The Immovable Kingdom

We are coming out of the devastation of Hurricane Ida and her costly price tag of around $95 billion in the last estimate that I saw, from the time that she came inland in Louisiana and then moved up and across to the northeast coast, where she continued causing mass flooding to areas.

In light of this latest natural disaster I looked up and read about a study that was conducted earlier this year from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in which the article I read was quoted saying, “At no other point in history have agri-food systems faced more hazards such as megafires, extreme weather, unusually large desert locust swarms, and emerging biological threats, as during the past year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nor have they been seen at such frequency, intensity, and complexity, the agency said in a new report.”

According to this report from the United Nations study, natural disasters are occurring 3x more often than even just 50 years ago, around the globe!

And of the devastation that these disasters note, drought is the one that is wreaking the greatest havoc as far as agricultural output is concerned.

Drought conditions around the globe are accounting for massive decreases in food supply shortages in countries all over the world!

In the United States alone, wheat, barley and bean based products have been hit hard this year, due to drought conditions.

And as far as earthquakes go, people tend to get all worked up when we hear about an earthquake, like it is a rare earthly occurrence.

But according to the USGS website, there are as many as 500,000 earthquakes that occur each year, and about 100,000 of these are large enough to be felt.

Major earthquakes that measure magnitude 7 or greater happen somewhere on the Earth upwards of once a month!

The thing that I want to stress to you is this, natural disasters are happening continually, and worldwide!

Keeping that thought in mind, look at the democrats new proposed $3.5 trillion dollar budget bill, which has a certain percentage aimed at addressing “global warming”!

Or, maybe you remember the $93 trillion Green New Deal, proposed back in February of 2019, which was all about cleaning up emissions and helping with climate change and global warming.

Have any of you guys ever heard of anything in the news over the past couple of decades about “global warming” and the rise in greenhouse gases?

If you haven’t, then you’ve either been on a deserted island, or out checking out the sand with the ostriches!

The topic of global warming is the pinnacle discussion point within the G20 conference this year; alongside of the Covid-19 pandemic recovery.

Look, here’s the thing I am wanting you to pay attention to right now, as I make the overall point for today and in this message. The world and its leaders, are sounding all of the alarms and scratching their heads in trying to predict what the earth is going through and how they can save the planet, right?!

Well, let me show you something that will give some clarity as to the issue of global warming and how to save the planet, and in doing so, provide you with hope for the future and of what is coming!

If you have your Bibles ready this morning, then please turn with me to the book of Hebrews 12:18-29

Hebrews 12:18–29 ESV

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 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, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

So, let’s focus for a couple of minutes here on what the author of Hebrews is telling us.

First of all, the passage creates for us a comparison between two mountains, or really two passages to God.

The first mountain, or the first path to God is that which we find in Exodus 19 and in Deuteronomy, where the children of Israel encounter the living God, as He descends upon Mt. Sinai.

This account, which the author of Hebrews stresses for us here, is not something that man would want to encounter, when trying to draw closer to the Lord God!

This account in the Exodus period, was a terrifying experience for the nation of Israel and for Moses out in the wilderness.

And it was here, that the Lord met with Moses and delivered to him and to the people of the nation of Israel, the 10 commandments and the law.

So, this first mountain that was physical and tangible, represents trying to come to God through and by the law and its ordinances and works.

And trying to come to God through the law and works and the ordinances of man, as depicted here from the Sinai account, is a terrifying experience and one that no one could stand.

BUT, the passage moves on and says that you, as a true and faithful believer did not come to God through that mountain and through that passage via the law.

Rather, it says that you have come to a different mountain. You have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God.

Literally, you have come to heaven, where we find the Lord God seated upon His glorious throne!

And we come to this mountain, only through the blood of the lamb and our faith and belief in the Lord Yeshua.

Our faith in Him and our relationship with Him, as the passage shows here, is evident, because we have been enrolled in heaven. In other words, our names have been found recorded in the heavenly book, called the Book of Life!

Or as Revelation 21 calls it, the Lamb’s Book of Life, because it is only through the Lamb of God that your name is ever going to be found written in that book.

And you had better make sure that your name is found written in that book, because upon leaving this earth and ascending to God’s heavenly dwelling place, that registry is what determines your eternity with the Lord and in His eternal dwelling place, or an eternity in the lake of fire. (Which is what Revelation calls the “second death”!)

The passage here refers to those who are enrolled in the book, as the “general assembly of the firstborn”.

“General assembly” in this passage is the Greek word, “ekklēsia”, which is what Yeshua called those whom would belong to Him and be a part of His holy body.

And when it says the assembly of the firstborn, who is it referring to as the “firstborn”?

Right, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God!

Question: Why is Yeshua called the “firstborn” of God?

Not because He was born first as in an order of birth, but rather, because, (according to Jewish custom), the firstborn inherited the authority and was the rightful heir to the father.

Jesus, as He Himself stated in Matthew 28:18, where He said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”, showed He was the eternal “firstborn” over all creation and had received from His Father the right of the firstborn son!

Now, as to this second mountain that we have come to through the blood of lamb and the kingdom that it represents, we will come back to it.

Right now, I want you to pay attention to verses 25-27, as these tie in to what I was talking about a minute ago and man’s determination to preserve and protect this earth. Hebrews 12:25-27 says,

Hebrews 12:25–27 (ESV)

25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”

27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

The author shows us here that as God spoke to the people of Israel at Sinai and delivered the law through Moses, they ultimately rejected His voice and command and thus they perished and never entered the promised land.

The warning here is that the voice is no longer on earth but from heaven and the refusal of His voice from heaven has eternal consequences, as you will not enter into the heavenly promised land if you refuse His voice this time!

The passage goes on to mention that at the presentation of the old covenant at Sinai, the mountain was shaken by God when His voice spoke.

And then it says what I am wanting to show you with regard to our earth, in verses 26-27 it says, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.”

This verse is a repeating of the prophecy of the prophet Haggai, where he said in Haggai 2:6,

Haggai 2:6 ESV

6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.

The understanding here is that, God spoke on the earth with the presentation of the Old Covenant and He shook the mountain. A temporal shaking that got man’s attention.

This second shaking that He refers to, is not a temporary one and not one used for emphasizing His point. He has already made His point and done all that He is going to do in terms of ratifying and sealing His second covenant, that came through the Christ who is the mediator of that second covenant!

This second shaking is for the removal of everything that has been created, both in the heavens and the earth itself!

The Bible mentions of God shaking the earth as well as its destruction in various places.

Job 9:6 “who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;”

Haggai 2:21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth,”

Isaiah 13:13 “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.”

Isaiah 24:18-20 “For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth are shaken. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.”

And if you go back and read the opening of Isaiah 24:2 it says,

Isaiah 24:2 ESV

2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.

In other words, everyone is equally subject to the final judgement of God. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your title is, what your social or political status is.

It doesn’t matter if your a king or a servant, the richest person on earth, or a pauper. You cannot escape God’s final judgement based upon your merit and your position and title on this earth.

The only way that you will escape the terrifying finality of His perfect judgement, is if you have been washed in the blood of the lamb and thus sealed by His Holy Spirit!

The destruction of this earth is eminent and sure. II Peter 3:5-13

2 Peter 3:5–13 ESV

5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Here is the point people, you can’t save this earth! You cannot do anything to stop what is coming!

No matter how many world leaders come together and no matter how many programs you implement and no matter how much money you budget to stop the depletion of the ozone layer.......this earth and everything on it and in it is going to be destroyed; utterly and completely!

We, as a people, spend so much time resources trying to preserve and hold onto this life and the things of this life and for what?

This life and everything in it is going to perish in the end!

The only things that escape the final judgment of God and that continue on in His kingdom, are those treasures that we store up in heaven while we are here serving Him on this earth.

Our righteous works that glorify Him and bear fruit in His name; our deeds in faith that grow and glorify His kingdom.......these are the treasures that we store up and that precede us into heaven.

These treasures are the ONLY things from this life and this earth that survive the final and sure judgement of God.

YOU CAN’T SAVE THE PLANET....YOU CAN’T SAVE THE EARTH AND THE UNIVERSE FROM THE SHAKING THAT IS COMING BY THE VOICE OF GOD AND ACCORDING TO HIS PERFECT WILL!

Instead of being so concerned about trying to save the planet, we should be more concerned about spending our time trying to help save others from their final judgement!

It is the last part of the passage that we just read, that I want to leave in your thoughts and in your heart this morning as a word of encouragement and hope for you!

Even with all of the death and destruction and chaos and hurst and sorrows and pains that we see all around us in this world, there is something better coming!

Romans 8 tells us that all of creation groans and awaits being set free from the bondage that sin brought it under.

In other words, it is looking ahead to something far greater than anything that we have seen or have known.

It is looking ahead to what verse 13 says in the passage that we just read from in II Peter where we find, “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

As God’s children, we are not subject to the final shaking that is coming to this earth! We are not subject to the wrath of God and His shaking of creation for destruction.

In fact several times throughout the scriptures we read where the Bible says we are not subject to the shaking that is coming.

Psalm 16:7-8 “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

Psalm 62:1-2, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”

Again in Psalm 62:5-6, “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.”

Psalm 112 speaks of the blessed state of a righteous person and right in the middle of it, it again confirms that the righteous will NEVER BE SHAKEN!

In fact we not only have the assurance of being on this solid, sure, unshakable foundation, but we also, as we just read, have the hope and the assurance of a coming kingdom that will last forever!

A new heaven and a new earth that will never be moved or shaken!

That is what the author of Hebrews 12 meant from the passage we read from earlier, where he wrote in verses 27-28, “This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.”

The spiritual kingdom of God is not subject to the shaking of final judgement, as the physical creation itself is.

This has been God’s final plan all along, since the fall of humanity to sin.

God will remove the devil and all of those who have rejected His Son and cast them into the lake of fire for eternity, so that sin will never again exist.

He will then create a new heaven and a new earth and set up His kingdom there.

We see the Lord saying this very thing through His prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 65:17, where we read,

Isaiah 65:17 ESV

17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

And within this prophecy of what is to come, we find the kingdom of God broken up into two periods: the millennial reign of Christ with His people upon this earth and then final eternal kingdom that comes after God shakes and removes this earth and creates a new one for His people to dwell on and with Him for all eternity!!

We know that Isaiah shows this by his speaking of infants no longer being born and living but a few days and also that of that of the sinner being one hundred years old being accursed.

This leads us to an understanding that during the millennial reign of Christ on this earth, before this earth is destroyed, our lives will be extended much longer than what we know now.

Sin and death at this point have not been completely destroyed, but there is only a reprieve as the devil has been bound.

BUT, with the creation of the new heaven and the new earth, all sin and everything that came through it, will no longer exist!!

In the unshakable kingdom of God and where HE dwells and where we will one day dwell, upon the new earth, we will be in glorified bodies!

Bodies that are never going to grow old, never going to see or feel or experience any sickness or disease or decay, as sin and death will be no more!

In our new glorified bodies, we will be in sync perfectly with the Father, as Isaiah said in Isaiah 65:24

Isaiah 65:24 ESV

24 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.

In other words, our minds, our thoughts will be so in tune with God, that He will speak answers to us before we even ask Him.

You now how we get frustrated with our prayers never seeming to be heard, or answered? Not when we enter into the unshakable kingdom of God. We will receive His voice and His answers instantly!

In the new kingdom, all things will be made new! We will experience life as God originally meant for it to be experienced, with His dwelling in or midst and our joy forever abounding because of this!

The hurts and the pains of this life will no longer exist in the new kingdom, the unshakable kingdom! Revelation 21:3-5 says,

Revelation 21:3–5 ESV

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.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Friends, this is what you have to look forward to when you enter into His presence and into His glory!

I beg you today to make sure that you belong to Him and will be a part of that unshakable kingdom!

If you are sure that your name is written in His Book of Life, then you can rejoice with the author of Hebrews, where we again read when he said in Hebrews 12:28,

Hebrews 12:28 ESV

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

We will be a part of the eternal kingdom of God and He will reside as our eternal King!

Psalm 47:1–2 NKJV

1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! 2 For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth.

Is that going to be you on that day dear friends? Are you going to be rejoicing and shouting for joy and worshipping our great God and King for all eternity in His unshakable kingdom? I truly hope so!!