Hebrews 12:26-28
Whose voice then shook the earth:
but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven.
And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.
Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God, with reverence and awe.
Hebrews 13:14
For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come.
Now, in a very few minutes, I want to put just a few things that are on my heart at this time, I believe partly introductory to the conference which is ahead of us during this next week.
Most of you, at least, know why this letter to the Hebrews, as it is called, was written—that is, from the divine standpoint, why God had it written and preserved. Undoubtedly, that was in the light of what we have just read: an imminent, great shaking.
This letter was written a little before the end of the Jewish system, regime, and dispensation. The year 70 was fast approaching, when the Roman legions would throw their siege around Jerusalem and reduce it, as the capital and centre of the Jewish world, literally fulfilling the words of the Lord Jesus: “They will not leave one stone upon another.”
It was the end of that long, long Jewish era, and that was on the very near horizon when this letter was written. We can see the infinite wisdom of God in bringing into view the heavenly and eternal counterpart of that whole system of Judaism.
That system was to be shaken to its foundation and topple to the earth. But, after all, as the whole letter shows, at most and at best it was but an earthly representation of heavenly things. Yet it was passing away, and it was necessary for men and women of faith in the Lord Jesus to have their anchorage in the heavenly, the abiding, the eternal. That was the purpose of the letter.
But you can clearly see, even from the fragments which we have read, that that was not the end of the matter. Even when that had happened—when the whole earthly thing was broken to pieces and passed away—there was still a future in view.
Even these who looked beyond the figures, the types, the symbols, the earthly, and the temporal had in view a city which was never on this earth. “We have here no abiding city.” That was very evident with the passing of Jerusalem, but we seek one.
Now, dear friends, of course that opens up far more than I can put into fifteen minutes. But out of that, and around that, I want to gather one or two things which are very much on my heart in these days.
If it is true that that shaking was only half of the great shaking, and that the other half will be the shaking not only of the earth but of the heavens also—that is, not only of the temporal but of the spiritual, not only of the local but of the universal—then, in order to bring in the city which is abiding, everything that is not abiding, that cannot stand, has got to be shaken to its foundation.
When the Lord Jesus was speaking, in many words, about this very day of Jerusalem’s destruction and passing, He gave many indications and signs which would clearly indicate that that day was at hand. He spoke about the signs of the times, as we call them; He spoke about a fig tree and other things which would clearly indicate that that day was at hand.
But then He passed beyond that and carried us to the end of this dispensation, giving many further signs of how we should know that this greater end—the end beyond Jerusalem and Judaism—was at hand. He gave us many signs, and I am not going to try to gather up all those this morning, or even mention them, but they are indeed very significant.
I think, dear friends, this is the point: I think that we have today an almost overwhelming amount of evidence that we are on the point of this far greater shaking. In other words, that we are at the end of another dispensation.
I always hesitate in the realm of prophecy. You never hear me say very much about prophecy. I have had enough of the confusion of prophecy in fifty years of study of it. But, at the same time, with all that, with all my carefulness about it, I cannot but feel that everything today is most portentous.
I would not be surprised, I may say, if during this past week one of the most significant things has happened in relation to the end. There is a great system, the very heart and core of which is anti-God and antichrist.
One of the things which the Bible tells us will mark the manifestation of the man of sin, who will put himself in the place of God, is that he will be a tremendous showman, calling down fire from heaven. Everybody can see how easy that could be any day now—calling down fire from heaven. We are almost familiar with that, are we not? And many other such things.
No, I could dwell on that side of the matter for a long time. But I simply mention that as indicative of so much more which points to our coming to the end of this dispensation. There is a heading-up of the final great shaking of heaven and earth.
But what I want to touch upon, at least this morning, is what this means to believers. That means you and me. What are we to expect? What will be the spiritual signs of the time?
We are fascinated with the material, temporal signs, tremendously impressed with the outward. But what will be the spiritual side? I will just mention it; you must take it away and think about it.
I believe that the Word of God makes very clear—and we shall see that much more fully later—that, as we get near to the end, as the end approaches, two or three things are going to happen where believers are concerned.
One is that believers are going to be brought very definitely to the point of accountability for all that God has given. Accountability for all that God has given.
God has given much: a great revelation, a great deposit, in His Word and through His Word, in ministry—ministry which He Himself has given. I am not speaking just here, but to His people. There is a tremendous amount of ministry that God has given through His Word.
The foundation and substance of it all is preserved in a most marvellous way in the Scriptures. At the end, you and I are going to be brought to our accountability to God for what He has given.
I believe that the church, the people of God, are really going to have to face up to what they have got, what they have received. I feel—and I could show you from the Word—that this is made perfectly clear in the Scriptures: we are going to be brought face to face, in very real and even drastic ways, with what we have got and what we have received, to answer for it and to it.
Let me carry that further. I believe the Word shows very clearly that the people of God will pass into a phase of spiritual experience where what they have is required to be their very life—what they have is required to be their life and their very survival.
That could be put in another way. The things that you and I have received, I do not think we know, are going to be sifted right down. All mere teaching, mental grasp, and everything else will be stripped away.
Now then, what about that which you have taught and believed? What about the meaning of the cross? What about the meaning of the body of Christ—spiritual unity and fellowship? What about it? What about the sufficiency of Christ? See? I believe that that is going to happen.
Reality—downright reality—is going to be the emphasis of the Holy Spirit.
You and I, the people of God, will pass into such an intensity of spiritual experience and pressure, under stress, under trial and testing, that we shall be found out as to what proportion of all that we have claimed to hold is really our being and our life.
We are going to be stripped down for that. I believe that is what is happening just now, and it may be the explanation. We have spoken of Christ as our life. Very well, then: the Holy Spirit says, “Let us find out how true that is, and how much.”
Perhaps another illustration lies along the physical line. How much is Christ our life physically? Have we proved Christ as our life for our bodies as well as for our spirits? Have we? Because there is divine life for the body, dear friends. Some of us would not be here today if that were not true.
There is divine life for the body to be had. “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies.” That is not the dust that is in the earth; that is your body now, by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Well, what about it? That is only one point among many others. We are just going to be brought to this: Is it real? Is the cross real? Is the life real? Is Christ real? How much?
That is going to be sifted out again. There is going to be a shaking of all that can be shaken. And does this not explain very much?
Yes, there will be a great falling away, because there is a large measure of mere profession or claim that is not justified deep down in the very constitution of those people.
This is it. This letter, this whole letter, puts this emphasis here: the thing that matters is the eternal.
Oh, history! The Lord has built up a tremendous history around that. Do you notice what a lot of light it throws upon things, although there are many problems associated with it? Do you notice that whenever, during the whole Christian era, from apostolic times to this day, anything that was raised up by God at its beginning became crystallised and static, fixed and set, the Lord had no further interest in preserving it?
That is the explanation of why things may have a wonderful beginning and then end as they do. You do not see the Lord preserving them intact. They are living on a past; they are simply holding a tradition. The Lord does not care about that.
It has become something fixed down here on this earth, and God is interested, in this dispensation, only in the eternal. The city is not here; it is there. “Ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”
The Lord will not let us here get to be as temporal as any others have become in their connections. What we call, or what is called, “truth” must never become a fixed system, an already-set, crystallised body of teaching and truth. That is that—finished, complete.
Never, God forbid, that ever anything like that should happen to us. If so, the Lord will not preserve it. He will have no interest in its preservation. That is the history of things.
Something moved from God, and we could put our finger upon so many such things down through the centuries. Yes, something of God: the Reformation, Wesley, the Brethren, and all the rest. If God found something so dear to His heart that He would preserve, He never allowed it to go to pieces, become confused, divided, and made sectarian. Not at all.
Why? Because it became, obviously, this: something fixed, set, and rounded up—not heavenly at all. This heavenly, eternal, spiritual reality is His interest. He will not let us settle down here.
No ambitions on this earth or in this world will be allowed by God among His people. Have anything like that, and you are in for a bad time—a really bad time.
Now, you see, I am defeated entirely in trying to arrange this. But what I want you to see, what is really on my heart and what I am feeling so strongly, is just this: if we can see anything that corresponds to this, the experience of the Lord’s people today is sifting, shaking, stripping, getting down to roots and foundations, and finding out where we are.
That is a sign of the times. It is a real sign of the time—an inward one.
The day is far spent. The coming of the Lord is drawing near. Of course, we agree with that, do we not? You say, “It is right. It must be. Surely it is the thing that must happen.”
The Lord must not come and find us in a false position. He must not come and find us in a position where it is not true. Not at all.
So, perhaps through much tribulation, we enter the kingdom. The Word says so: “Receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken.” A part of the much tribulation through which we enter the kingdom is just this: finding out, by such drastic ways of discipline and chastening, hammering and battering and pressure, how much is real.
How much is real? How much is true?
Well, if the Lord will, there is more I could say.