What is your Security?

Title:  What is your Security?

Scripture Reading:  Isaiah 2:19; 13:13:  Hebrew 12:25-27

And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

²⁶ Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

²⁷ And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Isaiah 2:19 declares that YHWH will ‘arise’ and this first verb can denote that He will:

1. Appear on the scene of the Earth
2. Arise for action from His throne

The second verb ‘tremble’ describes the physical creation will tremble as its Creator approaches. 

Isaiah informs us that it will take place on the Day of the LORD  The Day of the LORD is used more than 25 times in the bible.  It does not refer to one specific day.  Actually it speaks of God’s time. 

So how do you describe the Day of the LORD.  The prophet Isaiah says that God is about to visit his people in anger. How is it manifested?

1. As to its object, He will bring down all that exalts itself against God
2. As to its scope – it is to be upon trees, mountains, hills, towers, walls, ships, pleasant pictures, idol
3. As to its practical effects, it is to alarm and terrify, to make men fly and hide themselves, and to produce contempt of the security in which they have so long trusted.

Hebrews 12:25 warns us to ‘see to it’. 

I thank God we live in the age of Grace.  But we have to see to it that we respond correctly

We must make a volitional decision. What will you do with Jesus, the author and finisher of the faith?

At the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai there was an earthquake, the shaking of the earth.  At the Crucifixion of Christ there was an earthquake. Now God is saying that the day is coming where he shakes not just a specific location but the whole globe where He is going to shake everything.  This shaking will be so great that ‘the earth shall remove out of her place.

Isaiah 30:25 says, ‘And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the slaughter, when the towers fall.

Trees, mountains, hills, towers, walls, ships, are all pleasant pictures to behold

Isaiah 30:25 tells that all will become unpleasant and tall buildings will fall.

God is going to shake everything to let all His created universe know that there are somethings which are unshakeable, and one of those things is living faith in Jesus Christ. 

So, I ask you today, What is your security?

1. Yourself?

Two stories, both true.  One a Christian and the other an unbeliever.

Isaiah 40:30 says, ‘though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly.’

It was reported that a third of girls aged 11 to 19 had tried to harm themselves, either through cutting, burning or punching themselves.  And over a fifth of boys had done likewise. 

Why is there this staggering epidemic of self harm

2. Money

Proverbs 30:7-9 says, ‘two things I ask of you, LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the LORD?”  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.’

3. Job
4. People

If your security is on a certain husband, a certain wife, a certain boyfriend, a certain girlfriend, a certain good friend, even your family, you will not stand when you are shaken.  If these people fail you, you will totally collapse and unable to pick yourself up again.  You will not stand if your whole security is on one of these people.

Psalms 46:3 says, ‘Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.’

Psalm 102:11, ‘My days are like the evening shadow: I wither away like grass.’

5. Jesus Christ.

Joel 3:16 says, ‘The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.’

Hebrews 12:28 says, ‘Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:’

We all had failed and fallen and shaken.  When persecution starts, all the disciplines for sook Jesus. Peter cried bitterly because he thought that he would never be shaken but fearing for his life, he denied Christ. We are no better than Peter.  But there is a greater man that did not shake against all odds.  He mind was fixed on the cross.  People spit on him, whipped him, hurl all kinds of insults against him.  Even God the Father turned his face away, because of the sins of all of us that was imputed upon him.  He did not waver. And he went to the cross. But the resurrection was not a reversal of a defeat but the manifestation of a victory.  The cross was not a defeat.  Rather, taken together, the cross and resurrection are the greatest victory to have taken place in the history of the world.  It is a victory that has huge implication for our own lives, our society and the future of the world.  This victory is a gift to us made possible through Jesus Christ.  And today Jesus said, through him, we will not fall, and be shaken but will do valiantly, victoriously.