Second Thessalonians 2, 13 through 17.

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, be loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the

beginning to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the

truth. To this he called you through our gospel so

that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then brethren stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either

by word of mouth or by letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and

gave us eternal comfort and good hope and work and

your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Last week we saw from Secondnd Thessalonians chapter 2 that Paul's concern for the church in that city was very personal, very practical, very heart oriented, experience oriented.

The specific problem was that they were shaken, according to verse two.

They were shaken and they were alarmed. They were losing

their stability and their firmness and their composure. They were off-balance, their

minds and their hearts and we all have those experiences.

I had one this week and I had to use this text that I was going to preach on today to

bring myself back into equilibrium and forthrightness in regard

to what lay before me.

Now Paul's first approach to helping these people who've lost their balance is to teach them

something that would dislodge the error that had taken root which was bearing this alien fruit of shakenness and the error that

they were falling prey to was that the day of the Lord was at hand was there.

And he said, no, that's not true.

And then in accord with Jesus teaching in verses 3 to 12, he taught them that first the apostasy must come and then the man of lawlessness must appear and these haven't appeared on the scene yet and so you know the day of the Lord's in the hand.

So he tries to uproot the error that they had fallen

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