Things that cannot be moved

 

We live in a society that demands constant change. If you don’t change the way you think and embrace the new way than many times you will get left behind. For instance there is always a new software program to learn at work and if you are not willing to change then most likely you will not have a job for very long. In the business world things are always changing. For example stores used to rely upon people physically coming to their shop. However, in the last 5 years Business had to embrace the internet and start making their product available online or else they would lose a great deal of money. Another example is the text books that our children use to learn from in school. Many of these books have to be revised every year or so to keep up with the new discoveries that are made. The science field is another great example of the constant change that we go through because they are constantly learning new things that changes what we thought was right before. These are just a few modern day examples that show how much we are used to changing and adapting.

 

We can also see instability throughout history as we have seen new countries form and old ones fall. Not only do we have examples of this in our history books we can see these type of events happening in the Bible as well. For instance, when Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar dream he told him how his kingdom would be replaced by another and that kingdom would be replaced by another and so on. So, it very obvious that nothing in this world in regards to humans or the kingdom’s they may setup are sure things because all of them will at some point be shaken or moved.

 

Since we are always facing constant changes in our society and changing the way we think this has led many  today in the religious world to start desiring to revamp the way that we worship God and so they come armed with their new ideas of how to make it better and they try to influence as many as they can to join in with them and embrace their new ways just like they embrace every thing else. Many are willing to do this, because they are tired of feeling limited on what they can do under traditional worship.

 

Why this may seem like a wonderful idea on the surface to enhance the worship service by using whatever means are necessary to appeal to the masses we must come to back to reality and realize that God is unchanging and when we come to worship him we don’t come to please our entertain ourselves. We come to worship our God and be pleasing him by obey his commands. Jesus makes this clear in,

 

John 4:24"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

 

Worshiping God in spirit means worshiping him from our heart and worshiping him truth means worshiping according to His word.  

 

John 17:17 "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

 

Both of these are necessary to make your worship pleasing to him. We also need to note what the writer of Hebrews says,

 

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

 

You see God has not changed the way he wants things done. His pattern and his kingdom cannot be shaken or moved. In fact the writer of Hebrews tells us this very thing.

 

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

 

This whole phrase “cannot be shaken” comes from the Greek word asaleutos which means - not subject to alteration of essential nature or being, unshakable, enduring, unmovable.

 

This plainly shows us that God’s kingdom or we could say his church cannot be shaken or moved because it will continue forever. Even when Jesus comes back again and destroys the earth, the kingdom will then be handed over to father where it will remain in heaven for eternity. The kingdom/church will last forever and the way that God has set it up will endure forever as well. So the kingdom of God cannot be moved.

 

Another thing that cannot be moved is truth itself. While it is true that the false way will have its hour, but it will never endure. Things that are build upon lies can never survive and those who live for falsehood will certainly pay the price.

 

Proverbs 19:5 A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who speaks lies will not escape.

 

Revelation 21:8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

 

So a person should never desire the false way because failure will always await them. Instead, every person that is follower of God should have the same attitude as expressed in,

 

Psalm 25:4 Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.  5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.

 

God’ truth is what we should seek because his truth will never die and it will not change. This is why we see Jesus tells us that,

 

Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

 

No matter how many times someone tries to destroy the truth it will not change because just as Jesus has said, even if heaven and earth are gone his words will still remain. The Bible makes is very clear that neither you nor I have the ability or the authority to change God’s Word and so that makes God’s truth unmovable and we should not try and comprise his truth for the sake of trying to please others. In fact this message can clearly be seen from many passages. First of notice,

 

1 Corinthians 4: 6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other.

 

Paul is letting us know as Christians we are not go beyond what is written in the Scriptures because they are our authority and pattern to follow and they have everything in them that we need to know about living our life for God.

 

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,  17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Over and over again we can see the N.T. writers expressing the importance of holding to the truth and nothing but the truth. For example Paul tells Timothy,

 

2 Timothy 1:13  Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

 

The reason why this was so important to the N.T. writers was because they knew that there would be false teachers that would rise up and try to deceive people by keeping them away from absolute truth. That exactly what Paul tells Timothy in,

 

2 Timothy 3:1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,  4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!  6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,  7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 

We have to realize that  these kind of people exist today and they will do whatever it takes to distort God’s truth. But we have been warned beforehand and if we properly arm ourselves with God’s unmovable truth then their deceitfulness will not have an effect on us. But, we cannot just sit by and allow these false concepts to come to bloom; instead we must speak out and allow God’s truth to overcome these falsehoods no matter how popular they may be. In fact that’s exactly what Paul tells Timothy to do in,

 

2 Timothy 4:1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:  2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.  3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;  4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.  5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

 

Friends, there is nothing more powerful than God’s truth but you must be willing to use it as your authority and guide by making it a part of your lives every day that you can. If you never pick up your Bible and learn from it, then you will never become the faithful Christian you should be and you will never be able to defend God’s truth.  

 

Some people say that truth is relative and that I can have one truth from the Bible and someone else can have another. If this concept is true then there really isn’t anyway that we can find absolute truth from the Bible because this view makes every one right no matter what conclusion they come to. However,  Jesus makes it very clear that there is absolute truth and that we can all know that truth.

 

John 8:31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  32 "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  

 

If truth is relative then a person cannot know the truth but Jesus says that we can because there is only 1 truth. So, don’t allow yourself to ever get caught up in this game that truth is relative.

 

Another thing that shows that truth is not relative is the fact that there consequences for not obeying God’s Word. For example, notice what happens in the OT example in,

 

Leviticus 10:1 Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.  2 So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. 

 

This a great OT example of what happened to these 2 priests who decided to make their own fire which was not the same fire as God had commanded. Now if truth was relative they would not have lost their lives but since truth is absolute they did lose their lives because they could know God truth on what fire was acceptable and what fire was not.  While God doesn’t kill people today as he did with them we are still warned about disobeying his commands under the NT. In fact the punishment for living an disobedient life is far worse than physical death.  

 

2 Thessalonians 1:7 when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,  8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,  10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.

 

When a person decides to live the false away outside of God’s commands by doing things their own way, then they will face everlasting destruction. But, the bright side of this is that those that are faithful to the Lord and are walking in his commandments will spend eternity in heaven. So without a doubt God’s truth is unmovable.

 

Another thing that is unmovable is God’s plan of salvation for all humans and how he wants everyone to know the truth about being saved.

 

1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,  4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 

James 1:21  Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

 

These two verses teach us that we must go to God’s Word to find out how to be saved. Now I  have already established that God’s word is absolute truth so everyone should come to the same conclusion on what it takes become saved. In fact, if you were here last week we took a very close look at the great commission and we found out exactly what the Word of God said about becoming a disciple of Christ and remaining a disciple of Christ.

 

The truth that I taught in that lesson has not changed and therefore the message is the same today. The word of God says the following things are necessary for salvation.

 

John 3:16  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

 

Luke 13:3 "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

 

Romans 10:9  f you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

 

1 Peter 3:21 There is also an antitype which now saves us -- baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

 

Now most in religious world would agree that a person needs to believe, repent and confess but when it comes to baptism they say, “no it not necessary.” Now I will say this baptism isn’t any more important than these other things that we must do to be saved but it is just as important as those other things. All of these work together to bring about salvation.

 

One thing that the Bible does stress is that  baptism is the point where one is united with Christ in his death Rom 6 and it is the point that our sins are removed according to Acts 2:38, and Col 2:12 ff. When we are raised up out of the water we are considered a new creature that is now living its life for Jesus Rom 6. At the point of baptism we are added to the church by God 1 Cor. 12:13; Acts 2: 47. Finally according to Gal. 3:27 and Rom 6:3 baptism is how we get into Christ where all the spiritual blessing are found Rom. 8;1.

 

The only reason I am stressing baptism more than I am these other things is because this command is being ignored by many in the religious world and it makes the difference of being lost or being saved. If a person never obeys God’s simply of plan of salvation which includes baptism, they will always be outside of Christ and no matter how great that person may be or how many great works they do it doesn’t change the fact that they are lost because they are outside of Christ. I know that is a hard saying but that is what the word of God teaches us. So, God plan of salvation cannot be moved.

 

We have examined several things that cannot be moved or shaken in this lesson. We learned that God cannot be moved, his kingdom cannot be moved, his truth cannot be moved and finally his plan of salvation cannot be moved.