2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The first two verses are where we're going to be studying this morning. And as Brother Sonny read to us, I hope you kind of let those words sink into you this morning about not being shaken. And the title of today's message is, Do Not Be Shaken, Dear Saints. There's a lot of reasons for us to be shaken. A lot of things that cause chaos. A lot of things that cause Christians to be tossed to and fro. But I've quite often heard people say this, and you've probably heard the phrase, talk is cheap. What does that actually mean? Talk is cheap. Well, it's easy to say something. It's a lot harder to put it into practice. It's a lot harder to put it into action. And the idea being that actions speak louder than words. And vocalizing words doesn't necessarily imply truth or action. Just because you say something doesn't make it so. Just because you say you're a Christian doesn't make it so. Just because you say you're going to be here at this time at this place doesn't make it so. Just because you say you're going to do something and you fail to follow through, just because you say it doesn't make it happen. You have to have the action. You have to have the follow-up to be able to make something happen. Now, why is this the case? Why is it that we have the phrase, talk is cheap? It's because we're dealing with the words, promises, and desires of humans. Fallen humans. We're fallen in nature. Not a single promise of God the Father or God the Son has ever been broken, but many promises of men have been broken. Many strategies of men have been broken. Even good intentions have been broken. Now that's not an excuse to say, hey, you know what, I can just say what I want to say and then not act on it and then just say, yeah, well, I'm human. That's not how we are to act. That's not how we are to respond. But we are dealing with the frailty of humanity. And when it comes specifically to the return of Jesus Christ, We need to take note of this is not just talk. This is a reality. This is a promise of God. In fact, if you think about where we are in society, we're seeing less and less of our culture and our society profess Christianity, profess Christ as Lord. Now, why is that? Number one, I think people are figuring out that talk is cheap. Number two, they're figuring out that we live in a culture and a society that says you can just do whatever you want. You can say whatever you want, like words don't even have meaning anymore. It doesn't. You could say male or female, but that has no meaning. You could say he or she, but that has no meaning. Words, definitionally, have a meaning to them. And people are now taking the idea and concept that as a human, I can do whatever I want to do. Now if you think about it, this is actually the rawest form of idolatry. That man says, I can do what I want to do, when I want to do it, how I want to do it, and I have complete autonomy over myself. To the point of even how I've been created, I can literally deny. That's the society that we are living in and that we find ourselves in. It's very interesting to note, too, that we have people who want to deny the existence of a sovereign creator who has orchestrated and created all things. It's a very interesting culture that we live in. But God is not man. and we can take God's Word, written in Holy Scripture, we can test it and challenge it, and realize that every single promise that God has ever made has either come to fruition, has already been completed, is being completed, and that gives us the confidence that everyone will be completed, including the return of Christ. Now, when it comes to Jesus' return, Listen to what Peter said in 2 Peter 3, verses 8-10. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but He is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. And then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed." Now, this is some real clear indicators of what's going to happen. But Peter tells us, just because time has gone by, don't think that Christ's return is not going to happen. He says, the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promises. Some count slowness. Now we must not wrap ourselves into the mindset of humanity and discount the promises of Christ based on human reasoning and our understanding of time. Because we look at things and we go, well, that hasn't happened yet. So here's a real good earthly example. was promised by me to get his car windows tinted as a gift. It's yet to happen. I didn't mean to fail. I'm going to make it happen, Lord willing, one of these days. But the more that time goes by, the more propensity Joshua has to walk out and look at his car. He goes, yeah, well, here we are. Six months later, eight months later, nine months later, a year later, yeah, this is never going to happen. In the same way, humanity will look at the return of Christ, and the day after the resurrection, going, hey, Jesus is coming back, and a week later, hey, He's coming back, y'all, and two weeks later, and then six months later, and a year later, and here we are 2,000 years later, and I'm telling you, church, that God's promise is not a man's promise. It is the God-man's promise. It will happen. He is going to return. And we must not wrap ourselves in the mindset of humanity and discount God's promises based on human logic and human reasoning. The Lord is not constrained to the box of time that we are a part of. What did Peter say? He said one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. There is no, oh it's been two thousand years, maybe God's forgotten. It doesn't operate that way. Now just because a long period of time has passed, as we understand it, Peter said, the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promises. You might think 2,000 years is slow. That's a long time that's gone by, and the Lord's obviously moving at a slow pace. But Peter says the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness. Listen to this. He's patient toward you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. You see, we should not be frustrated by the delay of Christ's return. And I think sometimes we often are. Lord Jesus, would you just come and get this over with? Get us out of this society. Get us out of this culture. But on the contrary, we should rejoice for the Lord's delay. For we are experiencing the grace of God through this delay. Why? In order that all should reach repentance. We may have children or grandchildren or neighbors or aunts or uncles or grandparents who do not know Christ. And the Lord's patience only means that that many more people enter the kingdom. Think of it from that perspective. That your patience, your long-suffering is in agreement with the plan and the eternal purposes of God in saving souls for the kingdom. Who among us does not wish for Christ to return at any moment? We do. We long for an end to be put to sin. We long for justice to the wicked. We long for it. We pray for it. In fact, Scripture even tells us to pray for it. Revelation 22, the closing verses of the New Testament. Revelation 22. He who testifies to these things says, this is talking about Jesus, surely I am coming soon. And John's response, the church's response, Amen! Come Lord Jesus! Hurry up! Make it quick! Jesus said three times in Revelation 22 that He's coming soon. In 22.7 He says, Behold, I am coming soon. In 22.12 He said, Behold, I am coming soon. This was in 95 A.D. Here we are 2,000 years later and we're still going, alright, what exactly is soon? Because it's been 2,000 years. And Peter's word says, one day is as a thousand, and a thousand is one day to the Lord. God doesn't operate in our time frame. We're instructed to be ready for Christ's return because it can happen at any moment. We're told by the Lord Himself that He is coming soon. And this is where 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 really comes into play. Because this mindset can drive men into a frenzy. It can shake humanity. It drives the human mind into a frenzy. And this is exactly what Paul is warning the Thessalonian church about in his second letter. At the coming of Jesus, the entirety of the church will be gathered together. Look at verse 1 of 2 Thessalonians 2. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him. that the church in its entirety is going to be gathered together to Him. Not gathered together when He comes, but we're gathered together to Him, to be presented to Him at His return. And this is not just a meeting It's not just a meeting of the saints. It's not just, hey, we need to call a church conference. We need to have a business meeting because Jesus is coming back on this day. So we all need to be in church conference when He comes back. That's not the idea that the church is being gathered together to be presented to Him at His return. The idea here is the coming of Jesus, the Greek word parousia. Remember, we've discussed parousia several times. Parousia is a global event. And we've discussed this word before, particularly it came up in 1 Thessalonians. But this is a word that's, realistically, it's only used about 15 times in all of the New Testament. There's a lot of words in the New Testament. But parousia is only used 15 times. And in the New Testament, it most commonly refers to the return of Jesus, the second coming of Christ. Or the Old Testament referred to it as the day of the Lord, or that great day, or the day. We see, here's a couple of examples of this. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter 24, he sat on the Mount of Olives. The disciples came to him privately saying, tell us. When will these things be? Jesus said you're going to see the city destroyed, not one stone left one on top of the other. All this is going to go away. The Son of Man is going to return. When will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? When is the sign of your parousia? When are you coming to do what you're saying is going to be done? 2 Peter. Chapter 3, verse 10, where we were just kind of talking about, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth, the works that are done in it will be exposed. But at the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord, the parousia, this coming of the Lord, Peter seems to indicate here that the entirety of time as we know it will be consumed in an instant. Like the entire time of when Jesus departed and all of these thousands of years now in between will be instantly consumed in this moment of Christ's return. Now, Paul's specific teaching to the church at Thessalonica here is really kind of to focus on our day-to-day operation as Christians, as human Christians here on the earth. And focus on the commonality and unity of the church when this event, the parousia, when the coming of Jesus takes place. He says, our being gathered together with Him. This is an indication of both the living in Christ and the dead in Christ. Take yourself back to the first century. Go back to the first century for me. So I know, you know, what were you, 37, 38? Yeah. So, think back. if you would, try to put yourself in the mindset of a first century Christian. The time frame of when this letter is being written by the Apostle Paul, you're probably talking somewhere around, you know, 60, 65, 70 AD, somewhere around in there. 50 to 70 AD. Here's this letter written because The church has a lot of questions. And Paul is writing to the church to encourage them and to exhort them. But can you imagine, here we are 2,000 years removed, can you imagine just being a couple of decades removed? Like, you know, when we think of, you know, go back and say, hey, you remember the 90s? Hey, you remember the 80s? Imagine if you could just say, hey, you remember when Jesus was resurrected just like 20 years ago, 30 years ago? Imagine being that close. And now imagine, as you're contemplating the resurrection, and you're contemplating the parousia, the return of Jesus, which the apostles have told you is going to happen, and Jesus' own words have said that this is going to happen, and here they are, sitting together, gathering together, and Christians who follow Jesus, who literally were eyewitnesses to Him, who knew Jesus, saw Him, saw Him teach, saw Him heal, they start to die. What does this start to do to your confidence as a Christian? You say, well, people are starting to die off. Why isn't He coming back? And this can start to shake the mindset of someone. And it can actually become a danger. And I think that's the danger that Paul begins to address here. If you're just 20 or 30 years removed from Christ's death, His burial and resurrection, you have an immediate anticipation of Jesus' return. Every day that goes by is growing more and more anticipation that Jesus is going to come back you begin to contemplate that a bunch of these people who were living are now dead and Jesus still hasn't come back. So what's actually going on? It starts to raise questions. How are they, if they died and Jesus comes back, How are they going to be transformed into glorified body if they don't have a body anymore, if they're in the tomb? Has Christ's delay somehow failed? Those who have died now don't get to experience the parousia, the coming of Christ, because they're no longer with us. Paul addresses these things. He addresses the resurrection. He addresses the dead in Christ will rise first. These are where these ideas and thoughts... This is exactly why Paul is having to address these issues with the church. One writer puts it this way. Very interesting. Very interesting thought by a commentator. He said, It would seem that some had misinterpreted the difference between the suddenness of Jesus' return and the immediateness of Jesus' return. The suddenness versus the immediateness. Now I know in our world today where words don't have meaning, that might be hard to understand. But suddenness and immediateness are two different things. And they have two different implications, particularly when we're talking about the return of Christ. Jesus' return will be sudden. It will be like a thief in the night. It will be like lightning coming across the sky. It will be instantaneous, very sudden. But just because His return is sudden, doesn't mean that it is immediate. It's like, hey, He died yesterday and He's back today. The suddenness of Christ's return doesn't need to be confused with the immediateness of Christ's return. The fact that the dead will rise first in Christ has already been instructed. Paul dealt with this in 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 and 17. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, the sound of the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first. Paul's written to them about this already. And now it's just kind of like a reminder that, hey, we are going to be gathered together to Him. Remember what I told you? He's leaning on what He's already taught and what He's already written. But it seems that there are some who still have a struggle in the minds. There are some that still are struggling in their minds. How many of you have to be taught something repetitively in order to understand it? I'm in that boat. Like, you can tell me something and then I'm like, okay, I got it, I got it. And then I walk away and I go, I don't think I got it. And then I have to call somebody. Hey, now tell me again what'd you say? I do, like, you know, Christy and I, we got a camper. And there's a certain order that you gotta do certain things in. And if you don't, like, you break something bad. Like, it breaks bad back. And so Christy and I had the camper at Tannehill and we're sitting there and I'm getting ready to lower this thing and there's a button that says extract all, meaning that all the jacks are going to come up at the same time. And I'm like, I don't think that's a good idea because the truck's not under this thing yet, you know, and it's not going to, it's not going to. So do I do these other buttons manually? And Christy's looking at me, she's like, call somebody. Call somebody right now. Call somebody that knows what to do. Do not touch them buttons if you don't know what you're doing. So I go to the campsite, there's a guy down there that I've met and I know and he's got a similar setup. And I go get him and I say, just come watch over my shoulder. And he's like, oh yeah, do this, this, and this. And I'm like, so don't do this. He's like, yeah, don't do that. And sometimes we need to be instructed over and over and over before we get our confidence about us that we're doing something right. And the same thing applies to our understanding and our study of Scripture. There are people who will continually struggle with biblical concepts and biblical ideas. Look back at 2 Thessalonians 2. Look at our text, specifically at verse 2. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, so we're going to be gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers. Now note here, Paul classifies who he's writing to as the brothers. Even though you might be struggling, you're a brother. Even though you might be having a hard time with this concept, you're still a brother. Just because you don't grasp the full theological understanding of something, doesn't mean that you're not in Christ. So what is the thing that they're not grasping, they're not fully understanding? He says in verse 2, Do not 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. Now, do not be quickly shaken in your mind. Church, the Christian is called to be stable. Not shaken among the waves. In fact, the wording here, do not be quickly shaken, that word shaken that you see in your Bibles, that word shaken is literally, the literal rendering of the Greek word there and the Greek phrasing would indicate the waves of an ocean. To be shaken, to be mixed about, to be tossed to and fro or shaken by the waves of the ocean. How many of you have ever been caught in battering waves? I have. It's not fun. I will never, ever forget being a young teenager, was in the ocean up in North Carolina, and was swimming out into the surf saying, hey, we're all going to the sandbar. Everybody knows that, right? Going to the sandbar. We're going past the breaking point. And I get out in those waves, and I get hit. Bam! And I get pinned to the bottom and druggled on the bottom. And I come back up, and I'm like, OK, I'm good. And I didn't even get another breath. Bam! I got hit again. Boom! Pushed to the bottom, druggled on the bottom. I come up to grass for air. Bam! You get hit again. And it just, I thought, this is it. You know, Jody dies in the Atlantic. That's the way that this story goes. And finally was able to get up and get enough breath and get my wits about me to kind of work my way out of that. When you're being battered, tossed to and fro, it can be debilitating. But our call as Christians is not to be quickly shaken in mind. That is that we need to have a foundational grounding about what we're doing. The literal approach to Jody and the Atlantic as a teenager should have been, Jody evaluates the situation, Jody looks at these waves, and Jody makes an assessment, is this a good idea? Because the answer to that question would have been no. It's not that, at that day, at that time, based on those waves and my level of experience, that was not a good idea. And I figured that out the hard way. But if you would have done a little research, done a little knowledge, talked to somebody that knew what they were doing, talked to somebody who's a beach goer, they would have probably looked at me and said, oh, you're not from here. No. Do you live on the beach? No. You don't live on the ocean? No. Do you have any experience in the ocean? No. You don't realize how big those waves actually are? No. Do you realize what those waves would do to you? No idea. Oh, but I'm good. Young teenage boy. I'm strong. I can make it through that. I don't think you know what you're doing. I think I'll do it anyway. Bad idea! You go off, BAM! You get punched, and then you're trying to figure out how you breathe. It's the same idea when we're talking about the Scriptures and to not be quickly shaken in mind. To look at the text, to study the text, to ask questions from your elders, your pastors, your teachers, about the text so that you don't walk off into an improper understanding of the text. To not be shaken. To not be tossed about. The Christian is called to be stable. Not shaken among the waves. Not tossed by the sea to and fro. Particularly by every wind of doctrine. And if we look around today, there's all kind of teachings. There's all kind of stuff. Paul addressed this in the church. in his letter to the church at Ephesus, in Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4, 11. He says, He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers. He gave them to the church. For what reason? To equip the saints for the work of ministry. for building up of the body of Christ. Until when? Until we attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. You say, well, that's a lot. Yeah. What does that mean? That means that our pursuit of our understanding of Christ does not end until He comes back. It's as simple as that. Verse 14 of Ephesians 4. So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves. You see the similarity there? Not studying. Not being grounded. Not listening to your pastor, your teachers, your elders, your overseers, your shepherds. Not being equipped to do the work of ministry. Not being equipped to understand the Scriptures and to study God's Word. You will not be enabled to survive the being tossed to and fro. by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. You want to know why you can talk to somebody and they say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I used to believe that but I don't believe that anymore. They come to some epiphany. Well, there are some truths to that where if someone says, hey, you know what, I used to believe in Islam, but I started studying, and I came to the realization that the Bible's true. Or I started studying Mormonism, or I started studying Jehovah's Witnesses. You've done the research, you've done the depth of understanding, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you've come to the realization that the Bible is true, And the things that the Bible says about Christ, about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are true. And that's the drawing of the Holy Spirit doing that work. But there are also those who don't study. I've met people, I know people who will smoke crack on Tuesday. And Tuesday evening will tell you, hey, you want to sit down and talk about sermons because I've been working on one. It's like, you're a crackhead. Yeah, but I've been writing a sermon. I don't think you understand how this works. And they don't. They don't understand. And why is that? That's because they're tossed to and fro. They've never been taught sustainability. They've never been taught just to move from one day to the next in the grace of Christ Jesus. We're looking for even-keeledness here. We're looking for steady. To not be tossed to and fro by the waves. Not to be carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Note what Paul tells the church at Ephesus. It's a danger to be tossed to and fro by these ways, to be carried by every wind of doctrine. But note how it comes. It comes by human cunning. It comes by craftiness in deceitful schemes that people are intentionally or sometimes unintentionally deceiving you. telling you that this is what you have to do and this is the way you have to do it. But if you knew the Scriptures, you could say, no, that's not what God's Word actually says. The Christian has certain characteristics or pillars, if you will. If we go back to 2 Thessalonians 2. Let's break these thoughts down. One of the key Christian characteristics is that we are called to be stable. We're called to be stable. Not quickly shaken. Yeah, you might be shaken. And it might be okay to be shaken. Just don't be quickly shaken. There are things that are going to come at you in life that are trying, that are challenging, that can shake you. But don't let something quickly shake you. You know, someone comes up and says, you know, hey, I don't think Jesus is coming back. And your whole world collapses. Your whole world is undone because you do not have the foundation of Scripture to go, you know what, yeah, that's not right. And as you can see, being stable being not quickly shaken, this is not an easy accomplishment. This is not something that you just flip a switch and it happens. It's something that even the first century Christians dealt with. Even the Christians who were just a few years removed from the resurrection, they're struggling with this because this letter is being written to them and Paul's telling them, don't be quickly shaken. The call to stability is specific to our confidence in Scripture. Despite our emotions, despite what's going on around us, despite where you are in life, we are called to have confidence in the stability of God's Word. Not quickly shaken. You say, well this is a tough situation. Yes. What does God's Word say? It says, for all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. That I have to believe that through this situation, through this difficulty, God has a purpose. And that purpose is good. You say, well, I feel alone. Nobody understands me. Nobody's here to help me. The Scripture says that Jesus Himself said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So, are you really alone? Are you really hung out to dry? Per the Scriptures, the answer to that question is no, you're not alone. The answer to the question of are you hung out to dry is no, you're not. So don't be quickly shaken. Find stability in what God has said. Find your rest in what God has said. The Psalms. You know, say that a tree planted by the waters is not easily shaken, is not easily disturbed. It's rooted, it has a watering source, and it grows to a mighty oak. Number two, not only are we to be stable, we're not to be an alarmist. Right? We're not to be an alarmist. Now, don't confuse this with not being prepared. Being an alarmist and being prepared is two completely different things. Right? This is not to say that we are not to live and preach in anticipation of Jesus' return, because we are. We are to be prepared. But we're not supposed to become so consumed with this one aspect of Jesus' return to the point where we neglect our earthly responsibilities. Remember, why is it that Jesus hasn't come back yet? Because it is the Father's desire that all should come to repentance. He has a number. He has a metric. He has defined that there is a human being who will be the last human being who will be saved. And God will not dispatch His Son until that moment happens. So we know that until that moment happens, we should not be neglecting our earthly responsibilities. We should not be neglecting our families. We should not be neglecting the gathering together of the saints. We should not be neglecting our study of God's Word. We should not be neglecting focusing on our stability in God's Word. It would seem that some of these early Christians in Thessalonica had become so consumed with Jesus' return that they adopted a it-doesn't-matter kind of attitude. Why should I go to work? Jesus is coming back tomorrow. Why share the Gospel? Jesus is coming back. Why do anything? Jesus is coming back. Why should I do anything? This is a false mentality. This is the problem of those who misinterpret the suddenness with the immediateness of Jesus' return. Yes, it will be sudden, but that doesn't mean sudden doesn't mean immediate. So we have to play this out. When Christ returns, He should return to find us busy about doing Christian work, living a Christian life. not a rattled hermit sitting in a cave somewhere looking out saying, you know, Jesus is fixing to come back. So therefore we withdraw. We don't do anything. This is a very interesting concept. Anybody ever heard of doomsday preppers? It's a very fun show to watch, right? Some of the mindsets of these people. There's going to be a polar shift. The Earth's going to flip. The South Pole becomes the North Pole. Magnetic fields are disrupted. Electricity ceases to exist. Do you have everything you need to survive off the grid? Because the grid's going to go away. The price of oil, this is going to, like all this stuff. And people prepping, and putting away, and prepping, and putting away. Because when society collapses, they're going to be able to survive. That's the idea. Now, there's nothing wrong with being prepared. But there is something wrong with being an alarmist that every single day you're so consumed with this that you forget to live life. And as Christians, we are called to do all that we do unto the glory of God. Every day going to work for the glory of God. The Scripture says if we don't work, we don't eat. So we work for the glory of God. We raise our children to the glory of God. We're busy tending our families to the glory of God. We minister within our local church to the glory of God. We study God's Word to the glory of God. And this builds us and encourages us until the parousia, until Jesus returns. A few other final points here in verse 2. Don't be quickly shaken. And don't be an alarmist. So don't be shaken or alarmed by one of three things. Don't be shaken or alarmed by a spirit, unless it's the Holy Spirit. Don't let someone, note what Paul says, don't be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit So don't let someone claiming to have special revelation spin you into chaos. We see this all the time with people. You know, God told me. God spoke to me. It's like, ok, well that's not what His Word says. Oh, it doesn't matter what that... I'm the bishop so and so. Alright, whoa, slow down. Compare what is being said to the words of the apostles, to the words of Jesus Christ. Do the work. Do the comparison. Be grounded. Have a foundation in Scripture. So don't be shaken or alarmed by a false spirit. Number two, don't be shaken, don't be alarmed by a spoken word. Like the false teacher with a lying spirit, we also have to be cautious of bias interpretations. There are some who twist the words of the apostles and of Jesus for selfish gain. They will tell you, oh, well, see, this is what the Bible says. And they'll quote a verse, but you never see the context of that verse. You never really know what is it actually talking about. Instead, they just cherry pick verses to try to get you and persuade you to believe into their way of thinking. So don't be upset. Don't be led astray. Don't be alarmed. Don't be shaken by these spoken words that do not align with Scripture. Let's go back to 2 Peter 3. Verse 15-18. Listen to what Peter says. Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him. So he specifically says, Listen to me, the Apostle Peter, but also listen to Paul who also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him. And we know that that wisdom was by Christ. Verse 16, As he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand. So see, you're not alone. This is the Apostle Peter writing about the Apostle Paul. And remember Paul was a... Who was Peter? Anybody remember what Peter's job was? What did he do for a living? He was a fisherman. What did Paul do for a living? He was a Pharisee. He was educated by Gamaliel. He was a Hebrew... He was a scholar. So here you've got this fisherman, kind of blue collar guy, day-to-day working kind of guy, who's been with Jesus, listened to Jesus, saved by Jesus, empowered by the Spirit of God. And then you've got this really, really smart guy, Paul. And even Peter says, he writes to you concerning these matters, that there are some things in them that are hard to understand. Now note what he says. There are some things in them... Oh, wait a minute. We don't have... Where are we at? 2 Peter 3? You asleep? In verse 16, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist. to their own destruction as they do other scriptures. Yeah, there are things that are hard to understand. There are things that take prayer and study in scripture. But there are also these things that could be hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable will twist to their own destruction as they do other Scripture. Not just the hard things, but even the easy things. They will twist these things. So, we're not to be shaken and alarmed by a false spirit or by a spoken word. But we're also, lastly, we're not to be shaken, we're not to be alarmed by false letters. And this obviously was a problem in the first century in the early church. Paul cautions the church not to be shaken or alarmed by letters claiming to be from the apostles. Look what he says in verse 2 of 2 Thessalonians 2. He says, by a spirit or spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us. Don't be shaken. Don't be alarmed. by these letters that seem to be from us. How many of you have ever heard somebody say, well I heard that, you heard or you know? Well I think they said, you think they said or you know what they said? I've had people call me before. Hey brother, yeah, what's going on? Hey, what do you think about this new letter they just dug up in the desert? This Gospel of Thomas? It's not in the Bible. What should happen with that? What should we do with it? Or the Gospel of Mary? There's all these new letters that are being discovered. And then they twist those things. Spin those things. Well, that just proves that some men got together and picked and chose what was going to be put into here. They hid all this other stuff, but now we're finding all this other stuff. And that just proves that all this other stuff is not real anyway. We've gone through already the study on the veracity of Scripture, the authority of Scripture. Why is the Bible true? We can trust the Scriptures. But there are people who get drawn into these things. In Paul's day, This is much more prevalent because the apostles are still living. They're still writing. They're still speaking. And then someone says, you know what, I think I thought I heard Paul say... Or they just flat out forge a letter. They're just deceitfully wrong. The closing verses of 2 Thessalonians 3. Verse 17. Listen to what Paul says. This is how he closes the letter. He says, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine. It is the way I write. So he's obviously saying, note this because I'm writing this with my own hand. This is a sign of the genuineness of the letter. This is an authentication of the letter. If you don't see this, don't pay attention to the letter. Somebody's trying to trick you. Somebody's writing something saying it's of me. It's not of me. This is all in the immediate context though of Jesus' return. And people being consumed by it to the point of being fruitless. They're so consumed. Hey, Jesus is coming back. They're shaken by that. They're so consumed that Jesus is coming back. They become an alarmist. And it's great. They stand on every street corner. Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back. Yes. Great. Sound that alarm, but don't be such an alarmist that you don't go home and love your family and provide for your family and care for your children and attend the church and participate in the local body. We must not be shaken or alarmed by those who say He's not coming. He's come already. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise. He's patient. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And you, guess what? You're saved this day. because God was patient. Let that sink in for a moment. Because there were many saints, including apostles, that came before you that prayed for Jesus to return quickly. And yet He's patient and long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And His patience is what has enabled you to come to saving faith 2,000 years later. You are saved this day because of the patience of God's return. So don't be shaken. Be steady and hold fast to Christ and the words of the apostles. When everything gets upset, when everything is turned over, when the apple cart is being flipped upside down, Run to Scripture. You ever notice it's the natural inclination of humanity to run away from the church? You ever notice that? When things get difficult, when trial comes, there are those who will run to the church and there are those who will disconnect from the church. And that will tell you all you need to know. Are you running to those who are in Christ? Are you seeking your foundation in Christ? Are you saying, you know what? The world can feed me better. And there's your dividing line. Let's pray together. Father, I pray for Your church. Lord, I pray for the saints of Camp Branch Baptist to be grounded in the faith, to have a strong foundation in Christ Jesus, that Father, when the swells of life will come, when the trials come, when the seas get rough and the waves begin to banter, Father, that Your people would hold strong, resting in the words of Scripture, the words of the apostles, the words of Jesus Christ, that which has been given to us by Your Holy Spirit. Father, I pray for firm foundations for Your saints. I pray that in the difficulties they're living through right now, Father, that You would ground them in Your Word and that You would encourage them by Your Spirit in the words that You have provided. Father, tune our minds to the reality and truth of Scripture. Father, that we may be firmly planted on the Word of God. On Christ the solid rock we stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Father, that is our confession. And on that we believe that Jesus indeed is going to come again. He will return. And when He returns, His church, the living and the dead, will be gathered together to meet Him. And so we will be with Him always, forever, in eternity. Father, no eye has seen nor ear heard that which You have done for those who love You. We're grateful, Lord. Continue to sustain us here at Camp Branch Baptist, in Jesus' name, Amen.