So if you have your Bibles open
to Acts chapter 2, I'm going to be reading verses 1 through
4, and then we will go into our overview according to your outline.
You have on the inside of your outline the way we are going
to approach it. Now, I'm going to be saying a
number of things by way of a brief explanation of things that really
can go into detail and into depth. I feel compelled to give a framework
to the Book of Acts because I think that a lot of people really fail
to benefit from the Book of Acts because they don't understand
what we call context. Context is critical to understanding
why God did what he did, how God is doing what God is doing,
and what the end product is for which God did it. And so last
week's study was informative, I hope challenging to some degree
edifying, Tonight is going to be the same way informative,
I hope challenging and certainly to a certain degree edifying,
but this is what we call preliminary data, essential for you to benefit
from every verse throughout the book of Acts. 28 chapters we
are dealing with, and you know how we do it at Grace. As an
expository exegetical approach to scripture, we take our time
trying to explain and understand what the text is actually saying.
We pray that the spirit of God will make application to our
hearts and cause us to appreciate the inspiration of scripture.
Last week I said that there are two fundamental characteristics
that underscore the book of Acts. The book of Acts is a historical
document. It is a historical document.
It bridges the gap between the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John and the epistles that are written to the church. This
historical document is a bridging of the gap between the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ in his incarnation, his ministry, his
life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension to glory, and the
New Testament epistles that are given to the local church for
the purpose of instructing her as to how she ought to live.
The medium between the epistles that you have from Romans to
Revelation and the gospels that you have, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, is the book of Acts. Without the book of Acts, you
really have no narrative by which you can understand what the epistles
are about. Am I making some sense? So what
the Bible does is the Bible gives you what we call an historical
narrative along with imperatives and precepts for conduct and
living. The narrative is much more for
those of us who are right braindead and love color and nuances and
dimensions and art forms. The narrative is what we love.
Now, we all like narrative to a certain degree because we're
to some degree like children. So we like the story. What can
be arduous and a little bit challenging is when we are dealing with ongoing
and unending precepts like the book of Leviticus. telling you
specifically how to worship God in every nuance and every detail
meticulously down to the wire. That can be challenging for those
of us who are not as didactically driven or given to imperative
upon imperative upon imperative, the large body of instruction.
So I see in God's mercy what he does for you and I is he gives
us historical accounts. These are big picture scenarios.
And in the big picture scenario, this is what we call redemptive
history. He allows us to extract out of the big picture critical
points. So we're going to be dealing
with the big picture. And the big picture really is
Christ's working through his church to manifest his glory
all around the world in the basic everyday life of human beings. The historical narrative is the
witness of Jesus Christ working through his church, everywhere
in the world in the basic everyday experiences of life. That's as
simple as I can paint it at the moment. So I want you to grasp
that that's important. Because what that means is, is
that the church, which is an extension of Christ, and you're
gonna hear this today, is not called upon to do anything that
Jesus himself in his incarnation did not do. The church is an
extension of Jesus Christ and the church is not called upon
to do less or more than what Christ did in his incarnation
when he came. So you're going to see this parallel
running through the book. More than that, because Christ
was not just a man, he was a Jew. and therefore he was, uh, tutored
under the law system of the old covenant. There are a number
of old Testament, old covenant concepts that are going to carry
over into the book of acts, which will be implied that if you don't
understand that the book of acts is emerging up out of an old
Testament Jewish narrative, you will miss certain statements.
This is why the Book of Acts is really a good corollary to
our biblical theology class. Because in biblical theology,
you are learning that God is a covenant God. A covenant God. If you take covenant away from
the who of God, the why of God, and the how of God, you won't
understand what God is up to. So it's the same thing with the
Book of Acts. So when you're reading narratives, historical
accounts, whether it's in the Old Testament or in the New,
Never forget that those historical narratives are in a covenant
context. Y'all got that? And then, so
identify that covenant context, the character of that covenant
context, and then you'll see how God is working through his
people. I hope to make that plain a little bit today, but I certainly
will over the year series that we're gonna deal with. Today,
I wanna deal with a very focused area that's gonna probably take
us 45 minutes to deal with. And I'm gonna run through the
last three, the formation, the frustration, the fulfillment
of the church. But I'm definitely gonna be dealing
with briefly and not in the sense of contextualizing what I am
about to say. We'll deal with that when we
get to Acts chapter two in the actual study. But we're gonna
deal with the mission of the spirit of God today We're going
to address certain points that I think are critical to understand
and to defray you or to remove certain assumptions that you
and I are naturally inclined to embrace when certain words
are given to us. I've been telling Grace this
for years. You and I are slaves of and subject to the culture.
You guys believe that? What that means is we are often
taught by the culture to believe things and thus respond to things
which have as it were surpassed or transcended our cognitive
thinking and have sort of lodged themselves in the subconscious
so that we act like the culture without actually thinking. And
certain words will trigger us to act in a way as if we actually
understand the meaning of those words when in fact what we're
doing is simply functioning according to culture. Did y'all get that? What that means is you can actually
be walking around, sleep, intellectually and cognitively and not actually
be aware that you're being taught and tutored to act a certain
way that has gotten past your own rational, cognitive, discriminating
judgment. Nobody asks you to make a judgment
as to what this word means and how this word is comprehended
or how these ideas actually work. they're imposed upon us by our
culture. And one of them is the spirit, the spirit, especially
in church. So let's go to work a little
bit. Acts chapter two, verses one through four. Yep, that's all I wanna deal
with today. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there
came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it
filled the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto
them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Again,
that's phraseology you hear prominently in our Pentecostal charismatic
churches, even the word utterance. and immediately when you hear
the term you launch back to experience rather than biblical exegesis
and you think or assume that you understand what it means.
Now I'm not doing an exegesis of these verses. I'm using this
as a context to simply talk about the nature of the Spirit of God
in His mission. The nature of the Spirit of God
in His mission because the Spirit of God is the featured person
of the Godhead whose job it is to bring to reality the call
of the church in its relationship and witness to Jesus Christ.
The role of the third person is to bring to reality the call
and witness of the church in its relationship to Jesus Christ.
He is a very important person in our life. Do you guys agree?
So here's how we're going to deal with this. You have your
outline. The outline is fairly sufficient,
so we're going to work with it. The first thing I want to say
is this. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. That's Hebrews 13, 8. Why do
I say that? Because there's often flawed
assumptions that the Old Testament is so radically different than
the New Testament that there are no essential similarities.
that assumption will cause you to make conclusions that would
be wrong. So when I make the statement,
Jesus Christ today, yesterday, and forevermore, I am stating
what Hebrews 13, eight says is really this true, that the Jesus
that sits on his throne and glory and deals with his church presently
at this hour is the same Jesus that has dealt with his covenant
people from the beginning of time. and the continuity of the
manner in which he has dealt with his people is consistent
and similar and does not change radically with regards to his
essential character. The Old Testament saints would
have recognized Jesus in the New Testament in terms of his
dealings with the New Testament saints, as well as how he dealt
with them. It speaks to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ, both in the Old and the New Testament. I'm just
gonna do this for visual for some of you who are not as acquainted
with scripture as you should be. So your Bible, you write
that down, is made up of two primary covenants, Old and what? New. That's right. And what I
said earlier is that these two covenants are bridged by the
Book of Acts. That means there are things in
the old covenant that are coming over into the new. OK, and those
things that are in the old covenant coming over into the new sometimes
are going to be assumed the spirit of God or the author that's writing
is not going to tell you what's being brought over. You have
to know what's being brought over. OK, so let's work with
this. When we talk about the mission
of the Spirit of God, and that's in your outline, the symbols
of the Spirit's mission, do you see that at the top of your outline?
The symbols of the Spirit's mission. We are not actually getting into
what we call the nature of the Spirit of God, His origin, His
relationship to the Father and the Son, His purpose in terms
of His divine nature in relationship to creation and sustaining creation,
bringing order to that. We're speaking about the ministry
of the Spirit of God in terms of His mission subsequent, subsequent
to Christ's atoning work being accomplished, Him going back
to glory and sending the Spirit of God. So here's what you can
write down in your notes if you don't already have a sensitivity
to this. That there's a difference between
the person of the Spirit of God in terms of the doctrine of the
spirit and the mission of the spirit of God in terms of how
he works. Like there's a difference between
the ministry of the spirit and the life of the believer to accomplish
the job of witnessing and the work of the spirit in the conversion
and in the salvation and the sanctification of the believer
for his union with Christ. Some people would say that The
Old Testament is so sparsely sprinkled with the presence and
ministry of the Spirit of God that nary can you find any statement
in the Old Testament that believers were filled with the Holy Spirit
or the Spirit of God came upon them or the Spirit of God used
them. A careful examination of that proposition would render
that conclusion wrong. We would say that the Spirit
of God saves in the Old Testament the way he saves in the New Testament.
that his work in the life of the believer in the New Testament
is the same as his work in the life of the believer in the Old
Testament. In other words, every born-again believer, whether
Old Testament or New Testament, has always possessed the Spirit
of God. The third person is the immediate
presence of God. You can write that down. We're
going back to what we call systematic theology with this. The third
person is the immediate Presence of God. He is the sensible presence
of God. He is the felt presence of God
He is the influential presence of God in your life in mind Are
y'all with me so far? This is true from the beginning
of time up to the present moment Don't ever believe that the Spirit
of God did not save did not convert did not call did not quicken
Did not abide in the Old Testament Saints in the same fashion. He
does with us. He absolutely did What is distinguishly
different in the Old Testament and the New is the manner in
which the Spirit's ministry operated. The ministry of the Spirit was
distinctly different in the Old and in the New. What that would
mean is you would not see so obvious a manifestation of the
ministry of the Spirit in the Old Testament saints, that is
per capita per person in the same way you would in the new
because the new becomes a fulfillment of what is anticipated by the
old in the area of the ministry of the spirit. Y'all got that?
The ministry of the spirit. So conversion and ministry are
two different things. The spirit of God could come
upon a person in the old and the new and use that person and
that person never be born again. Got that? The Spirit of God could
use that person in a temporary missional way for God to teach
certain truths. And yet that person does not
have the spirit in dwelling him. Anybody have a problem with that?
Hurry up and get over it. Because King Saul is our Old
Testament major paradigm along with Balaam, as well as in the
New Testament, Judas Iscariot. So there is a difference between
the spirit of God coming upon you to control you in his sovereign
work to make you do what God wants you to do in terms of him
using you as an example of an individual who has been privileged,
as we're going to learn on Sunday, to be made a partaker of certain
external benefits of the kingdom. And yet, because the heart is
not yielded in allegiance to Christ through the new birth,
At some point, there's going to be a departure between you
and the Spirit of God, because your will will not have been
brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. Y'all got that? So let's
go to work with this now. I just want to hurry up and start
getting into that. I needed to lay that foundation, because
some people struggle between the indwelling presence of the
Spirit and the external ministry of the Spirit. You got to know
the difference. The first thing I want you to mark is that there's
a symbolism of the Spirit's mission given to us in verse two and
three, a symbolism of the Spirit's mission. And that symbolism is
constituted by three terms, the wind, fire, and tongues. The symbolism of wind, fire,
and tongues is given to us in Acts chapter two, verses two
and three, where it says, and suddenly there came a sound from
heaven as a rushing mighty, what? That's right. And it filled the
house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them
cloven what? Tongues. Like as of what? Now,
why I say that we are dealing here with the symbolism of the
Spirit's mission is because of this. After this unique moment,
wherein the Spirit of God now has obeyed Christ, to come as
Christ has sent Him, having prophesied that He would send Him, to meet
up with Christ's obedient sheep who were called upon to wait
for the promise. Remember that? Wait for the promise. He comes in fulfillment of obedience
to Christ, but also carrying all of the necessary Old Testament
symbolism that underscores his mission. His mission. When you understand the concept
of the wind, you understand the concept of the fire, you understand
the concept of tongues. What you are understanding is
an aspect of the Spirit's mission. Let me say it like this. The
wind is not the sum total expression or definition or attribute of
the Spirit. It's only one aspect of the Spirit,
the wind, the wind. Like the wind that you and I
feel when the air is rushed upon us. The wind is a force. It has influence. It affects
things. But the wind itself does not
fully and accurately or adequately describe the Spirit of God. Because
the Spirit of God is a person. The wind is not a person. So
what we are taking is a symbol that has a certain inherent definitions
or purposes and designs in it. And we are learning something
about the spirit in relationship to the wind. I'll tell you what
that is in a moment. The next one is the fire, which is what
we're going to spend a lot of time on tonight is the fire.
The fire, the fire too, is a very powerful metaphor in the scriptures. But for one to say that the fire
and the spirit are equal and synonymous is to make a flawed
conclusion about what the fire signifies. I'm not making some
sense. Once again, fire is impersonal. Fire doesn't function itself
on rational propositional principles in an intelligent fashion by
which it makes cognitive decisions as to how it's going to affect
people as fire. Fire therefore becomes an attribute
of the mission of the Spirit of God. And when the believers
taught didactically through the scriptures the nature of the
fire, then they learned something about how the Spirit of God functions
as fire. The same thing with tongues,
which is a very important concept in our text. The third symbol
there is tongues, right? Glossos. Glossalia is where we
get our term for languages. Languages. Languages. So there are three symbols that
accompany the coming of the spirit of God in Acts chapter two, verses
two and three. Three symbols which, After chapter
two and the event that transpired at Pentecost, you will never
see again. You won't see the spirit of God
coming in the symbol of tongues, cloven tongues of fire. You won't
see him coming in wind. You won't see him coming in these
symbols, which symbols are to be apprehended by that one act
because it has to do with defining his mission But the spirit will
be permanently present in the church working through the church.
Am I making some sense? So it's very important that you
and I don't fall prey to seeking to repeat Pentecost and all of
these formulas when that's not God's design. May I say this
as we continue to work through it? I don't want the symbol.
I want the substance. You don't want the symbol. You
want the substance. And I don't want the symbol if the symbol
has accomplished something that had to do with the nature of
a covenant design that is no longer necessary, which we'll
see when we get into the text and open it up. What I want to
talk with you about at length right now for the next 30 minutes
or so is the concept of the fire, the fire, the word wind there,
Is a word that is commonly running through the scriptures and it's
often a synonym for the spirit, isn't it? When you read your
Bible be sure of this don't ever don't run to the word wind and
always say it's talking about the Spirit of God because the
vast majority of the time in the scriptures when the word
wind is used it's used in reference to God's deployment of judgment
against people groups and even nations because of their disobedience
against him God will bring an east wind or a south wind and
he will wreak havoc on a land. This is what Job says. He sends
his storm. He sends his wind to correct
men and admonish men. And you and I know what winds
can do in terms of their destructive capacities to land masses. So the most frequently what you'll
see in the Old Testament is the use of wind in the context of
God sending the wind of his providential judgment, such as Daniel chapter
seven, when God gives Daniel the vision of the four beasts,
the king of Babylon, Medo-Persia, the Grecian kingdom and the Roman
kingdom, he says, and the four winds strove upon the great sea,
correct? And so frequently the wind will
be what we can call now that attribute of God that constitutes
his sovereignty. The wind is that attribute of
God that constitutes his, say it, sovereignty. I want you to
get that. The wind is that attribute of
God that constitutes his sovereignty for, first of all, Proverbs chapter
30 says it, can anyone grasp the wind in his fist? Can anyone
control the wind? That means the wind operates
in a supra-sovereignty over the masses of the people. You can't
bottle the wind. You can't control the wind. You
can't tell it what to do. You can't dictate the wind. You
can't, as it were, mass reproduce the wind. You can't put a formula
on the wind. You can't make him act in a certain
way to create patterns like... You can't tell the wind when
to show up. Am I making some sense? The wind
is sovereign. This is what our master meant
in John chapter 3 verse 8 when he says those that are born of
God are like the wind that blows, right? It blows wither so ever
it what wheels. There is a sovereignty to the
wind. There is a mystery to the wind.
There is a sense of self-determination. He rises above all human opinion,
all human judgment, all human capacity or attempt to control
him. Have you figured out you can't
control the spirit of God? I'm just simply saying that when
we deal with the concept of the wind, don't fall prey to either
cultural prejudices, or the lack of ignorance as to how the Bible
uses the term. Again, in the Old Testament,
the word win-ruah is the Hebrew word, and it is constantly used
in the various forms in which God in His power brings judgment
providentially against nations and even His own people. The
few times where in the Spirit of God is translated the Spirit
of God in the English Bible, the context is very determinative. You will see the Spirit of God
working consistently the same way. and the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters. He brought order and structure.
He brought purpose. He brought teleos, or what we
call objectivity and goal, to that which was chaos in the beginning. That raw mass of material that
God had created in terms of preparing the world, the Spirit of God
now becomes what we called earlier, get this, the immediate presence. And working upon the material
to honor God in the order and structure of what we call the
cosmos. He had to make the world beautiful because the world has
to reflect the glory of God. Chaos does not reflect the glory
of God. By the way, I want to say something
about that while we're at it. Neither the wind or the fire
on the part of the evangelical work of the Spirit of God is
to be viewed as an endorsement for chaos erratic behavior, unintelligible
actions, nonsensical behavior, the pandemonium that comes often
with people alleging to be filled with the Spirit. Did y'all get
that? Nowhere in the Scriptures do the believer demonstrate a
kind of chaotic pandemonium as a consequence of being overcome
by the Spirit of God. We will see that as we work through
the text. There are other very advised manifestations of the
wind and of the fire that I think is worthy of our attention. And
we'll see that, too, here in our text. I just simply want
to say to you, it's important for you and I to make those distinctions
and delineations lest we get in trouble. The reason why I
want to talk to you about the fire today in relationship to
the Spirit of God is because that is precisely what the anticipated
metaphor was described as in Matthew's chapter three, when
John the Baptist said, I baptize you with water, but there's one
who is coming who will baptize you in the Holy Ghost and with
fire. So this here is a transfer from
the Old Testament to the New Testament to teach us something
about a primary attribute of God in relationship to the people
of God and their purpose with God. Y'all got that? This year
is a significant attribute. So I want to go into that for
the moment. This will bless you. For some of you, this will be
a repeated portion of information. So under the concept of fire,
the first thing I want to call your attention to is fire in
the scripture, fire in the scripture in relationship to God and dealing
with his people. God reveals himself to his covenant
people as fire. What that means is when God reveals
himself as fire, he is functioning towards his people in a manifestation
of his character according to a covenant purpose. Hear me, ladies and gentlemen,
when you read in your Bible, God manifesting himself as fire,
and I'm going to quote several scriptures for time, he manifests
himself as fire under the presupposition that he is acting in covenant
towards those people to whom he manifests himself as fire. The fire becomes a covenant sign
of this glorious holy God dwelling with people who are participants
of the covenant. The metaphor of the fire in relationship
to God only makes sense and is comfortably received when you
understand that God reveals himself to us as a consuming fire on
the grounds of a covenant relationship. Did you get that? So turn with
me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 13, because in Hebrews,
that'll be my argument for proving this point. Obviously the Hebrew
writer, is talking to the Jewish people. They are well-versed
in Old Covenant theology, and thus the language will be very
vivid, very clear, and understood by them, as I expect it to be
understood by you. So as we deal with the concept
of fire tonight, here's what I want you to grasp. Where you
read of God in the Old Testament, and it's gonna be carried over
into the New, as coexisting with and working in the life of his
people, This chief metaphor of fire is because of a covenant
Purpose with which he is revealing himself to them and engaging
them in his mission in their life Y'all got that now watch
the language Hebrews chapter 13 the Hebrews 12. I'm sorry
Hebrews 12. It's not 13 Hebrews 12 I'm gonna
start at verse 28 and read verse 28 and 29 where for we receiving
a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with what? Reverence and what? Now
see, now see those two attributes. We're low in that stock in the
church today. We're low in that stock in the
church today. Reverence and godly fear. We're low in that stock.
Can I tell you why we're low in that stock? Because the God
who reveals himself as fire is not present. So stay with me now, so I can
help you understand what I'm getting at. The reason why the
writer to the Hebrews, which may have been the Apostle Paul,
he certainly was a person who was prolifically knowledgeable
of the Hebrew culture, the cultic people of the Old Testament,
is closing out chapter 12 with this language, let us serve God
with grace and reverence and godly fear, is because he knew
that you cannot dwell with a God of fire and play games. Are you hearing me? Now he gives
us the exegetical or the conclusion for which he says we need grace,
but we need that grace to transfer itself into our own emotional,
psychological, and spiritual commitment to God in the context
of reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. Y'all got that? For our God is
a consuming fire. And ladies and gentlemen, the
writer is taking this statement from every place in the New Testament
where God has revealed himself in covenant to his people, not
only in terms of his nature, but how he acts. This person
has a proper understanding of the holiness of God. Y'all got
that? God is holy. God is holy. So the Hebrew writer
explains this and the text from which he is deriving that is
Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 12. Do we have somebody working a
screen up there? Deuteronomy 4.12. Now watch Deuteronomy chapter
4.12. This is where God is speaking
to the children of Israel in what we call the second giving
of the law. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 12. Is that right? Deuteronomy chapter 4.12. Let
me go back there. Go with me in your Bibles to
Deuteronomy 4.12. It may be 4.13. Listen to what the writer says
in the book of Deuteronomy around this same language. Deuteronomy
chapter 4 describes how the children of Israel are to remember how
the Lord their God met them and revealed himself to them. Now,
it's Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 23 and 24. Verse 12 is something
else. Which we'll get to down the line
verse 23 and 24. Are you there now listen to the
spirit? Using the same tenor of language
in the mouth of Moses that he does to the writer to the Hebrews
Which is why I said Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and
forever Take heed unto yourselves lest you forget the what this
is what I meant God deals with us according to what I? the Lord
your God which he made with you and make and make you a graven
image or a likeness of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden
of thee verse 23 says this don't start thinking of God any different
than how he revealed himself to you for to do so is to create
an idol y'all got that verse 24 for the Lord your God is a
what consuming fire. The last clause we'll deal with
a little bit later. You see the sense then in which
I am saying, when we talk about the concept of fire, that we
are talking about a concept that has to do with the nature of
God and relationship to his covenant people, that God is coming to
his people in a kind of description that requires his people to take
God seriously. that the idea of dwelling with
a God who is like fire is not to be trifled with. So now let's
just deal with this on a physical level as we continue to work
through this. So in your outline, I have the primary symbol, not
the exclusive, but the primary symbol of His nature in covenant
is that he is a God of fire. The primary symbol of his nature
in covenant that he's a God of fire. And did I have Genesis
15, 17, which is where, when God meets up with the arch patriarch
Abraham, and he makes a covenant with Abraham and they divide
the parts. Remember all the parts are divided in chapter 15 and
God puts Abraham to sleep because Abraham was not going to be as
it were an actual co-partner in the covenant. That covenant
would be accomplished between the father and the son on Abraham's
behalf. So Abraham sleeps on this, he wakes up and he sees
God passing through the pieces as a smoking furnace and a burning
lamp. Y'all see that? Once again, God
is revealed in covenant as fire. So you know, when Abraham sees
the metaphor, Abraham ain't rushing to run up there and get into
the pieces. What God is saying to Abraham is this, you as a
type of God the Father, will serve to produce a nation of
whom I will teach and train and catechize as to who I am and
how they are to relate to me in the context of this covenant
that I'm making with you. But they will learn to reverence
me like you have learned to reverence me. I'm a God to be loved, I'm
a God to be obeyed, but I'm a God to be feared. Am I making some
sense? Now fear, an important attribute
with respect to what we call reverence on a very logical level
Let me help you if I can if I can get this out and I know I'm just
gonna end up dealing with fire tonight I know that but it's
important for us to do this if you and I just take literal fire
and we were to fall prey to to transcending the symbolism of
fire and making God a literal ball of fire, a basket of fire,
a pool of fire, or a lake of fire, which is the way the Bible
closes. These are in your outline. And this God of fire is talking
about dwelling with us. We're actually talking about
incompatibility of natures. Would you want anybody to say,
Hey, um, man, I'm coming over to the mall and I'm gonna bring
a big, uh, dump truck full of fire over. And I want to set
it in your living room. You would say, no, thank you.
Because I understand the implications of commingling this gas, this
combustible entity entity that has the fury and the power and
the capacity to utterly destroy me upon its contact with me.
Right. And just out of a principle of
self-preservation, I don't want to have nothing to do with it.
So now what we are learning about the nature of fire in terms of
the character of God in relationship to his people is this. It's absolutely
miraculous that a God of this kind of holiness would frame
a relationship by which he would deal with men and women so closely
and so intimately, so personally, and not consume them. Are y'all
with me so far? See, I want you to respect this
because this is something we're gonna have to drink and think
through for a long time. How is it that a God of fire,
and this is his insignia under covenant. Remember Elijah said,
let the God of fire answer. If he's the true God, let him
rain fire down and consume the sacrifice. If he's real, let
him demonstrate himself by pouring down fire. And John and James,
they carry that over when they were going through the cities
with Jesus and folk didn't hear the gospel. Lord, rain fire down
on them. Because under the Old Testament
system, what they understood is that a God of holiness does
not play with people that trifle with him. He will quickly destroy
them. Right? So our minds and hearts
have to get a grip on what this fire is in all of its implications. And the first one has to do with
God dealing with us in terms of covenant. Go with me in your
Bible to Exodus chapter 3 verse 2. Because this here now becomes
a prominent account around which the whole scheme of Old Testament
redemption, Christology, and even ecclesiology is built. Remember the account where Moses
is Finding himself meandering in the wilderness and he comes
across God You remember that Now here's here's the context
verse 1 and 2 now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law
the priest of Midian and he led the flock to the backside of
the desert and came to the mountain of what God's mountain, even
Horeb. This is where the law would be
given. Now notice what verse 2 says. And the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him in a flame of what? Fire. See it? See it? The angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a flame of fire. Now watch this. Out of the midst
of a what? So here you have is a conflation
of imagery and these are also oxymoronic because how on earth
can a bush coexist with a fire and the bush not be consumed?
In fact, that's where Moses was driven to contemplate what am
I looking at, right? What am I looking at here? A
bush engulfed in fire and not consumed. The bush was burned
with fire and the bush was not consumed. Moses said I will now
turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt
up and Moses on my he understood a bush is a perfect flammable
entity to bring fuel to the fire Here they are Coexisting together
like friends What are we talking about? covenant Are you hearing
me? Covenant. We're talking about
a God who by nature is gloriously holy all by himself ontologically
distinct from everything that he made. And in order for God
to coexist, particularly with mankind in a harmonious relationship,
God would have have to have framed a covenant of a miraculous nature
by which he could dwell with us. Am I making some sense? I'm not bringing us to the gospel
yet. Cause I just want you to think through the miracle, the
miracle of a God who by nature reveals himself as fire, giving Moses a picture. And this
is a prophetic picture of the covenant that got made with two
groups of people, the old covenant people and the new covenant people.
The old covenant people. When Moses is looking at this
miracle, you know what he's seeing? He doesn't understand it yet,
but you know what he's seeing? And he's going to write about
it because remember what Jesus said? Everything that Moses wrote was
about whom? Me. You are searching the scriptures
and in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they
which testify of me. Is that true? Does the whole
Bible testify of Christ? So are we looking at Christ right
here? Pastor, I don't know how, but I guess we are. Yes, we are
looking at the miracle of the incarnation of God. You got that? You and I are like
a bush. Humanity is nothing but a bush.
It's nothing but a root out of dry ground. It's nothing but
wood, hay and stubble by itself. But divinity joined with humanity
in a miraculous hypostatic union is here described prophetically
to Moses as the promise that God made in covenant, not to
Moses, not to the 12 tribes, but to their great, great, great,
great granddaddy, who Abraham. And the picture that Moses is
looking at now will be launched all the way to Matthew, Mark,
and Luke, where a woman is conceived with a child overshadowed by
the Holy Ghost. Assuming the human nature coming
into the world as God's holy thing Got it God's holy thing
His name is Jesus Christ Are y'all following me? So what I
said in the first point of our outline, which is important is
the primary symbol of his nature in covenant in covenant So Isaiah
raises the question in Isaiah 33 verse 14, who can dwell with
the everlasting fire? Are you ready? Only covenant
people. You got that? Only covenant people. I mean, it only makes sense,
right? Now watch this, only covenant people who were placed in Christ
before the world began. so that God can deal with every
one of his elect people through Christ, who is the miracle by
which divinity and humanity can be joined together without divinity
consuming humanity. Are y'all with me so far? What
am I getting at? I'm getting at this, that we
don't want to play games with the fire. Misinterpret it, distort
it, deny its Christocentric meaning, and then go off on a rabbit trail.
which is what goes on in Christianity because we don't know the gospel.
Y'all following me so far? Now the next thing I want you
to grasp is this. It is a beautiful thing that
God has done in revealing himself this way and in this manner,
as we have already now been able to drink of the gospel, to bring
you and I into relationship with so holy of a being in such a
comfortable fashion that we are glad to be there. I am glad to
be there. So I'm gonna tie the two bookends and then get into
the other aspects of the fire, if you guys don't mind. When
you look at Acts chapter two, verse three and four, and the
text says, verse three, that, and there were cloven tongues
of fire, that sat upon the head of each one of them. Do you see
that? And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them. What you have is a description
of every individual believer in Christ having a unique relationship
with the same God of Exodus 3 verse 2, where he coexists with them
the same way he coexists with his son Jesus Christ for the
Old Testament Church as well as for the New Testament Church.
Do you see the connection? Do you see the connection that
the God of the Old Testament is now dwelling with his people
individually per capita person by person in this upper room
scenario which we'll deal with back there the same way in which
he is describing to Moses I dwell with your people through my covenant
with Abraham I'm the consuming fire in the midst of a bush that
should be burnt up but won't be burnt up because I have a
covenant designed for them y'all got that so I'm just simply saying
this is a marvelous conflation of imagery and symbolism that
connotes God's covenant design for his people. The second thing
I want to get into now, I want to run through these, and we'll
come back next week, deal with formation. I can tell we just
don't have time for it. This is what we call stating
the obvious. The sign of his presence, when
we comprehend him as a God of covenant, is the fact that he
manifests himself as being with us in the form of fire. There's
a sign of His presence. Now, I want you to capture that
because that's important. What do you mean, the sign of
His presence? Well, we know it's the sign of
His nature in covenant, but God is not everywhere dwelling in
everybody in this form. He's only dwelling with His people
in this form. And the comfort is this, where
you see the fire, you know He is present. You got that? So God is tutoring Moses and
tutoring Israel. So Moses sees God, God gives
him his commission. He goes and delivers Israel,
right? And now Israel is journeying through the wilderness. Guess
how God is manifesting his presence in the life of Israel? A pillar
of fire by night. Cloudy pillar by day. Every time
they look at night and see the fire, God's what? Present. For them that has to be comfort
because they have now been taken out of the matrix of a world
system and made to be a unique people all by themselves in absolute
need of God. Take that to the bank. And it's what I'm getting at.
When God reveals his glory to you in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the epitome of the covenant, I will give
him a covenant to the people. Christ is my covenant theology.
He is my covenant. He is the person of my covenant.
He is the grounds of my covenant. He's the mediator of my covenant.
He is the fulfillment of my covenant. My comfortable presence with
God is my mediator and head Jesus Christ. He's everything for me
necessary for me to be with God for all eternity. Got that? But
don't play with Jesus because he's a consuming fire too. Do you understand that? The beauty of the language is
that where the fire is present God is present and that's why
in the what we have often called in Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through
4 The birth of the church is not really the birth of the church.
It's the Initiation of the church into its ministry. I'll talk
about that here in a moment. It's not really the birth of
the church. I'm sorry You know when the church was
birthed When Christ was born, I know that's wild, but it's
so. Because see, what we have in
the birth and life of the church is a co-joining of humanity with
divinity. And it had to start with somebody,
and then it had to transfer from that somebody to other somebodies.
And it started with Christ. Am I making some sense? Stay
with me. Christ is the head of the church. We are His body. It started with Him. See, otherwise
we would have to argue things like, well, were Peter, James,
John, and the 120 in the upper room actually born again or were
they unconverted? If they were born again, then
they were already believers. If they were in union with Jesus
Christ before the pouring out of the Holy Ghost, then they
were already believers. If they were already functioning in mission
like they were with Jesus when he was here, then they were already
functioning, watch this, as an ekklesia, a called out people,
weren't they? They were already functioning
as an ekklesia because the head of the church was present with
them calling them out. Y'all don't remember? Peter,
James, and John, follow me. I will make you fishers of men.
And so for three and a half years, the church in his infancy is
operating with his head in a precursor of the whole new covenant scheme
of which Jesus says, shortly what you are doing, what you
see me doing, you're going to do greater works than me. It's
merely an extension of what Christ was doing because his primary
work was not evangelism. It was atonement justification
for our sins. Accomplishing the old covenant
putting away our sins establishing a righteousness for us Eternally
bringing us into that new covenant by which we could then become
Visibly the body of Christ in the world as we are 2,000 years
hence so what happens at Pentecost is a Fulfillment of sorts which
we'll get into down the line because it was on the day of
Pentecost which means the Spirit of God is an intelligent being
and having prophetic designs in view. The primary symbol of
his nature is covenant. The sign of his presence is that
he shows up in the form of fire among his people. Exodus chapter
40 verse 38, Exodus 40, 38. This is a good way to skip through
this. So if you understand what's taking
place between Exodus chapter 3 and Exodus 40, you will understand
that Exodus 3 to Exodus 40 gives us a basic Old Testament paradigm
of the ministry of Moses and the ministry of Christ. For in
Exodus 3, God calls Moses. God uses Moses to call the children
of Israel out of Egypt. Then God uses Moses to call the
children of Israel into covenant with God. Then God uses Moses
to call the children of Israel to build the tabernacle. This
is the same paradigm in the New Testament when God raises up
the Lord Jesus, He calls the disciples, and the disciples
now, along with Christ, are calling sinners to Jesus Christ, and
Christ is building His church. See the parallels? Y'all see
the parallels? I don't want to stay, I have
to work it to convince you, I'm just simply saying. Then when we come
to Exodus chapter 40, do you know what has happened by now?
God has allowed the children of Israel to sit in the wilderness
for some time and actually physically build the temple with all of
its, tabernacle, with all of its articles, and they all point
to whom? And once the temple is reared,
guess what God does? Listen to the language in chapter
40, starting at verse 34. Well, let me start at verse 30. Verse 35 and Moses was not able
to enter into the tent of the congregation the whole Tip was
put up because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the
Lord filled the tabernacle When the cloud was taken up from over
the tabernacle the children Israel went to on their journeys But
if the cloud were not taken up then they journeyed not till
the day that it was taken up They were given instructions.
You don't move until God moved. That's good. That's good doctrine,
isn't it? Now watch this, for the cloud of the Lord was upon
the what? By day and fire was on it by
what? In the sight of all the house
of Israel throughout their journeys. Do you know what Israel was looking
at when they saw the tabernacle? Christ. You know that? They were seeing
Christ. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. He tabernacled among us. situated
himself upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the baptism enunciated,
the coming down of the Holy Ghost, the articulation, this is my
beloved son. And we saw Christ in his ministry. And what John is saying is, in
the same way in which the children of Israel stood back and saw
the glory of God on the tabernacle, so John said, me, Peter, and
James, and all the other apostles, we saw this same glory in the
person of Christ. Got it? This is what I meant
by what the book of Acts is, is a transition. It's a transition
of old things into the new. New things being the reality
of the old. But there's also a beautiful
prophetic truth here, and that goes down to the guidance part
of your outline. When you look at this text where
you see the fire upon the tabernacle, it's not only upon Christ as
a typological fulfillment, but it's also upon the church. For
what's true of Christ is true of the church too, isn't it?
Is that tabernacle in the wilderness a picture of the body of believers?
You and I are tabernacles. Did y'all know that? We are tabernacles. We are tabernacles in so many
ways. See, and I really don't want to, I shouldn't, because
this is a mobile unit that was not meant to stay in one place
because we're making our excursion through the wilderness. The excursion
through the wilderness typifies the life that you and I presently
live in this world. We are not in glory We are a
kind of mobile unit Where the presence of God the glory of
God the revelation of God's glory God's purpose purpose manifested
in Christ is in the church and wherever God goes the church
is to go am I making some sense and there's a day in which That
revelation will have a permanent situation in a new heavens and
a new earth called the New Jerusalem. But until then, in the same fashion
in which Jesus took up his ministry and for three and a half years
was on the move, so the church, for what we call the three and
a half years of the last week of the last seven weeks, and
that's what we are, we are making our traversion through the world,
doing God's will as God abides with us. So let me run through
these other aspects of the fire. That's in your outline. These
are fairly obvious. I got some time here I'm so glad
to be able to be making some headway because I don't want
to overpower your your thinking with too much information, but
I want you to get it The fire is a primary symbol of his nature
in covenant I'll talk about that when we get down to what we call
the eschatological purging of God. It's a sign of his presence
We can draw several implications from that. Here's the first one
What do you mean a sign of His presence? Well, objectively,
as they saw the fire in the spiritual dimension, you and I are to comprehend
the presence of God in our life by the nature of the benefits
of fire. In the scripture, fire is described
in relationship to its evangelical purpose as a kind of power of
God. In the scriptures, fire is described
in its evangelical purpose as a kind of power of God, because
the fire is a metaphor of the Holy Spirit, right? So now watch
this now. He shall baptize you, not many
days since, with the Holy Ghost and with fire, right? So there
is a conflation of the Spirit of God with fire, because the
fire now becomes a mechanism by which you and I are made to
be qualified to do what God has called us to do. Are you with
me? And it really means this, if
I can break it down a little bit, Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
So when I think about fire and I think about the nature of God
in covenant, what I think about is Christ in me, the hope of
glory. What do you mean, pastor? I see
Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of the fire because the fire
connotes power. And Christ gives me power. Dunamis is the Greek term. And
it's not chaotic power, not haphazard power, it's not destructive power.
It is the power to witness to the reality of God in the same
way in which Christ witnessed to the reality of God. Are you
guys hearing me? So I am not lost by the word
fire or the word power. Remember I told you at the beginning
of our study, folks like to take these terms and they'll run you
down rabbit holes and you're thinking all kind of stuff. The
word power must be comprehended as an intelligent force designed
to accomplish a supernatural objective of which you cannot
accomplish yourself. But that objective is targeted,
that objective is evangelical, that objective is designed to
glorify God. Hence, Every born-again believer
has power to bear record to the truth of the gospel and Thus
they are witnesses Upon whom the Shekinah glory dwells individually
and collectively no matter how dim the light may be Because
of the presence of God Any man has not the Spirit of God he
is none of his and So stay with me now. I'm just trying to establish
some points. Okay. Is this okay? Am I boring
you guys? So stay with me now. Let's listen.
You know what I feel so sorry about is a present generation
of ignorant, apathetic Christians who don't even have a desire
for basic biblical theology like this. This is basic doctrine.
This is basic. I'm trying to keep it as basic
as possible and not to go off on trails and unpack stuff. basic
doctrine so the nature of God as fire constitutes several things
that are to the comfort of the people of God they're totally
encompassing the person of Christ but God conflates the idea of
the presence of the Spirit of God in our life to that of power
for ministry in Acts chapter 10 verse 38 go to Acts 10 38
I'll give you one example there remember whenever you see Jesus
in his earthly ministry being described as as doing his father's
will, you can always transfer to yourself the very same mission
that Jesus is fulfilling because you as a believer are an extension
of him. You can do that. I'm at verse
38 and verse 39. Here it is, and I'm gonna just
read verse 38. Now, Peter is describing to Cornelius and the
gang who Jesus is and how he worked. Now watch this, he says
this about Christ. How that God anointed Jesus, anointing is
another symbol of the Holy Ghost under the figure of oil, right?
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the what? And with what? There you go. There you go. Who went about doing what? And
healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was what? There it is. Now do you understand
that that same resume must apply to every believer? Every believer. Every believer is to be viewed
as being anointed. Every believer is to be viewed
as having the Spirit of God. Every believer is to be viewed
as having power to do good. Because without God, you can't
do good. Without me, you can do nothing. Am I making some sense? Just
in case the metaphor is outside of the scope of grasping, Let's
let's apprehend that metaphor and shut it up in the person
of Christ. That's kind of simple Christ in you the hope of glory
Christ in you the power of God Christ in you the wisdom of God
Christ in you the sanctifying work of God Christ in you the
glory of God right Christ in you Christ in you is why he say
I'll go back I'll send the Spirit of Christ he will dwell in you
not just be with you and he will do in you what he did in me He'll do in you what he did in
me. And this is why at this point you hear a sense of certain passion
because when we think it through logically there are some huge
problems that exist for professing Christians who say that omnipotence
dwells on the inside of us and yet we are not able to accomplish
the fundamental calling of witnessing to the glory of God if omnipotence
has dwelt in us. Huge problems. Am I telling the
truth? Huge. We can study this stuff
through and logically draw accurate doctrinal conclusions if we want
to, but we better think through the implications. When you and
I say God's in us, you sin a lot. You sin a lot. And I would suggest
that if this is breaking you, what you do with this truth is
fall on your face. and say to God, I don't want
to shame you by saying I have something that I don't. Got it? It's very important. Very, very important. Very important. It's a sign of His presence.
It's a sign of His power. It's also a sign of the revelatory
work of God. See, what fire does is it reveals. You know that. This is why in
the book of Revelation chapter 1 and 2, by the way, the book
of Revelation underscores the continuity of Old Testament symbolism
and typology owned by and operating in the New Testament church because
it's carried over into the final revelation of God in Christ.
Christ appears as the high priest of his church. The church is
viewed as the golden candlestick. Christ is walking in the midst
of the golden candlestick and he is trimming the lamps, is
he not? And we are very clear that that imagery there in Revelation
2 and 3 is not talking about future Israel. It's talking about
the present church. To the churches of Asia Minor. Right? and by application to
us. So by principle, Christ is present with us as Aaron was
among the people of God under the old covenant. Christ is among
us in the new covenant. And Christ is intimately involved
in making sure that we remain effective as a witness. He's
the one that cleans the candlesticks, trims the wick, inflames it to
cause it to glow more. Am I telling the truth? That's
his work. That's his work. That's the work of Jesus Christ.
And I think that where you and I fall prey to missing the blessings
of this kind of rich contemplation is fundamentally the church is
distracted. The church is distracted. I'm
talking the whole church is distracted. I'm thinking, I'm getting ready
to stop it here and we'll take up next week, I'm thinking What
on earth is more important in every aspect of my life than
to acquire a right understanding of my calling before God? What's
more important than being taught that which God has done to bring
me into the family of God, the church of God, that He might
call me a candlestick, that He might call me a tabernacle, a
temple of the living God, a witness of God. What's more important
than learning what He has done to make me what He has made me
so I can be what He has made me to the world? What's more
important than that? To me is logically irrational. that people
would fail to immerse themselves into the truth and ask God to
do what this aspect of the fire is designed to do. You know what
this aspect of the fire is designed to do? Reveal to you, reveal,
it's called revelation, reveal to you who God is and what he
purposes for our life. So I'm just, this is the last
one, I'm just gonna deal with this, we'll come back next week.
When you go back to the first time God dealt with his covenant
people, Corporately Exodus chapter 19 and 20 where he gave the law
This is the parallel between Moses and the law Christ and
the gospel Moses and the law Christ and the Spirit For Christ
is sitting on his throne and he gives his spirit where as
Moses is up in the mount and God through Moses gives the law
These are the parallels We get the spirit. They got the law
remember that but the mountain is burned with smoke and fire. Remember that? And if you recall,
God spoke out of the fire. Do you recall that? It's in your
outline. God spoke out of the fire. That's why I say the fire is
a symbol of revelation. Deuteronomy chapter four, verse
12, verse 36, In verse 33, I just want you to read that and see
it for yourself, and then we'll make the New Testament carry
over, and then we'll close it out. In Deuteronomy chapter 4,
here's what Moses specifically told the children of Israel about
that awesome day in which God spoke to the whole nation all
at once. And you know how folks talk about
God talk to me. Yeah, yesterday, me and God had
an intimate conversation yesterday, and this is what God told me.
And God told me to tell you, right? This goes on all the time
in religion, you know Spurge have a certain access to the
mountain to get up with God So God can give them a special revelation,
which he doesn't give you But on this day everybody All
million and a half up to two million maybe two and a half
billion men women and children together collectively heard God's
voice either they were all deluded or they were all blessed and
with a revelation of God. Here's what Moses said. Are you
there? Listen to what he says over in
verse 11 of Deuteronomy chapter 4. And you came near and stood
under the mountain. And the mountain burned with
what? The presence of God. Unto the midst of what? Do you
see the picture? How high that flame went up?
All the way to what? and darkness and clouds and thick
darkness. And the Lord spake unto you out
of the mist of the what? You heard the voice of the words,
but you saw no similitude. Only you heard a voice and he
declared unto you his what? There it is. Covenant God, revealing
his presence in fire, declaring his word in fire. So now we actually
have a conflation of all three persons here as a beautiful concept
of the unity of the three in the metaphor of the fire. The
father is holy. Is the father holy? The son is
holy. Is he holy? Is the Holy Ghost
holy? That's why we call them holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty. God in three persons. Blessed
Trinity. They are ontologically By nature,
God, they are distinct in their personhood. They bear about the
same qualities of holiness. All three are fire. Holy God. So the Father speaks through
the Son out of the fire. Because the Son is the Word of
God, is He not? Because the Son is the Word of
God, is He not? This is what Jesus said in John chapter 6,
verse 33. These words, My Word, Our Spirit, and They are Life.
The flesh profits nothing. It's the Spirit that what? Quickens.
And so you see now this multilateral relationship between the Spirit
and the Son and the Father. For the Father speaks through
the Son, and the Son speaks by the Spirit. For the Spirit is
the immediate presence, the Son is the mediatorial presence,
and the Father is the ultimate presence in the life of God's
people. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Y'all got that? The Son
came, not the Father. The Spirit operates to reveal
to us the Son. and the Son brings glory to the
Father. All three are operating and they are fire. They are holy. Revelation comes out of the fire.
Revelation comes out of the fire. This is why Jesus in Revelation
chapter 1 is seen as having eyes as a flame of what? Fire. Revelation
comes out of the fire. Revelation comes out of the voice
out of the fire. It's repeated several times.
Verse 33. Listen to what it says. Did ever a people hear the voice
of God speaking out of the midst of fire, as you have heard, and
live? Why did they live? Covenant!
Covenant! Verse 36. Out of heaven He made
you to hear His voice, that He might instruct you, and upon
earth, I want you to get this, this is called Revelation, He
showed you His great what? Fire. And you heard His words
out of the midst of the fire. Got it? Now we're moving into
Revelation and that's another study and it has to get into
what the next statement calls interview and that is the guidance
of God, the guidance of God. The fire underscores God's nature
in covenant. It is a sign of His presence.
It depicts His power diffused into the people of God for witness.
It is the revelation of God. I could expand on the fire being
a symbol of the Spirit in the context of biblical revelation.
It is a major theme for the prophets in their proclamation of the
word both to the Gentiles and to the Jews. The ministry of
the prophets in the Old Testament is described this way. In the
mouth of Jeremiah, I have made you my mouthpiece, is not my
word like fire. that burns up the chaff, it burns
up the wood. It was that which was deep down
in his bones, shut up like fire. It's the spirit of God rising
up to manifest God's glory, to reveal to men and women the truth
of God's nature, the purpose of God, the will of God, the
holiness of God, the righteousness of God. And by the way, in the
context of covenant, You will follow through in your outline.
If you do the study all week long, you will follow through
and you will discover that God repeatedly told his Old Testament
church, do not play games with me. Do not play games with me. Remember Deuteronomy chapter
four around verse 23. Remember what it says for our
God is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God Did y'all get that So conflate
jealousy with fire and understand that what he means by fire is
this He is passionate about his will Being accomplished by his
people for his glory and their salvation He's passionate. Is he passionate? The Old Testament
depicts God so passionate that God makes everyone inside that
covenant responsible to be obedient to the covenant, not veering
from the left or to the right, not modifying God's character,
not distorting his image, not taking up idolatry, not committing
whoredoms, not violating the moral ethical codes that God
brought to them. You are my people. How serious
God was he warned him over and over and over again. I am a consuming
fire You start trifling with me and you begin to experience
the consequences of God's judgment This is what the prophets were
doing. They were pleading for God as lawyers against his whorish
wife as she continued to start departing from God. Stop, because
don't you remember? The God that entered into covenant
with you is a consuming fire. Y'all remember that, right? So I'll close with this. As I
stated earlier, the delusion in our present 21st century church
is that the God of the New Testament is not the God of the Old Testament.
If He is not the God of the Old Testament, He's not the true
and the living God. I'm here to tell you, we have
a massively strong delusion that has draped the evangelical church
in the area of God's character. And as a consequence, the fear
of the Lord, the reverence of God, those attributes that depict
the appropriate predisposition of the heart of born-again men
and women in relationship to a holy God is accent. So God's
our buddy. He's our pal. He's our friend.
He's everything other than a glorious being with whom we have everything
to do. Because we have a wrong interpretation
of him. So what does he do with the New Testament church? At
the beginning of the ministry, he comes upon them as fire. The first thing that he teaches
them is that he's holy. You guys got that? God's holy. Do you understand how holy God
is? That he's going to destroy the universe in a conflagration
and he's going to send folk to hell fire. That's his final solution
for rebels. Fire. Is that true? He closes
this thing out with people coming under his eternal judgment. See, and with that, what you
grasp is a continuity of God's own faithfulness to himself.
He's faithful to himself. He's not going to twist and turn
and change his nature. If men continue to refuse to
submit to the reality of this glorious, holy God, what they
will face is the eschatological judgment of God thrown into fire. Because the holiness of God requires
God to be just that way because He's already revealed to His
covenant people. Now, this is the last thing I'm going to say
here. So now, I have to grapple with this too.
being wood-haired stubble just like you. I have to grapple with this too.
Okay, so the Lord Jesus Christ bears the exact representation
of the predicates and nature and character of the Father.
There is no distinction between the Father and the Son attributively. The Son is not different than
the Father in terms of His nature, His character, His desire, His
purpose, His goals. He is no less jealous than the
Father, neither the Holy Ghost. So the Holy Ghost is not to be
grieved. He is not to be quenched. He is not to be played with. Am I making some sense? So now,
here comes this cat. And he see you, silly little
woman, unmarried, barren. Ain't nobody paying you no attention. You ain't got nothing to bring
to the table. You just scrawny little woman. And this gloriously
handsome, powerful, wealthy, fabulously adorable man sets
his eyes on you. And he says to you, I want you
to be my bride, you. And I'm gonna give you everything,
everything, everything. I'm even gonna lay down my life
for you. The scrawny little nappy head
woman ain't got a dime to her name. Ain't nobody paying any
attention. All the dudes that did abused
her and she abused herself. And this glorious, opulent prince
of a king adorable in his nature, absolutely fine brother comes
to you and says, I want you to be my wife. And I'm going to
give you everything. Everything. In fact, if you want
to, you can go and check out all the other dudes all around
the world who have propositions to lay out to you. Buddha, Allah,
all of them. Check them out. See what they
got to bring to the table. And see if they even come close
to what I said I have done and will do for you. Only one thing. I'm jealous. I don't play. You don't get to
run around hoeing on me. I'm jealous. See, that's my,
Barb, that's my nature, girl. I'm just jealous. You know, I'm
just, I ain't got time for you to be pitting me over against
these other cats. I don't get excited about trying
to, you know, trying to be equal to him, that guy over there.
I ain't got time for that. I gave my life for you. We're not playing those kind
of petty games. What God, he said, Jesse, he
said, I don't what he said. I don't what he said. I am jealous
for my wife. You got that? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word.
Thank you for your son. Thank you for your spirit. Thank
you for the manifestation of your glory. Help us understand
the importance of these things. We understand, we recognize,
we see that we have departed from the living God on so many
hands because we have failed to recognize how faithful you
are to yourself. You said it. faithful to you you will be faithful
to us if we deny you you cannot deny yourself and you want and
you are worthy of it and we thank you Lord that you've given us
a moment to meditate on your precepts think about all that
you have done for us and to understand a little bit about your nature
and covenant we are amazed that you have called us out of darkness
into your marvelous light we are amazed that you put up with
us to this very hour we are amazed And yet we ought not to. That's
the nature of your grace. But Lord, we don't want to be
presumptuous. We don't want to be arrogant.
We don't want to assume because you've made it very plain that
you will punish iniquity. You will punish sinners. And
may we never be found to be reprobate. May we never be found to be those
that really don't truly know you. May we know you in the depths
of your love and your mercy and your grace. May we become everything
that you called us to be. Help us. Help us, Lord, to understand
our identity in Christ. Help us to walk in it with great
confidence, humility, and boldness to tell everybody, Christ is
all in all for me. Come hell or high water, it's
Christ in me. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercies. Prepare us to worship you on Sunday, we pray in Jesus'
name. Amen. God bless you.