Hebrews - Kingdom Which Cannot Be Moved

God wants to encourage us to run the race of faith with endurance. Far too many people just give up. And this is why we are in his gymnasium, this is why Hebrews 12 is in the Bible—God’s gymnasium. And in God’s gymnasium we are being disciplined by his love and by his grace; he’s correcting us, he’s chastising us, he’s exercising us, he’s building us up, he is maturing us, that we might be able to run the race of faith with endurance.

Now one of the encouragements to keep us going is the fact that we are living by grace and not by law. The people to whom this letter was sent wanted to go back to Mount Sinai. They wanted to go back to law. And in Hebrews 12:18-21, we have the writer making a contrast between Mount Sinai, the law, and Mount Zion, grace and the gospel.

In fact, in Hebrews 12:18-21, he reminded them of what the Jews saw at Mount Sinai, Hebrews 12:18; what they heard, Hebrews 12:19-20; what they felt, Hebrews 12:21.

Now the writer picks this theme up and carries it through the end of the chapter. In Hebrews 12:22-24, he tells us what we see. We see Mount Zion, the city of the living God; we see it by faith. We see the heavenly Jerusalem, the angels, the church, the Old Testament saints; we see God, we see Jesus, we see the blood. At the end of Hebrews 12:24, he talks about the blood that is speaking, and he picks up that theme of speaking in Hebrews 12:25-27.

What do we see? Well, Hebrews 12:22-24. What do we hear? Hebrews 12:25-27. And what do we feel? Hebrews 12:28-29. Let’s serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. So in Hebrews 12:25-27, the writer is telling us what it is that we should hear. Let’s read these verses:

"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped 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 things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain."

Now the emphasis here is the fact that God is speaking and God is shaking. Notice that. The voice of God is revealing—that's Hebrews 12:25—and the voice of God is removing—Hebrews 12:26-27. What is God doing today? He is speaking and he is shaking.

Let's look at this fact that God is speaking, Hebrews 12:25. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh." This word "refuse" is the same word translated "entreated" back in verse 19. It means to beg off. See that you beg off not. See that you do not turn your ear away.

Don't do what the Jews did. The Jews said, "Oh, we don't want to listen to God speak; we're too afraid of God's voice. Moses, you go listen to God, come back and tell us what to do." And while Moses was gone, they fell into idolatry and immorality and terrible shame and sin.

Notice that the verb in Hebrews 12:25 is present tense. It doesn’t say "see that you refuse not him that spoke." It says "see that you refuse not him that speaketh," right now. God is speaking. That is one of the major themes in the book of Hebrews. God spoke in the past; God is speaking in these last days. Now the big question in Hebrews is: how are you responding to his word?

Let's go back to Hebrews 2. There are five exhortations in the book of Hebrews, and each of these exhortations shows us how we get away from the word of God, and there is a general, gradual declension.

Hebrews 2:1 warns us about drifting from the word: "Therefore we"—believers, Hebrews 1:14, the heirs of salvation—"we believers ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." I think a better translation is "lest at any time we should drift away from them."

How does a Christian get out of the will and the blessing of God? By drifting. How do you drift? By neglect. How do we neglect our salvation? By neglecting the word of God. Now drifting leads then to departing.

Hebrews 3:7, we have this admonition: "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts...)" Don't do what the Jews did. They saw my acts, they knew my ways, but they did not enter into my rest. He's not talking about going to heaven; he’s talking about claiming your inheritance in Christ.

First we’re drifting, then we’re departing by doing what? Disbelieving. Hardness of heart. A whole generation was saved out of Egypt by the blood of the lamb; a whole generation did not enter into their inheritance because they hardened their hearts and would not believe God.

Step one: drifting. That’s neglect. Step two: departing and disbelieving. Your heart starts to get hard. Hebrews 5:11, here’s a third step: dullness. You start getting dull toward the word.

Hebrews 5:11: "Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing." Not dull preaching, not dull teaching, but dull hearing. "For when for the time"—the time you've been saved—"ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again"—not the first time, but the second time—"the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat."

You see, they were not exercising themselves. "For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness." They were neglecting the word, drifting from the word, and therefore they could not skillfully use the word.

Now it gets worse. Hebrews 10:26, despising the word, disregarding the word: "For if we"—believers—"sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." In other words, Jesus can’t die for you again, and there is no one else to die for you. "Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge"—notice—"his people."

He’s not talking about unsaved people here, or half-saved people, or saved people who lose their salvation. God is saying, "You are in my gymnasium. You pay attention to my orders."

First we’re drifting from the word, then we’re disbelieving the word—departing from the word—then we have dullness toward the word, then we start despising the word—"You can’t tell me what to do"—which finally leads to Hebrews 12:25, our text for today: refusing the word, defying the word. Just defying God. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh."

Now if I walked up to you and began to speak to you and you turned and walked away, you would insult me. Well, God is speaking to us and we turn and walk away, and he warns us in Hebrews 12:25, under the old covenant they did not have all the privileges and light and knowledge that we have under the new covenant, but they were disciplined if they disobeyed.

Now if those who refused his voice when he spoke on earth were disciplined, how much more shall his people be disciplined when God today is speaking from heaven? This is serious business, how we treat the word of God.

God is speaking and he is revealing his will. Secondly, God is shaking. He is removing things that are not in his will. Hebrews 12:26: "Whose voice then shook the earth." Mount Sinai shook with a terrible earthquake and made everybody frightened. "But now he hath promised," and here’s the quotation from the prophet Haggai 2:6, "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven."

What’s he saying? He’s talking about three different shakings. Number one, there was a past shaking at Mount Sinai, Exodus 19:18. When God gave the law, he shook the earth; he said, "You better listen to what I have to say."

Now there’s a future shaking, that’s what Haggai is talking about. If you look at Haggai 2:6-7: "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"—that’s the Lord Jesus—"and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts."

Now that has not happened yet. It will happen when Jesus comes. God is going to shake everything. Hebrews 1:1 says God’s going to roll it up just like an old garment and toss it away and start all over again with a new heavens and a new earth.

But today God is shaking things. Hebrews 12:27: "And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken." The temporary things, the scaffolding. "As of things that are made"—things that belong to the old creation—"that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." Now Hebrews 12:28 tells us what those things are: "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved..."

You see, the spiritual remains. The other things fall to the wayside. Now the book of Hebrews was saying to people: "Don't build your life on the scaffolding. Don't build on the temporary. Don't go back to Mount Sinai; that is going to come to an end. Build your life on that which is lasting and real. Build your life on that kingdom which cannot be moved."

Hebrews 12:28-29: "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." Now in Hebrews 12:28-29, he tells us what we should feel. Well, what should we feel?

Do emotions enter into the Christian life? They certainly do. Emotions were invented by God. God made them, and they’re good as long as they are used by the Holy Spirit. There is a righteous anger, there’s an unrighteous anger. There is a way of expressing judgment and justice that is right, and there’s a way of doing it that is wrong. Our emotions need to be under the control of the Holy Spirit of God.

In the light of all that Jesus Christ has done for us, what should our heart response be to him? Well, Hebrews 12:28-29 tell us: "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved"—cannot be shaken—"let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire."

Well, there are a number of responses here that touch us in our emotional life. I think the first one is amazement. When I read Hebrews 12:28, I’m utterly amazed: "Wherefore receiving a kingdom." Here I am, an ordinary human being, a sinner, and I am a part of a kingdom.

Now that amazes me. Receiving a kingdom. Now God made Israel his kingdom, Exodus 19, at Mount Sinai. Well, sad to say, they didn’t live up to the covenant. God lived up to his part of it; they did not live up to their part of it.

In fact, when Jesus was here on earth, he said to the Jewish people, Matthew 21:43: "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." Well, what is that nation? Well, I believe it’s the church, it’s God’s people today.

God has given us the privilege of being a part of his kingdom. Now this does not mean he does not have a future for Israel; it simply means that we today have been grafted in, and we Gentile believers are now a part of this kingdom. And Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus Christ are a part of the very kingdom of God, the body of Christ.

Book of Hebrews talks about this kingdom. Melchizedek—the Lord Jesus Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek means king of righteousness. We're a part of a righteous kingdom. He was king of Salem; Salem means peace. Righteousness and peace. This is what he talked about, didn’t he, over in Hebrews 12:14: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Righteousness and peace.

Now he tells us we are now receiving a kingdom. He doesn’t say "in the future." "Wherefore since one day in the future you shall receive the kingdom"—no, he says you have the kingdom right now.

Well, how do we receive this kingdom? Well, we come to the throne of grace. The kingdom of God is administered from the throne of grace, Hebrews 4:16: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace." The word of his grace, the spirit of grace, through prayer. Right now we are walking as princes, princesses; we are living as kings. Romans 5:17 says we are reigning in life. I trust that is true in our lives today. Amazement! We are a part of a wonderful kingdom.

There’s a second heart response, I think, and that’s confidence. "Wherefore receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, which cannot be shaken." Now God is shaking things. At Mount Sinai he shook the mountain, he frightened the nation of Israel. He is the God of the earthquake. He said, "You better behave, you better obey me because I am the God who shakes things."

When our Lord Jesus returns, there’s going to be another shaking. The writer quoted Haggai 2:6, back in Hebrews 12:26: "Whose voice then shook the earth"—that’s Mount Sinai—"But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven."

And when our Lord comes, there’s going to be a big shaking. When you read the book of Revelation, you find how much shaking there is going to be. But right now God is shaking things. He is removing the transient that he might establish the permanent. He is removing the temporal that he might establish the eternal.

Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith, he’s the pioneer. We don’t want to be pioneers. Oh no, we want to settle down. We don’t want our church to be a launching pad, we want it to be a parking lot. We just want to stay right here.

Don't do anything new, now don’t shake things. And God comes along and says, "I am going to shake things." But you are a part of a kingdom which cannot be shaken. That gives me confidence.

Nations have been shaken, governments have toppled, we’ve had economic crises; God shakes things, and yet God’s work goes right on. Why? Well, we have confidence—we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken. If you and I overreact to this shaking that’s going on, it shows that we’re not really built on the foundation. The future is your friend when Jesus is your Lord. You have nothing to be afraid of. The Shepherd is going before you.

Amazement, confidence—those are two emotional responses. There’s a third one: gratitude. "Let us have grace." That can also be translated "let us be thankful." Because when you live by grace, you have gratitude. In fact, the word gratitude comes from the word grace. Let us have grace, let us be thankful. Let us receive the grace of God.

Now this was the problem, you see, with Esau who’s mentioned back in Hebrews 12:16. In Hebrews 12:15, he says: "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God." Again, the grace of God does not fail, but we fail of God’s grace.

Now he says things are shaking. We’re amazed we’re a part of a kingdom. We have confidence, we are assured, because that kingdom cannot be shaken. But we have gratitude. It was by grace that he died for us. By the grace of God he tasted death for every man, Hebrews 2:9. By the grace of God he lives for us, Hebrews 4:16, to give us grace to help in the time of need.

Now he says let’s have grace. Let’s just have gratitude. Let’s lift our hearts to God and not worry about all the shaking and all of the removing. God is removing the scaffolding, God is removing the things he doesn’t need anymore. Let’s not worry about that. Let’s just lift up our hearts in amazement and confidence and gratitude and say, "Thank you, Lord, you have all the grace that I need."

Finally, there ought to be an attitude of reverent worship and service. There’s a great deal of flippant worship today, a great deal of careless service today. My, we can sit in some so-called church services, it seems like a three-ring circus. I have been to some conventions where you’d think you were at a sideshow.

He is saying to us: God is shaking things. Now get serious. "Let us have grace, and let us serve God"—and the word for service here means priestly service. Let’s worship God, let’s serve him as priests in the tabernacle, in the temple. Yes, there ought to be joy, yes there must be love, yes there ought to be that praise on our lips and in our hearts, but let’s do this acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Godly fear keeps us from sin. Godly fear makes us reverent in our worship. Oh, I could spend a lot of time talking about the irreverence in our worship today. I’ll just simply say remember our God is a consuming fire. God does judge his people. And when you and I come to worship him and to serve him, we must bring our best and we must do our best, and we must do it reverently, and we must do it by the power of the grace of God.