That they all might be damned ...

**

We're heading into the flu season and lots of people nowadays get a flu shot. They are inoculating themselves in hopes of warding off the flu. No one likes being sick, at least no one I've ever known. The flu can be so nasty, and in some cases even deadly, it's no wonder people want to inoculate themselves from getting it, or at least if they do get it then it's a much milder form. Who wants to gamble with their lives like that? You might say a lot of people because not all get the flu shot. I have yet to get mine, but I'm hoping to next week. I want to be inoculated against the flu. You know last year I was inoculated and guess what? I still got sick, really sick, like you have to take medicine to get better sick, not just wait it out and it goes away. Anyone that knows me, really knows me, knows I hate taking medicine and don't unless it's a last recourse. Why did I get so sick if I had the shot and paid 25.00 to get it? Because later on it was made known that they guessed the virus strains wrong. That's all it really is, guessing which viruses might appear in a given season and getting a vaccination prepared to fight what you GUESS, even educated-ly guess, might be out there ready to strike you down. Some years you get it right, some years you get it wrong, last year they got it wrong and supposedly this year they've acquired better guessers and it's supposed to be a lot better.

The point I'm making here is we often go to great lengths to protect ourselves, our health, our safety, we want to live healthy and accident free. We place great store on keeping ourselves as up to date on things that will ensure our protection from anything that would harm us, biological or not. Why shouldn't we? Again I reiterate, no one likes to be sick. No one likes to put themselves in such jeopardy they risk death- hold on, daredevils, mountain climbers, race car drivers, foot ball players, motorbike racers, surfboards, the list is endless for those who DO put their lives at risk. These people enjoy the thrill of living on the edge, teetering on the precipice of life and death, they call it a high, the ultimate rush. So I suppose I can't say NO one likes to live dangerously, but I can say MOST people don't like to be sick or live dangerously. Most people don't like to gamble with their well-being in that way.

The very people that take the utmost precautions against becoming ill and getting injured often neglect the very thing that can protect them the most. No, it can't protect you like a science fiction body shield making you a super human being, but this protection offers the greatest protection you'll ever have. Protection for your eternal life. Protection that offers you life everlasting without a day of pain, sickness.

What's the thing that can protect us? How can we inoculate ourselves for eternal life? By daily, sometimes hourly, minutely, secondly injections of the truth.

Stop groaning. It's true.

The only thing that can save us ultimately is the truth. Eternal life isn't guaranteed to you just because you were born. You're not guaranteed a life of happiness after death. There isn't a realm you roam happily automatically. That light people see at the end of the tunnel when they have near death experiences and come back, that light isn't the promised eternal life. Even people that want nothing to do with God whatsoever, who have committed gross sins and only want to commit more of them have had near death experiences and have seen the so-called light, the so-called promise of happy life everlasting. Some might argue that was to change their lives around giving them a second chance, showing them what they have to lose, but no all those people are changed by the experience. Some are thrilled that they know they'll go on to a better life no matter what they do.

Deception.

Make the majority of humanity believe that they go on to a better place upon death. That every little boy or girl whose mommy or daddy die can believe their lost loved one is in heaven watching them.

Deception.

We can be assured of eternal life with Christ alone. We need a love of the truth if we're not to be deceived. LOVE of the truth, one super inoculation coming up. Keep the love of the truth in your life at all times, not some of the time, but at all times and you know that you're protected.

Let's pretend for a moment a wicked disease sweeps over all the earth and millions of people die before scientist come up with a cure. The cure is something you need to take all the time, something like a patch that has to administer low doses of the protection all day long. The guarantee that you'll die if you don't wear the patch is certain. Would the majority of people choose not to wear the patch? No, they want to stay protected, they want to live.

We need a low dose Jesus patch that we wear every day, all day long ministering to us His love, His forgiveness, His Holy Spirit, the truth. We need a love of the truth. A love so great that we never forget it not even for a moment. In all we do, in all we are we have to have Jesus with us, we have to have a love of the truth, a love of God.

Read the following which about why a lot of people will perish and not have eternal life--

2 Thessalonians

{2:8} And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming {2:9} Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders
{2:10} And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. {2:11} And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie
{2:12} That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Read it again. You know how I like you to read things again just to bring the point home.

2 Thessalonians

{2:8} And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming {2:9} Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders
{2:10} And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. {2:11} And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie
{2:12} That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

In them that perish... they are deceived by unrighteousness, deceived by the workings of Satan, deceived by powerful forces, deceived by signs- signs that people will believe are from God, deceived by lying wonders- wonders that are amazing and all lies. Deceived because people will NOT receive a love of the truth that they might be saved. They don't want it! They don't want the patch that'll keep them alive. They don't want the inoculation, they don't want to protect themselves with the truth. They want to draw a nice cloak of deceivability around them and believe lies and wonders, signs that are so close to the real thing, they want to believe all that but they don't want to believe the truth, they don't want to love the truth.

Once dead set (pardon the pun) on believing the pretty lies that are so close to the truth it's hard to tell that they're not, God's going to let people believe that lie. Meaning what?

Meaning the truth is out there for all to see. The love of the truth is available to everyone. Not everyone wants the truth, in fact the majority would much rather be deceived, it feels better on their conscience.

All that choose to be deceived rather than love the truth found in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, will perish, there will be NO eternal life for them, these people will never know true joy, true peace, true love, never. The pleasure they get is in unrighteousness, not from the truth.

People want a special protection bubble to keep them from all of life's many anxieties, heartaches, despairs, but that doesn't exist. Our hope has to be in eternity and the promise of that life to come in Jesus. We can overcome the world and all it's pains, but that doesn't mean we won't suffer. The only way we overcome is with a love of the Truth, a LOVE of the gospel found in Jesus Christ.

Amen.