Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. I would like to bring a message
to you today from the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. Hebrews,
chapter 12, and let's begin by reading the last verse in this
chapter, verse 29. It says, for our God is a consuming
fire. Our God is a consuming fire. What a statement. What a way
to describe God, a consuming fire. Now, how many gods are
there? He said our God. How many true
and living gods are there? The answer is one. He is not
a true and living God. He is the true and living God. There's only one. In Isaiah 45,
verse five, he said, I am the Lord and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I'm the only God. So there's
one God. And it would be very beneficial
for us to know that He is a consuming fire. The one and only God that
there is, in His own words, is a consuming fire. And I'll tell
you what stands out to me most about that verse is the word
is. It does not just say that our
God will consume with a fire. It says our God is a consuming
fire. He is the fire. He consumes. He is the consumer. Well, what
does He consume? I believe we all know that the
answer is sin. He consumes sin. You may remember a man named
Lot. In the Old Testament, he was in Sodom and Gomorrah and
he was warned to get out lest he be consumed with their iniquity. And God rained down His fire. God is the one who sent fire
to that place and consumed the iniquity, which was people. God consumed the sin by consuming
the sinners. Psalm 104 verse 35 says, let
the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked
be no more. God consumes sinful men and women. This is so, so important for
us to understand. Because sin and wickedness has
not changed in man. It has not changed at all. All
have sinned. All. All do sin, including me,
including you. All will sin. Sin has not changed
in men and women. And God has not changed. Not
at all. That verse does not say God was
a consuming fire. It says God is. He is. Now in this message, I have warning
and I have comfort. I do have comfort. Both are going
to come from this truth right here. Our God is a consuming
fire. Warning is going to come from
that. and comfort is going to come from that. The one and only
God that there is stepped foot on this earth. He came down and
stepped foot on this earth and revealed who He was before He
was ever born of a virgin. God came down to Mount Sinai. In the Old Testament, He came
down to Mount Sinai. And right here in Hebrews 12,
Verses 18 to 21 tell us that. It says in verse 18, For you
are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned
with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and
the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they
that heard entreated, that the word should not be spoken to
them any more. For they could not endure that
which was commanded." They couldn't endure the words. And if so much
as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust
through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. When God stepped
foot on Mount Sinai, the whole thing exploded with fire. When
God came down, fire came. And God said, if anyone or anything
comes near this mountain, it will die right there in its sin. And the thunderings and the quaking,
it was so fearful. All the people begged, please
don't let God talk to us. It was so fearful, His voice
was so fearful, they begged, please don't let Him speak directly
to us. The Scripture says the voice
of the Lord is terrible, it's full of terror. That's what Psalm
29 tells us. In Psalm 29 it says, give unto
the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Worship the
Lord in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters. The God of glory thundereth. He is the one that thunders.
The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh
the cedars. His voice breaks cedar trees. It goes on to say, the Lord breaks
the cedars of Lebanon, those great trees, the great cedars
of Lebanon. He makes them also to skip like
a calf, Lebanon and Syrian, like a young unicorn. The voice of
the Lord divided the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness
of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the
hounds to calve and discover the forest. They run off into
the forest for fear. And in His temple doth everyone
speak of His glory. Everyone, everyone in His temple
speaks of His glory. When God revealed who He was
on Mount Sinai, everybody realized He's a consuming fire. He is
a consuming fire. Even Moses said, I exceedingly
quake. hearing the voice of God. Over
in Exodus 24, it says in verse 12, the Lord said to Moses, come
up to me in the mount and be there and I will give thee tables
of stone and a law and commandments which I have written that thou
mayest teach them. And Moses rose up and his minister
Joshua and Moses went up into the mount of God. And he said
unto the elders, tarry ye here for us until we come again unto
you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are
with you. If any man have any matter to
do, let him come unto them. And Moses went up into the mount,
and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode
upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And the
seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud,
and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire
on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel."
Very terrible. Devouring fire. This is our God. This is my God, this is your
God, this is the God with whom we have to do. People leave this
world and go meet God and this is the God that they go meet.
This is the God. Moses had to walk up to this
God and he realized I'm dealing with a holy God. I'm dealing
with a just God. Can you imagine walking up to
that? The thundering, the lightning, the fear, the terror, the voice,
the fire. Can you imagine? In order to
meet God, that's what Moses had to walk up to. Every man or woman that has truly
seen God as he has revealed himself to be in his word, knows that
he's a consuming fire, every one of them. Over in 2 Kings
1, in 2 Kings 1, there was a man named Ahaziah, and he was a king
in Israel. And he was a wicked king. He
worshiped false gods and Moab attacked Israel. And this king
went up and hid in the lattice that was in the top of his bedroom.
And the lattice broke and he fell and he was badly injured. He was bedridden. And he told
some of his servants to go inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron,
to see if he would recover from this fall. And as they were going,
Elijah, God told Elijah, you go meet these servants and you
tell King Ahaziah that because he has forgotten the true and
living God and served another God, he's going to die. He's not going to recover from
his bedridden state. And those servants went back
and told the king, a man met us and this is what he said,
God says that you're gonna die. And the king said, wait a minute,
who was this man? What did he look like? And they
described him and the king said, I know exactly who it is, that's
Elijah the Tishbite. He said, I want you to bring
that man to me. He was so angry with Elijah for
telling him what he did. So it says in verse 2 Kings 1,
it says in verse 9, the king sent unto him a captain of 50
with his 50, and he went up to him, and behold, Elijah sat on
the top of a hill, and he spake unto him, thou man of God, the
king hath said, come down. Ahaziah says to you, Elijah,
you better come down and come see him. And Elijah answered
and said to the captain of 50, if I be a man of God, then let
fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy 50. He said, if I am telling God's
truth, if God has called me to deliver his word, then let God
reveal himself right now as he has in his word. of consuming
fire. Let fire come down and consume
you and the 50 that are with you. And it goes on to say, there
came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his 50. Again
also, he sent unto him another captain of 50 with his 50. And
he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king
said, Come down quickly. And Elijah answered and said
unto him, if I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven
and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down
from heaven and consumed him and his fifty." Just consumed
them all. Now this is who God is. He does
not change. He has not changed. The fleshly
mind will hear that, read that, see that, and say, surely that's
not so. Surely that is not who God is. Even if He was that way, He can't
be that way anymore. He cannot still be like that
today. Well, turn with me if you would
over to 2 Peter 3. It says in 2 Peter 3, verse 3, Knowing this
first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking
after their own lust, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of creation. For this they willingly are ignorant
of, that by the word of God The heavens were of old, and the
earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the
world that then was being overflowed with water perished." They're
willingly ignorant of the fact that God destroyed this world
with a flood. He said He was going to, and
He did. And He only saved eight souls
out of the entire world. He said they're willingly ignorant
of that. Verse 7, But the heavens and the earth which are now,
by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against
the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved,
be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is
not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness,
but is longsuffering to usward. His usward is chosen, not willing
that any of the usward should perish, but that all of the usward
should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up. It's all going to be burned up. Everything here is being reserved
unto fire. 2 Thessalonians 1 tells us the
exact same thing. It says the exact same thing.
This is the reality of our God. This is the reality of the God
with whom we have to do. He is a consuming fire. That's the warning. That's the
warning. But here is the comfort. Here
is our comfort. Thank God there's comfort. Comfort with this God who is
a consuming fire. I want to tell you what the comfort
is and then I want to show you what the comfort is. Let me tell
it right now. There is mercy to be had. If you are a sinner against God,
and you know that you have sinned against God, and you know that
God is just and holy and He will punish and He will consume, if
you see that He is a consuming fire, if you are a sinner just
like I am a sinner, then there is comfort for us. And this is
the comfort. There is mercy to be had. There is mercy to be had. Back
in 2 Kings 1, where we just read a moment ago this story of Elijah
and this man Ahaziah, this king. He sent a captain and 50 men
and God consumed them. They were worshiping the wrong
king. He sent a second captain and 50 boar men and God consumed
them. They were bowing to the wrong
king. Verse 13, 2 Kings 1 verse 13, And He sent again a captain
of the third fifty with his fifty And the third captain of fifty
went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and
besought him and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let
my life and the life of these fifty thy servants." We're your
servants. We're not King Ahaziah's servants.
We serve you. We bow before you. Let the life
of these 50, thy servants, be precious in thy sight. Behold,
there came fire down from heaven and burned up the two captains
of the former 50s with their 50s. Therefore, let my life now
be precious in thy sight. He said, I'm begging you for
mercy. This is our hope. This is the
God with whom we have to do. And this is our only hope. He
fell down before him and said, I am begging you for mercy. This
is all I have. I'm just begging you for mercy.
I'm begging you to spare me. Verse 15, and the angel of the
Lord said unto Elijah, go down with him, be not afraid of him.
And he arose and went down with him unto the king. God said,
spare his life. Spare the life of his men. He's
begging for mercy. All who come for mercy, all who
come begging for mercy will receive it. If you're a sinner who needs
mercy, all who come to Christ, who is the true and living God,
begging for mercy will receive it. I just need mercy. When James and John saw how the
people rejected our Lord and they hated our Lord, they asked
Him, they said, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from
heaven just like Elijah did and consume them all? His answer
to them was this. He said, you know not what manner
of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man is not come to destroy
men's lives. I didn't come to this earth for
the purpose of destroying men's lives. but to save them. I could have destroyed all their
lives from heaven. I came to save. I came to redeem
from the fire. That's why Christ came. He came
to redeem his people from the fire. How did he do that? By entering into the fire himself. He entered into the fire that
His people were owed. He came to be a substitute. He came to be a sacrifice. He came to bear all of the iniquity
of His people and bear all of the fire they were owed for that
iniquity, every bit of it. In 2 Chronicles 6, This is Solomon
dedicating the temple of the Lord. They built this temple
and he's praying to God, dedicating the temple. And he begged God
for mercy. He was standing in front of all
the people and he prayed to God and he prayed on behalf of the
people, Lord, we beg you for mercy. And it says actually in
2 Chronicles 7 verse 1, when Solomon had made an end of praying,
the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering,
not the people. the burnt offering and the sacrifices,
and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priest could
not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the
Lord had filled the Lord's house. And when all the children of
Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord
upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground
upon the pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying,
For He is good, for His mercy endureth. Forever. Our God is
a consuming fire. That's the warning. He is. But
the glory and the comfort of the gospel is our God is a consuming
fire. Christ, our sacrifice, was consumed. in our place. When something
is consumed, it's gone. It's consumed. All of the sin
of His people, if we are His people, if we belong to Him,
if God gave us to Him, and if Christ died for us, then our
sin and our sins were all consumed in Him. We were in Him when He
endured God's fire. God's all-consuming fire, and
it's over. Just like Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. Don't you love that story? They
were thrown into the fire. And the Apostle John on the Isle
of Patmos, when he saw the Lord, he said, his feet looked like
they burned in a furnace. Why did they look like that?
It's because he was in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And their feet were not burned. They didn't have even the smell
of smoke on them. The feet of their Lord and Savior were burned
for them. He was burned as their substitute,
burned in their place. So back in Hebrews 12, if you
look with me back at our text, it says in Hebrews 12, verse
25, see that you refuse not Him that speaketh, for if they escaped
not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall we
not escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven,
whose voice then shook the earth. But now He hath promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven."
Judgment's coming in that last day. And this word, yet once
more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken
as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. He's going to remove everything
that Christ did not die for. And every soul that Christ died
for will not be shaken. It will stand firm in Him. Wherefore,
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have
grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and
godly fear. Oh, let's serve Him. Let's bow
before Him because Christ stood in that fire for us and was consumed
for us. Let's bow before Him and reverence
Him and thank Him. Because where the fire has consumed,
there's nothing left to burn. Nothing left to burn. If Christ
was consumed, He's gone. It's all gone. And in Him, our
debt is paid. It's finished. It's finished.
So it says in verse 28, wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which
cannot be moved, Let us have grace whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming
fire. He is a consuming fire because
God has already consumed us in Christ. He will never consume
us again, it's over. What good news that is, is that
not wonderful news? Our God is a consuming fire. But our God is a consuming fire
and Christ has already been consumed. Therefore we live, we live, it's
over. Moses told the people, they were
so concerned, he said, stand still, rest, see the salvation
of the Lord, see what the Lord has done for you. And it'll be finished. It'll
be over. And that's what every soul in glory will say. Christ,
our substitute, endured that fire. And we're safe. We're safe. And this consuming
fire will never consume again. Peace in Christ, rest in Christ,
comfort in Christ. May the Lord truly comfort our
hearts in that. And may He cause us to cry out
for this mercy. Cry out for mercy. If you have
never cried out for mercy, do it today. Do it right now. Today
is the day. Lord, be merciful to me. I'm
the sinner who needs a Savior. I'm the one who needs Christ
to stand in my place and suffer my fire. All who ask shall receive. Until next week, may the Lord
bless His word to our hearts. You have been listening to a
message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace
Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message, or to hear other messages of sovereign grace, log on to
our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 1045 a.m., and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 730 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.