Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 32 in your spiral, gospel hymns hymnal, number 32.
In Christ we are free. Let's all stand together. Number
32. All children of wrath, in bondage
and sin, we helplessly lay, condemned and unclean. God's law in its
infinite justice and wrath demanded we suffer an eternal death. But long before time had ever
begun, One stood in our place, God's glorious Son. He offered Himself to go live
among men, And give His own life to atone for our sin. The great substitute, behold
he has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out his blood and he
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith in the blood of
the Lamb, we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free. Please be seated. eternally free. The Son makes you free, you're
free indeed. Good morning. We're going to be in Hebrews
chapter 12, first hour this morning. I've titled this message, When
God Shakes Your World. When God shakes your world. Scripture
makes it clear that there are things that God shakes in order
that those things which cannot be shaken will be sure. And I
hope that you'll be encouraged by this passage of scripture.
I want us to join our hearts together in prayer. I talked
to Don Fortner Friday, and he is experiencing congestive heart
failure, and they have to do immediate open-heart surgery
to replace a couple of valves. And so the problem is that he's
taking treatments for cancer and this cardiologist and oncologist
are consulting now to try to figure out how they're going
to do this. So he's hoping to find out tomorrow and he said
to let you know that he appreciated your prayers. Also our daughter
Jennifer has been suffering The last couple of weeks and
her liver numbers are gone off the chart She has surgery scheduled
for this coming Thursday at Shands in Jacksonville, so The Lord
enables you to pray for her we would greatly be thankful for
that Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on his His word and on our time together, our heavenly father,
we come before thy throne of grace, thanking you for thy dear
son. Knowing, Lord, that Christ's work on Calvary's cross
was effectual and sufficient to put away all the sins of your
people, and to give us liberty and freedom from the condemnation
and judgment of our sin and from the threats of your holy law. Lord, we thank you that you've
promised that your word would not return unto you void, that
it would accomplish the purpose for which you sent it. We know
that's true. With the living word. For certainly. He returned to the right hand.
Successful. All the names of those. For whom
he lived and died. We pray Lord that we would. Experience now the. The blessing. Of your word to our hearts as
you are. The only one able to open. Our hearts and open your word
and open the windows of heaven. Lord bless us with your presence
and. Speak to us and reveal to us
the glory of your son. Increase our faith. Forgive us of our sin. Lord, we know that our lives
are always in your hands. And the you control every breath
that we draw. and that it is appointed unto
each one of us to die. Lord, you are the only one that can sustain
life as well. And we ask, Lord, that you'd
be pleased to do so. Pray for your For your grace
for Jennifer and ask Lord that you would enable them to remove
both these tumors on Thursday. Or that you would strengthen
her body and. Thank you for. For Don and ask
Lord that the doctors would be given wisdom to know how to treat
him and. Your hand of mercy and grace
would be upon him and the church and Shelby and the family. We ask it all in Christ's name.
Amen. One other announcement to pray
about. We were in the process of getting
our permit for the new building this week and the city decided
that we needed to pay $14,000 in impact fees for for traffic
impacts of something and so Our engineer is advocating for us
now with the city and we should know something tomorrow He thinks
that he can get that cut down to about $4,000. So that would
be wonderful if we can do that and Soon as that's decided and
we pay our fees, we'll be able to get our permit and get started.
So that's where we are on that. When God shakes your world, you
ever had your world shaken? I hope so. I hope so. Hebrews chapter 12. The point
of this message is that When God purposes to build something
new, he has to demolish that which is old. And I remember
we renovated our kitchen one time at our house, and Trisha
came home one day, and her whole kitchen was stripped down to
the concrete floor and drywall walls. Everything was gone, and
she looked and thought, oh no, what's happened? Demolition is
necessary before new construction, isn't it? And that's the way
it is with our spiritual lives. The Lord has to demolish some
things before he builds that which is new. And so I hope that
the Lord is demolishing some things for you as he is for me,
and that what he builds will not be able to be shaken. Notice
in our text, we'll begin reading in verse 26, whose voice then
shook the earth, but now he hath promised saying, yet once more
I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet
once more signifying the removing of those things that are shaken
as of things that are made. And those things that, those
things which cannot be shaken may remain. So the Lord's telling
us the purpose for him shaking our world is to remove those
things which are made that those things which have not been made
would remain. Look at the next verse. Wherefore,
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. The Lord goes
on to tell us that which is not made, the kingdom of God is eternal. Kingdom of God has always been.
And so, He says, the receiving of the kingdom, which cannot
be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire. Now, when God shakes a man's
world, what is it that he shakes? And the answer to that question
is first and foremost, He shakes and removes our confidence in
our righteousness. He shakes the very foundation
of everything that we believe about ourselves, about God, about
how it is that a person is to be saved by stripping us of our
self-righteousness. It's what he did for Saul of
Tarsus, who said that his conversion was a pattern for all those that
would be saved. Paul went on to say in Philippians
chapter three, what things, after he talks about being circumcised
the eighth day, being of the tribe of Benjamin, being an Israelite
and being a Pharisee and concerning the law, he said, I was blameless.
He said, I had all these things that I was counting on for my
righteousness. And what happened? When the Lord
knocked him off his high horse, Paul later says in Philippians
chapter three, what things were gain to me, those I counted loss
for Christ. Yea, I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them
as dung that I may win Christ. So when the Lord strips you of
your righteousness, those things that you prized as the hope of
your salvation, he shakes your world when he reveals to you
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. David said I will
speak of thy righteousness even of thine only and God says of
our righteousness they are but filthy rags in the sight of God.
Paul went on in Romans chapter 3 to say in me that is in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. To will To will is present with
me, to be righteous, to do right is present with me, but how to
perform that which is righteous I find not. I can't achieve righteousness. So the Lord strips us of our
righteousness. He says, I'm going to shake that
which is made so that that which is not made cannot be shaken. You see, we make our own righteousness,
don't we? We present to God things that
we think are going to impress him, things that we think are
going to put us in his favor. And men will present anything. They'll present anything. Mostly
we see people presenting their faith. I'll make a decision for
Jesus. That'll be my righteousness.
I'll let him come into my heart. And it's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, it's God that showeth mercy. The Lord
shakes our confidence in our righteousness and tears it down. You destroy the foundation and
the whole building collapses, isn't that true? Attack the foundation
and the whole building will collapse. And what is man's foundation?
It's his self-righteousness. Everybody's self-righteous by
nature. Until they hear about the righteousness of God, they
are ignorant of God's righteousness. And Romans chapter 10 says that
all men go about trying to establish their own righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone. You and I have never been able
to have a righteous thought. We've never been able to perform
a righteous deed. We've never been able to do anything
that measures up. to the righteousness of God.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Christ is
the righteousness of God and all we can perform and all we
can do is sin. And when the Lord shakes your
world, the first thing he does is he attacks the foundation
of our religion and strips us of all confidence that we have
in our own righteousness. Job said, oh, if I could find
God, I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with judgments. If the Lord would just allow
me to come into his presence, I would defend myself, I would
show him that this isn't right. And when Elihu came along and
preached the gospel to Job, the scripture says that Elihu was
filled with righteous indignation towards Job and his friends because
Job justified himself. And then after Job heard the
gospel, and after he heard the voice from God, what did he say?
Oh Lord, surely I spoke without knowledge. I didn't know what
I was talking about. I was trying to defend myself
and justify myself and present myself as something that was
righteous because I had heard of thee by the hearing of mine
ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee and I abhor myself and repent
in dust and ashes. Behold, behold, Job goes on to
say I'm vile. See when God, God shook Job's
world, didn't he? He shook Job's world. The purpose of the book of Job
is not to explain suffering. It's the same purpose of the
rest of the scriptures. To delineate the difference between
law and grace. And Job was trying to present
himself to God based on his righteousness. And God shook his world and stripped
him of that. And in the end, what happens
to Job? Job's blessed seven times more than was he was at the beginning.
And so it is with us. The Lord tears down our foundation
and what he builds is, oh, so much better, isn't it? The righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ is true righteousness. It's a righteousness
that cannot be moved. It's a righteousness that's eternal.
And that's what the Lord is saying. I'm going to speak. I'm going
to speak. And when I speak, I'm going to
shake that which is made in order that that which is not made might
remain. It cannot be shaken for you have
received a kingdom. Turn to me to second Kings chapter
five, second Kings chapter five. Naaman was the commander of the
army of Syria. Syria at the time would have
been the greatest nation in the world so Naaman's the second
in command over the king of Syria and he's a leper. Now leprosy in the scriptures
is a picture of our sin and Naaman hears that there's a prophet
in Israel that can cure his leprosy. And so Naaman goes to the king
of Israel. And the king says, who am I,
God? I can't do anything for you. And then Naaman hears that
Elisha is up in Dothan. Go see him. Go see him. And here we have the story in
2 Kings chapter 5. Naaman was proud. Naaman was self-righteous. Naaman
thought that he was a great man who just happened to have leprosy,
when the truth was that he was a leper who just happened to
have a position of greatness. And so here in 2 Kings chapter
5, In verse 8, and it was so, when
Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent
his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, wherefore hast
thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with
his horses and with his chariots, and he stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. You can just imagine, I mean,
this is a great man, a man of great wealth and great power.
And he shows up at Elisha's little cabin and he's got horses and
chariots, his whole entourage of power and strength. And Elisha
peeks out the window and he sends a servant out to talk to Elisha,
to look. Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall
come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was
wroth, and went about, and said, Behold, I thought... Now there,
you just circle those two words, because there's the problem.
There's the problem. Naaman said, Well, I thought
it was going to be like this. And what did we just read, men, in
the study? As the heavens are high above the earth, so are
my ways above your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
My ways are not your ways. See, man in his pride thinks,
well, you know, I can do something to earn favor with God. And God
has to, he has to strip us of our righteousness, doesn't he?
He has to shake the foundation of our world. And that's what
he's doing for Naaman. I thought that he would surely
come out in the name of the Lord is God and strike his hand over
the place and recover the leper. He speaks in the third person
of the lepers. If it wasn't him, I thought he'd
come out and recover the leper. I am the leper. And he hasn't
come to see that yet. Has he? Now, I thought he would
come out and he'd perform some ceremony and he'd throw his arms
in the air and he'd throw ashes up and maybe light a fire and
have a sacrifice. See, I thought he was going to
do some great thing because I'm a great man. And then he goes on to say, are
not Abana and Farfar. Now, I looked up those two words.
Abana translated means stone and Farfar means swift or strength. And so here Naaman says, we've
got rivers back in Syria that are better than this dirty Jordan. You know, we've got strength
in stones and swiftness and, you know, I've got all these
things already. Why am I here? Are not Abana and Farfar rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? No, they're
not. Why are they not? Because the word Jordan translated
means death. And you've got to die. And your righteousness has to
be stripped from you. You've got to be put to death
before you can be made alive. And that was Naaman's problem.
Well, I can go back to these other rivers up in Damascus.
They're better than this Jordan River. No, they're not. May I not wash in them and be
clean? At least they're not muddy like
the Jordan. I guess a lot better water up there. So he turned
and went away in a rage. That's what happens to a lot
of folks when they hear the gospel. They turn and they go away in
a rage, unwilling to let go of their righteousness. God says, It never happens again, but it
turns out Naaman is one of the lords. Because even though his nature
was to run away in a rage, Saul of Tarsus was in a rage, wasn't
he? He was persecuting the church of God. He was angry at the idea
that Christ was the Messiah until the Lord stopped him in his tracks. And his servant came near. That's
all God's preachers are, they're just servants, servants of God. The servant came near and spake
unto him and said, my father, if the prophet had bid thee do
some great thing, would that have not done it? If the prophet
had given you something to do, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? You'd have done it. You know
that's what man-made religion is all about. Free will works
religion. People go to church every Sunday
in order to hear something for them to do so that they can increase
their righteousness. How much rather then that he
say that the wash and be clean. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Follow him. Confess him in baptism. That's
it's. Then when he down and dipped
himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God. And his flesh came again. Like unto the flesh of a child,
And he was clean. He was clean. He goes back to Syria and takes
some soil from Israel with him and worships Jehovah, worships
the God of Israel back in Syria. So back to our text. And this is the word of God,
verse 27, yet once more signifying the removing of those things
that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things
which cannot be shaken may remain. That's what the Lord's doing.
He's shaking those things which are made, manmade things that
he might rebuild something that cannot be shaken. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter four. 2 Corinthians chapter four. The second thing that the Lord
shakes When he's in the process of building that which cannot
be shaken is our trust in temporal things. Our trust in temporal
things. Second Corinthians chapter four
verse 16 for this cause we faint not, but though our outward man
perish. And your outward man's perishing,
my outward man's perishing. The older we get, the more aware
of that we become. Yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things that
are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things
that are seen are temporal, temporary, they're made, but the things
that are not seen are eternal. So the Lord shakes those things
which are made, those things which are seen. Did he not do
that for Job? He took everything away from
him, took his family, took his possessions, took his health.
Then he stripped him of his righteousness. He left Job naked before God. Why? That that which cannot be
shaken might be made, might be established. The Lord shakes our trust in
temporal things. You remember the woman with the
issue of blood 12 years, she had suffered 12 years. She had been going to physicians
and the scripture says that she's worse off now than she was at
the beginning. You know, I guess one of the
medical practices of that day would be to bloodlet, you know. And they did that up until just
recently, you know. They were just, well, let's take
some blood out. You know, I think I shared this
with you all one time. The first president of our country, George
Washington, died from bloodletting. He had a cold, and the doctors
were trying to cure him, and they let out too much blood.
You know, so these physicians, that this woman was going to,
she had an issue of blood. She had a bleeding problem. And
what would the doctors have done? Exactly the opposite of what
she needed. And what's that a picture of? It's a picture of religion. We've
got an issue of blood. Our sin problem is in our nature. And religion just bloodlets. You just work a little bit harder,
serve a little bit more, confess a little bit more, pray a little
bit more, and they get you to... And these physicians had left
her worse. Now she's without money, she's
without cure. Oh, if I could just touch the
hem of his garment. But you see, 12 years the Lord
stripped her. of all her trust in temporal
things. He shook that away from her. And he does that for his children.
Most of the people of God have gone through some form of religion
before they hear the gospel. Now the Lord just takes them
through that. And then he takes it away from them.
And when he reveals Christ to you, you've got no interest at
all in going back to any of that, do you? I'm going to shake that which
can be shaken, that which is made, that which is man-made
so that that which cannot be shaken will remain. You remember the story about
right at the same time that the Lord's ministering grace to,
to the woman with the issue of blood, Jairus, Jairus comes and,
uh, and pleads the Lord for help for his dying 12 year old daughter. By the time he finishes with
the woman with the issue of blood, the servant of Jairus comes and
says, bother the master no more. Your daughter's dead. And the Lord said to Jairus,
fear not. Only believe. Only believe. The Lord shakes that which is
made. We make our trust in temporal things, but the Lord says, you're
not looking on the temporal. You're looking on the eternal
for that, which is temporal is made by man. 38 years. That man was at the
pool of Bethesda, 38 years, a cripple, a certain man. The scripture
says at the pool of Bethesda and the Lord shows up. You know,
these people that talk about going around healing everybody, you know, they've got the power
to heal. The Lord Jesus Christ had the power to heal. He went
to a hospital and he picked one person out and took them out
and healed them. Why didn't he heal them all? Why didn't he
heal them all? Because God's mercy is particular
towards his elect. He said, you did not choose me,
I chose you. I didn't come here to get a following. I came here to win my people
to myself. I've already got a following.
You know, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has never grown
by one person from eternity past. Never grown by a person. You
know, that's a big thing in religion today is church growth. Everybody's
learning how to build a big church and how to grow a church. The
true church of the Lord Jesus Christ is exactly the same now
as it was before Adam was ever created. And it's exactly the
same size now as it will be when this world comes to an end and
we're all gathered together with him in glory. Not one person
added to it. And not one will be lost. Not
one will be lost. But here this Lord, the Lord
comes up to this man, he said, Wilt thou be made whole? What kind of question is that?
Wilt thou be made whole? What did the man say? He said,
Lord, I can't. I want to, but I'm not able.
I've got no man to help me. When the angel come and stirs
the water, there's no one to help me to get into the pool.
And what did the Lord say? Take up thy bed and walk. And immediately stood. Immediately. 38 years. He had to be brought to that
place where he answered the question, will thou be made whole? Will
thou be made whole? And what is our response? Same
as that certain man. Lord, I can't. I've got no man
to help me. I can't help myself and I can't
look to another man to help me. If I'm going to be made whole,
you're going to have to do it. You're going to have to speak
the word. He strips us of our trust and
temporal things. He strips us of our righteousness. Moses, can you imagine the life
that Moses lived the first 40 years of his life? Pharaoh's
son? I mean, the greatest nation in
the world? The pomp and pageantry, the power,
the influence that he must have had? And yet the scripture says that
God sent him out into the backside of the desert for 40 years. And at 80 years old, Moses goes
back and brings the children of Israel out. What was that
40 years in the wilderness about? He was tending sheep for 40 years
in the wilderness. What was that about? He had to
be stripped of all that that he had back in Egypt, didn't
he? He had to have all that temporal stuff taken away from him in
order that he would set his affections on those things that were eternal. So God strips us of our righteousness.
He strips us of our trust in temporal things. What else does
he shake? What other foundation does he
shake? He causes us to no longer believe the lie. Now that's a
hard, that's a hard thing to do. To come to the place that,
Lord, everything that I thought was true was a lie. That's called repentance. And
one thing I've learned about people is they don't like to,
I don't like to admit when I'm wrong. You don't like admitting
when you're wrong, do you? It's kind of a hard thing to
do. To say that I've been wrong about
God, I've been wrong about myself, I've been wrong about salvation,
I've been wrong about everything. You see, when the Lord shakes
the foundation of your life, he doesn't just tweak it. He
doesn't just say, well, you know, let's, let's replace this with
this. No, he does. Like I did in our
kitchen, he strips it down to the concrete floor and the dry
and the stud walls. There's nothing left, nothing.
We got to start fresh. And, uh, you know, people think,
well, what they're hearing now, well, I, you know, no, God does
not love everybody. Period. He loves righteousness. He hates iniquity. Jacob, I have
loved. Esau, I've hated. I've loved
them with an everlasting love. This idea that God loves everybody
and God's love is unconditional. God's love is not unconditional. But here's the thing about it.
God's people never have to worry about losing God's love. Not
because it's unconditional, but because the condition based on
that, what that love is based on cannot be changed. The condition
is Christ. He is the condition. Nothing
can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. But the lie is that God loves
everybody. It's not true. And only when God shakes your
foundation can he take that away from you. The lie is that Christ
died for everybody. God's trying to get everybody
saved. No. What the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross
was an actual accomplishment of God's elect. Those whom God
chose in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the
world, those whom he's loved with an everlasting love, Christ
actually redeemed them. He actually justified them. He was offered up for our offenses
and raised again because of our justification. The resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ actually justified God's people. There's no salvation apart from
that. The lie, I've got a free will,
I can make a decision when I want. You're dead in your trespasses
and sins. You just don't, don't confuse
making choices about what you're going to eat or what you're going
to wear or where you're going to go. The same as having a free
will to determine the, the, the, the, the salvation of your soul.
It's not true. A dead, a dead heart cannot believe
God. God has to give us faith. He
has to make us alive before we can believe a child has to be
born before it can breathe. You see, all the lies that are
told in religion, when God shakes that which is made, they're manmade
in order to build that which cannot be shaken. One of the things that God shakes
is our relationships with other men. Men by nature love the praise
of men more than they love the praise of God. And here's what
God says, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution. Your enemies shall be of your
own household. Men will forsake Christ in order
to maintain relationships with friends and family members. When
God strips you of your righteousness, he strips you of your lies, he
oftentimes will take you out of relationships. Moses, speaking of Moses, when
he was come to years, refused to be called the sons of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to suffer the affliction with the
people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. Oh, don't don't let men. And
your your affection and connection with men keep you from Christ.
Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Just like you
are. It's going to mean some shaking. But he only shakes that which
is made. In order to rebuild that which is not made. He takes
away the temporal to establish the eternal. That's a good thing. All right,
let's take a break.