Isaiah chapter 33, verse 10. Now will I rise, saith
the Lord. Now will I be exalted. Now will
I lift up myself. shall conceive chaff, ye shall
bring forth stubble, your breath, your words shall justify you,
or condemn you. Now be careful, listen now. Look,
I'm gonna tell you who he's talking about here in a minute. Ye shall
bring forth stubble, your breath as fire, as fire shall devour
you, And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns
cut up shall they be burned in the fire. They shall be burned in the fire. Hear ye, hear ye that are far
off what I have done. And ye that are near acknowledge
my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness hath surprised the
hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire? I'm thinking God's wanting us
to know something about this fire, aren't you? About this
fire. Who among us should dwell with
everlasting burnings? He is going to tell us who. He
that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth
the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding
of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood and
shutteth his eyes from seeing evil, He shall dwell on high. His place of defense, the munitions
of rocks. Bread shall be given him. His
waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king
and his beauty. They shall behold the land that
is very far off. Now, Isaiah chapter 33, our Lord
here has said to us much about fire, much about chaff, and much
about devouring of the chaff and the stubble. And yet He's
told us who can dwell with the burning fire, the everlasting
burning. Now, He says in verse 10, Now
will I rise, saith the Lord. Now will I be exalted. Now will
I lift up myself. He says in verse 13, Hear ye
that are far off, what I have done. And ye that are near, acknowledge
my might. He says in verse 14, the sinners
in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has surprised the
hypocrites. They drew near with their mouths,
they went to a building, they sacrificed, they prayed, but
their heart was far from God. Now there's no difference between
Jew and Gentile. There's no difference between
male and female. There's no difference between
anybody sitting right here right now. We all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Me and you, every one of us sitting
right here, from the youngest to the oldest. Who among us shall
dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? I want you to see. who the fire is. Now He said, now will I arise. Now will I be exalted. He says,
hear what I have done. Acknowledge my might. Look back
at Isaiah chapter 9. This is what God has been declaring
through the prophet through this whole book now. Look back at
Isaiah chapter 9. The Lord is the fire. The Lord
is the fire. The Lord is the fire. Who shall abide with the devouring
fire of God Almighty? Isaiah 9 verse 5. Every battle
of the warrior of the natural man is with confused noise and
garments rolled in blood. You can just picture a battlefield,
just man against man, strength and just who's going to win,
who's going to outcome. It's just sometimes it's over
here, somebody's out overcoming, sometimes the other side's overcoming.
It's just back and forth like that with men. Just confusion
and blood and injuring and injuring and injuring. But this Look at
the verse now, verse 5. But this shall be with burning
and fuel of fire. What's he talking about? He's
talking about salvation of the Lord. The salvation that Christ
Himself accomplishes. Am I sure that's what he's talking
about? Look at the next verse. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government, this whole warfare,
as much as I hate the word corporate body, this is his corporation
and it's his business. And he's the head of it and he's
going to finance it and he's going to accomplish it. The government
shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever the zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. He's going to do this with judgment.
He's going to do it with justice. Mercy and truth are going to
meet together in this burning fire. Look over at Isaiah 10.
Look at verse 15. Shall the axe boast itself against
him that heweth therewith? And he's talking about the king
of Assyria who made this big boast about everything he's going
to do and all he'd accomplished and everything. And the Lord
said, he's an axe in my hand. Satan is an axe in God's hand. Every enemy of God is an axe
in God's hand. Every blasphemous, God-hating
rebel in this world is an axe in God's hand, accomplishing
God's purpose exactly according to how God purposed him to accomplish
it. And he says, shall the axe boast
itself against him, God, that he were therewith? Or shall the
saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it, as if the rod
should shake itself against them that lift it up? Or as if the
staff should lift up itself as if it were not wood? Therefore,
watch this, shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his
fat ones, those fat and sassy, earthly rebels against God, Satan
and all his seed, God has sent against his fat ones, leanness,
and under his glory, all that he boasts in, he shall kindle
a burning like the burning of a fire. Now who is that? and the light of Israel shall
be for a fire, and his holy one for a flame, and it shall burn
and devour his thorns and his briars in one day. Christ will
do that to all. He did it to all His enemies
in one day. He does it to all our enemies
in one day when He comes in the season of His love and the power
of His grace and gives us life. And He does it in an instant.
Every time He delivers us through every earthly trial in this earth,
He burns up every briar and every thorn. Look over at 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Have we established here that
The Lord is the fire. He is the one that's going to
accomplish this and burn up everything else that is not the fire. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
2 and look at verse 10. God hath revealed the things
of God unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of man, save the spirit of man that's in him? I'm sorry,
not 1 Corinthians 2. I want you to look at 1 Corinthians
3. Here we go. Here we go. Listen now. Verse 9. We're laborers
together with God. You're God's husbandry. You're
God's building. Now look at this word building.
Every builder's got to have a foundation. Verse 10, according to the grace
of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have
laid the foundation. Now what foundation did Paul
lay? He came preaching nothing but Christ and Him crucified.
Christ is the fire. He's the foundation. He's the
foundation now watch it and another buildeth their own so another
man of cook Paul said I've just started here Lord used me to
preach to the church Corinth now He's gonna send somebody
else to preach to you, and he's they're gonna build their own
But he says let every man take heed how he buildeth their own Take heed now how that That foundation
of Christ is built upon. What you gonna build on that
foundation of Christ? You gonna leave Christ and build
something else? Watch this now, for other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. That means
from the foundation all the way to the head cornerstone, we're
going to talk about Christ and this building being His building
and His work and His accomplishment and how He's laid every stone
in place. and how He is the One who alone
has finished the work, has saved us, is saving us, and shall save
us, because God the Father bestowed that double honor onto Him to
do so, and we're going to worship Him and be satisfied in Him like
God the Father is satisfied in Him. From the foundation to the
top, it's going to be all Christ. Alright, now let's read this.
Now every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall
declare it. What day? It's the Lord's day.
The day shall declare it. Look at verse 12. I'm sorry.
Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest,
for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed
by fire. by fire. And the fire shall try
every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide
which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. What's
the reward? No other foundation can a man
lay than that which is laid. The reward is the foundation.
The reward is the master builder. The reward is the one who lays
everything in place. The reward is Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ. The one who does the work is
the reward to those that all the building is Christ to us.
Now, have you, Robert, you've been studying to be a firefighter
here. Have you learned them, have you heard them say the saying,
You fight fire with fire? Well, fighting fire with fire
means you build a fire, and every bit of the fire that's approaching,
that fire puts that fire out, so that one fire remains. That's
the fire that the firefighter started, to put out the other
fire. God's the firefighter. He's the
fire, and He puts out all the rest of the fire. And everything that's built there
on, I know we divide, men have always divided this gold, silver,
precious stone, wood, hay, stubble. I know wood, hay, and stubble
is going to be burned up. But I'm telling you, only Christ
the the precious stone. Only Christ the gold, only Christ
the fire is the one who cannot be consumed by Christ the fire. You get that? Look over at Malachi
3 chapter 1. Malachi 3 chapter
1. It's best if your foundation
and your building and everything that's built there on is not
cut. It's best that right now, right
this minute, it be burned up. And there you'll be saved by
this fire that's gonna burn it up. Christ is this fire. He gonna
burn it up and make you know, you know what? All my foundation
and all my building has been, it's been just the gold of my
making and it's been the silver of my making. It's been the precious
stones of my making and it's all together just wood, hay and
stubble. I need the gold. I need the one who can't be destroyed. I need the fire. I need Christ. And it's better if it be all
everything else be Destroyed right now. Right now. Watch this now, verse Malachi
3.1. Behold, I will send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me. I'm announcing to
you right now the King, the Glorious One, just like John did. That's
what he's talking about there. And the Lord, whom you seek,
shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant.
He's the messenger of it, and God said, I've set him forth
to be the covenant. Whom do you delight in? Behold,
he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the
day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he is like a refiner's fire. And He's like fuller soap. He
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He shall purify
the sons of Levi, that is, His priests, His elect children,
and He shall purge them as gold and silver that they may offer
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. And He's that
righteousness. He's that offering. Then shall
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as
in the days of old and as in the former years. Now, look at
1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 and look at verse 5. We're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. Ready to be revealed in the last
time, wherein ye greatly rejoice. Don't you rejoice at that? You
see, the power of God and faith means faith distrusts the power
of God. And He'll bring us unto salvation.
And it's ready to be revealed. Watch this now, wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations, multiple trials. Why is that
needful? That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth. But I don't think gold can ever
perish. When Christ comes, When Christ
who is the fire comes a second time, the scripture says, the
elements shall melt with a fervent heat. That means the gold of
this earth, the silver of this earth, the precious stones of
this earth, the wood of this earth, the hay of this earth,
the stubble of this earth, every bit of it shall melt at the presence
of the fire. Christ the fire. Now it's precious
for you that right now He send these trials so that He melts
away, burns up every bit of chaff and every bit of briars and every
bit of thorns that we so foolishly put our trust in so that we behold
Christ the gold, Christ the fire who cannot be melted or burn
up or conquered. but does the conquering, and
is the gold and the treasure. You got that? Oh, that's a precious
thing, ain't it? He does that, and that's what
he does. That the trial of your faith be much more precious than
that of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire. Art, you thought that your trial
was the fire. That's not the fire. That's the
instrument being used in the hands of the fire, of Christ
the fire. And he's using that to burn up
everything that's not him and of him and by him and through
him. That's what he's gonna do here,
right here in the midst of us, brethren, right here in this
place. That's what he's doing and what he's gonna do. And we're
gonna stand and say, whew, man, he really can go through the
briars and the thorns and the stubble and the jag. And even
that which appears to be gold and silver and precious stone,
but it's not the gold and the silver and the precious stone.
Revelation 3, one more place and then we're going to go back
over here and I'm going to show you something in our text. Revelation 3, verse
18. Now this is my message to you. This is the Word of the
Lord to you. This is the Gospel to you now. This is the Lord
speaking. Hear Him speak now. He says, I counsel thee to buy
of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest
be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness does not appear,
and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. All right
now. I've got to have you turn one
more while we're in the New Testament. Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. Then
we'll fix and go back over here to Isaiah 33. Hebrews 12 verse
26. Now in all that He's doing in
Israel, in all that He was doing through the prophet Isaiah, in
all that He did through the king of Assyria and later the king
of Babylon, And everything He did there in that earth, in that
world, so to speak, as it existed right there, was the shaking
of it. Watch this now, verse 26. Just
as He spoke from Mount Sinai, that's what He's doing now. Whose
voice then shook the earth, that whole nation, that whole people.
But now He promised, this is what He promises. Yet once more
I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. He's going to burn
it all up. He's going to shake it all up.
Heaven and earth. And this word yet once more signify
the removing of those things that are shaken as of those things
that are made. That those things which cannot
be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we, hear this now,
Child of God, if you all, oh, hear this now. We receiving,
receiving, be sure you look in your bulletin and find out what
receiving is. We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace. Let us hold fast, whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for
our God is a consuming fire. Alright, let's go back now to
Isaiah 33. Isaiah 33. And let's wind this up. Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire? Christ is that fire. Who among
us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? Christ is the everlasting
burning. I'm going to say a word about
that in the end, in just a moment. Who's going to do that? He that
walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly He that despiseth the
gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes,
that stopteth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes
from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high. His place of defense
shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be given him, his
water shall be sure." Now are you thinking about yourself when
you read that? You thinking about something
you've done? Now remember who the Lord began telling us to
focus our attention on. Hear, ye that are far off, what
I have done. And ye that are near, acknowledge
my might. We're focusing our attention
on what God has done in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who at
this time was yet to come, but now who has come, who was tried
in the fire of God's holy fire. You understand that? God the
fire tried His Son in His own fire. The only man who walked righteously
and spoke uprightly is Christ Jesus, the man of Nazareth who
is the fire, the Son of God, God Himself. He was tried by
Satan, just as the king of Assyria tried Hezekiah, just as Satan
tries you. But Christ despised and continues
to despise the gain of Satan, which is nothing but oppression.
That's what we talked about back in the back, fellas, that we
want to make sure we trust this one who doesn't gain by oppression. That's how Satan games. That's
not how this one games. He hates bribes. Hates them.
He hates filthy lucre. He is the treasure. Satan offered him a bribe and
he would not and will not shake hands with those who offer bribes. And his messengers won't either.
And his people won't either. He stopped his ears from hearing
of blood, from hearing and He shut His eyes from seeing
evil. You see, the faithfulness of Christ is, and let us learn
this now, He could have listened to the men all along who were
saying all along to Him, Satan and his enemies, that they were
going to crucify Him. They were going to shed His innocent
blood. He could have focused His attention on that. He could
have focused all his attention on the fact that these men were
going to do evil, and they were going to do evil to him, and
they were going to come past him about as bulls of Bashan. But this faithful one, as a man,
as the righteous man, as the perfect and upright man, faithfully,
ever faithful, without sin, without wavering, trusted fully, completely,
God His Father. Now if you're going to have faith,
and it's going to be found of God to be absolute, perfect,
full, complete faith, it's going to be that little minuscule nothing
that he gives to you and to me, that just looks at that faithfulness
of infidelity of Christ and says, that's my faith. That's my faith. Don't brag on my faith. Do not
brag on my faith. I am the one of little faith. The one of little faith. But
I'm standing here telling you, that's all my hope. That's all
my faith. That I'm not trusting in my faith.
But I am dead set that that one is my faith. He is. He is. He, verse 16, Christ the
Lord dwells on high. He's the place of defense to
His people. That's right. He has satisfied
the fire of His justice. He's satisfied the curse and
condemnation of the fire of His law. He's satisfied the fire
of His wrath. He's satisfied the fire of sin
and all its consequences. He's quenched the fire of Satan
and all his enemies. He is the munition of rocks,
the rock Himself. And Hezekiah did all these things
one way, and you and I do them one way. God turned him from
himself and turned him to Christ and said, now I'll be exalted,
now behold what I've done. And Hezekiah said, Mmm! Let me put my hand over
my mouth. It cut his hands off, it cut
his feet off, it cut all his doings off, and it made him just
jump over as a total quadriplegic into the hand of Christ to trust
Him to deliver him. Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? Only those who are in Christ
by the Father's drawing, keeping, predestinating hand of grace,
only those who rest in Him by faith, trusting Him to do as
He says He will, when He says He will, how He says He will,
because however He does it, I'm satisfied with it. I am. However He brings it to pass,
I'm satisfied with it. And He satisfied God and bread
was given Him. Life. He resurrected. Set on
high. And His waters, the waters He's
going to give to me and you, they're going to be sure. They're
going to be sure. Verse 17, Thine eyes shall see
the King and His beauty. They shall behold the land that
is very far off. Just like Abraham said he looked
for a city whose builder and maker is God that can't be shaken.
It can't be burned up because the fire himself made it. The
gold himself is the reward of it. The gold himself is the foundation
and the whole city. And we're all that's the city
we look at. That's right. Now I got one more
word for you. And I want you to think about
this. I don't know what all the fire of hell will
be. I don't know. But I am convinced of this. The glory, even in the fire of
hell, is Christ's fire. He gets all the glory in heaven.
Didn't He say, things above and things beneath? Now you think about this. I know
it has something to do with this. It has something to do. Have
you ever declared the gospel to somebody and seen the fire
that rages up within them because of the enmity and the hatred
against God? Imagine the day when You're made to see fully who God is and truly behold Him. You know the only way you and
I can do that and rejoice in that is to have His Spirit. But
imagine seeing that and knowing that without His Spirit. Fully. Fully. You think that
little bit of hatred you see in little worms of this earth
that get mad and want to poke out their chest in pride because
they hate God and that fire is consuming them? Think about when
they see Him as He is, completely without any restraint from that enmity
just being at the height that it can be. And it has something to do with
this. Everybody in that place will feel the same way. The Lord
said to Isaiah, He said, what's going to happen in Israel is
the left hand is going to bite the right hand and the right
hand is going to bite the left hand of these people. They are
going to blame one another and hate one another and devour one
another. The son and daughter who watch their mother and their
father in total hypocrisy, not really declare anything but lies
to them, is going to bite and devour the father and the mother
in hell. And the father and the mother
is going to do the same thing to the son and the daughter. And this is what's going to make
the fire all the worse. There's going to be a remembrance.
He said, your words are going to consume you. Your words are
going to burn you up. They're going to devour you.
By your word, you're going to be justified. For out of the
heart, the mouth speaks. And the remembrance that's always
going to be there is this. I got one person to blame for
it, and that's me. That'll be the tormenting remembrance
that the light was there. The gospel was there. You just
wouldn't walk in it. You wanted to walk in the sparks
of your own lighting, in the vanity of this world, in the
lusts of your flesh, and you wouldn't heed the voice of my
prophet. Now let me make good on that.
What does God say true heaven is in the believer right now?
What is the foretaste we have of it? Love for God and love
for brethren. Without that, you know what the
ultimate hell will be? That fire of hatred for God and
that fire of hatred for our brethren to the maximum. And you know
who gets the glory for it? Standing in the midst of one
and the other is Christ the fire. That's right. That's right. But listen to this glorious good
news, child of God. That fire that melts your heart
like wax and warms your soul And is life to you just as fire
in the beginning of the world? Just think of the life that was
to a man when he saw fire for the first time. That same fire that's life to
you means there is no fire of hell for
you. Because Christ is the fire you
love and warm yourself by and rejoice in. Isn't that good news? Isn't that great news? Acknowledge His might. Amen.