If you'd like to turn, we're
going to be in Hebrews chapter 12 again. Hebrews chapter 12. This is the end of Hebrews chapter
12 and it is a psalm and conclusion of everything he has spoken in
Hebrews really It's the two covenants further explanation of the two.
Things that are shaken and things that are unshakable and that's
what I've titled this message things unshakable things unshakable
There are two now and have only been two ever and will ever be
two covenants. That's it. That's it. The covenant
works given by the law of the Lord that says do and the covenant
of grace that says done, it is finished. It's the covenant of
Cain and Abel. Cain offered the works of his
hands and God had no, Respect unto Abel or his offering. Abel offered up a lamb, the blood
of the lamb, looking by faith to Christ. And God had respect
on his offering. Why? Because it represented the
covenant of grace. Grace. These two covenants are
works in grace, law and faith. what we hold to is the old covenant,
then we are doomed to fail. We are doomed to fail. Let's
read this here. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 25 through
the end of the chapter. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh for if they escape not and refused him that speak spake
on the earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away
from him that speaketh from heaven. whose voice then shook the earth,
and now he hath promised saying, yet once more I shake not only
the earth, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signified
the removing of those things that are shaken, that as of 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. The title is Things Unshakable,
Unshakable. When God descended upon Mount
Sinai, when he spoke, the mountain shook, the earth shook and trembled. And the children of Israel saw
that. And this represents the judgment of the Lord. It represents
the judgment of the Lord. When the Lord speaks, he either
speaks in judgment or he speaks in mercy. He either speaks in
wrath or he speaks in grace. And our only hope is that he
speaks mercy and grace to us by the blood of Christ. Notice
also it says that last part, last verse, for our God is a
consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire.
What does that mean? Well, the only thing is it's not gonna
burn up. Scripture says that heaven and earth shall pass away.
It'll burn with a fervent heat. When the Lord comes back for
his people and they're united with him, there'll be a new heaven
and a new earth, the scripture says. And it says that the earth
will be dissolved with a fervent heat in Revelation. He says, our God is a consuming
fire. So what's going to burn up? Well,
anything that's burnable. Anything that's burnable. And
those things which can be shaken are burnable. They can burn.
But the things that are unshakable are the things that are fireproof.
They are fireproof. Only that which is fireproof
will not burn. Only that which is unshakable will stand. What
are things that are unshakable? Well, we don't have to guess.
We have the promises of the Lord, those are unshakable. We have
the blood of Christ, those things are unshakable. We have faith,
faith's unshakable. Faith always looks to Christ.
But here he's talking about a people. He's talking to his church, talking
to his people, saying the Lord's gonna shake heaven and earth
so that the things which can be shaken will not remain, but
the things which cannot be shaken will remain. So, What all is he speaking of here
shaking? Well, this is actually a prophecy
given in Haggai chapter two, if you'd like to turn there.
Haggai is one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. It's the third chapter back.
From Matthew, third chapter back from Matthew, unless I missed
one. I've been known to make a mistake every once in a while. Haggai chapter two, verse six
through nine says this. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
yet once it is a little while, and 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. And
the silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.
The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the
former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give
peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Only when the former house is
gone will the latter house be more glorious. Is this not the
two covenants? The covenant of grace and the
covenant of works. That's what he's talking about
here. God got all the glory in the old covenant, and God gets
all the glory in the new covenant. But the old covenant could never
save the Lord's people from their sin. The old covenant, the law,
never saved a single person. That's why the new covenant had
to come. The glory of the first covenant was God's holy law,
as it's mentioned here. The glory of the second covenant,
the covenant of grace, is the blood of Christ. It's the blood
of Christ. And Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. He is the end of that old covenant.
That's why the new covenant is more glorious. The new house,
it's Zion. And it's the same thing we see
in chapter 12 of Hebrews when he talks about the two mountains.
You don't come to the mountain that can be touched, that burned
with fire, that shook, but you've come to Zion, the city of God,
the city of peace, the city of refuge and hope. The place built
by God's own hands, that's where we come to. That's why it's more
glorious, is you and I didn't have any part to do with it.
You and I didn't put our hand to it, why? Because if we had
of, it would have been able to be shaken, and it would not have
lasted. But the things which cannot be
shaken are the things God built. There's a song that says, my
hope is built on nothing less but Jesus' blood and righteousness. Those things cannot be shaken.
They're unshakable. If my hope is built on my works
and my doing and my prayer, my acceptance of God, that's shakable
and it will not stand. The scripture says when he tries
the works of men who are not in Christ, And I want to tell
us something that I don't know if I've ever said this before,
but this is important. The scripture is very clear that the great
white throne judgment, every man will be judged according
to his works. And that's something that people in false religion,
they, they monger and fear because, Oh, you're everything that you've
ever done is going to be pulled up on a screen for everybody
to see kind of thing. And, and they act like everybody's
going to know what you've done. And, um, Christ's people were
judged on the cross. Christ's people were judged on
the cross. They won't be judged again. Not
the judgment that's due a sinner, but they'll be told, enter in
thou good and faithful servant. It's important we realize that.
When the Lord calls into the works of man that are not in
Christ, however, calls their deeds forward, then everything
is going to be given in record, whether it be good or whether
it be evil, the scripture says. And the Lord's going to try it.
And you know what he's going to try it with? Fire. Our God is a consuming
fire. He's going to try it with his
fire. The same fire that was found on the altar, the coals.
Remember the coal whenever Isaiah's, I said this first hour, but Isaiah
said, I saw the Lord hide and lift it up. And he was seated
and his train filled the temple. And he goes on to say, and I'm
vile, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
live among a people with unclean lips. The angel of the Lord took
a coal off the altar and touched his mouth. What does that represent?
That's judgment. And it was representative of
the judgment of Christ that he endured so that Isaiah could
be cleansed and the Lord cleanses his people. That's the whole
point. So Lord's people don't have to worry about being judged
again because they are in Christ. That makes them unshakable in
Christ. That's the point. They're unshakable.
But when those who are not in Christ die and they stand before
the Lord in judgment, everything that they've done, whether it
be good or evil, will burn up as wood, hay, and stubble, the
scripture says. Everything. There won't be anything
good that they've done compared to Christ. Nothing. Nothing. They'll be left with nothing. If you're leaning upon and trusting
in works, salvation is futile for that person. That's hoping
in self, and that's shakable. Now that word shakable, I want
to give you the definition. You know how I like definitions
sometimes. I'm becoming more and more, I wanna know the truth. I lived a long time, people just
saying words I didn't know what they meant, and it turns out,
that ain't what that means. And so I like knowing what the
word means. Well, whenever the word shakable that's written
in Hebrews, Literally means a motion produced by winds, storms, and
waves. Now can that not be anything
else but the wrath of God? Winds, storms, and waves. You
remember in Psalm where it talks about the Lord on the cross,
he said, all thy waves have come past me about, wave after wave
of the Lord's wrath. It's the wrath of God, isn't
it? When he shakes, it's his wrath. It's his wrath. Our only
hope is that we were in Christ whenever the wrath of God fell
upon him and he remained. After wave, after wave, he remained
and all those who were in him remained. All of his people were
in him and they remained. They were not dissolved. They
did not burn up. They were kept by his power during
that time, preserved into eternal life. He satisfied the laws demands
that we could not. That's why leaning upon him profits
something, not the law. Don't lean on the law, lean on
him. If we are to remain and not be
destroyed whenever the Lord shakes everything, then we can't be guilty of mixing
law and grace. Can't be guilty of mixing law
and grace because there's no life in that. There's no life
in that. We must be completely looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ as all of our righteousness. Do you
know why? Because that's who God's looking
to for our righteousness. His people's righteousness. God
looks to his people. Their righteousness is Christ
alone. Nothing else. Nothing else. He's the only one that could
condescend onto Sinai and speak, that calls it to shake. The Lord
said, all judgment. Christ said, all judgment's given
to me of the Father. See, he's the one doing the shaking.
He's the one doing the speaking. He's the one doing the judging.
All judgment's been given to him. So we must be in him in
order to be saved. It's the only hope we have. When
he speaks, he shakes that which can be shaken until all that
remains is the things unshakeable. Unshakeable. By his finished work, the glory
of this latter house is greater than the former. Let's go back
to Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 27, this is, And this word yet once
more signifieth the removing of those things which are shaken,
as of those things which are made, that those things which
cannot be shaken may remain." What does he mean made? Well,
if you've made it, if you've made it, it's shakable. It's going to be shaken. But
if God made it, it's unshakable. It's unshakable. Verse 28, 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. God's kingdom is unshakable. He alone made it. That's why
it's unshakable. The Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
tree endured the full wrath of God's fury and is the waves of
God's wrath. The shaking, if you will, that
was due us. We deserved that wrath. Everything
that happened on the cross, I say it this way reverently, that
was our cross. Those were our nails. That was
our crown. That's who it belonged to was us. We should have been
the ones that received the wrath of God. And it was only for the
grace of God that we did it. Ours would have ended in eternal
torment. Eternal torture, but he took our place on the cross
as the substitute of his people, as the surety of his elect. And
he put away that sin so that you and I, his people, could
be made unshakable in Christ Jesus. You know, I thought of this,
and I was gonna make an article out of it, maybe. But it says
the sun stopped shining. Why do you think the sun stopped
shining? Because it was embarrassed to shine compared to the glory
of the Son of God on the cross that day, what God would do.
And it refused, it was embarrassed to shine compared to Him. The whole world shook, the whole
world trembled. He was showing us He's gonna
shake everything. By that one deed on the cross,
men will be judged. Men will be judged. And either
we were judged in Christ at that moment or will be judged outside
of Christ. Yet Christ being shook remained. He remained until the end. I
have completed, I have finished, I have accomplished, I have successfully
achieved the work that thou has given me to do. I commend my
spirit unto you. And he bowed his head and he
said, it is finished. And all of God's people were
eternally forever redeemed. He was shaken to make his people
unshakable. How did he do that? He put away
every single sin that we are and that we do on the cross.
Unshakable by his own blood. And he hath once forever perfected
them that are sanctified. If we're in him, we've been perfected
forever. Perfected forever. I like what
Galatians said about how that nothing in the flesh can make
you more perfect in the spirit. That's very clear, isn't it?
That's what men think, is if I do more, I'm becoming progressively
better. No, that's not it at all. He,
once and forever, perfected them that are, not going to be, they
are sanctified. You're saying I'm holy right
now? If you're in Christ, you are. How holy? As holy as he
is. Can you see that? Nope. No, I
cannot. It's not things that are seen,
but it's things that are unseen that the believer holds to. It's
the promise of God. The Lord's the one that said
that, not me. The Lord's the one that said, you're holy like he
is. That's what sanctified means.
You've been made the righteousness of God in Christ by his finished
work and nothing you can do can mess it up. Can mess it up. You've become unshakable by the
blood of the lamb. We've died to the law in him. We've died to judgment in him. We've died to sin in him. We
are one with him. Turn with me to Hebrews. I'm
sorry. Turn with me to Romans chapter six. Paul deals with
this in Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six, verse one
says, what shall we continue? Shall we, what shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Know you not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus
Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore, we are buried
with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in the newness of life. For if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the
likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead
is freed from sin. Do you understand what he's saying
there? If you were in Christ whenever he died, then you're
dead to sin. God doesn't see your sin anymore. Right now, he doesn't see your
sin anymore, it's gone. It's gone. Somebody said, well,
maybe I know that I've already sinned today. Yeah, that's not
what God sees. That's not what God sees. God
sees that you're dead to sin in Christ. You're dead to it. Well, he says, what is he saying
here about no longer living into sin? Is he saying I need to clean
up my life? I need to try a little bit better. No, he's saying you're
already dead to sin because of what Christ did on the cross.
That's what's made you unshakable because you're in Christ. You're
going to remain because you're in Christ. Not only that, but
once he was buried, you were buried with him. And not only
that, but once he was resurrected, we were resurrected with him
into eternal life. Are you saying that we're seated
at the right hand of the Father right now? Yes, in Christ, in
heavenly places. Now, how do you explain that
to somebody that's never heard this before? You can't, you just declare
it. We believe it through faith.
It's such a perfect work that if everything's already been
accomplished, everything's already finished, and we're just going
through the motions, if you can put it that way. When you die, when
we lay down and die one day, we wake up, we won't remember
this place. We won't have thoughts of this.
wouldn't be heaven if we did. Heartache and sorrow, we won't
have any of that. It'll just be, won't even be a figment of
our imagination. It'll just never have existed.
But the purpose of it was to bring us in unity with God. And
that's exactly what he's talking about right here, the oneness
that Christ accomplished on the cross. Verse six again, knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for
he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that
Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more. Death hath
no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Likewise, reckon you also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. You know what that word reckon
means, don't you? If you're going to reckon your
balance in your, does anybody use checkbooks anymore? I don't
know. OK, got a couple. So you have to check the ledger
on the, you balance a checkbook. You're reckoning the checkbook.
That's what you're doing. I remember we used one every
once in a while. We don't write them enough to
have to do that. But whenever I was young, that's all my mother
had. And she had 40, 50 checks a month or whatever it was, wherever
she went. One day she had to sit down and she had to do every
single number. Okay, this transaction, this transaction, because the
piece of paper came in from the mail that was the bank statement.
She would check this transaction with this transaction, this transaction
with this transaction, this transaction. Well, that one doesn't exist.
Why doesn't it exist? Somebody's taking my money. That's
the whole idea behind it. She was reckoning the checkbook.
He's saying here, he's saying here, likewise reckon ye also
yourself to be dead indeed into sin, but alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. When you're saying that checkbook
is 100% accurate, that's what he's saying to do about being
one with Jesus Christ right now. Reckon it. You're right now one
with him. It's true. It's true. It's perfect. It's perfect. You're alive unto
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Perfect oneness, perfect unity
with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're now dead to sin, but alive
unto God through Christ. Now, wait a minute. You're saying
I'm dead to sin? I still see sin. God don't. God put all the
sin away. He said, I've cast them as far
as east is from the west. He said, I cast them into the
sea. Well, what sea is that? Well, it's the sea of forgetfulness,
because the next part he says, never to be remembered again.
Never to be remembered again. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Reckon yourself to be dead unto
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This means pertaining to wrath,
God's people will not be shaken. Pertaining to justice, satisfied. Justice is satisfied for God's
people. We are unshakable because of the finished work of Christ.
unshakable because of the finished work of Christ. Why? Because
he's unshakable. His promises are unshakable. Everything that
he's done is unshakable. We have to be in him because
everything done with our hands, as we've read, everything done
with our doing, everything that we would do to make something,
that's shakable. It's going to fall apart. It's
going to crumble. It's going to dissolve. But everything he's accomplished
will stand forever and ever and ever. This is why we've got to
have him. This is why we've got to have
him. We are unshakable pertaining
to the vengeance of God. See, justice and wrath and judgment
and vengeance can't be exacted twice. God's already executed
it upon his son, and his son was put to death because of it.
And he died, but the grave could not hold him because of his perfect
sacrifice, and he was resurrected, and we were in him that time.
That means that the wrath has been fulfilled in us because
we're in Christ. The judgment has been satisfied
in us because we were in Christ. The laws, the mans that Christ
fulfilled, has been fulfilled in his people. That's called
substitution. And it's the glorious gospel,
isn't it? Been made perfect righteousness
of God right now. You don't have to wait till tomorrow.
If you're in Christ, you're perfectly righteous right now. Somebody
said, well, I don't see it. Well, I don't either, but I believe
it. Why? Because God said so. Because
God said so. God who cannot lie said so. Now I will make a very important observation. God still shakes his people.
He still shakes his people. He does that by blowing his spirit
upon them. And what does that do? Well,
have you ever seen, we have some people here that have fruit trees
and some of you, if you don't know, maybe you've been around
them. Sometimes they get dead branches in them, don't they?
And they call those, they say that those dead branches will
actually suck the nutrients, rob the nutrients from the tree.
So you got two options, either you prune it yourself, or you
hope a big storm comes and blows the dead branches out of the
tree. The Lord told us this, if there
be a tree, the trees that do not bear fruit, what is that
fruit? Well, that's looking to Christ.
Looking to Christ, that's fruit. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trusting in him as all your righteousness before God, that's fruit. And
with that comes other things, but you understand what I'm saying.
It says that if the tree doesn't bring forth fruit, it is cut
down and cast into the fire. It is cast into the fire. Why?
That's the judgment. So if we have this dead branch
on us of unbelief, what's the Lord gonna do? Oh, he's gonna
shake us a little bit. They go call that dead branch
to fall off so that we bear fruit unto him. See, we're his people
and the sheep of his pasture. He takes us and leads us to his
green pasture to eat there. He waters us, he feeds us. He's
going to keep his people. This is how he shakes his people
now, not in judgment, but in mercy. If he never did that,
we would just be on, we would just keep going down the path
of unbelief. He'd leave us to ourself, but he brings us back.
I rod in thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me, even in the presence of mine enemies. He removes the dead
limbs of unbelief, giving us unshakable faith. He replaces
that unbelief, unshakable faith. The prayer was earlier, I think,
I think Rob, maybe you prayed that. Lord, increase our faith. What we have, increase it. Increase
our faith. That's how he does it, he shakes
us. Dead limbs fall off a little bit at a time. Let's go back to our text in
Hebrews chapter 12. I want to show us what I just
said about the Lord's people being shaken. Not in wrath, that's
already happened on the cross of Calvary, but in mercy. Scripture talks about making
a vessel for the finer. How does he do that? With fire.
With fire, with trials, with troubles and tribulations. Look at verse 25, see that you
refuse him, not him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refused
him that spake on the earth, much more shall we not 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.
This word yet once more signify the removing of those things
that are shaken as of 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, thereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. And here's why,
for our God is a consuming fire. Now, heaven and earth mentioned
here at the end of 26, I shake not only earth, but also heaven. Heaven and earth, that's literally
heaven and earth. Everything's gonna be shaken. Everything's gonna be
shaken. Are not the hearts and minds
of God's elect heaven and earth in that perspective? Think about
that. He's going to shake every bit
of the unbelief we have in our heads and every bit of the belief
we have in our hearts till it becomes unshakable. Till all
that remains, all that remains is faith looking to Christ. By
His grace, the Lord shakes away that which can be removed by
His gospel, by blowing His Spirit upon us, by showing us and teaching
us. Christ is all over and over and
over. To all that remains is the full
assurance of the successful Redeemer. Full assurance. You know, whenever
you have full assurance of salvation, It's whenever you're hearing
the gospel and the Lord's allowing you to enter into it, you have
full assurance of salvation at that time. And you don't even
think about this. You're not thinking when you're
hearing, you're just hearing. Your mind's not thinking, well,
what if I'm one of his? Well, what if I'm one of his?
No, you're just hearing. You're just looking to him. You're just
seeing him. You're believing him. How the Lord either shakes
someone in mercy now Is it not true that he shook us up whenever
he first came to us? And what remained after that,
what he put there? My thoughts used to be about
self and what I had to do and go here and do that and work
harder just to win a crown. There was all kinds of different
foolishness we believed in. The Lord shook that real good
and it fell out. The dead branches fell out. What
remains now, Christ is all. Christ is all. The reward is
Christ. The reward is the crown of righteousness
called Jesus Christ. The reward is Him. That's what
we want now. We don't want any glory. We want
Him to have all the glory. See, He shook all that need for
glory out of us, didn't He? What about the pride that said,
I'm my own God. I can make my own decisions. Did He not come
to you and shake you and say, no, you're not. I'm God. I'm
God. You're not God. And that pride
vanished, didn't it? Well, it still pops its ugly
head up every once in a while. I know that's true. Not when
it comes to the finished work of the cross. You'll never hear
a believer, just as Peter never did say that he's not the Christ,
the son of living God, whenever he denied him. He just denied
affiliation with him. The Lord prayed for his people
that their faith fell not. And what does that faith look
to? Christ. Believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I would shake
someone in mercy now and says, wake up, live. or we remain dead, then we're
shaken in judgment, not in mercy. If the Lord shakes us now, it's
because we're unshakable. Think about that. Somebody said,
well, that doesn't make much sense. It's true. The Lord shakes
you now. It's in mercy. That means the Lord's made you
unshakable. You won't fall away. You won't be cast out. You won't
be judged again because you're in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank
God we have not come to the mountain that could be burned with fire,
that burned with fire, that cannot be touched, that could be touched.
But we came to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the new
place that's glorious, has the glory of Christ in it. We haven't
come to death, but we've come to the beautiful city of God,
never to be shaken in wrath because of the unshakable one, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Never to be shaken. In closing, I'll say this. The
Lord promises. That he will shake everything
until all that remains is what cannot be shaken. So he said, I'm going to shake
everything until the only thing that remains is that which is
unshakable. And all that that is, is the
Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work, and because of that, His
people. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my word shall not pass away, the Lord said. Are you counting
on, depending on, trusting in what you have done? Are you counting
on, depending on, and trusting in what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished, that which cannot be shaken? Everything we would
do crumbles and falls. Everything he did is going to
stand forever and ever and ever. Let's pray. Father, bless this
to our understanding for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.