A KINGDOM NOT TO BE SHAKEN
Archie D Melville
Hebrews 12: 18-29
Daniel 5: 5-6; 7: 13-14
Psalm 16: 8-11
Psalm 62: 1-2
I have an impression to speak of what is shaken and what is not shaken. In Hebrews we are told that we receive a kingdom that shall not be shaken. The National Earthquake Centre keeps records of earthquakes that occur throughout the world. So far in this year, 2023, there have been 20,000 earthquakes throughout the world. Some of them you would hardly notice; others appear in news headlines. You can name one or two very severe ones in Turkey and Afghanistan where violent earthquakes disturbed this earth. Buildings collapsed; people were buried under rubble; some perhaps have never even been identified or found.
You say to me, ‘Why does a loving God permit such things to happen?’. It is not my place to give you an answer but all I would ask you, are you ready if such a thing should happen to you; do you realise, dear friends, that this world is shaking? This world, as Hebrews tells us, will experience a final shaking - “the removing of what is shaken, as being made, that what is not shaken may remain”. This present physical creation is in a state of instability. Shaking marks this world, and I think we could also say that shaking marks every sphere of this world. Whether it is economically or politically or socially, is there anything stable in this world? Can you name anything that will remain of this present world?
What I want to tell you about tonight is that there is a King, and there is a kingdom, as Hebrews delineates, that shall not be shaken, and that is a kingdom that you and I need to be sure of belonging to and being part of. The whole purpose of the Lord’s service was to announce the kingdom of God, a kingdom in this world, but which is not of it. History tells us that there were a series of kingdoms that rose and fell, the Babylonish, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian and the Roman kingdoms. They all had their day and then they went into decline. The whole physical creation is heading in the direction of eventual dissolution, 2 Pet 3: 10-12.
People are very concerned nowadays to save the planet. Do you know, dear friends, that this planet is going to be dissolved? It is going to deteriorate and pass away, but the kingdom that I am speaking of does not pass away. It is "the kingdom of the Son of his love” (Col 1: 13) and it is our desire in preaching the glad tidings that you might enter into this kingdom. To do that, in one way, is very simple: it is by becoming subject to the King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I read in Daniel because he knew about the kingdom. I will just refer to chapter 7 first because he says there he saw a vision in the night of “one like a son of man … And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed”. All the prophets bore testimony to that wonderful kingdom which is coming and it is going to be established on this earth. Morally it was established on this earth when the Lord Jesus came and it requires that you and I come into subjection to the King to enter into it.
Where I read in Daniel 5 we find a description of a king called Belshazzar and he had a great idolatrous banquet, a great feast to a thousand of his nobles, and he drank wine before the thousand and everyone was enjoying themselves, no doubt. Suddenly there “came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another”. Here is an individual who is shaking; he is physically shaking. I wonder if you have ever done that, if you have ever been physically shaken in the divine presence? This man was evil in his ways, but the time had come when there was no remedy for him. The writing was on the wall. You often hear men say that, ‘The writing is on the wall’, which means that something is finalised and fixed. For this man the matter was fixed, he was going to die and to lose his kingdom. Everything that he enjoyed he was going to lose and not only that but he was going to lose the most important thing of all, suffer the loss of his soul.
This man was not ignorant, and there are many of us here who have sat under the sound of the glad tidings and we are not ignorant. Belshazzar knew what his father Nebuchadnezzar had told him; that he was brought down to the place of repentance; and he had bowed before the King of the heavens and recognised the One who was Almighty. In his day he recognised Jehovah and he conveyed that message to his son. Have you heard the glad tidings before? Have you responded to the glad tidings yet ? I hope you have, but if you have not maybe there will be writing on the wall. I am not pronouncing this upon anyone. I do not know your history, but for this man the matter was settled. He was shaking like a leaf and his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another. May it never be the portion of anyone to neglect the knowledge that has come to you through the preacher, through your parents, through the glad tidings. If you have ignored it till now, pay heed, listen and hearken as there is hope in this day of grace.
In Psalm 16 we find David, the writer of the psalm, speaking prophetically of the Lord Jesus and of His sufferings, death and resurrection (Acts 2: 24-28); he says, “I have set Jehovah continually before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved”. Here is a Man who is not going to be moved from fulfilling the will of His Father. The reason is very simple. He has “set Jehovah continually before Him “because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart rejoiceth, and my glory exulteth; my flesh moreover shall dwell in hope”. Is there hope? Of course there is hope! That is what the glad tidings is all about. It is to give you hope and stability, to deliver you from what is going to perish, what is being shaken and will pass away, to transfer you into the kingdom, God’s kingdom, the Lord’s kingdom. David was a man who put his trust in Jehovah in his day, and as we put our trust in the Lord Jesus we come into this wonderful, settled condition in our hearts and we are not shaken.
There are many other references in scripture, but I read also in Psalm 62 and there it says, “Upon God alone doth my soul rest peacefully; from him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; my high fortress: I shall not be greatly moved”. There is nothing that can unsettle your soul if you have bowed and come in repentance to the Lord and confessed your lost and hopeless condition. Nothing can move you, and this psalm and many other scriptures bear testimony to the fact that persons came into the joy of their salvation by entering the kingdom that shall not be shaken.
We find in Hebrews 12 that there are two alternatives, there are two mountains spoken of, one of them is Mount Sinai and the other is Mount Zion. So you choose one or the other. Listen to the description that the writer gives as to Mount Sinai. It says, “For ye have not come to the mount that might be touched and was all on fire, and to obscurity, and darkness, and tempest, and trumpet’s sound, and voice of words; which they that heard, excusing themselves, declined the word being addressed to them any more: (for they were not able to bear what was enjoined)”. That is not a very pleasant situation or place to be, at Mount Sinai. What happened there was that “Moses went up to God, and Jehovah called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel … if ye will hearken to my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then shall ye be my own possession out of all the peoples … And Moses came and called the elders of the people … And all the people answered together, and said, All that Jehovah has spoken will we do!”, Exod 19: 3-8.
Do you know anybody who has ever kept the law in its entirety? Have you ever kept the law yourself? Would you say that you have kept the law without any deviation whatsoever? I do not think you would say that, not if you were intelligent. Maybe if you were ignorant, but if you were intelligent you would acknowledge the law was given and resulted in death and not life. That is Mount Sinai and even “if a beast should touch the mountain, it shall be stoned; and, so fearful was the sight …”. No wonder the people did not want to hear any more of Jehovah’s words. No wonder. because they were trembling and even Moses was “exceedingly afraid and full of trembling”. Moses was shaking at the very thought because he knew he was a sinful man and if you do not perhaps the Holy Spirit would convict you of your sinfulness. But do you think you can approach God on the basis of what you can do, on the basis of your righteousness? That is what this scripture tells us, that the people “were not able to bear what was enjoined”, and in the end if you disobeyed the law in Israel it resulted in death. There were no second chances; in Israel, if a person was taken up in sin he was stoned.
Now the writer of Hebrews says, “but ye have come to mount Zion; and to the city of the living God”. Mount Zion is really Jerusalem, the city of the living God. So you have a choice; you either approach God in the belief that you can keep the law in its entirety or you can plead to the Lord for mercy that He might receive you into His kingdom. The way is as the writer tells us here, “ye have come to Mount Zion”. That speaks of the mercy of God. Jerusalem was occupied by people called the Jebusites. They were the last enemies in the land and they took possession of and dwelt in Jerusalem. David went forward and defeated the Jebusites, the last enemy that would prevent the people from entering into the divinely appointed city of Jerusalem, 2 Sam 5: 6, 7.
Jesus has dealt with the enemies in the way foreshadowed by David dealing with Goliath, 1 Sam 17. He has dealt with every enemy including death itself. He has removed every hindrance and now He says if you approach this way you will enter into the kingdom, that everlasting kingdom that shall never end, the heavenly Jerusalem. “To myriads of angels”: you will have the company of angels and there will be a universal gathering including all those from Abel, everyone who forms part of God’s purpose and His choice. That universal gathering includes everyone: “to the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven; and to God, judge of all; and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant; and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel”. The whole basis of God’s redemptive work depends on the blood. There is no remission of our sins apart from the shedding of the blood. Here the writer brings it into this wonderful description that he gives us of Mount Zion - a host of things that we come to as coming to Mount Zion and to the Mediator of a new covenant.
The old covenant resulted in death; the new covenant is our way into life, our way into the presence of God, because it meets our sinful condition and our state. It deals with our sins because it is based upon “the blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel”. Abel was the first martyr and his blood was shed by his brother Cain, Gen 4: 8. His blood did not redeem or save anyone. His blood speaks from the ground and God knows about it and hears it, but his blood could never accomplish what the blood of Jesus has accomplished and will yet accomplish. We can refer to Abel as a wonderful example of one who recognised the need for the shedding of blood because he brought an animal sacrifice. He understood the very wonderful matter that the blood is the very basis of redemption and of our being brought back to God. Therefore, he is included in this account here, but his blood accomplishes nothing for you. The blood of sprinkling of the Lord Jesus Christ can cleanse you and bring you from that state of sin and degradation, can preserve you from any danger of what is being shaken and will pass away, and it can bring you into the consciousness of this wonderful kingdom.
But here comes a warning. “See that ye refuse not him that speaks. For if those did not escape who had refused him who uttered the oracles on earth, much more we who turn away from him who does so from heaven”. The speaking now is no longer on earth but comes from heaven, and the beginning of this book tells us that the voice of the Lord Jesus comes to us from heaven. Now the shaking of this earth is the result of God’s voice: “but now he has promised, saying, Yet once will I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven”. This verse comes from the prophet Haggai, which I might just refer to. “For thus saith Jehovah 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; and I will fill this house with glory, saith Jehovah of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith Jehovah of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah of hosts”, chap 2: 6-9.
These Old Testament prophets, Daniel, Haggai, Joel, Isaiah and Jeremiah - all of these persons had a vision of a kingdom to come, and this shaking is going to remove that which is not suitable for the kingdom of God. It says this will be the last, this will be the final shaking. When that time comes, which will be after the millennium, when the Lord has reigned here for a thousand years and brought in this peace that He speaks of here; “and in this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah of hosts”, a reign of peace. Peter in his epistle tells us that the earth and all that is in it will be burned up, 2 Pet 3: 10-11. It will have fulfilled its purpose, and then what is new will be introduced. Are you going to be in that new kingdom, the kingdom of the Son of His love or will you pass into judgment as a result of this shaking?
These words are solemn and sober but I present them to you so that you might not be overcome by the shaking of this present world, that you might trust in the Saviour, have confidence in Him, find hope, and a rock that your soul may rest on, and that you will enter with joy into His kingdom.
For His Name’s sake.
Glasgow
15th October 2023