What is the government going to do? What's the president going to do?
When are they going to fix this? That's the wrong question if God's doing the shaking. Dr. Tony Evans says spiritual problems don't respond to earthly solutions. You shouldn't be reacting like everybody else is reacting, because you're not part of their kingdom. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. There are a lot of things being shaken up in our world today, which raises the question, how can you avoid getting shaken up with them?
Dr. Evans says the answer is found in what you hold on to. Let's join him as he explains. In Hebrews chapter 12, the author is writing to Jewish Christians. 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 is happening here? And how do we respond to the chaos that seems to be bubbling up all around us? The author of the book of Hebrews has spent the whole book talking about the excellent seeds of Jesus Christ. 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, 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. But he says to Christians, that's not your mountain in verse 22. That's not the mountain you're 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 to 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. 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. If your roots are being shaken, God is talking. 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, which means He must turn up the heat. So God creates disconnect, discontinuity. When you're in an earthquake, if you are attached to the earth, you're going to shake.
If you're in an airplane, you're not, because you're not attached. God wants to flow by means of the cross the blessings of the new covenant, that is, the commitment that He has to you and all of its many manifestations, but in order to do that, He must disconnect you from that which is inconsistent with this covenant, with this arrangement, with this relationship that we ought to be having with God. I love what he says here, the expression, Yet once more denotes the removing of things which can be shaken.
Yet once more. This is a quote from Haggai chapter 2. The author of Hebrews is quoting the Old Testament. Let me read Haggai chapter 2 so that you can hear what he's reading from or quoting from when he writes in Hebrews chapter 12. In Haggai chapter 2, this is what it says in verse 6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Once more in a while, a little while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth.
Well, that's what the author is quoting. Says the Lord of hosts, The silver and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. I will shake the nations, and they will come up with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.
Now, that's very interesting. The author in the New Testament is quoting from the Old Testament. In the verse where he is quoting from, God says, I am going to shake. Here's what he says, And I am going to shake the nations so that they give up their gold and silver. See, now you like the word shaking. See, shaking is okay now, as long as you're not the one being shook. He quotes it saying God is going to shake things up in order to transfer things over.
That's what he says in Haggad chapter 2. He's shaking things up to transition things over. It's like when you grew up with those old piggy banks and you would shake the stuff that had been deposited so that you could now use the money from the piggy bank.
He says he wants to shake it over and shake it out. Shake something loose from one realm in order to deliver something to another realm. This is good news from the cross today. The blood of Jesus Christ on the cross mediates a new arrangement God has with every Christian and with his church. That new arrangement is called the new covenant. The new covenant is the commitment that God has made to you. God has said that through the cross, by means of this new arrangement, the new covenant, God is going to flow to you his goodness, but he will flow to it by first disconnecting you from that which would be blockages in the arteries of your spirit. He says what God is after is he's removing the created things because you're too attached.
I'm too attached. And he says as long as we are attached to earth, you won't see heaven. You won't see the eternal things. You won't see the things that are coming from God because you're too attached to them coming from men. Some of the great memories in my life have come out of crises where heaven had to step in because earth couldn't fix it. Earth couldn't fix it, and God would not allow earth to fix it because he was talking. He was speaking. God had something to say. Therefore, verse 28, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, the cross of Jesus Christ has resulted in a new arrangement with God, watch this now, that has transferred you, don't miss this, to an unshakable kingdom. Let me say that again.
The cross of Jesus Christ, when God saved you, forgave you, and made you one of his own, he also transferred you. You have received a kingdom. A kingdom is a rule. You're under a government that cannot be shaken, that is not subject—listen to this— to what's happening around you, that is not limited to what you read in the newspaper. If you're only looking at the stock market pages, if you're only looking at the banking systems, if you're only looking at the recession, if that's all you are seeing, you will be shaken.
You will be shaken. And if your cry is, what is the government going to do? What's the president going to do?
When are they going to fix this? That's the wrong question if God's doing the shaking. If God's doing the shaking, you're raising the wrong question. God is concerned that you don't refuse him who is speaking.
The question now is, God, what are you saying to me or to us through all of this turmoil and turbulence in our lives, being as though I am attached to the cross underneath the new covenant and therefore have been placed in a kingdom or under a governmental regime that does not shake? It means you shouldn't be reacting like everybody else is reacting because you're not part of their kingdom. You're operating with a different king. You're operating with a different rule. You're operating under a different authority.
So you aren't to be shaken. Well, what am I supposed to do when my world's falling apart? One, don't refuse him who is speaking. Look, if your world is falling apart, say, Lord, you're talking, I'm listening, okay? Lord, you're talking, I'm listening. The nation's falling apart. Lord, you're talking, I'm listening. I want to hear what you have to say to me or to us in this situation.
What are you saying? But not all of us respond that way, and Dr. Evans will have more to say about that when he continues our message in just a moment. First, though, today's lesson comes from Tony's 14-part series, Returning to the Cross. This collection spells out how truly understanding and appreciating Jesus' sacrifice is the very key to the Christian life. And through these messages, you'll gain better insight into how to access the benefits, blessings, and power the Lord died to give you. When you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station, we'll say thanks by sending you this complete series on either CD or instantly downloadable MP3s. And as an added bonus, but only for a few more days now, we're able to include Tony's book that goes hand in hand with this series, The Power of the Cross.
Get the book and the audio collection along with our thanks. Just request them when you make a donation online at tonyevans.org. Or let one of our resource team members help you by calling 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night.
That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, let's return to Dr. Evans now with more of today's message. Now, what is our propensity when things are shaking? Complaining, fussing, and cussing. Getting mad, getting ticked off. Which is all refusing Him who is speaking. You should be thankful He talking to you. He's speaking.
And the worse the inconvenience and discontinuity gets, the louder He talking. He says, Lord, I want to establish gratitude now that I have access to the cross and part of this new arrangement and I'm under another kingdom. So the rules, oh, outside of the kingdom, don't control what's happening inside the kingdom, inside the rule of God. Let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and aura, for our God is a consuming fire.
Our God is a consuming fire. When the walls of Jericho fell down, the Bible says, and Rahab's house stood. Everything around her crumbled. Everything around Rahab crumbled. The kingdom she was a part of, called Jericho, crumbled. It says her house, which was embedded into the wall, it says, stood. So that meant all the wall fell except for one piece of the wall. And that was the piece where her house was. Why?
Because she was part of an unshakable kingdom. Yes, we must be responsible. Yes, we must take care of our business.
Yes, we have obligations to meet. But God is talking. He's screaming. And I predict He will get louder. The more the culture disconnects from Him, the louder He's going to talk, which means the more trouble there will be.
But that's not our kingdom. So yeah, it's going to be uncomfortable. It's going to be like turbulence on a plane. That's not a good feeling when the plane's jumping all up and down and the pilot has to get on and says, we are in rough air.
Yeah, that is not a comfortable place to be. But you're still flying above the situation. And you are to look at it through the lens of the eternal perspective, the eyes of God, not the eyes of other people who are as shook up as you are.
Because our God is a consuming fire. It's like the boy who was on the plane and he is playing in turbulence. The lady sitting next to him, an older lady, was all shook up and just nervous as could be. And the blue boy is playing in the turbulence. They're both in the turbulence, but he's playing and she's scared.
And she says, well, how can you play at a time like this? His answer was, my father is the pilot. When you know who's in the cockpit, it changes how you react to the turbulence. Yeah, there's going to be turbulence. Turbulence doesn't feel good. He closes with this phrase, and I close with it, our God is a consuming fire. What does that mean? Our God is a consuming fire.
Why does he want you to know that? When they put an animal on the altar, God instructed them to consume the animal with the fire. The animal would be consumed.
It would be burnt up. The purpose, however, of the consuming was to render judgment in order to free the nation up for forgiveness in order that God could continue with blessing. There would be judgment in order for there to be purification, in order that there might be blessing. Judgment, purification, blessing. That was why there was the consuming of the sacrifice. Our God is a consuming fire. Judgment, purification, blessing. I've said it before.
I'll use it again. You get up in the morning, and you're going to work or coming to church, and you want to iron your clothes. You plug the iron in, and you turn it on, and it gets hot. You pull up the ironing board, and you apply heat to your clothing.
Why? Why you want to make your clothes hot? The reason for the fire is to remove the wrinkles. You're not trying to be mean with the consuming fire of the iron.
You're not trying to be mean. You're not hating on the clothes because your goal is not to burn the clothes. That's not your goal, but your goal is to set fire to the clothes, and the consuming fire of the iron consumes the wrinkles, removing the wrinkles as you go over the clothing with the ironing board, and there's a good reason why you're doing this, and that's because you plan to put it on. You're going to wear that, and you know you can't wear that with the way it's looking, because if you wear that with the way it's looking, it's going to make you look bad if you wear it without consuming it first, and since you don't want to look bad going to work or coming to church, you put a consuming fire on it not to hurt it, but because you want to use it. You want to do something with it, so you consume what does not belong by the use of fire, purifying it of its wrinkles because you want to put it on and display it. Our God is a consuming fire. He renders judgment on what does not belong, and that's painful.
In order to remove it, because He wants to wear it and use it and allow it to be a blessing to you. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about what it takes to give us the freedom we need to follow the Lord, and he'll come back in just a moment with a compelling wrap-up for today's lesson. In the meantime, I want to remind you that this message comes from Tony's two-volume teaching series, Returning to the Cross. It's a powerful collection of sermons that focus on the most important concept of the Christian faith. You can get all 14 lessons in this series, along with the companion book from Dr. Evans called The Power of the Cross. As I mentioned earlier, this resource package is yours with our thanks when you support the alternative with a financial donation.
But this is an offer that will only be available for a few more days. So request it right away at tonyevans.org. You'll find the details right on the homepage. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you.
That's 1-800-800-3222. On Monday, Dr. Evans will tell us about something that many Christians consider commonplace, yet it could be the key to unlocking victory in our lives. Right now, though, he's back to close our message with these thoughts. The cross has now given you a new arrangement with God, placing you in a kingdom that does not shake, in spite of the shaking around you. Therefore, in the midst of your shaky situation, as bad as it is and as close as the labor pains our part, let us show gratitude. Right now, you may not have steak and potatoes, but praise them for hot dogs and baked beans.
Right now, you may not be making the money you want, but thank you, there's still a roof over your head, clothes on your back, and you're not walking. This is not the time to complain. This is not the time to cuss and fuss, because God is talking. This is the time to bless His name, render service, knowing that our God is ironing some wrinkles. And when this thing is right, He's going to dress up in you, and you're going to be blessed, because God Almighty is wearing you. And He's going to be able to do some things for which He alone will get the glory. And then there will come that one day when there will be the final shaking, when the whole world will erupt. That's because Jesus is getting ready to break the clouds, come back and call His children home. He's going to shake stuff up first. It's called the day of the Lord, before His ultimate entrance. What I'm saying to you is, God is shaking stuff up because He's saying something. Do not refuse Him who is speaking.
