The same God is revealed in both testaments! His warnings demonstrate both his attitude toward sin and his mercy to sinners, calling for sinners to repent and follow after him, whether in Old or New Testaments. His promises have been made and will be kept thus the perfect middle indicative verb showing this.
His authority continues in the future shaking "not only the earth, but also the heaven. So when we begin to despair under the weight of the world's opposition or trials or vexations, let us remember that our King actively works in his kingdom. The scenes depicted for us reveal ones of judgment. We are taken back to the Israelites that confessed their allegiance to the Lord, only to balk and rebel and disobey at virtually every turn.
I believe the ancient pastor has in mind those Israelites that heard the Lord speak from Sinai, who saw the power of God displayed in mighty ways, and yet "whose bodies fell in the wilderness" due to unbelief 3: They decided to refuse Him who warned them either a reference to Moses' mediatorial warnings, or more likely, the voice of God speaking from the cloudy mountain And "they did not escape.
If those hearing from Sinai did not escape divine judgment, how much greater accountability for judgment will we have who have heard from Zion-the gospel of Jesus Christ? God alone is righteous enough to demand our obedience to his perfect law, for it is a reflection of his moral perfections. Created in his image, we have the moral responsibility before God to follow after him in every respect. Righteousness that characterizes him ought to characterize all humanity. But we have rebelled against him! His righteousness demands legal retribution for our sin, and so he speaks and warns and shakes the very foundations of our existence, calling attention to the stark reality, "for our God is a consuming fire.
Worry can become our master.
The God of Sinai is the God of Zion-the God who commanded obedience to his law provides the only means of righteousness through his Son. To "refuse Him who is speaking," demands that you meet him, not as the welcoming Father but as the Righteous Judge. We bow in thanksgiving and worship before him, or we discover him to be "a consuming fire. This might go against the common portrait of God in our day but it stands true to his holy nature. Righteousness demands justice-or else it is not righteousness. Justice is measured against the size and scope of the offense against righteousness.
To refuse to obey the law of God meets with the certain consequences of judgment; but to hear the gospel, and know the gospel as God's only remedy for man's sinfulness and answer to his judgment, and yet to refuse Him who is speaking through the gospel , calls for greater judgment. That is precisely where the shoe fits the foot. Those who were contemplating backing away from the gospel that they had professed were only ensuring greater judgment for refusing the wondrous gospel of Christ.
What are you doing with the gospel of Jesus Christ? If you have ever been in an earthquake, the feeling of complete helplessness never quite leaves you. A dozen years ago when I was attending a seminar at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, I was studying while sitting on my bed in a small apartment. Suddenly, the whole building began to shake!
I came out of the bed, and out of the apartment in record speed! An earthquake, centered about 20 miles from Pasadena, had rocked the area at a mild 4. The earth trembled and no one could do anything to quell it. The earth trembled at Sinai: Matthew tells us that the same happened at Zion when our Lord was crucified: The trembling of the earth now, foreshadows a yet future time spoken of so often in Scripture: I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
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The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. The kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand? The time will come when everything that can be shaken by divine judgment will be shaken, as the Governor of the universe will exercise his kingly rule by defending his kingdom from every oppressor, rebel, deceiver, fake, and enemy.
Only those who have submitted to his rule through faith in Christ will stand unshaken. John Owen reminds us, "If you lay any stone in the whole building that advanceth itself against his septre, he will shake all again. Will our King's authority shake you? For those whose rest is in Christ and His death on the cross, who have drawn near to God through Christ alone, "we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken. It is much larger than a place, for it describes the rule of Christ over our lives, a rule that lasts forever.
A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken
Its dimensions exceed the kingdoms of this world in time and space; it is spiritual now, and will be consummated by the bodily resurrection of all the saints one day. Its enemies will be vanquished, and all will be made a footstool for the feet of King Jesus. It is very easy to hold tightly the things of the world.
Everything from family to houses to jobs to financial security to country to possessions has a range of value in our lives. Some of the first century audience was clinging to the old traditions of the Levitical sacrificial system. Some held to their Jewish heritage as being of greatest value. But the earth was trembling beneath the feet of this church. The things that some tenaciously held for security in life would crumble beneath the tremor of persecution. What would stand forever?
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For that matter, what will stand forever in your life? The reasoning and twisted religion of the first generation out of the Exodus "did not escape" when judgment shook everything they held dear. Ironically, having spurned the word preached through Moses they thought that all would be well in their lives. But their neglect of the eternal word of God cost them everything 4: That is where our writer is heading.
He wanted his recipients to understand that to cling to anything other than the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in their salvation would leave them hopeless in the Day of Judgment. The kingdom of God consists of that which remains. Having been purified and made acceptable through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, everything that remains passes through the consuming fire of divine judgment in perfect stability.
Internally, "the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit" Rom Externally, the kingdom is displayed through the church of Jesus Christ, with the gospel keys of the kingdom being proclaimed as a testimony of having been called out of darkness into the light Matt Are you part of this eternally stable kingdom? The kingdom is exclusive. We live in a day where "inclusive language" is politically correct.
To dare state publicly that everyone is not going to heaven meets with ridicule and disdain. To agree with the Apostle Paul, "Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, not homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God," may not pass the muster of politically correct language, but it is the certain truth of God I Cor 6: The kingdom of God is exclusive: Here it is described by the simple phrase, "Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken.
The Kingdom that Cannot Be Shaken - Sunday Worship
The kingdom is received as a gift of God through Christ. The kingdom belongs to those who humble themselves as little children, and gladly receive the provisions of Christ as one's only standing before God Matt The message of Hebrews stresses the solitary way to God through Jesus Christ alone. Have you entered the kingdom through Christ? To be in the kingdom is to live under the King's sovereign rule.
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A Kingdom that Cannot Be Shaken
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