1. The Bible teaches there is coming a great moral and religious defection -- "a falling away" (2:3) -- preceding the second coming of Christ.
2. In fact, the Greek word here in 2:3 (apostasia) is where we get our English word "apostasy." It means to turn away from the truth (2:10, 12).
3. This terrible apostasy will reach its consummation in the appearance of "that man of sin...the son of perdition" (2:3), the antichrist (cf. 2:4, 8, 9).
4. There is much disagreement over the identity of the antichrist. We do not know who he is but we do know that he will get his great power from Satan (2:9). Rev. 13:4 says that people will worship the dragon (Satan), "which gave power unto the beast (antichrist)."
5. II Thessalonians teaches that the antichrist will not emerge until after the rapture, and that this coming spiritual darkness is presently being held back or restrained (2:5-7). Just as there is disagreement over the identity of the antichrist, there is also some debate over the identity of this restrainer. I believe it is the Holy Spirit, indwelling born again believers (2:6-8).
6. Those of us that are saved have a restraining influence in this wicked world. This restraining influence will be removed at the rapture.
7. There are many important teachings here in this passage. Today, I would like to concentrate on verse 10, and the word "perish." Sometimes, the word "perish" means to die, but usually it means more than just death. It means the second death. It means to spend eternity in hell (John 3:16).
8. II Peter 3:9 says the Lord is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
9. Similarly, our Lord said in Luke 13:3 and 5, "I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
10. This same Greek word translated "perish", can also be translated as "lost". Our Lord said, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).
11. The apostle Paul says, "But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (II Cor. 4:3). How sad -- to be lost, to be without Christ, and to perish! Sinners are perishing (now), and are lost (now).
12. Why are sinners lost? Why must they perish? Why won't they repent? Let us go back to our text in II Thess. 2 and see why it is that sinners perish.

I. SINNERS PERISH BECAUSE THEY ARE DECEIVED (2:10).

1. The Bible says in verse 10, "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish..."
2. According to the Bible, there will soon come a day when millions of lost sinners will be deceived into following the antichrist. Jesus said, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (John 5:43).
3. This horrible deception will get worse and worse as we get closer to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today there are billions of people deceived by false religion, evolution, communism, psychiatry, rock music, drugs, the occult, etc. The devil has countless deceptions (cf. II Cor. 4:3, 4).
4. Notice: the devil "hath blinded the minds of them which believe not..." (II Cor. 4:4). Sinners are spiritually blind! And the greatest deception of all is that sinners can get to heaven without faith in Jesus Christ. "Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (II Thess. 2:10).
5. They love their sin. They love their money. And they love their drugs and their alcohol and their cigarettes and their rotten rock and roll music and all their worldly pleasures, but they do not love God. "They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."

II. SINNERS PERISH BECAUSE THEY ARE DELUDED (2:11).

1. Delusion and deception are similar, but here Paul says this "strong delusion" will come from God. Because of their stubborn refusal to believe the Gospel, and "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2:10b), "for this cause God shall send them strong delusion" (2:11).
2. Their fate is the just and deserved punishment for their wilfull and deliberate rejection of God's grace and mercy.
3. Men love darkness rather than light, and so God sends them strong delusion. Just as "the mystery of iniquity doth already work" (2:7); in like manner, this delusion is already in operation. We see it today with the so-called "gay movement," (new book called Strong Delusion by Joe Dallas) and with the new age movement, and with the MTV rock music crowd. America is already deluded, but it will be much worse after the rapture.
4. Let me emphasize that while God sends sinners a strong delusion, He does not send them error. The principle (taught all throughout the Bible) is that since sinners deliberately choose falsehood (false religion, evolution, homosexuality, etc.) in defiance of God's Holy Word, God subjects them to the power of the error they have chosen for themselves (cf. Proverbs 5:21-23).
5. This strong delusion is the inward working of the inevitable consequences of error. We see it with Balaam; we see it with Pharaoh; we see it with Judas Iscariot, etc. Sinners reject the truth, and after a while, God gives up on them (cf. Romans 1:18-32).
6. Sinners fall under the influence of an evil power working within them, which leads them further and further away from the truth of God's Word. Since they deliberately reject the Gospel, God uses their choice of evil as the instrument to punish their sin.
7. This strong delusion involves believing a lie (II Thess. 2:11). What is this lie? In this context, Paul is referring to the lie of the antichrist (cf. 2:4). We can trace this all the way back to the serpent's lie in the Garden of Eden, when he told Eve, "Ye shall not surely die" (Gen. 3:4). This is Satan's lie that men do not need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they need not worry about the coming judgment, there is no hell, etc.
8. People who go to seances and contact demons are told by these lying spirits that there is no such place as hell, that you do not have to believe in Jesus Christ to be saved, etc. This is the "lie" (2:11).
9. People can hear the same lie from pulpits all over America.
10. The lie takes many different forms, but it all boils down to a rejection of the Gospel. Which brings us to my last point.

III. SINNERS PERISH BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE NOT THE TRUTH (2:12).

1. Twice God says men perish because they reject the truth (2:10, 12).
2. Revelation 21:8 says "all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." It is a sad reflection on mankind that men hate the truth but love to lie.
3. Notice the contrast:

• "believed not the truth" (2:12) -- {they rejected the truth}.
• "but had pleasure in unrighteousness {loved sin}" (2:12).

4. Sinners have no pleasure in God's Word or in Bible preaching or in attending a church service like this. Sinners take "pleasure in unrighteousness" (II Thess.2:12) -- in the dirty jokes, in the trashy movies, in the drinking parties, in rap and rock "music," etc.
5. God has been patient; and God has been longsuffering. God has given sinners many opportunities to repent.
6. Only judgment is left for them. "That they all might be damned who believed not the truth..." (2:12).
7. When sinners reject the Gospel, and turn their backs on God's love and God's grace, there is nothing left but the judgment of God (cf. II Thess. 1:7-9).

CONCLUSION:

1. These words in II Thessalonians are very strong. They are here as a warning. Let us consider them carefully.
2. But the chapter does not stop at verse 12. Paul finishes the chapter with words of "comfort" (2:13-17),
3. Verse 10 speaks of those that "received not the love of the truth." And verse 12 says they "believed not the truth."
4. But verse 13 speaks of those that have been saved through believing the truth. Which group are you in?