We left for our trip here last
Wednesday and that morning I went into the doctor for my annual
checkup and med check, you know, and all that. And of course,
he asked about general health and I said, well, I'm doing pretty
good. And I said, you know, since COVID
came, I said, I've I hardly had any sickness at all. None of
those bad colds and stuff that I normally get. And he said,
well, just be glad you've got a good immune system. Some virus
somewhere heard me say that and said, did we miss you? I'm glad it held off though until
Brother Tim was finished because I certainly enjoyed hearing him
preach. He's right, I wish I could have
had the chance to come over and visit you guys at your house,
but I'd like to share, but I didn't want to share this. I imagine
you didn't want it either, though. Bonnie and I were listening on
the phone Wednesday, and every time we heard Drew cough, we'd
go, oh, because we figured we brought it with us. You know,
so what can we say but you're welcome. Now, if you'd open your
Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12, Let's read verses 28 and 29.
Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us
have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence
and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. The new covenant, which we commonly
refer to as the gospel, The New Covenant brought about many changes. In this book, the book of Hebrews,
the New Covenant is called a new and living way. It is founded
on better promises, declared by a better prophet, ratified
by better blood, mediated by a better priest, and it brings
better blessings. Throughout the book of Hebrews,
we are shown ways in which the New Covenant is different and
superior to the Old Covenant. Now what do I mean by the Old
Covenant? Well, that covenant that God made with the nation
of Israel on Mount Sinai. That's the Old Covenant. But the Old Covenant was declared
from Mount Sinai a physical mountain. And it told, that Old Covenant
said, stay away. But the New Covenant has drawn
us to Mount Zion, a spiritual mountain. That old mountain refers
to it as a mountain that can be touched. And you can go over
there today, if you know which one of those mountains is Mount
Sinai, you can touch it. Mount Zion, as Paul is using,
is a spiritual place. It is not of this world. The
Old Covenant was surrounded by burning, darkness, gloom, storm,
terrifying sounds like the trumpet of the Lord and the voice of
God. The gospel is attended with the sound of thousands of angels
in joyful assembly. Now you find these things I'm
mentioning here in the verses previous to what we read earlier.
When the Old Covenant was given, the people begged that no further
word be spoken. and even Moses, the mediator
of that covenant, was trembling with fear. When the New Covenant
was declared, God's people were joined into a single body called
the Church of the Firstborn, and peace between God and men
was made. The Old Covenant wrote laws on
stone. The New Covenant wrote names
in heaven. The Old Covenant has God saying,
I am God, stay away lest ye die. The New Covenant has God saying,
I am God, come to me that you might have life. The Old Covenant
joins sinners under a common condemnation. The New Covenant
joins sinners in the bonds of an everlasting righteousness
and perfection of spirit. The Old Covenant left men to
themselves. The New Covenant connects men
to Christ and all that is in Him. The Old Covenant, like Abel's
blood, cried out for vengeance. Christ's blood cries out for
forgiveness and peace. The Old Covenant initiated an
annual repetition of sacrifices, feasts, and other obligations
which could never atone for sin, never make the worshipers perfect,
or give them peace with God and peace of heart. The new covenant
is a finished covenant founded on the once for all sacrifice
of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, whose blood actually put
away sin. And it made the people of the
covenant perfect in the sight of God. and gave them peace with
God and peace of heart. Lastly, the Old Covenant established
a kingdom that could be shaken, and it was. In 70 A.D., it was shaken clear
to the ground, literally, as God sent the Roman army to Jerusalem
in a sense saying, My son said it is finished. One of the things
that was finished was the Old Covenant, but you all didn't
get the message. So let me show you what I meant. And he destroyed
everything that had to do with that Old Covenant. Old Covenant Israel was destroyed, and I don't see
any indication in the Scripture that Old Covenant Israel will
ever be resurrected. The New Covenant established
a kingdom that cannot be shaken down. And that is very simply
because of the King of that kingdom, who is seated at the right hand
of the Father. And you cannot destroy the Kingdom of God unless
you can destroy the King. One cannot overemphasize the
great changes that came about when Christ accomplished the
will of God and in so doing made the old covenant obsolete and
fading away and replaced it with the new covenant. But there is
one thing that did not change at all as history moved from
one covenant to another. And that is the nature and character
of God. He is the God of both covenants.
He is God of the Old Covenant. And that's why even though we
don't think we're under the law, we never say anything bad about
it. And even if we speak of the weakness of the law, we speak
of it like Paul did, said the weakness of the law is the weakness
of man. Because the law depends upon
the ability of men to keep it. There's nothing wrong with the
Old Covenant. God made no unreasonable demands in it. Just
we couldn't do it. Same God of both covenants. The
same God who gave His law from Sinai spoke His gospel from Calvary. And it's not only the same God
It is the God who remained the same. Now our text this morning, Our
God is a Consuming Fire, is a quote from Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse
24. And in Deuteronomy, Moses was
giving his final words to Israel. He had led them for 40 years
and now Leadership was going to be turned over to Joshua.
And he is reiterating the law that had been given to that nation
a generation before. And as a warning to them not
to violate that covenant, he said these words, our God is
a consuming fire. 1,500 years later, the writer
of Hebrews sets forward the far superior new covenant. of grace and mercy in Christ
Jesus but just like Moses he warns them not to depart that
covenant by saying our God is a consuming
fire. Now most translations leave a
word out and I think it would be good if they had left it in
the sentence in verse 29 begins with the word and or also and what it's indicating is this
and maybe I should tell you the general theme of the book of
Hebrews the book of Hebrews was written with Hebrews or Jews
in mind and these Jews were suffering persecution and therefore being
tempted to depart from the church and maybe go back to the synagogue
and they could say, you know, same God, you know, just, you
know, the words hide their attachment to Christ. So as not to suffer
persecution. And let's not be too hard on
them. You and I have not suffered the kind of persecution they
did. And so what he is saying, what the writer of Hebrews is
saying here is, since we're receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have or lay hold of grace whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for
also our God is a consuming fire." In other words, he's saying that
God that Moses warned the people about. That He's a consuming
fire? He's still God. And while we have changed covenants,
we've not changed gods. I believe that also is an important
word in the text. The God we worship. We've met
here now some 2,000 years after the book of Hebrews was written.
And the God we serve has not changed One wit. He is just as
He was when He said, Let there be light. He is just as He was
when He said, The soul that sins, it will die. He is the same as
He was when He said, Cursed is everyone who does not continue
in every point of the law to do it. The same God. Matthew Henry said, God is the
same just and righteous God under the gospel as under the law.
One of the brother preachers put it this way, Calvary did
not make God a kinder, gentler God. Under both covenants, the
old and the new, we have the same reason for fearing the displeasure
and wrath of God. God is a consuming fire. Under the old covenant, God's
fiery nature was used to frighten people into not sinning. That
was basically how it was put, not sinning, and in this case,
the essential sin of departing from the covenant, violating
the covenant. But in the New Covenant, God's fiery nature
is used to warn us from departing the only place of safety in the
midst of divine fury, Jesus Christ. Twice before here in the book
of Hebrews, he issues a similar warning. If you look back at
Hebrews chapter 2, beginning with verse 2. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation? Now, in the old covenant, anybody
who purposely violated that covenant. Every word of it was put in place
and they were judged by it strictly. And so every violation of that
covenant received the just reward of violation. Well now, if the
new covenant is so much better than the old, then how much more
severe will the consequences be of violating that covenant. And then again over in Hebrews
chapter 10, beginning in verse 26, For if we sin willfully, after
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking-for
of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace? For we know
him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense,
says the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge
His people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Now, people stumble over
that first phrase there in verse 26, for if we sin willfully.
They say, now if you go out there and sin on purpose, there's no
sacrifice for sins left. Well, did you just sin by accident
then? That's not what he's talking about. In the old covenant, there
was a distinction made between willful and unwillful sin. But it wasn't just sin as a simple
transgression. It was a violation of the covenant.
And what he's saying here, if we sin willfully, if we, with
understanding, choose not to suffer reproach with the people
of God, But instead, hide our identity, hoping to avoid persecution
or any of the other ways by which a person may violate that covenant
of the gospel. He said, that's even worse. That's
the willful sin for which there is no sacrifice. And here's why.
If you leave the gospel, where are you going to go? And imagine
this as to a Jew. No use going back to the old
covenant. There's no sacrifice for sin there. Never was. And you've left the only covenant
that ever had a sacrifice for sin that worked. There is no other place to go. Now, whenever we say something
like that, you can expect an objection. Don't you believe
that once a person is saved, he's saved forever? Well, of
course I do. That's what the Scriptures teach. But one of
the ways that the Spirit of God works in us, and pretty much
the only way we know that what's going on in us is of the Spirit,
is that we don't turn away from the Gospel. hearing Henry tell a story concerning
Rolf Barnard that he held a meeting somewhere and he said, someone
asked him, well, how many people were saved? He said, well, come
back 20 years and ask me again. There's a lot of people at the
starting line. But you know, Hebrews 11, after
talking about all those believers, I remember what they call it
in the church I was raised in, the Hall of Fame of Faith, Hebrews
11, you know. But it says this, these all died
in faith. I hear people say, I want a gospel
I can live by. Well, I can understand that.
I need a gospel I can die by. Because how much I'm going to
live, I don't know, but I do know this, I'm going to die.
And a gospel that is no good when you die is no good at any
time. But the writer of Hebrews here says,
let us worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. By the fear of the Lord, men
depart from evil, says the scriptures. One of the ways that God works
in us to keep us from wandering away is the reminder. If you wander away, if you do
leave, there's nothing else. There's nothing else. God is a consuming fire. Fire
has some beneficial characteristics. Fire can warm us when we're cold. I've noticed this. Martin and
I have a modern house with a modern heat pump in it. It does a good
job of keeping our house warm. But we sit down and watch TV
in the evening. We've got one of these propane fireplaces.
You know, because somehow or another I don't stay warm as
easily as I used to. It's nice to have that warm fire. And when our hearts are cold,
the warmth of divine love can warm our hearts. But the scripture
does not say that God is a warm and comforting fire. It says
God is a consuming fire. Fire can illuminate dark places.
Until about 150 years ago, it was the only way to light some
place up. Fire of some sort, torches, candles, oil lamps,
gas lamps, and all that, that's how they lit places up. And God
is a light in this dark world. When our God appeared as a man,
He called Him, He said, I am the light of the world. But this scripture does not tell
to us that God is an enlightening fire. It says He is a consuming
fire. And I fear that our religious
generation has all but forgotten the fear of the Lord. I know that it does not impact
me as it should. The fear of the Lord. Now I know that the gospel comes
to us saying, fear not, fear not, fear not. And we don't have
a reason to fear God in Christ. Outside of Christ, He's terrifying. He is more dangerous than you
can possibly imagine. I sometimes even fear that even
among sovereign gracers, we can get so proud of ourselves that
we believe sovereign grace. And we talk about how great and
powerful and authoritative God is. And we forget that applies to
us as much as it does to the people we may be talking about. Our God also is a consuming fire. In modern Christianity, God's
no longer a consuming fire. He's a warm fuzzy. I'm certain of two things. Whenever
a group of professing Christians becomes careless about how they
live, it is evident that they do not fear the Lord no matter
how correct and God-honoring their doctrine is. Now, that's not a legalistic
statement because I'm not saying that if people commit sins, it's
obvious they don't believe the truth. I'm saying they no longer
care about it. It no longer agrees them. It
no longer awakens a conscience at all. That's scary business. By mercy and truth, iniquity
is purged. And by the fear of the Lord,
men depart from evil. In Romans 3, Paul concludes all
under sin and describes the awful sinfulness of the human race.
And he concludes it all with this, there is no fear of God
before their eyes. Now, in our society, I mean,
Well, we can understand how Lot must have felt in Sodom. It says,
it vexed his righteous soul. But you know something? As godless,
if that's the proper word to use here, as our society is becoming,
it is simply the revelation that there is no fear of God before
the eyes of the people. And I've gotten in trouble a
couple of times on Facebook when, you know, you get religious people
on there and they want to denounce all the sinners out there and
want to blame it, you know, on a political party. It's this
political party or that political party or this one. When I say,
well, humanly speaking, I lay the blame directly on the church,
the professed church. I said, because by the fear of
the Lord, men depart from evil and they aren't preaching a God
worthy of any fear. Not only that, where is the fear
of the Lord taught the most? At the cross of Christ. I mean, the law showed something
of that, gave us somewhat of a reason to fear the Lord. But
if you ever want a testimony, of the absolute strictness of
the justice of God and that he will, as he told Moses, I will
by no means clear the guilty. You look at Calvary. And there
was his son bearing sins that he himself did not commit. And
God did not hold back the least. He did not say, well, this is
my son and my love for him, I'm not going to... The wit is hard. And after all, they're not really
sins He committed. I understand. So I'm going to
take it easy. No. With the full fury of the everlasting
God, He poured out His wrath on His Son. Now, if He won't
let up for His Son, do you think He'll let up for any of us? If
we appear in His presence bearing sin, We can also say that any time
a professed Christian or a church becomes careless with the truth, whenever they think that it's
of little consequence what people believe, it is evidence that
they do not fear the Lord. Whenever they are bashful about
the truth and withhold some of it in order not to offend others,
it is evidence they do not fear the Lord. I once listened to
a supposedly sovereign grace preacher bring a sermon from
John chapter 6. And you're all familiar, John
chapter 6, very powerful statements concerning the sovereignty of
God, the sovereignty of His grace, things like that. Well, he was
able to get through that entire chapter and never once mention
the sovereign grace of God. And I think that takes a seminary
degree. He says, I recall wondering about that, for such truth is
plainly and unmistakably taught in John 6. But I found out why
as I passed him on the way out of the church. I shook his hand
and he said to me, Brother so-and-so's son is here today and he's quite
an Armenian. So I held off on election so
as not to offend him. And I mean, you know, the deer
in the headlight thing? That just so stunned me. What do you say to that? So I must conclude that at least
as he preached that message on that day, the fear of the Lord
was not upon his heart. A consuming fire consumes. Once a fire has consumed a thing,
there is no way to reconstitute it. You can't put it back together. What sort of things would move
people to depart from Christ and expose themselves to the
consuming fire of God? Well, in the case of the people
to whom the book of Hebrews was specifically written, it was
persecution for the cause of Christ. The Jews were the first
persecutors of the Christians. And that only makes sense because
it was in the Jewish nation that the gospel was first preached.
And they were particularly fierce in persecuting other Jews who
believed the message of the gospel. And their persecution could range
from merely shunning people, to seizure of their property,
to beatings, and even death, as in the case of Stephen. And
the recipients of this book, they were suffering these things.
And the result was that some of them were trying to avoid
persecution by disassociating with the church. They were trying
to be secret believers, claiming to believe Christ while refusing
to suffer reproach with the people of God. And they did this by
pretending to be faithful Jews. They were saying that one could
go unto Jesus without going outside the camp. That's what they were
trying to do. In Hebrews 10 verse 25 tells
us what that's about, what that results in. Verse 25, Hebrews
10, Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching,
for if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge
of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Now,
verse 25 has often or is often used as a goad by which preachers
try to make folks more faithful to come to church. And I'm not
saying that people don't need that exhortation, because there
are some folks that, you know, if you were one of those churches
that kept attendance on everybody, you'd wonder, well, how come
so many blank spaces in this person's attendance? But he does
not say, not missing the assembly. He says, don't forsake it, because
that's what they were doing. There's a difference between
being careless and forsaking. And I only point that out so
that we can understand what's being spoken of here. They weren't
just saying, I'm not going to go to church today. They were
saying, I'm not going to associate myself with those people. It's
too dangerous. I'm not going to do anything
that gives folks the idea that I belong to that Christian sect,
because it's dangerous. And that is not simply a matter
of being irregular in church attendance. That constitutes
a willful departure from the gospel. If you choose anything over Christ,
that's a departure from the gospel. Some depart Christ for pleasure.
Not everyone who falls to the temptation of sinful pleasures
has forsaken Christ. If that were the case, then all
of us have forsaken Him. But it is written in Scripture
and in our conscience that one cannot pursue sinful pleasures
and Christ at the same time. It just doesn't work. In the parable of the sower and
the various kinds of ground that the seed fell on, the thorny
ground stood for those who heard, but whose interest in the things
of God was choked out by the cares, riches, and pleasures
of this world. In chapter 11 verse 25, speaking
of Moses, says he chose rather to suffer affliction with the
people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now the scriptures say that the
righteous fall seven times. And that doesn't mean that they're
counting up to seven. It means they make complete face
plant type falls. But they get up. They get up. But if a person says, I'm just going to keep doing
this. I really like it and I'll just put it under the blood.
I'll say this, they don't know God. They don't know God. I'm glad that no matter what
I do, it's under the blood. But I don't go out and do things,
at least I hope I'm not, That is, I do not say to myself, it
doesn't matter what I do anyway. It's under the blood. I might
as well give vent to my flesh. If that thought runs through
my mind, it scares me. Some have been drawn away from
Christ by the love of riches. Hear this word from Paul. For
the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people
eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves
with many griefs. Now there's a lot of things that I wish were
different about me. I wish I had more talent in some
of the things I like to do. Sometimes I'm listening to some
music and I tell Bonnie, man, I wish I could sing like that. Well, I know why the Lord didn't
give me that kind of voice. I'd be out there singing like
that. You know, one of the ways, it
says out and out to Him who is able to keep you from falling.
One way is by never giving you the ability to. Money. Sure, I wish I had a million
bucks. Or more. Whatever. But God didn't
give me much ambition. And you don't get a million bucks
without ambition unless you inherit it. It is one thing for a person
to reach the top of their money-getting abilities and say, I'll be content
with that. It's another thing when someone
knows if they dedicate themselves more to a job, maybe a promotion
that means, well, Sundays, we're going to be working every Sunday.
Or we're going to have to move over here and there is no church
there. And to look at that and say,
I could have more, but I'm not going to take it because I would lose something
much more valuable to me. That's a different thing. And so the Lord never has given
me the kind of skills, at least I don't think he did, that would
have enabled me to make any significant amount of money anyway. So that
temptation hasn't been mine. But that doesn't mean that if
I had that ability that I wouldn't find it a struggle. We could go on and mention lots
of things about those who forsake Christ for worldly things. And again, I understand, you
know, we have to issue these disclaimers. I understand no
one who's truly laid hold of Christ will forsake Him. But
the Scriptures address us where we are. The Scriptures are not
about abstract theology. The Scriptures are about recognizes
the process of life, and I'm no doubt you've seen this kind
of thing go on. And the old hymn writer wrote,
when many turn from Zion's way, alas, what numbers do? It seems
I hear my Savior say, will you forsake me too? There's not a believer here who
has not felt the pull of these temptations. In fact, you may
have fallen to them significantly enough to become alarmed. And
that alarm is exactly what this verse of scripture was designed
to do. Our God is a consuming fire. Let us keep at the front of our
mind the soul-sobering truth that our God is a consuming fire. Now, let's consider for a moment
another revelation of this same truth, if you'll turn to Lamentations
chapter 1. Here's something I have discovered,
probably later than I should have, but I did finally get around
to understanding it. Every characteristic and aspect
of God is a terror outside of Christ. and is a comfort in Christ. Our God is a consuming fire.
Well, that would just terrify me then to be outside of Christ
and to have to face this consuming fire. But in Christ, there's
a comfort in this truth. Verse 12, Lamentations 1, Is it nothing to you, O ye that
pass by, Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,
which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in
the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
in my bones, and it prevaileth against them." As the Son of God, ascended Mount
Calvary. God, the consuming fire, descended
on Mount Calvary. If the cross tells us anything,
it tells us that God is a consuming fire. Every frightening truth about
God can find a way to comfort us at the cross. But much of
the truth of God displayed in the cross is terribly frightening. Mount Sinai was frightening.
Calvary is more frightening. Mount Sinai was wrath threatened. Mount Calvary was wrath poured
out. Mount Sinai was a fire ignited. Mount Calvary was a fire consuming. But Mount Calvary brings comfort
by the very same truth that Sinai used to bring fear. God is a
consuming fire. Now you might wonder how the
fact that our God is a consuming fire can ever be made a comfort
to us. The comfort of that truth lies
in the very nature of a consuming fire. When it runs out of fuel,
it goes out. And that's true. When it runs
out of fuel, the most powerful forest fire that no one seems
able to control, once it's consumed the forest, the fire goes out. And in Christ, God, as a consuming
fire, went out, ran out of fuel. God is still consuming fire outside
of Christ. There's still plenty of fuel
out there. There's none in Christ. Our sins were burnt up along with Christ. They were consumed with Christ. And as with all things that are
consumed, They can never be reconstituted. You can't put them back together. Even more, we are consumed in
Christ. That old man was consumed with Christ and
he can never be reconstituted. Now the old man I'm talking about
And this is the way I believe that Paul is speaking in 2 Corinthians
5 when he says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. He's not talking about spiritual
rebirth. In fact, he's not talking about
anything that we actually experience. He's talking in a very legal
sense that In Christ, we are considered
a different person altogether from what we were outside of
Christ. I don't mean that we've become
the same person who acts different. We are a different person. I read a ruling by a judge in
the 1800s about pardon. And it said, pardon not only
extends to the crime, but to the person. And he went on to say it restores
him to all rights and privileges, gives him new capacities, which
was the old way of saying new freedoms. He was allowed to go
where he wanted to and all this. And at the end it says, for all
intents and purposes, He is a new man. Now if we are in Christ, the
old man has been burnt up. The man in Adam has been consumed
in Christ and he cannot be reconstituted. You say, well I sure feel that.
Not everything that's done in eternity has found its fulfillment
in time and space, but it will. It will. We have been consumed. The fuel
has run out. The fire has gone out concerning
everything and everyone in Christ. So on the one hand, our God is
a consuming fire, is a warning to us that we don't allow pleasures
or fear of persecution or anything like that cause us to depart
from Christ. But it's also a comfort to us
and an attraction. Because in Christ, everything
that would have exposed me to the wrath of God has been consumed. And what has been consumed can
never be reconstituted and brought up again. That's why he says,
I will forgive their sins and their iniquity. I will remember
no more. Why? Because they are no more. They don't exist. Therefore,
when the accuser of the brethren accuses us in the presence of
God, he is a liar. In the court of heaven, you say,
wait a minute, he's got a lot he could accuse me of. Not in
the court of heaven he can't. Because all those things that
you are and have done are gone, burnt up. They no longer exist. Thank God that our God is a consuming
fire.