The Promise of God (Hebrews 12: 27-29).

Now it seems to me that this test comes very clearly in ways such as these. Are you surprised at the state of this country and of the world tonight? Does it surprise you or had you expected this? I ask that question because, the prevailing philosophy, the prevailing view of life for more than a hundred years now has been that the world is getting better and better, and that we are travelling very rapidly in the direction of some kind of Utopia. Well, anybody holding that kind of view must be surprised at the state of the world tonight. It is going in the other direction! So you see that your view is immediately tested! Is the present crisis astonishing to you? Had you anticipated it or has it really taken you by surprise?

But let me ask a second question. Are you disappointed at the state of the world tonight? For again, the vast majority of people are disappointed. They had been told, and their fathers and grandparents had been told, by the scientists and other philosophers, by the politicians, by the poets and everybody else, that this 20th century was to have been the golden century, the crowning century of all the centuries. That marvellous things were going to happen - with all our education and culture, all our scientific adventures, more travelling etc., the world was really to be a kind of paradise.

Well of course if that was your view, you must be grievously disappointed by this present crisis and all the foreboding with respect to the future. So I ask the question, "Are you disappointed that in 1975 (or any year you care to name) we are in trouble, when the leading thinkers in the Country in every realm and department of life are extremely worried about the immediate future, and perhaps our total future?"

Another question that I put is this one, "Can you explain the modern position? Can you understand and explain why we should be passing through these days of crisis in the light of all that we have done? In the light of all our boasted adventures, why are things as they are, why have we had two world wars in this century, why are they piling up these horrible armaments, why does the whole future outlook seem to be so dark, so black, can you explain this? Can you explain how modern man with all the advantages that he has enjoyed - and there have been advantages, education, culture and everything else - why should the world be as it is? Can you understand it, can you explain it, does your view of man explain it, your view of life, your view of total existence. Have you got an explanation?"

You see the modern position is putting these questions to us. Our view is on trial and so I ask my last question. "Have you any real hope with regard to the future? Do you see any prospect at which you can look with peace and enjoyment and with a burning anticipation? Have you any hope?"

These are the questions it seems to me that the present crisis through which the world is passing are posing to every thoughtful thinking person. Well now! Those are the very questions you see that the Bible has always been putting to mankind. Well, the Bible after all is the most practical book in the world, it is a book of life. It is not a philosophy, It is not some fairy tale. It is not a collection of fantasies. It is the most practical book in the world, about life and about living. And you see it's got one great message from beginning to end and it is this. That man is always in trouble because ultimately he is a fool, and he is a fool in this respect, that from the very beginning he has believed that he could make a perfect world for himself.

That was the original temptation was it not? The tempter came to Adam and Eve and said, "Has God said...................?" "Don' t listen to HIM." said the tempter, "He wants to keep you down. He knows that if you eat of that fruit, your eyes will be enlightened and you will know as much as HE does, you'll be as gods, and you will be able to run your world and everything to perfection." And they listened to him! And this has been the whole trouble with the human race from the beginning.

Man has held this fatal view that he does not need GOD, and that without GOD he can build and establish a solid, assured, certain edifice of life. The Bible goes on to deal with this essential fallacy from the beginning to the end. And it puts it in a very convenient form to us like this. The first thing anybody coming into this life has to realise, says the Bible, is that he is confronted by a choice. It is always one of two things. It is either the narrow way - or the broad way! The narrow way which leads to life, or the broad way which leads to destruction. It is either GOD or mammon! These are the alternatives! GOD put this choice before the children of Israel before they went into their promised land of Canaan, two ways, Mount EBAL or Mount GERIZIM ...........two ways, blessing or cursing. Or to use the words that are in my text tonight. The Bible tells us that in this world we take our choice between things which can be shaken and things which cannot be shaken. Or if you like, in yet another form, we can become citizens of a kingdom that can never be moved, or else we can belong to the kingdoms of this world that can be moved! And this is the fatal choice that the revivalists put before us, and never was this more urgent than at just this present time.

We are living, as I need scarcely remind you, at a time when we are seeing institutions collapsing around and about us. Things upon which we had banked, failing us! The whole of society seems to be collapsing around and about us. So the most urgent problem for everybody in this congregation tonight and everywhere else in the world is not whether we are going to enter or to stay in the European Economic Community (or NATO etc.) or not, but whether we belong to a kingdom that cannot be moved, or the kingdoms which can be shaken and removed!

Now this man of course in putting this in this form was actually dealing with a particular problem confronting these Hebrew Christians. These people to whom he was writing, you see, were Jews and they had been brought up as Jews in their old religion. But they had had the preaching of the Christian Gospel and they had believed it - they had seen the truth. They had left their old religion and had become Christians, and for a while they were enjoying their Christian life and everything was going well.

But unfortunately troubles had arisen. They had been grievously persecuted, because they had become Christians! Their families and friends ostracised them, hated them. Their names were taken out of their sacred books. They were seen as a poor people listening to false teaching, and some of them were beginning to look back at the old faith! " What are we at?" they said, "leaving the old religion and taking up and espousing this new teaching?" And they were looking back with longing eyes at the Temple and its ritual and its ceremonial, and its human priesthood.

And this man writes to express his amazement and to correct them. He says, "Can't you see that those things are only temporary, that those are the things that can be shaken and can be moved." And they have been! Because that which cannot be shaken and that which cannot be moved has come in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His kingdom!

But I want to apply this teaching, it is the same point exactly, to our modern situation tonight! So let me put it to you like this. My dear friends I prayed for grace to be able to reason this matter with you. The times through which we are passing are evil, the times are out of joint, we are in a desperate situation. So look at this! Let us look together for a moment at the things which can be shaken. The things which can be removed!

Unless we are clear about these, we will go on holding on to the things which finally are going to be shaken. We will belong to the kingdoms of this world that are passing away and are coming to nought. So let us have a look at, let us be clear about, the things which can be shaken, which man by nature has always believed cannot be shaken.

What are they? Well they take many forms. The first one I would call attention to is "Empires". Man has ways been a great Empire builder. You read about that in the scriptures, you can read about it in secular literature and in secular history. Man has always had this idea that if he could only conquer the world and set up a great Government and a Kingdom, and organise it and control it by military and various other means, that you would have a kind of Utopia, a kind of perfect society. And so the history of the past, very largely, has been the history of great Empire Building. Great Empires that were going to bring such blessings to mankind.

You read about them here. There was a great Empire called Babylon, and there was a great king at the head of it called Nebuchadnezzar. He had conquered everybody and he was in many ways, a very great man! But he began to think that he was a god, and he was having the people to worship him! And here he looked at his great Empire and he felt that it was unshakeable, nothing could ever touch it. But quite soon, you know, this man found himself like an ox in a field. His nails were grown into talons, his hair was long, his whole body was covered by hair, the dew of heaven descended on him and he was eating grass like an ox. Ridiculed! Humbled! Brought to nothing! That's the kind of thing that I am talking about!

Then I remember another great kingdom that arose called the kingdom of Media Persia, a rather amazing Empire. But that went in the same way and it was one of the most marvellous Empires and Kingdoms of all!

The great Greek Empire under that mighty man Alexander the Great. What a phenomenon, what a genius, what a military genius. He conquered the whole of the then know world before he was 30 years of age, and here he was controlling the entire civilised world, and his kingdom seemed to be unshakeable and endurable. What happened to him? Well I have pointed out many times - I read in a book during the last world war - a certain Swiss author wrote a book on the book of Daniel and he made this interesting remark, "The man that the world calls Alexander the Great is called in the book of Daniel a He-Goat." It all came to nothing. It all passed away and we now talk about "the glory that WAS Greece" and we go and visit the Parthenon and these other great ruins. It has gone!

Then of course the Great Roman Empire. What an Empire! Here were the greatest Empire Builders of all in many ways. Experts in law, military prowess, devolution of government, all the things we are talking about today! The Romans were masters at it. Look how they came to this country, conquered it, built their arterial roads, here in England and also in Wales. What an amazing people. What an Empire! Nothing could ever move it! Do you remember what happened? The Barbarians, the Goths, the Vandals descended in their hordes and conquered the Roman Empire and sacked the City of Rome! And you and I can still go and visit the ruins in Rome! It just went!

Well, I must not keep you. Let me come more up to date. You still remember I suppose a man called Adolph Hitler? Here was a great Empire Builder. How many times did we hear him saying on the radio that he was, "Building the Third Reich which was going to last a thousand years." How long did it last? If I remember rightly it was twelve years, and it ended in a bunker in the City of Berlin which had been reduced to a heap of ruins!

But my dear friends we have got to be honest and face facts. There are many who would say that the greatest Empire that the world has ever known, or ever can know, was the British Empire! And what an Empire it was. "This was the Empire", our grandfathers said, "on which the sun never sets!" A world Empire! I am afraid the sun has set upon it, has it not? Sir Winston Churchill said that, "He did not believe that he had been called to preside at the dissolution or dismemberment of the British Empire!" Nevertheless, he did!!! The great Empire on which the sun never sets, it has gone! We talk vaguely about some Commonwealth, but there is no Empire! You see, man thought these were certain, these were durable, these were lasting, nothing could ever move them. They have gone!

That is only one illustration. Let me take another. Look at what is called "civilisation." Here is man's proud boast. And it is the great word of today of course, "Civilisation." People watching and listening to famous lectures of Lord Clarke, and they were marvellous. "Civilisation", what a story! And the "civilised life", this is it. People are interested in this Christianity of course, fairy tale, folklore, fantasy. "Civilisation", here is the solid something.

Well! What has happened to civilisation? Let us examine it very hurriedly. How has civilisation manifested itself? Well first and foremost through what is called Philosophy. And it is through the name of Philosophy that most people during the last hundred years have turned their back on the Christian Faith!

"Philosophy", what does it say? Well, what Philosophy said was this: That what you wanted was reason' not the fairy tales of the Bible, not the eloquence of the preachers, not the emotionalism of the chapels, but reason'. You had to work things out . You had got a mind and a brain and you exercised reason'. REASON' was put on the throne, REVELATION was thrown through the window. This muck, revelation.......REASON and UNDERSTANDING were the in thing.

And it seemed a mighty and unshakable kingdom! Many of our fathers and forefathers were terrified. This was going to be the end of Christianity! What has happened? Well, I am not inventing this, I could give you chapter and verse to prove what I am saying. One of the greatest characteristics of the present time in the educational and university world is the revolt against REASON!

What are they saying? They say that we must have experience! And they do not care very much, they are not very particular as to how they gain this experience. Take all this talk today about drug addiction, drug taking, and so on. Where did that start? Well the pioneer of the taking of drugs and having this so called "Trip" was a Professor in one of the greatest Universities in America called Harvard University! Timothy Leary, Professor Timothy Leary, was the pioneer in the use of what is called LSD! He taught the young people to take it! Why? "Well", he said, "this reason that we have relied on it is wrong! What we need is experience."

And there is today a wave of irrationality. Students when they go to Universities are leaving their courses half way through, they are going back to live on the land, they want to get back to nature. D.H.Lawrence, the novelist, had taught them that even before Timothy Leary. And so you have got at the present time a situation where reason is utterly dethroned, and irrationalism and force and experience and sensation are taking their place!

Have you noticed how people are turning increasingly to Eastern Mysticism? Some directly to Buddhism! Others to Transcendental Meditation. Mysticism. Thinking, they say, is no good it will lead you into a blank wall. Get in touch with the unknown, Mysticism. So you see the great Empire of Reason is tottering before our very eyes.

What else? Science! Here is another great kingdom! Why it was in the name of science that so many left religion.Charles Darwin had smashed the Bible and proved that Christianity was nonsense, that there was no God, and so on - and that Science was the great God! Here was another great Kingdom that could not be shaken. You know they talked about Newton's Laws. Not Newton's Theorem. Of course not! We are dealing with facts now! We are not in the realm of religion! We are in the realm of science now! And Newton, of course, has established that there are certain Laws, and that they are absolute. Newton's LAWS! You will not find a single great scientist today who believes in Newton's Laws! A man called Einstein finished them completely!

The great word of today is not LAWS, but RELATIVITY! Everything is moving. Everything is changing! When I was trying to learn a little bit of chemistry, we were taught what was called DALTON'S Law. Again you see not a theory, not an idea, it was a LAW! What was it?.............That an atom was indivisible! Now this was an absolute fact! The smallest particle of matter is an atom. And an atom CANNOT be split! The great problem of the world tonight is that the atom not only CAN be split, but HAS been split! The Empire of Science is not only shaken before our eyes, it is almost in ruins!

What else? Well another thing that people banked on as over and against this emotional religion was a belief in Law and Order! Good Government, that is what we needed! I have often said this, I think I've said it from this pulpit, I remember the time you know before the first world war and many of our nonconformist fathers virtually worshipped Lloyd George, they believed that by Acts of Parliament you could change the world and get a durable and lovely society, and of course they said, "It's alright, we've advanced so much."

There was a time when you had a Monarchy, or an Oligarchy, or an Aristocracy, and so on, but now we have got the ultimate, the perfection in political science, DEMOCRACY! The rule of the people! The people governing themselves. Government of the people, by the people, for the people! But some people said, "Well how can you guarantee that this is going to be all right. If every man is going to be a ruler, how are you going to keep law and order?" "Oh!" They said, "You needn't worry. Every man instinctively believes in observing the Rule of Law!" "The Rule of Law" they said, "is inviolable, you can rely on it. Men in the last result will always respect the Rule of Law, and they will obey!"

What is happening? Well we are reading constantly, are we not, about men saying, "Oh I know that Act of Parliament was passed, but I don't like it." And he does not observe it! They ignore it, they ignore certain courts of law, indeed even within institutions, the leaders of the Trade Unions can decide upon something and if a group of men said, "We don't agree, we don't like it!" Then they say, "We are not going to observe this!" Is there any Rule of Law? Is not one of the major causes of the present crisis that men and women are no longer paying any respect to the Law whatsoever, every man does that which is right in his own eyes.

But for me to hurry on. Another thing that people banked on was Industry. This was something solid and durable. It is alright if you like a bit of emotionalism, but if you really want to build a great Empire, something that you can rely upon and something that's going to last.............INDUSTRY! Build up great Industrial Businesses!

Our Grandfathers, the Victorians, this was their great idea. As the British Empire was expanding in a military sense and a political sense, so the great businesses were expanding. And you had these great institutions in the City of London. Now you see, the belief in industry went as far as this. They were so certain that nothing could upset this Empire of Industry, that they invented a slogan...........If you wanted to prove that something was absolutely reliable, could never be shaken, what you said was this. "It's as safe as the Bank of England!"

Are you still saying that? It seems to me that these Banks are now turning to the Arabs to borrow money to carry on their industries. "Safe as the Bank of England"............The Pound Sterling..........here's a thing to build on........ and our proud Victorian fathers they had said, "This is durable!" I wonder what they would say tonight?

And on I could go. The belief in man himself. Man is Indestructible! He is Master of his fate, Captain of his soul, MAN! Do you know the modern world man? We are told that he is nothing but a bundle of sensations!

I read this in a learned Scientific Journal. "After all" said the article "Man is nothing ultimately but chemistry and physics." No soul, nothing real, man is just the result of these impersonal forces, he is just the result of these and is not responsible! That is man! So man, who has been worshipped instead of God for over one hundred years, has toppled to the ground. He is become NOTHING! And man is the plaything of these terrifying forces that are around and about him!

"Oh yes" says someone "There is something that is really lasting and durable and eternal." "Well what's that?" I say. "Well" He says, "nature itself, the universe. The universe is immovable. The mountains, the everlasting hills and the rivers and the streams and the sea, here is something that can never be shaken. This is durable and lasting and absolute." Is it? The Bible has always said that it is not!

The Bible tells us that a day is coming when the elements will melt with a fervent heat - that everything is going to be purged and a new creation is going to happen! 2 Peter 3:10 says, ‘But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.’ And verse 12 adds, ‘Looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?’

But this has been ridiculed! This, of course, we are told, is the kind of fantasy that you get in your Bible, which is not based on reason or science or understanding. Fancy talking, they say, about the end of the world! But you know some of the leading scientists and the greatest thinkers of the world tonight are prophesying the end of the world!

This is so serious that I do not apologise for quoting two people to you. There is a gentleman by the name of Mr Morris Strong. He is the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (This was in 1975), and in a conference held in Nairobi he said this on June the 5th 1974. "The voices of doom which see no way out for human survival cannot be dismissed entirely."

Now this is not some little preacher who gets excited with his sermon. This is the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program. "If our hopes for the future are to be based on a realistic assessment of the evidence before us we will have to acknowledge that IF doomsday is NOT inevitable, it is possible, perhaps even probable, if we continue on our present course."

Some of you may have seen the series on the television recently, where there were a number of people, including Mr Morris Strong, warning people about the possible end of the world - doomsday! Listen to another, Barbara Ward, Lady Jackson! This is how she writes! "We stand at the hinge of history!" Now this again, this is not some emotional non-conformist, this is a great thinker! "We stand at the hinge of history, the door of the future opening onto a crisis more sudden, more global, more inescapable and more bewildering than any ever encountered by the human species, and one which will take decisive shape within the life span of children who are already born!"

Here are serious voices, and I could name many others, most of them not Christians at all. Barbara Ward IS, most of them are not! But they are solemnly telling us that unless something unexpected and dramatic happens, we are face to face with the end of the world! The end of civilisation, the end of the whole cosmos as we have known it! And they are saying this of course because of the problems of pollution, and of ecology. The mounting population explosion, and the real danger of a world famine!

Well now then! There you see, we have been looking at Empires which mankind thought were absolutely immovable and unshakeable. And everyone of them has been shaken before our eyes. We are living in an age of collapsing institutions. Not only religion and knowledge, but everything is really and literally collapsing before our very faces. Now the question that arises is this. Why can all these things be shaken? That is the question, is it not? Why is the world as it is? Why can all these things be shaken, and why are they being shaken before our very eyes?

And do you know this man answers the question. Listen to how he puts it. See verse 27. ‘And this word, “Yet once more”, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made.’ Things that are made. Things that are made! And that is why all these things are collapsing. They are all created and they are therefore all finite! Everything that man does is made by a finite being! This is man’s fatal fallacy. He thinks that he can encompass the cosmos, but he cannot. He is too small! And this is what the modern scientists in their honesty are telling us. They said, "Those people used to talk about laws. What they didn't realise was this, we are only looking at a sector of reality. We can say certain things about the little sector that we are looking at, and there seem to be certain Laws here, but you cannot be sure of a thing. It is a probability."

But what of all that we do not see? What of all that we do not know about? This expanding Universe? Man is finite! Everything he makes is finite! He is too small, he has not the understanding, and yet you see he has not hesitated to jettison revelation, to turn his back on God and laugh at Him and ridicule Him and say that he can encompass the Universe. Poor man! He is a created being. He is too small. He is a part of it himself.

But according to the Bible these things a man makes are not durable and are being shaken away, not only because man is created and finite, but also because he is sinful! And because he is sinful, everything he makes is corrupt! His very best is corrupt! The more he aspires towards perfection, the more he shows his corruption.

Consider Matthew 6 .19. ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth,’ says our Lord. Why not? ‘Where moth and rust corrupts, and where thieves break through and steal.’ Everything man touches, every thing man makes is corrupt! Because man himself is corrupt!

‘The human heart’, says Jeremiah (Jer 17 : 9) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?’ At the heart of men there is this treachery, and it comes out in all that he does. Look at the greed and the selfishness. It is the characteristic of the whole of life and all of man’s institutions. I think I referred to it in passing this afternoon. Let me say it again for those who were not here this afternoon. Look at the political realm.Do you not see the greed, the selfishness, the jealousy, the envy, the readiness to stab one another. Who can trust who?

Everything that man touches is corrupt. It has got evil in it. And because of that it begins to decay the moment he makes it. And so the whole history of civilisation is one of circles. Man making great achievements, Empires going up and up and up. They reach the top and then down they go! It is the same with civilisations! Read about the great civilisations of China, of Egypt and of various other Empires of the past, the great knowledge that they garnered. And it has all been lost. They are beginning to rediscover bits of it. This is the story of the human race!

This is because man himself who has made them, is himself corrupt. But you know the ultimate cause of the collapsing of all the Empires made by man, whether military, or civilisation, or philosophy, or science, or whatever it is, the ultimate cause why they collapse is this: That the curse of God is on them! God will not allow man to arrogate these powers to himself! The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small.

The patience of God! Look at it in the Old Testament stories. He allowed these great Empires to arise, and they seemed to be encompassing the whole world. Then God arose and blew on them and they vanished! There is a marvellous story at the end of the twelfth chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. A Jewish King called Herod hated the Christians. He arrested one of them called James and put him to death. Then he arrested Peter, and thought of killing him, but Peter escaped.

And then we are told that certain neighbours of this man came to him. They wanted some favour from him. So they fawned on him and they did their obeisance and they praised him. And he delivered a great oration to them. Acts 12 : 21-22 tells us, ‘And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man”.’

What a colossus! But the end of the story is this. God sent an angel who smote him! And he was eaten by worms. But the word of God grew and multiplied. As verses 23-24 say, ‘And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. But the word of God grew and multiplied.’

God will not give His honour to another. God will not allow man to inflate himself to the heavens. God is opposed to sin and evil! Do you remember how Paul puts it in writing to the Romans? He says, "I am longing to preach the gospel in Rome. I have been hindered so far. But I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ." Which means I am very proud of it! Why? "Well it is God’s way of salvation to everyone who believes."

But why is he so anxious to preach it? He tells us. "I am anxious to preach this gospel," says Paul, "for the wrath of God from heaven is already revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold down the truth in ungodliness." (Romans 1.18)

Why is our world as it is tonight! It is the wrath of God my friends! Why have you had your two world wars, in spite of our education and our culture, in spite of our knowing that war is madness! Why do men still fight? Why pile up armaments? Why build the bombs? What is the matter? I say that there is only one answer and it is this. For a hundred years we have been telling God that we can get on without Him, that we can run the world. We do not need God! We can do it by Acts of Parliament and Political Parties and various other means.

And I believe that God is saying this to us. "Very well! If you say that you can get on without me, get on without me! And He has withdrawn His restraints. That is His way of showing His wrath! He has handed us over to a reprobate mind! He is leaving us to ourselves! And we are seeing the fools that we are and we are reducing the cosmos to a chaos, and the wrath of God is upon us! Can you not feel it? The wrath of God is upon this benighted generation to which we belong. That is the great message of the Bible!

You know all really deep thinkers have always realised this! Shakespeare had seen it! I do not know how much of a Christian Shakespeare was, but he had seen this. This is how he puts it in the mouth of Prospero in The Tempest, and in Macbeth: "Our revels now are ended, and, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yeah, all which it inherits, shall dissolve, and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” What is life? Well it is something that is “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!"

So says Shakespeare. And he is only wrong in that last word! That it is rounded off with a sleep. It is not! I am now going to tell you what it is rounded off with! But there my friends we have had a glance at the things which can be shaken, the things that we have been banking on, the things that we said we could live on! We did not need this religion, this emotionalism. We had got something solid, substantial, unshakable and immovable! And they are all shaking, quaking and collapsing before our eyes. The Bible has always said so! Thank God that we can turn to look at things that cannot be shaken. We can consider as hurriedly as I can kingdoms which cannot be moved! What are they?

In this world as it is tonight with this fearful outlook, depicted by scientists, philosophers and others, is there anything that I can bank on? Is there anything that I can hold on to? There is. Listen! What are the things that cannot be shaken? The first thing is what this man refers to in verse 27. ‘And this word.’ This word! This word yet once more. This voice! It is the great theme of the book. This man starts off by saying in Hebrews 1:1-2, ‘God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.’

Do you know that it comes to this. That there is literally only one hope in this world at this moment! What is it? That God has spoken! The Word of God! Here is a something which cannot be shaken! This man says in Hebrews 12 : 25 , ‘See that you refuse not Him who speaks.’ The same thing! Why is this unshakeable? Well you know our Lord Himself put it like this. He said in Matthew 24 : 35, ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’ The heavens and the earth they are going! But My words shall not pass away.

And so the sermon of the Apostle Peter years later repeated it in these words. Writing to Christian people he said in 1Peter 1 : 23, ‘Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever.’ Listen to verse 24, ‘For all flesh is as grass.’ And is it not? ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man.’ Yes, in your City Hall, and in the pomp and the ceremony of royalty and others, ‘For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away. But the word of the Lord endures for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached to you.’

So here is something, you see, that we must listen to. This is something that can never be moved, never be shaken. He has gone on speaking. Look at the centuries along which this word has been speaking. 1500 - 2000 years, all the way back to the beginning! From the moment man fell the word of God was his only hope and it goes on speaking when everything else comes and goes.

Why is this so durable? And the answer is, because it is the word of God Himself. God is from everlasting, to everlasting. Jehovah Great I Am! I am that I am! I am what I shall be! I am - I always have been! I AM! This is GOD!

The Everlasting and Eternal GOD! The God over all. The Creator, the Sustainer of the whole cosmos. God IS! He cannot lie! He cannot change Himself! He is the father of Lights, with Whom there is no variableness, neither shadow cast by turning!

And so He has spoken. And what has He taught us? Well He has given us His law. And this is another absolute. God having made man, told him how to live. And He told him that if he did not live in that way he would be miserable, and that his life would be what the history of mankind has proved to be. God told man that in the Garden of Eden when He had made him! And He repeated this law in the Ten Commandments given through Moses. Expounded by The Lord Jesus Christ in the sermon on the Mount. God has told us perfectly plainly how to live! And these are absolutes today, as they were at the very beginning. And what God has told us is this............That there is only one way of blessing. There is only one way to be happy. There is only one way to be secure. It is to obey the laws of God!

What are they? Let me remind you of them in this modern world.

We are to worship God and worship Him alone. We are not to bow down to any graven image. I am not to worship the Pound Sterling, or the dollar, or the Bank of England, or Fort Knox, or the British Empire or my own Nation or my own Language. I am not to worship my Institutions, my Learning, my Education, my Knowledge, my Success. They are graven images! I am to worship God alone!

What else?

You shall not kill! What if that were being observed by everybody in Great Britain and America tonight! There would none of these tragedies and these terrible problems that we read of day by day in the papers. You shall not kill! You shall not steal! What a terrible problem is the problem of pilfering, petty theft and robbery. You cannot trust anybody. Dishonesty in business and everywhere else, and you cannot rely on anybody. Dishonesty! You shall not kill! You shall not steal!

You shall not commit adultery! Oh if only everybody observed these laws. There would not be men and women breaking their hearts tonight. There would not be little children ruined psychologically because of their fathers and mothers, their quarrelling and their separations and their divorces. The agony of the world. Because men do not obey God's Law!

God says.............I could name the rest to you. You shall not covet your neighbour’s ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his...You shall not bare false witness...............

These are the laws of God and God has said that if you do not obey them you will have a life of misery and of wretchedness. He sums it up in a phrase....."The way of the transgressor is hard". Did ever man set out to be a drunkard? Did any man ever set out to be a drug addict? "No! No!" The young fellow said, "I'm just going with the boys - I'm going to have a drink - why shouldn't I - it's a sign of manhood!" And he was warned, "Be careful - many a man has ended up a drunkard." "Oh!" He said, "They were weak willed." Off he goes - but he ends up as an alcoholic! A hopeless drunkard!

And likewise with the drug addict. How clever it is to dabble with these things. Just to have a smoke, just to have one little experience, and it leads to the refuse dump! And you become nothing, less than human! A poor mass of dissolute humanity.

But you see, this is because men and women do not believe God who says that the way of the Transgressor is hard. In the words of Isaiah 57 : 21, ‘There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked.And though we have tried Leagues of Nations, the United Nations Organisations, we are still preparing for war and it is likely to come. Why? ‘There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked.’ Though you are a wealthy Nation and Empire, though you have amassed your learning and your knowledge, you will never know peace while you are at enmity against me! God has said it! These are absolutes - these are unshakable statements!

Let us look at the future. Why is the world as it is tonight, I have asked. And I answer that the Bible alone gives an answer to that. It is all due to man's disobedience and sin! Many a man has said to me, "You know that's all very well, but your Christianity has proved to be a failure itself." "How do you make that out?" I say. The man says, "Look at your Christianity. It has been preached now, it has been preached now for nearly 2000 years, and yet look at the state of the world you yourself are describing. Your Christianity has not abolished war. Your Christianity has not brought us peace. I am not interested."

Do you know the reply to that? Christianity has never promised to reform this world. Christianity has never promised to abolish war. The Lord Jesus Christ said that there shall be wars and rumours of wars right until the end of time. Listen to it.....This is how HE puts it: HE says, ‘As it was in the days of Noah before the flood.’ What were they doing? They were marrying and giving in marriage - buying, selling, planting, sowing, reaping, building - that is how they were before the flood. Having a marvellous good time, in spite of that fool Noah who was warning them. Marrying, giving in marriage, eating drinking, dancing, right up until the flood took them away. ‘Even so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man.’

And then He goes on to say, that as it was in the days before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah they are doing exactly the same thing. That is just what the modern man is doing. The modern man does not believe in this nonsense in the Bible. What does he believe in? Marriage and giving in marriage, eating, drinking, dancing, indulging, sex, buying, selling, planting, sowing, reaping. This is it. And they knew not! Our Lord has always warned us, and He has gone on to tell us that the world is going on towards a final judgement. This is the statement of the scriptures. That everyone of us is to stand before God in judgement.

This man puts it in a telling phrase in Hebrews 9 : 27 where he says, ‘And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.’ Whether you like it or not my friend, you are not an animal, you are a man or woman, and you have got a soul within you and it is an immortal soul, and when you die it is not the end of you, you have to go and stand before God at the bar of judgement. God pays you this compliment, He expects something of you.

We were not made just to eat and to drink and indulge ourselves. I am a responsible being, made in the image and likeness of God, and I will have to give Him an account of the deeds done in the body It is coming - for certain! God has said it from the very beginning, repeated by His blessed Son! Not only that, He makes it very plain to us that if any of us die in a state of enmity against Him, and in our sins, we will go to what is called hell. What is hell? A place of eternal misery and wretchedness! This is absolute! This is not the word of statesmen or of politicians or of philosophers or of preachers. It is the word of God!

But thank God He does not leave it that, otherwise we would all be damned! ‘As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3 : 10). There is this other addition that God makes, and that is that He has a purpose with regard to this world. We are receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. What is this? Well this is the kingdom of God. This is really the central theme of the Bible.

The moment man fell he became miserable and wretched. He went to hide himself behind the trees in the garden. And God came down and He pronounced judgement. And the man began to reap the consequences of the judgement. And then God gave the promise! He said, "Because of what you have done, I am going to set enmity between the seed of that Serpent that has got you down and the seed of the woman, but the Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent’s head."

Here is the first promise of salvation! God said, "This is my world. I am not going to abandon it. I am going to redeem a people out of it. I am going to set up my own kingdom, in this world!" And the whole of the Old Testament tells us of the Coming of The Kingdom! That is the meaning, you know, of the call of Abraham! Abraham was a pagan in the eyes of the Chaldee. God said, "Come out I want to turn you into a nation and through you all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed." The Kingdom of God is on the move!

And you read it in the Old Testament, you read about it in the Psalms, you read about it in David, you read about its coming in the great prophesies. Comfort, comfort My People", says your God. Why? The Deliverer is coming! The King is going to come!

And when the fulness of the times was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law! And what did He begin to preach? What was the first sermon of Jesu Christ? This was it: "The time is at hand! Repent! The kingdom of God is at hand! This is His message! Here is the King and He is coming to establish a Kingdom! And in order to make it possible He has prepared the way for us to enter into it.

And this is the whole story of the Christian Church. She is the visible form of the Kingdom of God! He's calling people out of the world and it's kingdoms, into His Kingdom! A Kingdom which can never be moved and never destroyed. And it is growing and it is developing, additions every age and generation and century! Until the fulness of the gentiles and the fulness of Israel shall be come in and the Kingdom will be complete and Christ will be head of it all and He will hand it back to God, and God shall be "OVER ALL". That is the ultimate promise!

So there is a way of escape. We can leave the kingdoms of men that are collapsing and become citizens of a Kingdom which cannot be moved! And which can never be shaken! These are absolutes. But the is another vital absolute and it is this. That there is only one way of entering this Kingdom of God. Now then, listen for your lives! This is the only Kingdom that is going to last. If you belong to the kingdoms of men, you will be destroyed with them! And you will reap the consequence for all eternity. There is only one place of safety and that is the Kingdom of God.

How can I enter it? Is it by living a good life? Is it by opposing war? Is it by being moral and denouncing the dissolute members of society today? No! No! There is only one way. This man has kept on repeating it! It is not in going back to Judaism, it is not in going back to the Temple, it is not going to any earthly priesthood, whether it be Roman or Jewish. No! No! ‘There is only one mediator between God and men and that is the man Christ Jesus.’ Everything else has been shaken, that "That which cannot be shaken" may remain.

There has been ONE offering once and for all. This Man, having made one offering for sin, sat down on the right hand of God in the Majesty on High! The blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer, cannot cleans the conscience! Only the blood of Jesus!

What does the blood of Jesus tell you tonight? It tells you this - and thank God for it! It tells you that even though there be no sin that you have not committed, if you tonight see that you have sinned against God and that you are hell bent, you have got to repent and believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, and that He died on the cross on Calvary's hill and His blood was shed that your sins might be blotted out and forgiven. And then you will be reconciled to God, and you will become a citizen of this Eternal Kingdom! It is the ONLY way! NONE other. This is God's LAST word, which He has spoken in His Son!

But my dear friends, thank God that it did not even stop at that, because believing that and becoming a Christian, and knowing that my sins are forgiven I find that I am still in this difficult terrible world, which is attacking me on all sides and trying to drag me down. How can I stand? How can I persist? How can I live? And the answer is that God has made provision for me. This man has a very dramatic and glorious statement in chapter six. He is exhorting these people not to be slothful, but to be followers of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises. He says in Hebrews 6.13-14, "When God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater He swore by Himself, saying ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you’.” And God has sworn. He has taken an oath. “So that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us!” This is the word that comes to you tonight! The promise of God. The oath of God!

When all around my soul gives way, He only is my hope and stay! On Christ the solid rock I stand! The promises of God! God cannot lie! God cannot withdraw a promise! And what does He promise? This man goes on to tell us in the next chapter, in Hebrews 13 : 6, “So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me. Man may trouble me and distress me, it will but drive me to His breast!

“ I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” What a promise! What a hope! I do not understand and nobody else does! What do I do? I rest on His unchanging grace. And listen to this! What ever may happen to you my friend , if you believe in this Lord Jesus Christ you can be ceratin of this........... . “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13 : 8). You cannot say that about any man, can you? They make their lavish promises - they break them - they change their views - they change their parties - they go back on their own policies. Who can you rely on? No! No! There is only One, Jesus Christ, the same as He was in the first century, as He has been ever since, as He is today and ever will be. He cannot deny Himself!

As 2 Timothy 2 : 19 tells us, “Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows those who are his. And, Let every one who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” The foundation of God stands sure! And as Peter reminds us, God has already provided for us. In 2 Peter 1 : 3 he says, “According as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him Who has called us to glory and virtue.”: We are surrounded by exceeding great and precious promises. God, Who cannot lie, He has pledged Himself. These things you can bank on! They are absolutely eternal!

Very well, my friends, there are the things which cannot be shaken. "Ah! But wait a minute," says someone "Aren't you simply carrying us away? Aren't you simply persuading us in a clever manner? Aren't you just an advocate? Can I rely on these things . Can you give me some proof?" Well, I can, thank God!

All this is based on history you know. God made a promise at the dawn of history. Abraham belongs to history. The story of the Jews, God's own people, belongs to history. The promises are here, the promises made by the prophets of the coming Messiah. They seemed to be ridiculous, people did not believe them, they were much too clever to believe them, they laughed at them, they ridiculed them, as they did with the threats and the warnings of Noah and of Lot, but nevertheless, when the fulness of the times was come, God DID send forth His Son! Jesus of Nazareth is not a figment in a novel, Jesus of Nazareth belongs to history!

You acknowledge that all the time! Why do you call this 1975? It is because of when HE came! His death is a fact! His resurrection is a fact. We would not be here if it was not a fact. And you see, it is based upon this immutable statement of God. And not only that. Have you ever thought of this? Man himself and our evil forces have done their utmost to destroy the Kingdom of God. Read your Old Testament, how these big dynasties arose and tried to destroy the Jews. But God always brought them back, whilst others WENT!

And then He sent His own Son into the world. The King was come! What happened? Herod the king tried to kill Him, even while He was an infant! But he did not succeed! He went on preaching. Pharisee, Scribes, Sadducees, Doctors of the Law, Herodians - they all weaved a net around Him. And they drew it in. They were out to destroy Him. And at last they found Him, and they had Him, and they condemned Him unjustly, and they nailed Him to a tree, and He died. And they took down His broken body and buried it in a grave. "At last!" they said. "The kingdom of God has been destroyed. It has been shaken. He has been killed. He is dead . He is buried. It is the end!"

IS IT? The morning of the third day He bursts asunder the bands of death.

No! No! Here is the test of time. The Christian Church came into being, and cruel men tried to destroy her! To exterminate her at the very beginning! The opposition was violent at the very beginning. But they never destroyed her. She nearly destroyed herself in Roman Catholicism. But even that failed! And God raised a Martin Luther and the Kingdom goes on! And you and I have often tried to destroy her in our ignorance - we cannot!

And that is what we are seeing.

So be it Lord!

Here is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, that cannot be moved. What am I to do you ask? It is desperate I agree. You may be killed on the way home tonight! You may die. The end may come - according to the prophecies. How can I enter this Kingdom of God, you say? Fortunately this man has answered your question, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom.” (Hebrews 12:28). You have got to receive it, which means that you believe what I have been trying to say, which is the message of the Bible You believe it. You have got to. You must recognise the facts. If you believe it, tell Him that you believe it, that you receive it. Receive the Kingdom which cannot be moved.

As he says in Hebrews 12:25, “See that you refuse not Him Who speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him who spoke on earth - (that was Moses) - much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him Who speaks from heaven.” ............... See that you refuse not this blessed word, my dear friend, as you value your own soul! Because if you refuse it, believe me the words that I have spoken to you tonight, will come back to you in eternity, in the midst of your misery, and you will say..........."Oh, why did I not listen to that word?" See that you refuse not.

What else? Hebrews 12 : 28, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace --.” What does that mean? Let us show gratitude, let us give thanks to God. When we realise these things, how we must thank God! That in a dissolving universe, with everything going to an eternal misery and loss, that He has ever sent His Son into the world. He so humbled Himself and endured so much, even a shameful and ignominious death, and was buried in a grave.

No! He is the author of life. He did it all....why?....that you and I might be forgiven and might enter this Kingdom which can never be shaken. Do you not think that we ought to thank Him? Give grace - have grace? Thank God, and then let us have grace whereby we may serve God - serve God. Which means that you cease to serve your earthly kings and your earthly kingdoms, your drink, your dancing, your drugs, your bingos. I am not denouncing them. I am simply showing you that they lead you to destruction. It's you that matters. Do not serve them. Do no't serve the gods of this world. For the kingdoms of this world and all that belong to them are passing away, and all their glory. Serve God! Give yourself to Him! Ask for grace to live the life He has depicted for you. Come amongst His people. Share a life with His citizens. For you are all going to reign together with Christ when He comes in His glory. Serve Him!

How do you serve him? Well, acceptably with reverence and godly fear, “For our God is a consuming fire.” You cannot dance and waltz yourself into the Kingdom of God! God is to be served, not as we think, but as He has commanded, acceptably with reverence and godly fear, “For our God is a consuming fire.”

What do I say in conclusion? Well this my testimony. This is how I live.

And He does! And He will - forever and forever! Amen!