A Lesson from the Great Panic

Next Part A Lesson from the Great Panic 2

"The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken — that is, created things — so that what cannot be shaken may remain." Hebrews 12:27 (NIV)

"This means that the things on earth will be shaken, so that only eternal things will be left." Hebrews 12:27 (NLT)

It is a most popular error that the world stands still, and is fixed and immovable. This has been scouted as an astronomical theory, but as a matter of practical principle it still reigns in men’s minds. Galileo said, "No, the world is not a fixed body, it moves;" Peter had long before declared that all these things should be dissolved; at last men believed the astronomer, but they still doubt the apostle, or at least forgot his doctrine. Though it is clear as noonday in Scripture and in experience that stability is not to be found beneath the moon, yet men are for ever building upon earth’s quicksand as if it were substantial rock, and heaping up its dust as though it would not all be blown away. "This is the substance," cries the miser, as he clutches his bags of gold; "heaven and hell are myths to me." "This is the main chance," whispers the merchant, as he pushes vigorously his commercial speculations; "as for spiritual things they are for mere dreamers and sentimentalists. Cash is the true treasure." Ah, sirs, you base your statements upon a foundation of falsehood. This world is as certainly a mere revolving ball as to human life, as it is astronomically; and hopes founded thereon will as surely come to nothing as will card houses in storm.

Here we have no abiding city, and it is in vain to attempt to build one. This world is not the rock beneath our feet which it seems to be; it is no better than those green, but treacherous, soft, and bottomless bogs, which swallow up unwary traveler. We talk of terra firma as if there could be such a thing as solid earth; never was adjective more thoroughly misused, for the world passes away and the fashion thereof. Every now and then, in order to enforce this distasteful truth upon us, the God of providence gives the world, in some way or other, a warning shake. The Lord has only to lay one finger upon the world, and the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, while the waters of the ocean roar and are troubled until the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. The most solid fabrics of human skill and industry are dissolved at the voice of the Most High; though they appear to possess the firmness of earth and claim the sublimity of heaven, yet one divine word shakes earth and heaven in a moment. Looking back through history, you will observe many periods of very tremendous shakings, the records of which are indelibly engraved upon human memory.

An empire has been piled up by conquest, and cemented by policy and power; monarchs of gigantic mind have been sustained by armies of indomitable valor, and great dynasties have been established whose reign promised to be as enduring as the sun, but God has shaken, and the diadem has fallen, and the kingdom become desolate! Babylon sat as a Queen and said, "I shall see no sorrow," but she became desolate, and her palaces crumbled into a heap of ruins. The power of Persia wore the look of permanence, and proudly claimed universal dominion, but the iron rod of Alexander broke it in pieces as a potter’s vessel. Nor could the Macedonian empire long continue, but soon gave place to the mightier power of Rome, which, with all its valiant legions, lasted but its time, and then, like a bowing wall, fell headlong to the ground! Even as a moment’s foam dissolves into the wave that bears it and is lost for ever, so dynasties, republics, empires, all pass away. As a dream, when one awakens, their image is gone forever. Between the intervals of these great revolutions there have been changes less extensive, but still of the same warning character. Every now and then in our commerce God gives a serious shake to our affairs. Men usually have a degree of confidence in their fellow-men, and on the strength of this legitimate confidence, business flourishes; but, on a sudden, as though seized with madness, they say in their haste with David, "All men are liars," and forthwith clamor for their gold.

The boat is quite able to ferry them all across the stream if they will have patience, but they are carried away with the notion that it will soon be swamped, and therefore they push and fight to get on board all at once, and so bring to pass the very evil which they feared. Had they but a little patience and a little forbearance, were they much less greedy, and much more considerate of others, things might still go well enough; but selfishness takes fire at the least suspicion, blazes into mistrust, and setting its neighbor’s house on fire to save its own candle, soon finds its own dwelling in flames too.

Greed is so afraid lest one brick of its house should be stolen that it pulls out the corner-stone to keep it safe under the bed, and the whole building tumbles about its ears. Few of us ever dreamed of seeing such a panic as that of the last two days, and now, pausing in the midst of it, it may be well to look around. What about these commercial shakings? How can we account for them? Are they not results of the law of change and instability, which is stamped upon every created thing? Instead of wondering at panics, we may well wonder that they do not come oftener. In considering the state of the nation, we may say of it as Dr. Watts does of our natural body- "Strange that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long."

No wonder that the machine of commerce sometimes gets out of order, the wonder is that with so much dirt of trickery, deceit, and covetousness, it goes on at all. Considering the depravity of the heart of man, it is perfectly a wonder that human governments are so stable, and that mortal affairs run so smoothly; we can only attribute it to the presiding providence of God, that there are not many more crashes and disasters. But still what of these shakings? If they must come, what must we say of them? Why, this much, that ultimately they are among the greatest blessings which God sends us, for with all their attendant calamities they shake only the things which may be shaken, while the things which cannot be shaken remain, and remain in a healthier state, because the unsound and rotten things have been discovered and removed.

We shall regard our text as declaring a great general principle– that God shakes in order that the things which can be shaken, may fall; and that the things which cannot be shaken, may remain. We will try to carry out that principle to practical purpose this morning.

I. First the original drift of the statement refers to THE OLD JEWISH DISPENSATION. The ceremonial law was a very wonderful system of types andfigures. To the spiritually-minded Israelite it was an illustrated book full of precious teachings. Prophets and kings delighted to study it; such men as David and the like perused its sacred pages both day and night with ever fresh delight: but after all, the Jewish dispensation, with all its outward splendor and inward meaning, was still a thing that could be shaken. And therefore when its time of shaking came, all the created part of it passed away, and only its eternal truths remained. Today we find the Jew, but we find not the Mosaic economy. Israel has neither priest, nor sacrifice, nor altar, nor temple. Jerusalem is trodden under foot of the Gentiles, and Zion’s hill no longer echoes to the voice of psalms; Judah’s sons are banished far away, and her daughters dwell in exile. The outward economy was shaken at the coming of our Lord, and as an external thing has ceased to be. How was it that it could be shaken?

One reason was that it had so much to do with material things.

It needed an altar of earth or stone, and such altars the hand of the spoiler can overturn; it required a bullock that has horns and hoofs, and such sacrifices the plague may slay; it demanded a priest of the house of Aaron, and a race of men may be cut off from the families of the nations; it needed a tabernacle or a temple, and buildings made with hands are readily demolished; hence it could be shaken. The veil of the temple has been rent, the great stones of the temple are thrown down, a priest with Urim and Thummin no more appears, and a consecrated altar no longer smokes. Where is the ark with its mystic cherubim? Where the table of showbread, and the golden candlestick, and the tables of stone? These were but things which are made, and they have been shaken and removed.

But the things which cannot be shaken still remain; our spiritual altar still endures, our great High Priest still lives, our house not made with hands is still eternal in the heavens. Our spiritual faith depends not upon material

things– We have no altar of brass or stone, our Lord Jesus sanctifies our offerings; we have no incense of frankincense and onycha, the merits of our Savior are sweeter far. We need no temple nor holy of holies within the veil, for we worship God in the spirit, and "Wherever we seek Him He is found, And every place is hallowed ground.

We have given up all that which binds unseen realities to the shadows, which are seen; and now our faith has no more to do with bondage to the beggarly elements of matter, time, and space.

The Jewish religion could be shaken because it could be combated by material forces. Antiochus could profane its altars, Titus could burn its temple, and cast down the walls of the sacred city; but no invader can pollute the heavenly altar of our spiritual faith by brute force, or destroy the celestial bulwarks of our hope by fire and sword.

Material forces are not to be used in our warfare, for we wrestle not with flesh and blood. The tyrant may burn our martyrs and cast our confessors into prison, but the pure truth of Jesus is neither consumed by fire nor bound with chains; it has within itself essential immortality and liberty.

The doctrine that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners is no more to be wounded by the sword of persecution than is the ocean to be scarred by the keels of navies. When winds may be manacled, when waves are fettered, and when clouds are shut up in dungeons, then, nay not even then, may the Word of God be bound. The free spirit of the cross of Christ cannot be vanquished by armies, nor can legions tread it down. If our devotion hovered around an earthly shrine, and could only be presented by a certain order of men, robed in a peculiar garb, and chanting a peculiar ritual, then the truth of Christ might be put down for awhile, if not extinguished; but we depend on none of these things, we can as well worship God in barns as in basilicas, in catacombs as in cathedrals!

Ploughmen and paupers are as much priests to God as presbyters or prelates! And solemn silence may yield as true praise as the voices of the songs of music with all their pipes and organs. Our religion is so spiritual that death itself in ridding us of these material bodies shall rather assist than injure our devotions, so that we laugh to scorn both spear, and sword, and buckler, for our holy faith is beyond the reach of carnal weapons.

Moreover, the Mosaic economy passed away because it could be affected by time. The ark was made of long-enduring gopher wood, but it has yielded to time. The veil was one of the most costly and durable fabrics, but it yielded to the strain, and was rent from top to bottom. The temple itself, if it had not been destroyed by the enemy, must have grown grey with age, for God strikes with impartial hand, buildings both holy and profane. "Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away."

But see the doctrine of the cross of Christ! No time affects it. The message of salvation by grace is as fresh today as when Peter preached it at Pentecost. The great command, "Believe and live," has as much life- giving power about it as when it was first applied by the Holy Spirit. No time affects the promise of the Father, the merit of the blood of Jesus, or the energy of the Divine Spirit; hence our faith remains.

Beloved friends, many more shakings may come. Romanism, which is a spurious reproduction of the material part of Judaism, needs a shake to destroy it; Puseyism, an equally gross and carnal combination of the outward and visible with the inward and unseen, will also pass away when its hour comes, but the faith once delivered to the saints will outlive every change. The symbol is transient, the spiritual truth is eternal. Over every form of material worship there shall be pronounced the sentence, "Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes," but the pure spiritual faith of Jesus Christ can never die; the blessed doctrine that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and all those glorious doctrines which cluster around the cross of Christ shall survive "the wreck of matter and the crash of worlds." They shall not only remain, but remain in greater clearness and in fuller power, because the things that could be shaken are taken away, for created things only dim the luster of the cross, and are made by human sin, a veil to hide the Redeemer’s glory. The more completely they are removed the more plainly shall we see the cross of Christ in open vision. "They shall perish; but you remain; and they all shall wax old as does a garment; and as a vesture shall you fold them up, and they shall be changed: but you are the same, and your years shall not fail."

II. We now turn the light of our text upon another subject. ALL THAT IS TRUE IN OUR PROFESSED CREEDS AND STANDARDS WILL STAND WHEN MERE OPINIONS ARE SHAKEN. Some of us though young, are old enough to recollect a great many theological panics; panics very nearly as foolish as that in Lombard Street; for there are other old ladies besides those who rush to the bank to draw out their deposits. It is not so very long ago that we had a certain "Rivulet" controversy; then came the noisier battle of the "Essays and Reviews;"

by-and-by a bishop fired off a fallacious cannon at Moses; and now all sorts of writers are hammering away at the "Life of Christ," and what may be next, we cannot tell. When these attacks occur there is generally a very great alarm among timid believers. They say, "What will happen now?

People do not respect authority; they used to receive sound teaching, because they were taught it. Now they want to know the reason of everything. Alas, Lord, what shall we do? It is true that men are beginning to raise very serious questions, and some which will not be answered today nor tomorrow. They want us to prove now that the Bible is the Word of God, instead of accepting it as such; the scepticism which questions everything is very rife, and cannot be stifled, for it persists in putting its questions again and again, and saying, "No, I will never be quiet until I get an answer." Is there any real cause for fear in all this? Will the truth as it is in Jesus suffer damage from these attacks?

I believe that it has not suffered, and will not sustain an injury, but, on the contrary, will be made the more triumphant thereby. I cannot justify or even make an apology for those who make these attacks upon the Word of God– to their own Master they stand or fall. Above all, I cannot say a word in the defense of certain professed ministers of Christ, who only exercise their calling to undermine that which they profess to have been called to defend. But, brethren, whoever may be the instruments, whether they be professed men of God, or overt servants of the devil, I do not believe that controversial shakings can lead to the destruction of a single truth, but to the bringing out of that which is true, and separating it from falsehood.

During the Reformation period the pulpits resounded with the doctrine of justification by faith and little else, until diverse heresies arose, and attention was directed to other truths equally necessary to edification, so that a more complete gospel testimony was promoted. Just now the tug of war seems to gather around the doctrine of future punishment, which I believe to be as certain as the existence of God and the inspiration of Holy Scripture.

A struggle against it, will only bring out that truth more and more clearly, and will make the ministers of Christ thunder it out with greater certainty, and so, by God’s grace, sinners will be alarmed and driven to the cross of Christ for comfort. Never be afraid, my brethren– truth will bear threshing, and lose nothing but the husk which surrounded it! Fear not for the truth because of the ability and education of its foe; the wisest man living is a fool when he fights against the truth as it is in Jesus, and you will be a match for him when he is on the side of wrong. Do not give infidelity credit for a vast amount of sense and learning– it is only folly masking itself under the garb of philosophy, metaphysics, and outlandish jargon.

If I cannot defend what I believe, I am afraid I shall begin to doubt it myself; and therefore, for my own sake, I will make myself master of the point, if possible; and if in the study of it I do not meet with an answer which may satisfy my opponent, if I meet with one which satisfies my own conscience, I shall be all the better and stronger a Christian for it, and so good will come out of evil.

Shake away, sir! Sift away! Not one grain of wheat will fall to the ground! I stood this week by the side of a church, which once was a considerable distance inland, but now it stands just by the ocean side. Almost every year a great mass of the clay cliff falls into the sea, and in a year or two this parish church must fall. It stands now in quietude and peace, but on a certain day it will all be swallowed up into the sea, as certainly as the elements still work according to their ordinary laws. I could not help thinking that this edifice was a type of certain ecclesiastical bodies, which stand upon the clay cliff of state-religion, or superstition. The tide of public enlightenment, and above all the ocean tide of God’s Spirit, is advancing and wearing away their foundation until at last down the whole fabric must go.

Next Part A Lesson from the Great Panic 2

Back to Charles Spurgeon