Word of Salvation – Vol. 19 No.44 – August 1973
The Big Shake
Sermon by Rev. K. V. Warren on Hebrews 12:25-29
SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 46, Hebrews 12:18-29
PSALTER HYMNAL: 327; 424:3,5; 278; 444:1,2; 490
In the San Francisco Bay region there are close to 5 million people, packed fairly tightly together. It’s exactly there that the crust of the earth has some major faults and cracks, and don’t these people there know it! Slight tremors, which are going on all the time, keep the fear alive in the hearts of many. For they’ve had some quakes before. In 1906 there was a real big one; it did 400 million dollars damage. Hundreds of people were killed. And the scientists are predicting with absolute certainty that there’s quite a big one coming up again. There’s no doubt about that, it’s an earthquake area, huge crusts of the earth, grinding past each other, scraping edge to edge. It will quake again; WHEN?, No one knows, but better be prepared for a big one, for these crusts keep on moving, and year after year the tension in the rocks is building up. And I suppose, as the years go by, tension is also building up in the minds of people!
But however big that quake is going to be, it will look like a schoolboys’ prank compared with that BIG QUAKE OF GOD. Hebrews 12 talks about it.
The scientists today have developed fantastic equipment, very delicate instruments, which one day may well be of very great help for more accurate EARTHQUAKE PREDICTIONS.
The BIBLE does it in a non-scientific way, it simply SAYS that the BIGGEST SHAKE EVER is coming up. And that’ll be the last one too! But what a shake it will be. ‘WHEN’ no one knows, but ‘absolutely certain it is’!
And I ask you: Have YOU ever met anyone who is afraid of this coming quake, the biggest shake ever. God shaking the heavens and the earth!
Oh, we’re quite fearful of LITTLE shakes, SMALL rumblings: ask the West Australians who still remember October 1968 when the Meckering earthquake made us shake on our feet.
Thousands of years ago, there was quite a bit of shaking going on, in the desert there: east of the land of Egypt. The story of the Israelites, and God coming down on Mt. Sinai:
“Now when all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightenings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled: and they stood afar off, and said to Moses: ‘YOU speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die’.”. (Ex.20:18,19).
Wouldn’t YOU be afraid? God coming down, shaking the mountain. What an experience it must have been; fear-stricken, trembling, the majesty and the greatness of God is upon us!
But oh, what SHORT MEMORY they had, after a few weeks these same people go berserk around that golden calf, shaking with frenzied adoration before that idol.
All right, says God, I’ll make you shake:
“And the Lord sent a plague upon the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made (Ex.32:35).
Look, when God can shake a mountain, He can shake people, and right through the O.T. it’s one shake after the other. God dealing with people, trying to shake them spiritually alive, but even when He shook them all the way as prisoners to Babylon, Mesopotamia….!?!
Ah, there was only ONE WAY to stop God shaking with anger, and that was the way JESUS walked.
That’s all here in Hebrews 12 too, the sprinkled blood, a new covenant, the living God, gracious, the heavenly Jerusalem. No longer speaking from that O.T. mountain, but as the second verse in HEBREWS 1 says: “….but in these last days God has spoken to us by a SON.” And that’s beautiful speaking! That’s the Gospel, joyful news, glad tidings.
God sent His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, shall not be shaken to pieces!
And if you NOW don’t listen; if you NOW still ignore that warning, not from the mountain, but through Christ, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? Hebrews 2:3!
And read those verses there in Hebrews 10, verses 28 and 29: “A man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God. . . . .?”
Oh, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. For if you are not in Christ, you will be shaken to pieces! You know, the Gospel is HAPPY news, but at the same time there is that serious WARNING, oh, and how serious it is. And I certainly don’t want to throw fire and brimstone, hell and damnation at you, young people, but you too must take those things seriously as GOD takes them. You cannot be safe in this world, you can’t be truly safe, unless and until you have that life-giving link with the Lord, faith in the Saviour.
There have been far too many, and we should be terribly sad about them, who have walked AWAY from the living Christ, who closed their eyes, closed their minds, you must know some of them, some of your friends, workmates, maybe in your own family, away from Christ, right into the big shaking of God, and they don’t lose a minute’s sleep over it!
Do you? Do I?
How concerned are WE when we see people fall into the hands the living God, without Christ. Oh, it’s terribly fearful.
For part of the work of Christ is still to be done. He is yet to come back. And that’s where this fearful shaking comes in! The Holy Spirit made the prophet HAGGAI talk about it: (2:6,7):
“For thus says the Lord of hosts,
Once again, in a little while,
I will shake the heavens and the earth
and the sea and the dry land,
and I will shake all nations….!
HAGGAI as it were, telescopes the 1st and the 2nd coming of Christ into one, and in the N.T. CHRIST takes it up in MATTHEW 24, when He talks about His second coming:
“…the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light
and the stars will fall from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
I don’t know the exact meaning of those words, what terrible upheaval in nature it pictures, but it’s frightening, it’s frightening beyond words. Young people, congregation, if such a warning goes in one ear and out the other, may God then have mercy on us: but He WON’T, for THEN it is too late; there will come a time when it is TOO LATE for mercy; when the heavens are passing away with a loud noise, says Peter, (2Peter 3:10) and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. THEN it is too late to heed that warning from heaven! The big shake is coming!
In California they’re waiting for THEIR big shake; and that could well be a disastrous one, it could be of such magnitude, that EVERYTHING is destroyed, when the groaning earth unleashes its fury, EVERYTHING could well be utterly destroyed, man could not stop it.
No, man could not stop it. And no one could stop the mighty shaking of God either, at the end of time. But you know, there’s something beautiful about that last shake. Oh yes, it will be the biggest, most frightening ever, but we know this, assuredly, confidently: NOT EVERYTHING will be destroyed. When everything will be quiet again, and the dust has settled there will still be a KINGDOM, God’s kingdom.
A new heaven, a new earth, forever…!
Would you believe that EVEN the prophet ISAIAH, thousands of years ago, spoke about that very thing?
ISAIAH 65:17
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.”
And ch.66:22 which talks about the new heaven and earth which wil1 REMAIN before the Lord.
We don’t quite know what it all means, whether this sin- stricken world will utterly disappear: or whether it will be renewed, cleansed, that’s the idea we get from Romans 8. Paul talks there about this creation which will be set free from its bondage to decay, and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. But whatever way it happens, it will be a mighty big shake – to bring in the splendid glory and perfection of God being all in all.
Everything which is shakeable will disappear. When time comes to an end, everything and everyone not firmly anchored in Christ, it will be shaken out into absolute darkness.
BUT NOT THE KINGDOM!
Praise God, not the KINGDOM!
That can’t be shaken; for its foundation is CHRIST JESUS. And where is that Kingdom? you may ask, young people.
Very simple:.. everywhere where the will of God is done,
THERE IS His Kingdom!
Wherever His love is revealed in Jesus,
THERE’S the kingdom.
You believe in Christ? There’s the Kingdom.
You do His will? There’s the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is within you. When God starts shaking, THAT will remain!
Firm, beautifully solid, it won’t move an inch!
Are you shakeable?
Where do you stand, when it’s really going to shake?
IN yourself?
BY yourself?
Man, you’d be shaken off your feet before you can bat an eye-lid!
But in Jesus Christ, Psalm 46 will be a very real thing to you:
“God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble,
therefore, we will not fear,
though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.”
God’s people won’t fear, they won’t fear one bit, for,
“this city of God, HE is in the midst of her,
she shall not be moved.
The Lord of hosts is with us.”
Thank you, God. For not shaking us.
Hey, do you ever think about THAT? Do you ever THANK God for that? That He won’t shake us to pieces, because Christ is holding you firm. If you believe!
Thank you God. For giving to your people that unshakable Kingdom. Father Abraham, HE was already aware of it, wasn’t he?
Hebrews 11:10:
“For Abraham looked forward
to the city which has foundations,
whose builder and maker is God.”
Just imagine you would be in San Francisco, and the whole place around you would be shaking to bits, but you would be in a safe cubicle somewhere, no movement, no swaying, no creaking. Incredible! Right?
Thank you, God. For giving us that unshakable Kingdom, in Christ.
But look, it’s not sufficient to just SAY, ‘Thank you’, it’s a matter of LIVING it, not just WORDS, but ACTIONS.
And in Bible language, when you say ‘thank you’ to God, you WORSHIP, right? You worship the God who is shaking, the God who is fiery.
And that’s quite an exact business, worshipping God. And I have got a hunch that especially for young people it may not always be easy, to worship properly, or what verse 28 says in Hebrews 12: “to offer acceptable worship”, worship which is pleasing to God. We live in quite sloppy times, don’t we?
Everything seems to be so casual and sloppy. Morals are sloppy, clothing is casual, manners are sloppy, and it seems virtually impossible to keep our WORSHIP away from that sloppiness, which seems to be all around us.
You read some of the O.T. stories about people who tried to get away with sloppy worship. They came up against a God who was like a devouring fire, a God who spoke out of the midst of fire….! True, we no longer live in Old Testament times, but even so, GOD has not changed. Have we, congregation, still got that reverence and awe in our worship? What about our SINGING for instance?
Do you ever have a good look at some of the words you sing? Is it acceptable worship?
Of course, every generation gives a different expression to their faith in God, but that surely doesn’t mean to say that everything goes. Not all words are acceptable to God, and not any kind of music is acceptable to God either. And sometimes you ask yourself: is the younger generation aware of this most central fact, that God is a devouring fire, that God is an almighty shaker, that God must be approached with reverence and awe.
Yes, praise Him, in Jesus Christ He LOVES us too, but that does not mean that now everything goes. The way we worship must be pleasing to God, and not only pleasing to OURSELVES. And it seems that exactly the latter is often the STANDARD by which we worship:
Do I like it, do I get a kick out of it, do I like the beat, the music, do I like the words, is that the way it appeals to ME?
Hey, WHO are we worshipping, ourselves…? Or God? With reverence and awe? Are we becoming a bit sloppy, a bit flippant about it all, where the HOLINESS and the MAJESTY of God is in danger of disappearing in the colour riot of our religious posters, disappearing between the strings of our guitars, our jazzy car stickers, our spiritual T-shirts?
I am not suggesting at all that that is per se unacceptable worship.
But it can easily become unacceptable worship, in the sloppy times in which we live, and the “SHE’LL BE RIGHT MATE” mentality which is “in”. No reverence; no awe! Where people tell you that you ought to get high on God, and Jesus is a shot in the arm.
I could not possibly see that that is acceptable to God, bringing Him down to the language level of the drug addicts and the heroin users. What has the majesty of God and the beauty of Jesus got to do with mainlining and skinpopping! And it would not be difficult to multiply the examples of worship which is “out”!
Pray God, young people, pray much, that HE may give you that sense of majesty and holiness of Himself.
That we have reverence and awe with fear and respect in our approach to Him. Acceptable worship..! That’s the answer of the Lord’s people to this wonderful news about the great and final shaking. But of course worship is much more than the things we have just mentioned. The N.T. word for worship is LATREIA, and its original meaning is the labour of slaves and hired servants.
Worship is hard work.
Worship is being a slave of God.
And you know that a slave belongs to his master, body and soul. Worship to God includes the WHOLE of life!
Not only today, here in church. But also tomorrow, at school, and behind your typewriter, and in the factory, and doing the dishes. The WHOLE of life. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. The apostle Paul says: your eating and drinking, do it to the glory of God. Your cheese sandwich and your can of Coke, do it to the glory of God.
He says: WHATEVER you do, do everything to the glory of God! Why is that?
Well, God’s people belong to that Kingdom! They are serving the King. The King of kings, who cannot be fooled around with – no sloppiness with Him. For He is a shaker, a fiery shaker!
But….. in the Lord Jesus Christ: no shaking, no fire, no fear. Let’s read those verses again, here in Hebrews 12:22-24:
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel”.
Look. How could any of us waver? How could any of us doubt about this Jesus Christ?
How could any of us hesitate?
Now when this big Californian quake is going to hit, the scientists can’t predict of any particular place that it will be safe.
But when GOD comes to shake the HEAVEN AND THE EARTH, ONE PLACE is safe, wonderfully safe, and that is….
WITH CHRIST IN HIS KINGDOM.
Some of us here may not have gone to that safe place yet.
The Bible urges you,
God urges you, to do it NOW.
How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
Forgiveness and real freedom in Jesus.
When the big shake hits, where will you be?
Amen.