Have you ever paused to consider
just how fragile this world is? And by the world, I mean everything
in this time Earth, this time existence. How easily things
here are shaken and shaken to their utter ruin. We work hard
to secure things as if we really can. Our efforts are futile. Trying to make something secure
by our hands is sort of like being on a real ship in the midst
of a horribly real storm and throwing an anchor onto an imaginary
rock. Take just a small frame of time,
just our lifetime. For some of us, it will be a
slight stretch. For others, it won't. Let's say 60 years. In these 60 years, we've seen
the world at war, the Korean War. I remember when I was a
teenager, the tenseness of the Cuban Missile Crisis. All of
us knew something about the Vietnam War. About every family bears
some scars from it. The war is going on. The Arab
and Israeli world, the upheavals in Eastern Europe, civil wars
all over the Balkans throughout the continent of Africa seem
to have gone on all my lifetime. Devastating earthquakes in South
America, India, China, and our own land as well. Hurricanes,
one following another. Typhoons in the Philippines,
Japan. A few years ago, Bangladesh was
just almost wiped out with a typhoon. Floods and tornadoes every year. Famines in Asia and Africa. Disease
running rampant. Global diseases breaking out
among peoples all over the world. Instability. Untold horror in
more countries than we can think of. And now the terrorism that
seems to have everybody terrified. It's the object of terrorist.
Everywhere I go, folks talk about it. It's on the news all the
time. Just last night, we watched a
little bit of the report concerning the rape and murder of that five-year-old
child out in California. These things repeated over and
over again. Mama and Daddy bounce that baby on their knee in the
morning. and she's gone brutally slaughtered by the hands of a
beast in the afternoon. The world's economy? You folks who have been gathering
up stocks the last 10, 20, 30, 40 years better have something besides
that. I read a report a couple of weeks ago in USA Today that
shows something of the fragile nature of the whole world's economy,
because the whole world's economy sort of goes the way ours does.
Gross national product, all-time high. Recession at an all-time
low. Interest rates at an all-time
low. And stock market just doesn't make any sense at all, unless
you recognize everything here is just so fragile, so fragile. One thing after another shakes
our world. The fact is this world, the whole
thing, is a shaky place because it's cursed of God. God has marked
everything here for the burning. Everything. Everything. Everything. You didn't hear that,
did you? Everything. Everything. And all the shaking that we see
in the world around us just foreshadows a greater day when there shall
be a cataclysmic shaking of the earth and of creation of heaven
and earth to its very foundation. A shaking that will destroy everything
that can be destroyed. Everything. We would be wise
then to order and define our lives by our interest in that
which cannot be shaken. There is a kingdom, there is
a world that cannot be shaken. The kingdom of our God, the kingdom
of heaven cannot be shaken. And that's the only thing that
can't. The only thing. Let's look tonight
at Hebrews chapter 12, verses 25 through 29. And I want to
talk to you about things shaken and things unshaken. In these
five short verses, we have words of grace, words of hope, words
of warning, and words of promise. Let's listen to what God has
to say. Say that you refuse not Him that
speaketh. Say that you refuse not Him that
speaketh. For if they escape not who refused
Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven, 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 signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken,
as of those things that are made, that those things which cannot
be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a 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. Here is a word of warning. See
that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape
not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not
we escape. if we turn away from him that
speaketh from heaven. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one being spoken of here. He's the mediator of the new
covenant. He's the one who is that one who speaketh. Notice
the languages in the present tense. See that you refuse not
him that speaketh. Now, the scriptures speak many
times of our Lord Jesus Christ speaking. He spoke for us in
the covenant and counsel of grace as our surety and our mediator. He lifted his hand to the Father
and said, lo, I come to do thy will, O my God, by the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ one time for all his people, one time with finality. He has
obtained a more excellent ministry as the mediator of the covenant.
He is the mediator of this better covenant established upon better
promises. And then he spoke in time. There
came a time when the worlds were made, when he spoke all things
out of nothing. He spoke. Turn to John chapter
1. Look at two passages. John, the
first chapter. Jesus Christ, our God, is He
who made the world by the mere word of His power and upholds
and holds together all things, causing all things to consist
by the mere word of His power. We're speaking now of Him who
is God Almighty, God our Savior. Look here in John chapter 1,
verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, And the Word was God. A better reading would be, in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God
was the Word. God and the Word are one. Two
distinct persons, yet one glorious, holy God. The same was in the
beginning with God, face to face, equal with, one with God. Now
watch this. All things were made by Him.
And without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of man. Look at Hebrews chapter
1. The Apostle Paul says much the same thing. Hebrews chapter 1. I'm sorry, chapter 11, excuse
me. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence
of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good report.
Look at verse 3. Through faith we understand.
Now please understand this. There is no understanding of
anything revealed in the word of God. There is no understanding
of anything spiritual except by faith. We don't come to understand
the things of God by logic, by reason, by historic reference.
We understand the things of God as we bow to the Word of God.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
Word of God so that the things which are seen were not made
of things which do appear. This world, then, was created
by the mere word of God out of nothing. Matter came into being
by God's word and matter was formed in the being in which
God fixed it by his word. The world did not somehow come
from some sort of eternal cosmic matter. The world was made by
the word of God. He created all things out of
nothing. Our Lord Jesus spoke again. He
came down on Mount Sinai and spoke His word. When God stood
on Mount Sinai and spoke His word to Moses, God gave His law
and spoke plainly, revealing something of His righteous and
holy character, revealing something of the utter depravity of our
race, the corruption of the human heart, the sin that defiles us
all by which all men by nature are condemned. He spoke as a
prophet, as the prophet of his church while he walked on this
earth. He is that one Moses spoke of. He said, the Lord God will
raise up a prophet unto you like me. The only difference is you're
going to hear him. He's going to speak and you will
hear him. He is that one who comes and
reveals the Father to us. He is the one who makes known
the will, the mind, the person and purpose of God Almighty in
the hearts of men by the revelation that he alone gives. And he spoke
through his servants, the apostles, by giving us the Scriptures. We have here the Word, the Word
of God. Some time ago somebody said to
me, well, that book is just like the newspaper unless God causes
you to believe it and speaks by His Spirit to you. Oh, no. He said, wouldn't you agree with
that? I said, no, I wouldn't agree with that at all. This
is God's word. My unbelief and my not hearing,
it doesn't change what this is. This is the holy book of God. The only holy book there is.
And by this, God has revealed himself to us. And he's going
to hold us accountable for what he's revealed. It might be a
good idea to look into the book. This is the book by which we're
going to be judged. He speaks then in all these ways. But the text is not talking about
that which he spoke in the past. The text is in the present tense.
It says, see that you refuse not him that speaketh. It's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ presently speaking. And so he's referring
to one of two things, perhaps to both, probably to both. Turn
over to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews 7. Right now, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who lived and died for us, having risen again and who has ascended
up into heaven, taking his seat at the right hand of the majesty
on high, seated on the throne of grace, on the mercy seat,
the Lord Jesus now speaks, interceding for us according to the will
of God. Look here in Hebrews 7. Wherefore,
he is able also to save them to the uttermost, verse 25, that
come to God by him. seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. He constantly pleads our call. constantly intercedes for us,
intercedes with the Father on our behalf as our only covenant
mediator, as our only high priest, as our only surety, making intercession,
and intercession that the Father must and shall hear, intercession
with which the Father must and shall comply for these reasons.
He makes intercession for the saints according to the will
of God, and he pleads that which God cannot refuse. Look in 1
John 2. Turn there if you will, it's
very familiar, but look at 1 John 2. John writes his epistle and urges
us, he urges us not to sin. Don't sin. Children of God, don't
ever count it a light, casual thing that you sin. My little
children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father. An advocate with the Father,
in the presence of the Father, who is one with the Father, accepted
with the Father. This advocate is our consolation
and our comfort. He is Jesus, Savior, the Christ,
that one anointed and appointed of God to be our Savior and our
King, and he is the righteous. This advocate is a man who is
himself God incarnate, and he has fulfilled all righteousness
on our behalf, and he is the propitiation. That is, he is
the satisfying sacrifice, that one who has satisfied the justice
of God, the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world. Now when John says
that, I'll pause for a moment to explain one more time for
your sake. I'm confident that God has throughout the book thrown
cans in for goats to chew on, and this is one of them. But
when he says, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world, he's not talking about the Lord Jesus having satisfied
the justice of God for the sins of everybody in the world. Anybody
with one eye and half sense ought to be able to see that. There
are some folks who suffer the wrath of God. If Christ has satisfied
the justice and wrath of God for the sins of all men, all
men must be saved. They have no debt to pay. When
he says he's satisfied the justice and wrath of God for our sins,
and not ours only, but for the sins of the whole world, he's
talking about God's elect scattered throughout all the world, Jew
and Gentile, all those who are His, of every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue, wherever they may be found. I read back in
the Alpha Zechariah chapter 2, and the Lord speaks plainly of
stretching out his hand and gathering his people from all the nations
of the earth. But not only does this speak
of our Lord's intercession, primarily it has to be talking about something
else. Primarily. I say that because we can't hear
him speak in heaven. He says, see that you refuse
not the voice of him that speaketh. Oh my soul, how does God the
Son speak to you and me now? How does he speak? Unless I've read this book wrong,
and I'm sure I haven't, God speaks to you by the gospel through
the lips of his servants. as the gospel is preached. If
you want to hear from God, make sure you hear where God speaks. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Sometimes people ask why I appear
so tense. burdened in preaching the gospel. Here's the reason. God just might
speak through me. God just might speak through
me. And if God speaks through me,
what you hear, not the lips and voice and vocal cord tones of
this man, but what you hear is God Himself speaking. Let's see
if this is what the book says. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's name. Here I stand in the room, in
the place, in the stead of Jesus Christ as God's ambassador. We
pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he
hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Now watch this. We
then as workers together with him, beseech you that you receive
not the grace of God in vain." Oh, don't hear the Word of God
and not hear it. Don't hear the gospel and not
hear it. How foolish it is to refuse to
hear Him, but multitudes do. He came to His own and His own
received Him. Our Lord said in John 3, verse
19, this is the condemnation, lights come into the world, and
men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are
evil. He said in chapter 5 of John's Gospel, verse 43, I come
in my Father's name and you receive me not. If another comes in his
own name, you'll receive him. Oh, how foolishly men and women
refuse to hear God speak. Anytime you do, you're playing
with ruin, playing with destruction. How foolish we are to put our
fingers in our ears and say, God, won't you please shut up? Don't speak to me. Ralph Barnard
made a statement one time. I've never forgotten it. Hope
I never do. He said, Bobby, we're responsible
for every message from God we hear and for every one we could
have heard but chose not to. What a privilege God gives to
allow you to hear His I don't often get to sit where
you do, but I relish the opportunity. I've been where you are, and I try to understand what
you go through, what burdens you have, what difficulties,
what tasks you have to perform, but I don't understand anyone
neglecting to hear the Word of God. I don't understand it. that nothing on this earth more
needful for your soul, nothing, nothing more valuable, nothing
more useful. To refuse to hear is to neglect
to hear the gospel when you can. To refuse to hear is to harden
your heart against the gospel by setting anything, anything
in preference to it, refusing to hearken to that which is spoken.
To refuse to hear is to refuse to believe. I said, well, a man
can't believe unless God gives him faith. I know that, but he's
responsible to believe. I said, well, a man can't be
responsible for something he's not able to do. God commands
you to be perfect. Try that. And you're responsible
to be. God commands us to walk before
Him in righteousness. Try it. By all means, try it.
You're responsible to be, but you can't do it. And you're responsible
to believe the Word of God. And you could if you would. I
don't see how those things can all be so. I don't either, but
I know what this book says. I know what it says. Men refuse
to hear the Word of God by taking the Word of God. Some folks say
things, times I just bite my tongue. I try my best not to
always say what I'm thinking. Folks, meet me at the door sometime
and I'll mention where to preach. Well, you gave us some things to think
on tonight. I didn't give you anything to think on. I don't
come here offering opinions for you to think about. I've come
here with a word from God for you to believe. to weigh God's
Word in the balances of your own mind and judgment and reason,
to weigh God's Word in the balances of man's opinion, to weigh God's
Word with what other men have to say concerning God's Word,
is to utterly refuse to hear His Word. Faith hears what God
says. That is written in the book.
We'll bow to it because God said it. We refuse to hear the Word. of him who speaks from heaven
when we sit in judgment over his word, men sitting in judgment
over God. Notice what it says here now,
him that spoke on earth. That may refer to God the Father
who spoke at Mount Sinai and giving the law. Perhaps it refers
to Moses, who was on the earth and of the earth, who spoke for
God as God spoke to him. He stood as a mediator between
God and his people, one by whom the law was given, that one who
stood on the mouth and the people said, Moses, don't let God speak
to us. You go. You go hear from God.
Come tell us what he says. And Acts chapter 7 tells us that's
exactly what happened. And Galatians, the apostle Paul
tells us the same thing. If they who refuse to hear the
words of God given by Moses did not escape the wrath and judgment
of God, how shall we escape? Folks who refuse to hear the
terror of the law, who refuse to hear God when He spoke in
thunderous voices, sireni, in darkness, in blackness, in clouds,
in fire, so that the very earth shook, how shall we escape if
we refuse to hear God speak by His Son, words of grace and mercy? Look at Hebrews chapter 1 now.
Hebrews 1. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds. Look in chapter 2. Therefore,
since God has now spoken to us by his Son, we ought to give
the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. lest
at any time we should let them slip. You try to hold on to sand and
just squeeze it tight as you can and it somehow just slips
out. It just slips out. Give heed to God's Word. lest at any time it just slips
out. Make this the business of your
life. Lord God, speak to me. Speak by your word. Speak by
your Son. Speak by your Spirit. Speak to
me. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, how shall we escape? if we neglect so great
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord
and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. Him that
spoke on earth may refer to our Lord Jesus Christ, who came from
heaven and is the Lord of heaven and now speaks from heaven. His
doctrine is from heaven. My doctrine shall descend as
the dew. We're reading Deuteronomy 32.
Having finished his work, he is now seated in heaven and he
speaks from heaven. And soon he will come to heaven,
or come from heaven, to judge this world by his word that he's
given. Turn to John 12. John 12. Verse 47. If any man hear my words, and
believe not, I judge him not. For I came not to judge the world,
but to save the world. Verse 48. He that rejecteth me,
and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him. The word
that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
For I have not spoken of myself. But the Father which sent me,
he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should
speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever
I speak, therefore, even the Father said to me, so I speak. And by this, you shall be judged,
and me too, by his word, by his word. And then in verse 26, our
Lord speaks by His Spirit of the shaking of heaven and earth.
When He speaks, He shakes the heaven and the earth. Whose voice
then shook the earth, but now He hath promised, saying, Yet
once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. At Sinai, when God spoke, what
a day that must have been. God spoke. and the mountain quaked. The earth shook when God spoke. The psalmist says, O God, when
Thou wentest forth before Thy people, when Thou didst march
through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens dropped at
the presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. God spoke, but the
trumpet And it waxed louder and louder, and God spoke, and the
earth shook. That was when God spoke and shook
the earth. But he says here once more, I
shape not the earth only, but also the heavens. The passage
he's referring to is found in the book of Haggai. If you want
to turn back there, Haggai chapter 2, verse 6. Haggai chapter 2. It's a word of prophecy. It refers
to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Haggai 2,
verse 6. Listen now. Thus saith the Lord
of hosts, yet once more. It is a little while, said I,
will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry
land. And I will shake all nations,
and the desire of all nations shall come. And I will fill this
house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. Now what's he talking
about? He's talking about the incarnation,
the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection of our Redeemer.
He's talking about him coming not only to shake the earth,
but to shake heaven also. And he speaks of another shaking.
When our Lord Jesus Christ came, he shook everything to its very
foundation. His coming was the shaking of
all the Jewish nation, both spiritual and literal. His coming was the
shaking of all Judaism, the law, the ceremonies, the priesthood,
the altar, the sacrifices, everything, shaken and shaken and shaken
until at last the temple was trodden underfoot, not one stone
left upon another, shaken to its utter ruin forever. But there's
another shaking coming. He's going to shake everything
that can be shaken. Verse 27, and this word yet once
more signified the removing of those things that are shaken
as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. When our Lord first came, he
took away the first that he may establish the second. But still
men hold on to those things which shall be shaken." Mere empty
form of religion. This world. Oh, how men set their
hearts on the world. Because they set their hearts
on the world, they choose that rather than
the knowledge of the Lord. And that which they set their
hearts on, God will shake to their utter ruin. Those things which cannot be
shaken, those things that cannot be moved
shall remain. Do you see that? Oh, bless God,
there are some things that can't be shaken. There are some things that can't
be destroyed. There are some things that can't
be moved. They can't be. They are fixed. Lindsay, I want what can't be
shaken. I want grace to set my heart
on those things that cannot be shaken, that cannot be moved. What on earth is he talking about?
He is talking about a kingdom. He's talking about a city which
has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He's talking
about redemption and righteousness and justification and sanctification,
acceptance with God, things that cannot be shaken. He's talking
about everlasting life in Christ. Our heavenly inheritance can't
be shaken. In verse 28, he describes it
as a kingdom we are receiving. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved. Can't be moved. Not even the gates of hell are
going to prevail against this. Let us have grace. That is, let
us hold to the gospel of the grace of God and continue in
it, whereby we may serve God acceptably. with reverence and
godly fear. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
King, the King who must reign. The Father has given Him dominion
and power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to
as many as the Father gave Him before the world began. He's
given Him dominion and power, and the Scripture says He must
reign. Of His kingdom there shall be no end, none at all. And we're
receiving that kingdom in which He's the King. We receive this
kingdom that cannot be moved, being born into it and receiving
it by faith, recognizing Him as King of kings and Lord of
lords. The kingdom is that which we
have received and we are receiving and we shall receive when at
last the Lord God says, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Let us then Serve our God by His grace, acceptably, with reverence, reverencing
Him, and nothing and no one else. Serve Him, coming to Him by faith
in Christ alone. He alone is to be worshipped,
and He will be worshipped only through the crucified substitute,
whom He's appointed and accepted. Let us worship Him and serve
Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Verse 29, For
our God is a consuming fire. This must be understood of two
things. First, He is jealous. Deuteronomy 4.4 says, The Lord
thy God is a consuming fire. Even a jealous God. He will not
endure a rifle. He won't endure it. Shelby and I sort of grew up
a long time ago. When we were first dating, I
was pretty jealous. I was pretty jealous. And jealousy is hard to live
with. You meet women who still live with you that you need to
grow up. Jealousy is hard to live with. A fellow looked at
her twice. He'd be in danger of getting
belted. I'd just likely knock him down
as I was looking at him. I was pretty jealous. But time came
when I became very confident of her love. And I've gotten
accustomed to fellows who don't know who I am. We're together,
kind of flirting with her a little bit. Ain't no tension to it.
Didn't bother me any. Now come, because she's mine.
She's mine. She loves me, had no question
about it. But if I had a question about it, I wouldn't endure it. I wouldn't put up with a rival.
Not me. I wouldn't endure it. Our God
is a jealous God. He won't let you, Bob Punster,
or me, Don Fortner, have a rival to Him. If we're His, He'll destroy
us. make no rivals to Him. But there's more to it than that.
Our God is a consuming fire in this sense. He says in Zechariah
chapter 2 that He is a wall of fire about us. And we're the
apple of His eye. He's a wall of fire about us
to protect us and provide for us. A wall of fire to warm and
guide us in darkness and in the way in which we walk through
this world. He's a wall of fire to consume
all our enemies. A wall of fire He is to purify
us and to purify our eternal dwelling with Him forever. Let
us serve Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Oh, my soul, fear nothing but
not fearing Him. Seek nothing but Him. Set your heart on nothing but
Him. Favor nothing but Him. Seek Him. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and He who is a consuming fire, To
protect you like the apple of His eye, He'll take care of you. See then that you refuse not
Him that speaketh from heaven. Amen.