God is eroding one realm in order to expose another realm. Dr. Tony Evans explains why, despite our best efforts, the world situation is getting worse, not better. We are too attached, and so He must shakeeth loose in order to take us to the place He wants us to be. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. If you believe a political party, economic plan, or military strategy holds the key to real change, Dr. Evans has some important insights for you to consider.
Let's listen as he explains. Looking at your own personal struggles and you're raising the question, what's happening? What's happening to me, my world, my life?
Do you want to know what's going on? In Hebrews chapter 12, the author is writing to Jewish Christians who are raising the same question, what's going on? They're about to enter into the most climactic time that this generation has experienced as Jerusalem is getting ready to be besieged by Titus and his army. The temple is about to be destroyed, and the dark clouds have begun to move in. He writes later on in the book that some had been imprisoned, some had had their property confiscated, and they were raising the question about their reality, what's going on?
What is happening here? And how do we respond to the chaos that seems to be bubbling up all around us? That is the setting of the book of Hebrews. The author of the book of Hebrews has spent the whole book talking about the excellency of Jesus Christ. He's been exalting Christ over the religious systems of the day, particularly Judaism that they had been a part of, and many were thinking about going back to. Because this Christian thing for many of them was not working.
It wasn't answering the question, what's going on? Living in our world today, things are being shaken to its core. Terrorism, of course, has changed the way we live.
The financial markets have robbed all of us to some degree, many of us to devastating degree of our retirements and the security of our future, even a decent paying job. And life as we had known it is not the same. We want to know what's going on.
Families are in disarray. Psychological trauma is at an all-time high. As people are finding it more and more difficult to cope with the realities of life as we are finding it, and so much of it is happening so quickly, unexpectedly. Things that used to look solid, things that used to look concrete are now made of stucco.
They're not solid anymore. We can't bank on it. It's in the midst of that kind of environment that the author of Hebrews has a word for you and me today, and it is, of course, connected to the cross. He has made a contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. You see, on Mount Sinai, when God spoke to Israel in the Old Testament, verse 18, they came to a mountain that can be touched into a blazing fire to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, a blast of the trumpet. Verse 20, not even a beast could touch the mountain or it would be stoned. When God came down and spoke prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments, it says all hell broke loose. I mean, it was a sight to behold as the mountain was smoking and quaking, and God had come down to read out his law, and all of those environmental aspects happened to let the people know how serious a moment this was. This was a very serious moment, and God's presence on that mountain shook the whole mountain so that the people ran away and said, we can't listen to this.
It's too much. That's what happened at Mount Sinai when Moses was about to give the Ten Commandments, or God was about to give the Ten Commandments. Verse 21 says it was so terrible a sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling.
I'm terrified by God showing up this way. But then he flips it in verse 22, but you have come to Mount Zion. He's talked about Mount Sinai, how terrifying a presence of God made in that environment, but he says to Christians, that's not your mountain. That's not the mountain you hanging out at.
These mountains are spiritual symbols. He says, you come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, a myriad of angels, general assembly, the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, the God, the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and here it is, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant to the sprinkled blood, that's the cross, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. He says, you've moved to a new city. You're operating in a different environment. You are living in a different realm. You're not living at Mount Sinai where there is terror and fear and trembling and insecurity and where your roots are being uprooted. That's not your home. That's not where you live if you're a believer in Jesus Christ.
Why? Because he has said that the cross, that is the blood of Jesus, has orchestrated a new arrangement, a new covenant. A covenant is a binding commitment that you are operating under the umbrella of a whole new realm, a whole new way of life that has been orchestrated by the blood of Jesus, that is the cross, which is the mediator, the means through which the new covenant operates. That is, this commitment that God has to you, the commitment that God has to me, is mediated through the blood of Jesus Christ orchestrating a different kind of arrangement that God has with his people that he does not have with the world at large. It is mediated by the blood of Christ, which speaks, he says in verse 24, better than the blood of Abel. You remember Abel was killed by Cain, and the Bible says that his blood spoke out from the ground. What did Abel's blood call for? Abel shed blood, called for justice.
It called for justice. God then, when the blood spoke out, went to Cain, and he claimed justice or judgment on Cain. The blood spoke judgment.
But he says, that's not this blood that I'm talking about. I'm talking about the blood of Jesus Christ, which mediates a whole other arrangement that God has with you and me that comes through this new covenant, which is the arrangement that God has with you and me as believers in Jesus Christ. It's a whole different arrangement than God has with the general public. It's a different arrangement. It's a new covenant.
It's a fresh way of dealing with us. Now, having established that the cross, the blood of Christ, is the mediation, Jesus and his blood is the mechanism through which this new arrangement works, he then answers the question, what's going on? Because, okay, I'm believing in Jesus Christ. I believe in the cross.
I believe he died for me. I'm under this new covenant, but my stuff is still messed up. My life is still in shambles. Things are still not going right, even though I'm attached to the cross, and I'm attached to this new arrangement. What's the connection to Jesus, the cross, the mediation, or mechanism through which this special connection with God comes and my circumstances?
Because my circumstances still aren't good. Verse 25, see to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, much less we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven, His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I will not shake only the earth, but also the heaven. The expression yet once more denotes the removing of things which can be shaken as of created things so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. He keeps using the word shaken. You know you're being shaken when it's keeping you from sleeping at night. That thing is shaking you. You know you're being shaken when you're living in insecurity and fear because of what's happening in the world or your world, and you're being shaken.
You know things are shaking you when that which was stable, that which was okay, that which was seemingly on solid footing is now causing you to be afraid and insecure and unstable. Guess what He just said? He said, when shaking occurs and you're part of the new covenant, you're part of the attached group to the cross, He says, Do not refuse Him who is speaking.
Don't miss that. You know what He just said? If your roots are being shaken, God is talking. Do not refuse Him who is speaking. When the mountain quaked at Mount Sinai, they refused Him who was speaking.
God was trying to say something, or God was saying something, and they said, We don't want that. When Dr. Evans continues our message in just a moment, he'll share an illustration of why it's important to tune into news we may not want to hear. But first, imagine this. The arena is packed, the players are on the court, the coaches and referees are in position, even the vendors are making their rounds up and down the aisles.
Everything is in place. But without a basketball, none of it matters. In the same way, without the cross, neither does the Christian faith. That's the idea behind Dr. Evans' book, The Power of the Cross.
In it, he explains why truly understanding and appreciating the cross is the key to turning empty, routine religion into a life of power and purpose. Right now, we are offering this book, along with his two-volume, 14-part audio series, Returning to the Cross, as our gift when you make a donation to support the ministry of the alternative. You can request this exclusive package online at tonyevans.org or by calling 1-800-800-3222.
Our team is standing by to help 24-7. Again, that's tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. Come back to more of today's lesson with Dr. Evans right after this. and explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere.
tonyevanstraining.org. On bad weather days or with the anticipation of bad weather days, when you hear a hurricane is coming, when you hear a tornado could be in the vicinity, when you hear bad storms are headed this way, you then focus in on the weather. Every other time, you may just kind of overhear the weather.
Every other time, you'll kind of get it and not get it. You know, I just want to hear what the temperature is. Is it going to rain?
You just kind of listen. But when you hear, it's going to be bad. Now there is focus in on the weather because the weather is going to be so shaky. It's going to be so impactful.
Now you want the details. Now you want detailed information on how to orchestrate, how to manage this weather that is coming our way. When people in Florida hear that there are hurricanes in the Atlantic or in the Gulf that are staring up in Jamaica or Cuba or Haiti, well, it may be a little ways off, but they're tuning in because things are getting shaky.
And they're tuning in because they know they're going to have to board up some stuff and they're going to have to treat this differently than just a rain shower. They understand that this is a shaky situation. When God allows or causes things to be shaken, nationally or personally, He says, do not refuse Him who is speaking. God is talking. And the worse the shaking is, the louder He's speaking. He says when things are shaky, God is speaking. Now, what is He saying?
That's the question. What is He saying? How can I interpret the language?
I just see the events. I don't know what the vocabulary is. How do I know what His word is when there is so much disruption, time after time after time, bigger and bigger and get bigger, and I'm being affected more personally than ever? Verse 27, the expression yet once more denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. When a woman goes into labor pain, she's in anguish. And what's causing the pain is that the baby is talking. Now, the baby is not speaking words that are intelligible, but the baby is sending a message. And the message of the baby is, I want out.
There is a separation occurring from the mother, and the separation is painful. Throughout the Bible, when God was ready to do something special, different, unique, and typically wonderful, it would be introduced through a painful scenario. You see, when God is ready to do something new, He knows more often than not we are not ready for what He wants to do. We are not ready yet. So He must make us ready.
He must set it up so that we want Him to make the change His way, and we're going to cooperate with the program because it's too painful to stay where we are. When Israel was crossing the Red Sea, they only crossed because God blocked them in and there was no way out. He got Pharaoh on one side, He got the Red Sea on the other side, and they are stuck, and guess what they saw? Death. I'm going to die.
We're going to die. Why have you let us out here? Now, of course, when they were there, they wanted to be out.
Now that they're out, they say, let's go back. So God had to force the issue by creating turbulence so that He could birth the next thing He wanted to do over and over again, including the cross. Before there was the life, there had to be the death, and this has created another arrangement, the arrangement that God now has with you and me, called the New Covenant, which is predicated on the cross, Jesus being the mediator or mechanism through which this is funneled, the cross, the life, the death of Jesus Christ, the bloodshed.
He says the blood, that is the cross. That is the means by which God operates this new mechanism. It is the flow of His provision. It is manifested through the cross.
It includes Him speaking and shaking things in order... What is He doing? It says, as of created things, verse 27 says, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. To put it another way, God is eroding one realm in order to expose another realm. He is eroding the earth in order to manifest heaven. Why must God erode earth for us to see heaven?
Because we're too attached. We are too attached, and so He must shaketh loose from the thing we are attached to in order to take us to the place He wants us to be. So He creates discontinuity, we call it, disconnection, destabilization, in order to remove us from our loyalty to earth so that we can see the movement of heaven. He says, do not refuse Him who is speaking.
When God creates discontinuity in your life and in your world like He is creating in our world, He is speaking. He is saying something, particularly to us who are part of the new covenant. What He is saying is, I want to disconnect you from things that are created from this earth in order that I might reveal the eternal things. Now, He doesn't mean take us to heaven. That's the ultimate discontinuity when you die. He transitions you into another realm. He knows we're so attached to earth, everybody wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to die to get there.
Well, even before we get to heaven, God creates discontinuity on earth in order to bring us to a new level of experience spiritually with Him. And that's why God does not often always get rid of the inconveniences we are going through until we stop refusing Him who is speaking. See, as long as you're saying, no, Lord, no, no, God, no, not now, God, no, no, let's wait, God, you're refusing Him who is speaking, which means you're too attached.
And as long as you're too attached, you're not getting the message. I told you about earlier called Returning to the Cross. Remember, when you help support this ministry with a contribution, we'll say thanks by sending you this powerful audio series along with Tony's insightful companion book, The Power of the Cross. But this is a special limited-time offer, so don't wait. Drop by our website, tonyevans.org, to let us know you'd like to take advantage of this exclusive deal. Or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222, where the friendly people on our resource team are ready 24-7 to help you.
Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Well, as we've been hearing today, there are a number of things being shaken up in our world. And the only way we can stand firm is to make sure we're holding on to the unshakable. Dr. Evans will go deeper into this tomorrow. Be sure to tune in.
