is already at work in us as selfishness, but we can be tempted to go deeper and let the idea of self win and set aside God’s way. Satan wants us to think “I do what I want when I want when I want and that’s okay.” Satan wants us to think, “You do you and I do me and no one can judge what is right or wrong.” As believers in Jesus Christ, we have to be aware that Satan will attack us in this way. We will be tempted to lay aside God’s Way or His Word in favor of culture or what our society says is right and correct or perhaps even what our family teaches us as true.
It is lawlessness that…
… leads a person to think one race or skin color is better than another.
… dupes adult Christians to live together before marriage.
… makes us believe that gender and sexual identity is up to us and God has nothing to say.
… leads us to mash politics together with Jesus and we think we are the right party.
… makes us believe we, as a Christian, can marry someone who is not a Christian.
… says all religions are the same and pretty much all lead to the same god.
… abortion is called healthcare.
… we think being a Christian is a one-day-a-week thing.
Lawlessness!
ILLUSTRATION…forbes.com/sites/dawnstaceyennis/2020/07/15/largest-survey-of-transgender-and-nonbinary-youth-says-more-than-half-seriously-considered-suicide/?sh=b90fbdb3404d
I want to be bold and give you a tender and alarming example. I don’t know about you, but I constantly see news about the LGBTQ+ Community and transgender issues… perhaps because it is ‘Pride Month’ and that is what all media is pushing. Sexual identity and gender issues are real and hurt and some people in our society deal with it. I want to be sensitive in this topic, but I also want you to see Truth. I know it is a complicated issue, but setting aside one’s biological sex or gender and giving oneself to homosexuality in any form is not God’s best. A same-sex relationship is sin and is not best.
Why am I bringing this up? Please do not stop listening. Here is the point… non-Christian sources tell us that suicide, which in itself is a tender topic, presents itself in the lives of 50% of transgendered people after embracing this identity. There is great sadness and brokenness and hurt and a real lack of peace on the other side of giving into same-sex attraction. The lie is that once you love who you want to love and be who you want to be, that you will be whole and happy and complete. The Truth is we are all broken and only by living according to the path God sets for us can we ever truly find peace and security in Him for ourselves.
I want to bring this up on Family Sunday, because parents, your middle school and high school kids are dealing with this and I dare say even your elementary students are also face-to-face with same-sex issues. It permeates our society.
We need to know that non-church sources are reporting that suicide and suicide attempts and mental illness is a huge stressor on the other side of giving into same-sex attraction and other gender fluidity issues. Satan offers false peace. I hope and pray that my example makes sense to you.
It is lawlessness anytime we see a manner of living lined out by God in His Word and we set that path aside in favor of a different path. Lawlessness is anytime we take the wide gate over the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13).
This is a big deal because the ways of living that God decrees for us in His Word lead to life, forgiveness, grace, peace, and eternal security. God is the Creator and He designed us to work best in certain ways and sin leads us away from those certain God-given divine ways. This is a big deal because the attack of Satan is meant to draw us away from God and we end up in rebellion, hurt, un-forgiveness, bitterness, and have such loss of life.
ILLUSTRATION… Personal Belief vs. God’s Best (p)
I want to give you a personal example of how all this works. I mentioned earlier that it is lawless for adult Christians to live together before marriage. It makes no sense to me, if I am honest, why people can’t live together before they are married. You are committing to a lifetime with somebody, you had better be sure! Take him for a test drive. Take her out for an experimental test flight. Why not try out living together and combine and mix everything before you are married… it only makes logical sense to see if you are actually compatible. Kelly and I’s first years of marriage were very difficult due in part to not having even lived in the same city before we were married.
And yet, God tells us in His Word that the bonds of sexuality are for marriage only because there are mental habits, emotional, heart, and soul things that happen in marriage. Mixing finances and households before marriage is not God’s best because He designed us to be one in marriage and when we go outside of that design, we end up in a troubled relationship. The design is a man and a woman in a covenant relationship of marriage and some boundaries are only crossed after marriage. I didn’t design it, God did. Christians and non-Christians alike ignore this. In addition, non-Christian sociological sources tell us that couples that live together before marriage are twice as likely to get divorced. If you care about the person you are with and actually love them and want to be with them for a lifetime, do it God’s way because even non-Christian psychologists know it is best.
The attack is to set aside God’s way and do what I logically think is best and that is where the sinister nature of Satan’s opposition to God’s way creeps in.
APPLICATION
How do we defend against lawlessness in our lives? How do we repel the attacks of our culture into our lives that would lead us away from God? How can we discover those rebellious attitudes in us that lead to lawlessness?
The Apostle Paul, in verses 13-17 says that those who are saved and sanctified by the Spirit and believe in the Truth need to stand firm in the teachings presented in the Bible and establish those Truths as the foundations of our heart and in how we act.
What does that look like?
* Do not just accept what you see and hear as Truth, but rather think it through with what you know with the Bible in the background. Go to the Bible as your first resource and anchor in this life for what is true and filter what you are hearing and believing through the Bible first.
* Ask questions and join a small group Bible study so you can discuss such things with other believers. Discussing troubling things or questions or feelings you are having about events and thoughts in our culture is a good thing. Sharpening one another’s faith is a good thing!
* Talk with me or Braeden or an elder if you hear some things and you aren’t sure or a situation is complicated. It gets even more complicated when we have issues with family members or our experiences and feelings rush in our minds. Sometimes we need to talk out our beliefs so we can be sure of what we believe.
TRANSITION
Satan has a good plan to be bad. The first point of his plan is ‘lawlessness.’ The second point is ‘believing what is false.’
BELIEVING WHAT IS FALSE (verses 11-12)
This part of Satan’s two-pronged attack against what God is doing should be obvious and it is obvious because of who Satan is… and yet we get caught in it. In John 8:44, Jesus calls Satan, “a liar and the father of lies.” 2 Corinthians 11:14 reminds us that Satan “masquerades as an angel of light” so that what he does and says seems right, but in the end is really a lie. Revelation 12:9 calls him the “deceiver of the world.” Satan lies, spreads what is false, and all the while makes it seem like he is telling the truth.
2nd Thessalonians 2 describes a ‘lawless one’ whose activity is all about false signs and false wonders and deceives people. Kind of like the previous point, this ‘lawless one’ is connected in a chain of words with destruction, pride, false signs, false wonders, wicked deception, and refusing to love the truth. As part of God’s plan, there is a strong delusion that God allows and it is false because it is coming from Satan. God allows Satan to attack in this way for a time. A time is coming when, as I said before, Jesus Christ will return and blow down everything Satan is trying to do. We, now, must endure what he is doing.
What he is doing is making truth seem false and making what is false seem true. Satan is doing that through politics, false teaching in churches, music, movies, children’s TV shows, the internet, video games, social media, and everything among us that impacts our culture. The word “delusion” is used in this passage and this is a good word for it. Satan is attacking and making us deluded about what is true and right and good and is making us confused. A confused Christian is a good thing in Satan’s mind.
ILLUSTRATION… https://www.bu.edu/isso/files/pdf/AmericanValues.pdf [adapted]
I want to give you some examples and since we are all Americans, what might be some beliefs we Americans hold that would lead us away from God? I was reading a short article and it gave 13 core values of Americans. I want to mention only three of them.
#1 Time and Its Importance. In general, Americans believe that achievement of goals depends on the productive use of time. We should use each day to the fullest to achieve our dreams. Time is money. What is wrong with that?! God designed us to have periods where we need to rest and worship. Rest is not an American value and I hate to say it… neither is worship anymore. The end result is that Sunday is just like any other day of the week and rest and worship are values that are put to the back of life rather than are priorities.
#2 Individualism, Independence, Privacy. Americans are seen as separate individuals with individual needs and people need the freedom to just be themselves and to be who they are. What is wrong with that?! Lots actually and it works itself out in many false ways. Christianity is not a private relationship with God, but a personal relationship with God lived out in community. The existence of ‘unspoken prayer requests’ are a great example of this… we can’t actually pray for you or a situation if you keep it hidden and private. Being extremely private cuts us off from 50% of the Christian walk… in my opinion. We are not independent, but should be dependent on God and rely on His Way. Who we are when left by our independent individual selves is sinful and we need to be redeemed… every single one of us.
#3 Self-Help. Americans take pride in their own accomplishments and self-achievement is prized. Me is most important. What is wrong with that?! Well, having a life centered on self and what I want to achieve and what I want to do, crowds out love for others, room for God as priority, and pushes away humbleness to do things God’s way. When self is king or queen, nothing else can be.
I cannot help but see that Satan’s big effort in this area of wanting us to ‘believe what is false’ is currently centered on self… perhaps it always has been. Satan wants us to center our lives on ourselves, what we feel is right, define marriage and love how we feel it should be, work how we want to work, me, me, me, I, I, I, my rights, my way, my job, my kids, my happiness, etc. The delusion is that we are the centers and priorities of our lives. This is a delusion right from Satan because is places our hearts and desires and our souls right in the palm of our own hands.
APPLICATION
How do we defend against believing what is false in our lives? How do we repel the attacks of our culture into our lives that would lead us away from God? How can we discover those false beliefs in us that are shading everything we do and impacting all our decisions?
The Apostle Paul, in verses 13-17 says that those who are saved and sanctified by the Spirit and believe in the Truth need to stand firm in the teachings presented in the Bible and establish those Truths as the foundations of our heart and in how we act.
What does that look like?
* Do not just accept what you see and hear as Truth, but rather think it through with what you know with the Bible in the background. Go to the Bible as your first resource and anchor in this life for what is true and filter what you are hearing and believing through the Bible first.
* Ask questions and join a small group Bible study so you can discuss such things with other believers. Discussing troubling things or questions or feelings you are having about events and thoughts in our culture is a good thing. Sharpening one another’s faith is a good thing!
* Talk with me or Braeden or an elder if you hear some things and you aren’t sure or a situation is complicated. It gets even more complicated when we have issues with family members or our experiences and feelings rush in our minds. Sometimes we need to talk out our beliefs so we can be sure of what we believe to know what is true.
SUMMARY
To sum up this morning, the Apostle Paul has in mind the Second Coming of Jesus and knows that we who are believers are waiting for His return. While we wait, we are enduring the attacks of Satan.
His attacks can shake our minds (verse 2).
His attacks can cause us alarm (verse 2).
His attacks can leave us deceived (verse 3) or deluded (verse 11).
I do not want you shaken or alarmed or deceived or deluded.
I want you saved and sanctified by the Spirit and to believe in the Truth; standing firm in the teachings presented in the Bible and established in those Truths as the foundations of your heart and in how you act.
RE-READ 2 THESSALONIANS 2:16-17
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.”
PRAYER
INVITATION
If you are here this morning, and you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, it is my deepest prayer that you also not be shaken or alarmed or deceived or deluded. I want you to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ and to begin the journey of being sanctified by the Spirit and to believe in the Truth. I challenge you today… if you are not a Christian… not to accept Jesus. I know that sounds weird. My challenge for you today is to look around you and think deeply about what is true and what is a delusion. Seek the Truth. You see, I know, that when you seek the Truth you will find Jesus. So, if you are here today and you are not a Christian, I invited you to seek Truth and see through the lawlessness and lies around us.
