Institutions And Buildings Will Be Shaken

Yesterday we saw that individual lives can be shaken. Then let’s think about institutions. Any institution that is not founded on the teaching of Jesus can be shaken. Banks can be shaken. In America we are seeing a shaking of the banks. There’s a huge personal debt on every American citizen today. Actually, my personal opinion is there is no way that the United States can escape bankruptcy. I believe that whole nation is going to be shaken.

Then, businesses can be shaken. And there are many businesses in this country and other countries closing down and going bankrupt because businesses can be shaken.

Governments can be shaken. We saw that in what used to be the Soviet Union. The whole of that government collapsed like a house of cards. And, no one has been able to put it together.

We need to take note of these things because we tend to look to some of these institutions for stability. People used to say “as safe as the bank of England.” That’s not very safe. We tend to look to big corporations and firms and think, “Well, they’ve got it made.” But, they don’t have.

There’s another kind of institution which can be shaken, and that is religious institutions. They have no guarantee of stability whatever unless they’re built on the teaching of Jesus. I believe many, many so called Christian institutions are going to be thrown down in the shaking that’s ahead.

I would say to you don’t look to a bank, don’t look to a business, don’t look to a government and don’t look to a religious institution for security because they cannot provide it. They are all amongst the things which will be shaken.

And then material structures can be shaken. Structures like church buildings in which people meet. I’ll read you just a couple of passages from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 2, beginning at verse 12. Now, as I read some of these passages where God is speaking about things that are being shaken, I suggest that you make a little mental register of what is the one thing that God hates the most, the one thing that ultimately will always bring disaster. In Isaiah 2, beginning at verse 12:

“For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up, and it shall be brought low; upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan; upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up; upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall; upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all the beautiful sloops. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

And just one verse from Isaiah 30, verse 25. Isaiah 30:25:

“There will be on every high mountain and on every high hill rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.”

And every time I walk through a major city such as this, and I look at all the skyscrapers and all these tremendously tall buildings, I ask myself what will it be like in the day when the towers fall?