The sermon preached by Mr. B. A. Ramsbottom, Pastor at Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel in Luton, at the 176th Annual General Meeting of the Trinitarian Bible Society on Saturday 22nd September 2007.

‘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: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 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’ (Hebrews 12.25–27).

With the Lord’s help I will speak to you this afternoon from Hebrews 12, the closing words in verse 27: ‘that those things which cannot be shaken may remain’.

Very interesting is the way in which the New Testament writers quote with such reverence from the Old Testament. Here from that lovely little book in the minor prophets, Haggai, we have a short quotation, one of God’s promises: ‘Yet once … and I will shake the heavens, and the earth’ (2.6). I think you will find that some of the old divines especially referred this promise to the first coming of the Lord Jesus, while others of the old divines refer it more especially to the second coming. Those who emphasise its reference to the first coming think of the Lord’s glorious appearing from heaven, the time when Jerusalem itself was destroyed, the old Jewish economy came to an end, the Levitical dispensation was abolished and these things were removed as the things that might be shaken. The other divines, looking forward to the end of time, emphasise the Lord’s return in glory when everything shall be shaken and removed. We believe both of these interpretations are true and yet there is another emphasis.

What can we say about our present day, the day in which our little lives are cast? Surely this is a time when everything is being shaken. Old traditions and foundations are being removed, the standards of morality, good laws: these things which as a nation we have held dear. Of course, it is not just in our own country but throughout the whole earth we see everywhere things being shaken. We wonder what is going to happen next. Things are being removed that we never thought would be removed; sadly and solemnly we even see it in the church of God. Places which once loved and revered the truth: now there has been that shaking and removing. Our young people especially are finding this, that they are living in a changing world: a dying, changing world in which nothing seems sure, nothing seems certain. ‘Change and decay in all around I see’:¹ there never was a truer word spoken; and if so when these words were written, how much more so now do we see the removing of those things which are shaken.

Blessed be God for those things which never can be shaken, which never will be shaken! These are the things I love to speak of, these sure, certain, divine, establishing truths. With the Lord’s help, I want to speak to you about some of those things that can never be shaken, which shall remain for ever.

The Unshakeable Word of God

Of course, on an occasion like this we immediately think of God’s Holy Word. It can never be shaken. It shall remain. ‘For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven’ (Psalm 119.89). What a wonderful mercy it is that God’s Word is unchanged, unchanging. The dreadful assaults of sin and Satan and the world and unbelief are all aiming to overthrow, to shake the Word of God. It has been so down the ages. You think of the great and mighty of this world, your Voltaires and your Rousseaus, how they sought to overturn God’s Holy Word, to shake it.

Today we have so many attempts; we need only think of people like Professor Dawkins. But worse than that are the attempts from inside the professed Christian church to overthrow God’s Word. They can never succeed. You know what the second Psalm declares in verse 4: The Lord ‘shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision’. He that sits in the heavens shall have them in derision.

Many years ago there was what the world calls a great philosopher. His boast was that he was going to set the whole of Europe laughing at the Word of God and laughing at the God of the Word. The time came when he was dying and what did he say then? He said, I sadly feel that now God is laughing at me. Almighty God will always have the last word. You can’t shake the Word of God. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at them.

I am sure many of you have heard the old story of a little boy who went into the blacksmith’s shop and seeing all the broken hammers lying about on the floor asked what had happened. The old smith said that over the years the hammers had been broken on the anvil. The little boy enquired, how many anvils had been broken? Oh no, said the smith, the anvil doesn’t break but after a time the hammer breaks on the anvil. That’s just it with God’s Word. There have been all these attempts down the ages to shake the Word of God, to destroy it, to overthrow it, but the anvil of Divine Truth still stands and will stand for ever. You will see all these puny hammers lying broken on the floor.

In Isaiah 40.6, ‘The voice said, Cry’. This does not mean shout with a loud voice but rather speak with authority. What is to be said is something important. Speak as the King’s herald. ‘The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass’. There are things that can be shaken and that can be removed. ‘All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth … but the word of our God shall stand for ever’. What an unspeakable mercy this is! This is why we are met here this afternoon: because those things which cannot be shaken shall remain. We have the Holy, inspired, infallible Word of God and all the Divine truths that are contained in it.

The Unshakeable Throne of God

We also think of the Eternal Throne of God, that Throne which can never be shaken. You older ones here today, you remember all the different kingdoms there used to be in Europe. Small kingdoms and great kingdoms: almost all of them over the years have perished. But ‘in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed … it shall stand forever’ (Daniel 2.44).

It is a wonderful thing, amidst all the confusion that there is today in the world and in the professing church of God, to look up to heaven and to see the throne of God. God is in complete control, nothing taking Him by surprise, accomplishing His own purposes, doing as He will among the armies of Heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. ‘None can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?’ (Daniel 4.35). May we be blessed more and more with believing views of the greatness of God.

We see that Eternal Throne; it can never be shaken. ‘The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever’ (Psalm 29.10). He will always have the last word. The movement of every planet is subject to His control and so is the crushing of a moth and the falling of a sparrow, along with our lives’ minutest circumstance. Almighty God orders all things according to the counsel of His own will. The mystery of Divine providence: nothing can ever take place contrary to God’s will or apart from Divine permission. These are the things that can never be shaken, which shall remain.

The Unshakeable Gospel of God

You see these glorious truths which we have in the Word of God, these wonderful truths: the glorious Gospel of the Grace of God. Of course these unshakeable truths are an inexhaustible subject. Chapters could be written on every point, books have been written on every point. But when you come to the glorious Gospel of the Grace of God—those Divine truths that Satan can never shake, that all our unbelief can never destroy—you know it will stand right to the very end of time that

‘The vilest sinner out of hell,
Who lives to feel his need,
Is welcome to a Throne of Grace,
The Saviour’s blood to plead’.²

That can never be eradicated from Divine Truth. All these things can never be shaken.

These were once the glory of the pulpits of our land, church, as well as chapel: covenant realities, covenant certainties, covenant salvation, covenant promises. These are the things that cannot be shaken, which shall remain, which have all been secured in eternity past in the covenant of grace. Look back and see these things that cannot be shaken: God’s everlasting love to His people in Christ; that eternal union in the covenant of grace between Christ and His people; all those purposes of love and mercy which must be fulfilled; all these things that cannot be shaken and which remain. Have not the Lord’s people found a resting place here; have not they loved them down the ages?

We see King David dying, coming to the end of his life. He could not feel as he wanted to feel and he could not see the things he wanted to see. There were things in his kingdom which had been shaken, especially when he thought of his disgraceful family: what a shaking, what a removing there had been there! Then, when he looked in his heart and looked over his life and considered his sin, he looked forward fearfully to the judgment day—there were so many things to shake him. But by precious faith his eyes were turned a different way; he saw some of the things which could not be shaken and which remained. He saw an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and his personal interest in it which allowed him to die in peace. ‘Although my house be not so with God’—things being shaken, things being removed—‘yet’ (one of the wonderful ‘yets’ of the Word of God) ‘he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire’: that those things which cannot be shaken may remain (2 Samuel 23.5).

The Unshakeable Atonement of God

There is one thing, blessed be God, that can never be shaken and which is a mercy for poor, lost, ruined, guilty sinners: the atonement. It can never be shaken. The value of the Saviour’s most precious blood is the same this afternoon as it was when He hung bleeding and dying on the cross, and when with a loud voice He cried, ‘It is finished’ (John 19.30). Then, ‘by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified’ (Hebrews 10.14).

Oh, the things that cannot be shaken! That is what the Word of God means in Revelation 5.6 when John viewed the Saviour in Heaven as a Lamb as it had been slain; although many years had passed He was still seen as ‘a Lamb as it had been slain’. I take that to mean that the merit of His sin-atoning blood is still the same now as it was when He died, despite all the attempts to shake it.

Mention has been made this afternoon of how even in evangelical circles there seems to be a denying of the substitutionary nature of the Atonement. Certainly people are coming out with some very strange views on justification—a removing of the things that may be shaken. Of course Satan has a special hatred for the cross of Christ. But that wonderful mercy to those of us who realise our need as lost and guilty sinners, that truth that can never be removed, can never be eradicated: that ‘the blood of Jesus Christ’, God’s Son, ‘cleanseth us from all sin’ (1 John 1.7).

‘Dear dying Lamb! thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransom’d church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.’³

The Unshakeable Safety of the People of God

These blessed things can never be shaken, and these things which cannot be shaken will remain. We might also mention the glorious truth of the everlasting safety of the people of God. In this world of sin and ruin, when Satan seeks to put the Lord’s people into his sieve and to shake them and to take the religion out of them, there are those things that cannot be shaken. It is a blessed truth: ‘I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand’ (John 10.28). ‘That those things which cannot be shaken may remain’ (Hebrews 12.27).

The Unshakeable Son of God

But we must try to speak of the dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself: ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever’ (Hebrews 13.8). You see in His Person, in His finished Work, in all His relationships to His people, in every office that He sustains, that He can never be shaken.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews the great truth is His everlasting priesthood. What an emphasis this book puts on this glorious Man ‘because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood’ (Hebrews 7.24). His priesthood cannot be shaken. He is there this afternoon interceding for His people. There’s ‘a new and living way’ open there ‘into the holiest by the blood of Jesus’ (Hebrews 10.20,19). There’s a mercy seat sprinkled with blood, there’s a throne of grace appointed for poor, unworthy sinners in the time of need. You see these things that cannot be shaken when you see Christ Himself.

We might speak of so many of the offices He sustains. There is one thing especially here, the character or office or relationship that Christ bears more than anything else in the Holy Scriptures: Christ as the eternal Rock, Christ as the Rock of ages. You have so many references in the Holy Scriptures to Christ the Rock. David constantly in the Psalms speaks of Christ the Rock. Of course, the great point here is that the Rock can never be shaken. The Rock foundation on which the church is built can never be shaken. The Rock in Whose clefts the sinner finds a hiding place can never be shaken. Blessed be God for that!

I often tell that little story of the poor, shipwrecked sailor. He managed to swim to a rock and he lay there shivering all night till he was rescued. His rescuers said to him that he must have been terribly shaken all night; he must have shivered. The poor man replied ‘Yes, but the rock didn’t shake’. That’s the religion that will take us to heaven. We may shake on the Rock but the Rock can never be shaken. What wonderful mercy is this, that a sinner saved by grace can never be shaken from off that Rock. These are the things that can never be shaken, which remain.

The Unshakeable Work of the Holy Spirit of God

I will just mention one other unshakeable thing: the Holy Spirit’s work in a sinner’s heart. I want to speak very carefully indeed here. The Lord’s poor, tried, tempted people often feel that they are shaken. But God’s work of grace in a sinner’s heart can never be destroyed and it can never be removed. Satan will harass the sinner and suggest that that work is being removed. But that work of God’s grace, the Holy Spirit’s work in the heart of a sinner, can never be removed. ‘The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me’ despite all the shakings and assaults of Satan; ‘thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands’ (Psalm 138.8).

That is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said ‘none of these things move me … that I might finish my course with joy’ (Acts 20.24). You might say, ‘But Paul, you have just said that a lot of these things are moving you, that you are troubled on every side, that you are often cast down, that you are often perplexed; surely that means you are being moved’. I think Paul would have answered, ‘In my thoughts and feelings and fears I am afraid, I am often tossed about and moved, but in my standing in Christ I am not moved and I never can be moved’. That is it: that work of grace in your hearts. Though Satan would seek to shake it and destroy it, though he may shake you particularly in your fears concerning your standing in Christ, remember that ‘he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ’ (Philippians 1.6).

‘His grace shall to the end
Stronger and brighter shine;
Nor present things, nor things to come,
Shall quench the spark divine’⁴

‘that those things which cannot be shaken may remain’ (Hebrews 12.27).

These Unshakeable Things Known Personally

I have tried this afternoon to speak of just a few of the unshakeable things. No doubt your minds have gone to many other things that cannot be shaken. What a mercy that they cannot be shaken, they cannot be removed, they will remain, they must remain eternally.

Of course, there is a background: the things that will be shaken, the things that will be removed. Some of the great artists like to have a very dark background for their paintings; it makes the colours stand out more clearly. Of course there is also a dark background to this glorious subject. There are things that will be shaken. This poor, wretched, sinful, dying world, death within us and all about us: that is the dark background. Against it, how brightly these glorious truths shine forth, these things that can never be shaken, these things which shall remain.

When the new birth takes place, when a sinner is called by God’s grace, that sinner is taught these things in his heart—not just to see them in the Word of God, he is taught them in his heart. He realises something of the removing of those things that can be shaken. He was unconcerned about eternity—that’s shaken, that’s removed. He never prayed—that’s shaken, that’s removed. He didn’t think about his soul and his sins and the judgment day—that’s shaken, that’s removed. He was quite happy with his own goodness, his own self-righteousness—that’s shaken, that’s removed. The happiness he’s seeking in the world, trying to find peace, pleasure, prosperity there—that’s shaken, that’s removed. The Holy Spirit’s work is to teach us by these two opposites, to teach us that everything here is being shaken and one day literally everything shall be shaken and removed. The Holy Spirit reveals those precious things in Christ which shall stand for ever, which never can be shaken, never can be removed, even when earth itself departs, when even ‘the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee’ (Isaiah 54.10). These are the things that shall never be removed, even when this world for ever lies in ruins: ‘those things which cannot be shaken may remain’.

It has been exactly fifty-four years ago this month since I first spoke on behalf of the Trinitarian Bible Society: September 1953 at a place called Hollinwood, which is not far from Manchester. During those fifty years which have transpired since first I spoke for the Society, I think there has been more shaking of things in our country, more removing of things in our country, than there had been in a thousand years past. But as we meet this afternoon, we know the blessed things for which the Trinitarian Bible Society stood then and stands now, the things which really matter, the things of which God approves—His sacred Holy Word and all that is contained in it—and we have the blessedness of the realisation that if we are only a little remnant, if at times we seem to stand alone, we have the seal of God’s divine approval. The things we love and the things for which we stand are the things which can never be shaken, which shall remain for ever.

Edited for publication. 

Endnotes:

1. Henry Francis Lyte, ‘Abide with me’, The English Hymnal with Tunes (London: Humphrey Milford, 1933), no. 363.

2. William Gadsby, ‘What a divine harmonious sound’, A Selection of Hymns (London: C. J. Farncombe & Sons, 1919), no. 527.

3. William Cowper, ‘There is a fountain fill’d with blood’, A Selection, no. 160.

4. Augustus Toplady, ‘Your harps, ye trembling saints’, A Selection, no. 330.

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