Be Not Soon Shaken

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Good morning. Good morning. Still not getting used to this whole turn thing. Anybody been blessed this morning? [00:00:36] Wow! The singing is wonderful. I appreciated the song this morning. I was going to bring them up here. The one song was taken from Hebrews 12, the author and finisher of our faith. The other one was, I think, Mark 9. I can't remember, but it goes so well with, I don't know, I'm just amazed at how God works in devotions, Sunday school, examining ourselves to see if we're in the faith. [00:01:14] Last time I was up here, I talked about faith and believing. And this morning I wanted to talk a little more about it. You would think that I wouldn't be so nervous after being up here every three Sundays, but for some reason I'm nervous. Last night, about 7 o'clock, I was feeling really good about myself. [00:01:50] I got this under control. Boy, I'm just pumped. I know what I'm going to say. I'm ready. And I went inside and the boys and I sat down and played euchre and I had a bowl of ice cream. I was feeling good. I'm about done studying. And I went back out to my office, the motorhome, and it was dry. [00:02:24] I could not think what I had just got done thinking about. My notes didn't make any sense. Nothing made sense. I was like, what is going on? And I know that I went back in sometime later and I was ranting and raving. Now what am I going to do? But I know that God doesn't want me up here on my own strength. He doesn't want me to feel like I can do it because I can't. [00:02:55] I can't do it. And so I ask that you would pray for me this morning. And once again, I'm standing up here stalling for time because I can't get my thoughts all together. So I pray that you will bear with me and I pray that the Holy Spirit would make it all make sense. Why don't we just pause for a word of prayer before we get started. Lord, we are here. We're praising your name. [00:03:32] for all the things that you have done for us. Your redeeming love, your mercy. Lord, we thank you for your word. I pray, Lord, that you would speak to us. I welcome your Holy Spirit here. And I pray that you would soften our hearts. As we hear your word, Lord, I pray that you would make it all make sense to each one of us individually where we're at. [00:04:10] Right where we're at in life. Right where we're at with you. So speak to us again today, this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen. You all know the story of the Philippian jailer, Paul and Silas, in Acts chapter 16. I just wanted to bring out one verse, well, a couple of verses, but you know how at, well, first of all, they were beaten with a rod. [00:04:54] and at midnight, as they're tied up, they're singing and praising. Still can't hardly believe that, but it says that they were, so I believe it. But for me to put myself into their shoes, it would be hard to believe. But they were singing and praising, praying and singing hymns to God. And then we all know that there was an earthquake The Philippian jailer, he was going to kill himself and Paul says, why do you want to do that? [00:05:31] You know, we're all here, don't trouble yourself or don't be all scared. So he says in verse 30, and he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul and Silas said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Have faith in the Lord and you will receive mercy and grace. And then as we... [00:06:09] I first of all should tell you that the title of the sermon is Be Not Soon Shaken. Be Not Soon Shaken. And it's taken from 2 Thessalonians 2, but I want to first of all go to Hebrews again. and as we think of what do we do to be saved, how can we be saved? [00:06:43] Paul and Silas says, believe and you will be. Is it that simple, Willis? Sounds pretty simple. You'll be saved. We all know there's a lot of things that go into that. Last time I talked about if we believe, we will obey. If we have faith, that's what faith is. Faith is believing. Faith is obeying. [00:07:17] Believing God's promises. Obeying God's commands. Wherever we're at. Maybe we're going through a rough time and we can't hardly accept God's promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us. Romans 8.28 All things work together for good. Well, for real? Is that really true? Do you believe it? That all things really do work together for good? Even if you lose a loved one? Even if you're diagnosed with cancer? Do all things for real? [00:07:50] Do we believe it? Or faith also includes obedience. obedience, obeying his commands and that could and I thought about having a whole list of promises I started and I quickly stopped because there's thousands I don't know about thousands but lots of promises and I didn't even write anything down because I thought maybe that'd be good homework sometime make a list of all the promises go [00:08:30] Go through the Bible. Anytime you're reading, write down a promise. Keep a list. Promises. You'll have pages. And I was also thinking about all the commandments. There's not near as many commands as there are promises. But we are to obey them. Okay, I was thinking of this Philippian jailer who just became a Christian. And in chapter 6 last time we read about, at the beginning it says, Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. [00:09:04] You know, he's pushing us to maturity. Hey, come on, grow up, you know. And we read about in chapter 6, there's 17, 18, 19, and 20, about this hope. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul. and we talked about the two unchangeable things that is His promise and His oath. The oath that He swore back in verses 11, 12 [00:09:35] in there somewhere. 11. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end that you do not become sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises verses verse 13 for when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater he swore by himself and that's a promise and an oath and that's what's going to hold us think of [00:10:08] Paul and Silas in jail beaten singing praises what kept them so happy and joyful and or maybe they weren't so happy they were just praising God that they were counted worthy How can that be? No. You put a sinner into their situation. What are they going to do? What kept them there? What keeps us in all of life's struggles? Sicknesses and pains and loss of money and you name it. [00:10:41] What are you going through right now? What are you struggling with? Temptation? God is there. And this hope is our anchor. It keeps us there. You know, when we look at... There are so many things that God does to build our faith. Even if you... I had to think of the song, Oh Lord, My God, When I in Awesome Wonder. [00:11:16] Look at creation. Builds our faith. How did this world, why is the sun so far apart and we don't get burned up and we don't freeze to death? You think of all the stuff and the biggest star I saw some for, I think it was Ken brought some for a movie about the stars, this preaching CD and the stars like, how many times bigger than the earth? I don't know. And it's a quadzillion light years away. You know, the thing could have burned out two years ago and we still see the light because it's so far away. [00:11:48] How did all that happen? Bang? You know, that builds our faith. And as we look at how God takes us through rough times, He allows that to happen. I had to think in chapter 11 of Hebrews, it talks about Abraham. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. You know, here God is asking you to sacrifice your son. Your only son. Your promised son. [00:12:22] You know, he's wondering, what? That's going to build his character. That's going to build his faith. And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. When I think of faith, I think of the highest virtue. All the other virtues flow from this one. You know, and as we, the person, as we believe, [00:13:01] as we believe God, as we believe His Word, We receive strength to work. Courage and boldness to work. Patience and love when we're suffering. We get a deep desire for obedience. That all comes from faith. An earnestness to obey. A zealousness for when we are serving. I was going to go to Daniel, but time is flying. [00:13:41] If you think of Daniel, just real quick. If I can find it. Chapter 1, verse 8. Familiar. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. [00:14:13] And he even told the chief of the eunuchs there, the guy in charge of him, he said, Hey, look, for these ten days, just don't give us anything, you know. He had faith in God that God was going to fatten him up and make him look good. It took a lot of faith. You know, how could you think that just living on vegetables, if I live on vegetables for ten days, I'd probably blow up and dry up and blow away. No, just kidding. But God gave them knowledge and skill. [00:14:46] I'm trying to hurry and I'm not making any sense. And then as we look at when the king was going to kill all the wise men because they didn't know in chapter 2 when they couldn't tell him what the dream was all about. He was going to kill them. And Daniel went in to the king and said, Hey, give me a little bit of time. Give me some more time. You talk about faith that God was going to come through for him. [00:15:20] God was going to reveal it. And we all know that God told him what it was all about. And then as we look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in chapter 3, in verse 15, the king says, But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. [00:15:52] And who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? And I can just imagine them three guys standing up with all confidence. Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able. It doesn't say it might be able. is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us from your hand, O King. But if not, let it be known to you, O King, [00:16:24] that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. Faith. Another example of faith. Okay, back to Hebrews. And I think we'll go to chapter 10. In chapter 8, you know, he's talking about a better covenant, a new covenant, [00:16:59] talking about Jesus as our high priest earlier. and where in verse 9, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. This is Jesus saying this. In verse 16, I really like, I will put your laws into their hearts [00:17:30] and in their minds I will write them. I praise the Lord for that. And then verse 19. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith [00:18:02] Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience And our bodies washed with pure water Let us hold fast the confession of our hope There's that hope again And holding fast In verse 22 In full assurance of faith and verse 23 at the end there for he who promised is faithful [00:18:33] and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as in the manner of some but exhorting one another and so much the more as we see the day approaching underneath that I have written in my Bible Viking boat If you think of there in chapter 6 where it talks about an anchor and about we are on this sea, sea of life and it's really, you know, [00:19:10] and we talked about how the hope, the anchor is our hope. But now let's all put ourselves on this Viking boat. And I remember in school, not that we're Vikings, But I just have this picture. I remember in school I used to draw them. For some reason we were studying the Vikings or something. But you know these big Viking boats, they got the big old something or other coming up out of the front and they got all 100 oars or 50 oars going out the side. They're all neatly, you know. [00:19:41] And we as a church are that Viking boat. And if, you know what, we should look at one other one in 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy 1 verse 18 and 19 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. We know that we're all in this war. We don't war against flesh and blood. [00:20:14] but against principalities. Verse 19, having faith and a good conscience which some having rejected. What is that rejected? If you have faith, that means you believe. So if you reject it, what does that mean? It's unbelief. You don't believe. Which some having rejected concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck. Brothers and sisters, Let's not suffer shipwreck. Here we are on this ship, on this boat, rowing. Rowing? Rowing. Very funny, Bernita. We are rowing together. And if we don't stand on the promises of God, if we don't believe them, if we don't have faith, If we don't obey His commandments, what happens? [00:21:14] Maybe there's a couple of us that, oh, pretty soon we're distracted. Another, I think, close cousin to unbelief is gullibleness, gullibility. Is that a word, gullibility? You're gullible. You'll believe anything if you don't believe. Something like that. What did Satan use against Eve? What did he say to her? The very first temptation. Yea, hath God said. That's doubt. Trying to get her to not believe God. So here we are on this boat. And some of us are, we get sidetracked because we don't believe His Word. We don't believe God can come through for us. [00:21:59] So we get sidetracked. We start looking out and pretty soon we lay our oars down. I hate getting my words all mixed up. Lay our oars down and so half of this side over here is not rowing. So what happens to the boat? I just see us going around in circles and we're not getting anywhere. And it's telling us, even in chapter 3, it says, [00:22:32] Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. exhorting each other, coming alongside each other and saying, hey, out of love, pulling together, working together, rowing together. I wanted to look at trying to remember the title, Be Not Soon Shaken. [00:23:24] As we think of us having faith and we're believing, I wanted to look at unbelief a little closer. In verse 26 there of chapter 10, For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries. [00:23:58] Anyone who has rejected Moses' law or did not believe dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace. Sounds like unbelief to me. [00:24:30] You know, how much worse will that punishment be? In John 16, verse 9, I think it is, it says that unbelief is sin. If we don't believe, it is sin. Verse 31 says, Because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God, the living God. You know, in all of our... In today's life, we have... [00:25:07] You know, I can so identify with verse 36. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. for yet a little while and he who is coming will come and will not tarry now the just shall live by faith but if anyone draws back my soul has no pleasure in him but if we are not of those who draw back to perdition which is like utter loss and I want to stick in there [00:25:41] through unbelief but of those who believe to the saving of the soul We are not those who don't believe. We believe. And then the next chapter is all about faith. Such an encouragement to read chapter 11. I think I'm going to skip over a bunch of stuff. Let's turn to 2 Thessalonians. As we think of faith, it's believing. Believe, you will obey. [00:26:20] Faith is believing His promises and obeying His commands. And I really like, well, I could read this whole chapter, but it's not that long, but I'll just kind of skim over it a little bit. Verse 3, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly. Hallelujah. Is your growth, is your faith growing exceedingly? I don't see that as very slow. I see it as big, fast. And the love of every one of you all abounds towards each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. Give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. [00:27:23] You want to talk about, in Hebrews chapter 4, it talks all about, read it sometime, all about rest. Entering into that rest. How can we enter into that rest? You know, the Israelites, they didn't enter in those of them who, what? Didn't believe. They didn't enter into that rest. We can only enter into that rest, the rest that we long for, tired of these fleshly bodies and the troubles of this world. We long for heaven. That's our rest. But we only enter into that if we believe and we obey. [00:27:59] And to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. When He comes in that day to be glorified in His saints [00:28:30] and to be admired among all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed. Therefore, we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in Him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:29:02] Now, chapter 2 is, I just want to say, let's be careful that we, this can so happen if we don't believe, if we don't have faith. Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, We ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. [00:29:43] One thing I just thought about, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 3, But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Only to those who are perishing it is veiled. Whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe. You know, just think of that. [00:30:14] Okay, how can that happen? How can that happen that the gospel is veiled to some people? You know, it's like they're blinded. We talked a little bit about in Sunday school about examining ourselves and, you know, if we don't examine ourselves, I think I said windshields, cleaning our windshields or something, pretty soon we can't see out anymore. And it's like these people who choose not to believe [00:30:46] are blinded and the devil blinds them whose minds the God of this age has blinded who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should shine on them. He doesn't want God to shine on them. Now, going back to verse 3 in 2 Thessalonians. Chapter 2, verse 3. let no one deceive you by any means [00:31:17] for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed the son of perdition now look what he does who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is God Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. [00:31:53] For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. Wow! You mean the brightness will destroy this lawless one? Yes, it will. That's what His Word says here. Verse 9, The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan [00:32:26] with all power, not a little bit of power, with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe. So, okay, the truth, [00:32:59] did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. You know, first of all, I'm looking at, okay, this is all going to happen to them because they did not receive the love of the truth. Well, how do you receive the love of the truth? How do you get that? The love of the truth? How do you get that? Well, down in verse 12 it says, that they will be condemned who did not believe the truth. So all we have to do is believe the truth? All we have to do is love the truth? [00:33:32] We'll have it. Verse 13, But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Verse 15, Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or by our epistle. [00:34:05] And verse 17, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work, every good word and work. Even at the end of verse 16, I should just read verse 16. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and Father who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope There's that anchor again. By grace. How do we get grace? By believing. [00:34:36] Man, just like a circle. I am... And if you look in chapter 3. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is in you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for not all have faith but the Lord is faithful who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. Do you believe that? You know, there's so many. [00:35:08] You know, you go on and on and on. God's word is so full of promises. How could we not believe? And I've just been so challenged. You know, what do I believe? You know, do I believe His Word? Do I believe that He will only tempt me as far as much as I can handle? Does He really love me? Why does He cause all this hurt? [00:35:38] You know, why does He allow things to happen in my life that hurt? Does He really love me? I think I'm going to read a little bit in Ephesians 4 in closing. I wanted to go through Hebrews 3 and 4 yet, but I won't. Sometime read it. And I want to, you know, encourage us to examine ourselves like in our Sunday school lesson. [00:36:20] What do I believe? Do I really believe God's promises? And in all of that, do you have faith? If you have faith, if you say you have faith, you will believe His promises. If you say you have faith, you will obey His commands. So let's examine ourselves. Why do we do what we do? Why do we even come to church? Because it's a thing to do? Why do we come to prayer meeting? Well, that's expected of me. [00:36:53] It's a should. I should do it. I think it's a good thing, but I'm not sure what to do. Do we force feed ourselves and go? I think that's okay. But let's not, let's be careful. I think it's a good thing to prepare ourselves to come here, the praise and worship time, and to have a word, a testimony or something that was challenging you this week. [00:37:26] Not just to say that you did it, but to bless others. I don't think there's anything wrong with preparing and saying, Say, hey, you know what, I'm going to, let's see, what could I share tomorrow? Hallelujah, there's nothing wrong with that. But then let's check our motive. Nobody knows your motive, except you. You know, I was just thinking of what Jamie was sharing this morning. What is our motive? Why do I go? Why do I want to go to Miller's Mary Manor? and but I really I really would like to encourage us to look at our faith in chapter 4 here of Ephesians he's talking about the [00:38:21] The purpose of these gifts are for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith, and until we all come to the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ [00:38:53] the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of the deceitful plotting. That's unbelief. Verse 14, that's what happens when you don't believe. Be gullible. You'll believe anything. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things unto Him [00:39:25] who is the Head, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. And now we're thinking about the church. from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Every one of us must believe. [00:39:59] No unbelief allowed. We must believe. Why? So that we grow. So we as a body can get there. According to the effect of working by every part, which every part does it share. Every one of us has something to do. Believe it. It's true. You're having your devotion some morning and God just strikes you with a thought [00:40:33] and it challenges you. Hey, well, I've got to do better than that. Or it's a promise. Whatever it is, little or small. And as you bring it here and share it, it may be just what Justin needs. Because he's struggling. I mean, I don't know if he is, but I'm just saying. Somebody's struggling in something. God gave that to you for you, and He gave it to you for somebody else. Maybe. [00:41:05] But too often I come here and I, well, everybody knows that. Even this sermon. I'm thinking this morning, what in the world? Everybody knows about faith and unbelief. What is up with that? But I get up here and here it goes, you know. But I'm tempted to think, look, this isn't for anybody. Everybody knows this already. We can't do that. Even with your little verse. Whether it's a big verse. Maybe it's a whole chapter. Take the time and share it. What does it mean to you where you are at, at this point? [00:41:38] Because we all go through life and we're at different places and different ages and different ages of children and we're all different work and oh man, there's so much. But we can encourage each other and we can coax each other on. I had to think of that song, Trust and Obey, and I wrote it down, but now I can't think of the words right now. But as we trust in the Lord and obey His Word, I just would like to encourage us to grow, grow closer to Him. [00:42:16] Let's pray. Lord, we thank You again for this time that we have together and we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your encouraging words, Your convicting words, Lord. Lord, I pray that as we walk through life together, that we would be faithful, that we would trust in you, we would believe your promises, that we would obey your commands. In Jesus' name, Amen.