"A Gratitude For The Kingdom pt.2"

Introduction

Several years ago when my Dad began to build his house I was there with him and we were laying out the foundation with steaks driven in the ground and string to give us an idea of the parameter of the foundational structure of the house.

We did a little digging only to hit rock but it didn’t surprise us because we were digging on the side of a hill in Tennessee.

What did surprise us was just how big the rock was. Eventually dynamite has to be brought in and remove the obstruction. The guy who dug and blasted the foundation told my Dad that in the end his house would be built up on a rock. It should definitely be solid.

The Church is not a physical structure in the literal sense but as an institution it too is built upon a rock. Christ is the rock and foundation of the Church. God has designed it to be that way because created things in the world are not a solid foundation for the eternal security of the believer.

Hebrews has been reminding us of this in a variety of ways. God is in the business of weaning us off of the world and anchoring our hope in Christ. Christ is the only place of security for the believer as we live in the world. God’s provision through Him as declared in the Scriptures is the only solid ground for us as Christians.

God’s Word is being declared and it is our responsibility to listen as His people. Hebrews actually exhorts us to do so. Look at verses 25-27:

I. The Exhortation to Listen (25-27).

This exhortation to listen is set in contrast to those Old Testament people who no longer wanted to hear directly from God that we talked about last Sunday mentioned in Hebrews 12:19 (25a).

These were those who encountered the awesome display of God’s power in Exodus 20 and no longer wanted to hear from God directly but wanted Moses to intercede for them.

But the encounter and the intercession of Moses did no good because the people went off into idolatry by Exodus 32. And of course God judged the people for it.

Some would say that all of that has changed now and there is no urgency because of our place in Christ. But Scripture doesn’t make that case at all. Actually we are told to listen to the word of God for the same reasons.

There are 2 reasons why this is the case in our text.

The first reason is because there is no difference between us and those in the Old Testament when it comes to being accountable to God. They didn’t escape accountability and neither will we (25 b).

If the ones warned by Moses on earth were accountable, to a larger degree are we accountable who are warned from heaven through Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Why is this? Because we are in a new covenant context with the Holy Spirit revealing the truth to us through the Prophetic and Apostolic testimony recorded in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

The second reason we are to listen and not refuse Him is because there is a promise of judgement. This is what verses 26-27 are explaining. But God will not just shake the earth like He did in Exodus 20. He will shake the heavens also.

This is a picture of the final judgement of God at the cosmic level on the last day.

It has been foretold in the Old Testament in passages like Isaiah 13:13 and Haggai 2:6 and other passages.

Jesus spoke of it in Matthew 24:29-30 in association with His second coming.

Revelation 6:12-17 also tells of of that future day of cosmic judgement.

And we see it here in Hebrews 12:26-27

No one escapes the righteous judgement of God and no sin goes unpunished. Christ either took the punishment on your behalf or you will be accountable on the day of the wrath of God when heaven and earth and everything in them that was made to be temporal are shaken.

So that only the eternal things will remain.

Illustrate: Traveling to Buffalo, NY to clean out a storage container.

This pastor friend had rented it for like 20 years for so much money a month that in the end totaled thousands of dollars.

We arrived and it had all rusted, molded or rotted. All we did was just clean it out and throw it all away. If my memory serves me well we salvaged an old end table. But even it was not really not worth keeping.

From a spiritual standpoint things of earth are like that stuff in that storage container. It can all be shaken and subject to the passing away of the old order and this will pave the way to the establishment of a New Heavens and a New Earth.

John writes in Revelation 21:1-4 (ESV) --- Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Christian all the stuff that is subject to the curse of sin and death will be gone. All of it will be shaken due to the temporal nature of its existence.

Revelation 21:2 makes reference to that holy city again the city who’s maker and builder is God that Abraham looked for as fulfillment of the promise.

Christian, aren’t you glad and thankful that this whole thing doesn’t end for us in the spiritual equivalent of a storage container in Buffalo, New York? I am and so is the writer of Hebrews in his application. Look back at your text to verses 28-29:

II. The Exhortation to Gratitude (28-29).

The gratitude is due to the present active receiving of an unshakeable Kingdom. Present active not future but here and now in the present.

This is because of the spiritual dynamic that we are in now will culminate in the physical reality in the eternal state of a new heavens and new earth.

The gratitude becomes fuel for service to God. This is not referring to just our worship on Sunday morning but our wholistic service in all of our life in how we live before our King.

Ever heard the saying, “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.” It appears that according Hebrews you can’t be any earthly good unless your are heavenly minded.

And there is a humility before God in awe and reverence for Him because, as verse 29 tells us, our God is a consuming fire.

This is a reference from Deuteronomy 4:24 where Moses warns the people against forgetting the covenant of the Lord and carving out for themselves false gods to their own liking. Which God had forbidden them to do in the second commandment.

What kind of gods would they be tempted to carve? The kind they imagined in their minds but were distinct from who God had revealed Himself to be. A god who was less than Holy who could be manipulated by human performance and steered by the vanity of fallen man.

You know the same kinds that we are tempted to imagine and associate God with. One that is a reflection of ourselves and our liking. We like the domesticated view of God because He is much easier for us to manage.

Christian, a god who is initiated from the creative imaginations of fallen man is not a god worthy of worship. And is very easy to soon become bored with because in the end he is only as real as the projected imagination of the fallen creature that created him.

That is a recipe for nothing but fear and anxiety in the midst of an uncertain world. When all seems lost and every support system is pulled out from under you. A god of human imagination is easily challenged under such conditions. This is not the God that Hebrews is referring to.

Christian this is why our understanding of God must be biblically informed from the whole of Scripture. We must believe in the God who has revealed Himself to be as He is in the Bible.

And what we find is a Holy God who is righteous and just as well as full of grace and mercy as expressed in His plan of redemption worked through the gospel.

Christian if we loose the understanding of the Holiness of God, concepts like divine righteousness, justice, grace, mercy and redemption through the gospel all loose their meaning and emphatic importance. Because we will inevitably define the terms according to our own preferences and comforts.

And the glory of the Unshakable Kingdom of God and our place in it will not be a motivating truth for gratitude, encouragement and passion in our lives but just a place we hope to be one day. A future time far off from now does nothing for us today unless we live in it now. And Hebrews is telling of this spiritual dynamic that we live in now.

Corona-virus, Riots in the streets, Struggles of all kinds. All will one day be shaken and our current spiritual position supersedes it all.

Conclusion:

Christian don’t forget the covenant faithfulness of your God expressed to you in Christ. The whole counsel of the word of God informs us of His character and covenant fidelity to His people through Christ.

God will once again shake the earth and the heavens. Only the unshakable will remain.

What foundation are you building on. Are you down beyond the dirt to the solid theological rock of the Kingdom of God in Christ. Or are you hoping in that storage facility in Buffalo, NY.

Why is this so critical for us to come to terms with? Because everything else can be shaken.

The gospel of sovereign grace is the security of the believer because it all rest on an unshakable God. Confess your sin and rest in Christ.

Unbeliever you need Christ more than you need your next breath. You may think everything is fine but one day the heavens and the earth will be shaken. You need a savior. Believe!

Let’s Pray!