If you would now open your Bibles
to the book of Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12. I don't know if we're supposed
to have favorite books of the Bible, but whether or not we're
supposed to have them, I do. And I think I've told you before
in the New Testament, Hebrews is my favorite book. And in the
Old Testament, Isaiah is. I can always, I guess because
it's so easy for me to find the gospel in these books. But in
Hebrews chapter 12 verse 29, Hebrews chapter 12, we'll just
read this, it's really just half a sentence, but it's going to
be the theme of this morning's message. For our God is a consuming
fire. Our God is a consuming fire. Now all truth begins with an
understanding of God. You really can't understand anything
else right until you understand the essential nature of the God
who made heaven and earth and us. And here's one of the clear
statements about his nature. Our God is a consuming fire. It doesn't say our God can be
a consuming fire or that once in a while he is a consuming
fire. It says that's what he is. He's a consuming fire. Now the new covenant which is
simply another name for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
new covenant brought many changes. The new covenant of the gospel
is called in this book, in the book of Hebrews, it's called
a new and living way. It is founded upon better promises,
declared by a better prophet, ratified by better blood, mediated
by a better priest and it brings better blessings than the old
covenant ever did. Throughout the book of Hebrews
we are shown ways in which the new covenant is different and
superior to the old covenant. I found 10 things and we can't
take a lot of time on them so I'm just gonna spit them out
here and We'll move along. The old covenant was declared
from Mount Sinai. It was a physical mountain. Over
here in verse 18 of Hebrews 12, it calls that mountain a mountain
that can be touched. Now they weren't supposed to
touch it, but you could. I mean, it was physically possible. It's
still over there. But the old covenant was declared
from Mount Sinai, a physical mountain, and it told us, stay
away. Stay away. But the gospel, the
new covenant, has drawn us to Mount Zion, which it tells us
is a spiritual mountain, a mountain that can't be touched. Not the
literal Mount Zion over there where Jerusalem is, the spiritual
Mount Zion. We have come, it says in verse
22, to Mount Zion. And then the old covenant was
surrounded by burning, darkness, gloom, storm, terrifying sounds
like the trumpet of the Lord and the voice of God. But the
gospel is attended with the sound of thousands of angels in joyful
assembly. Now most of what I'm showing
you here can be found between verses 18 and 24. But you know, when the old covenant
was given there on Mount Sinai, oh, what a fearful, fearful time
that was. The clouds surround the mountain,
the dark cloud, and there's thunder and lightning, and the voice,
the sound of a trumpet, the voice of God. And yet when the gospel, when
we hear the gospel with spiritual ears, we hear the voice of thousands
upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly. When the old covenant
was given, the people begged that no further word be spoken.
And even Moses, the mediator of that covenant, was trembling
with fear. But when the new covenant was
declared, God's people were joined together into a single body called
the Church of the Firstborn, and peace between God and men
was made. The Old Covenant declared war.
The New Covenant declared peace. The Old Covenant wrote laws on
stone. The New Covenant wrote names
in heaven. The Old Covenant has God saying,
I am God, stay away lest you die. The New Covenant has God
saying, I am God, come to me that you might have life. The Old Covenant joins sinners
under a common condemnation. Cursed is everyone that does
not continue in every word continually. Every word of the law. Do you
know of anybody that has ever done that? Well, then everybody
comes under the curse, don't they? So we're under a common
curse, a common condemnation. But the new covenant joined sinners
in the bonds of an everlasting righteousness and perfection
of spirit. You and I, everyone here who
has been saved by the grace of God, we are joined together in
Christ who is our righteousness. The scriptures say that he is
our righteousness and we're joined there together. And spiritually
we have been made perfect in our flesh. There's still a lot
of trouble, but spiritually made perfect. And then the old covenant
left men to themselves. The new covenant connects men
to Christ and all that is in him, the old covenant. like Abel's
blood cried out for vengeance. Remember Abel's blood when Cain
killed him? God said to Cain, your blood
cries out to me from the ground, cries out for vengeance. And
that's what the old covenant did. The soul that sins, it shall
die. Christ's blood of the new covenant
cries out for forgiveness and peace. The old covenant initiated
an annual repetition of sacrifices, feasts, and other obligations
which could never atone for sin, never make the worshipers perfect,
or give them peace with God. The new covenant is a finished
covenant founded on the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God, whose blood actually put away the sins of those for
whom it was shed, And it made the people of the covenant perfect
in the sight of God and gave them peace with God. How many
thousands, even millions of animals were sacrificed under the old
covenant. And the book of Hebrews said,
yet in all of that blood, not one sin was forgiven. Not one. Not one person's conscience was
cleared in the presence of God. But Jesus Christ comes and by
a single sacrifice, offered once for all, he has made, the scriptures
say, made them perfect forever. Made his people perfect forever.
The Old Covenant established a kingdom that could be shaken
down. And indeed it was. There is no
more Old Covenant Israel. And I do not see any indication
in the scripture that Israel will ever be restored like it
was to a situation like it was in the Old Testament. But the
New Covenant established a kingdom that cannot be shaken. An everlasting
kingdom. a kingdom under the rule of the
everlasting King, the Lord Jesus Christ. So you see, we cannot
overemphasize the great changes that came about when Christ accomplished
the will of God. In the book of Hebrews, it puts
these words into the mouth of Christ. They're Old Testament
words, but it puts these words in the mouth of Christ, It is
written about me in the scroll, I have come to do your will,
O God. Jesus Christ came to do the will
of God. And when he did that, it says,
when he accomplished the will of God, he set aside the old
covenant and established the new covenant. So we cannot overemphasize these
changes. But there is one thing that did
not change at all from one covenant to the next. The nature and character of God. The same God who gave his law
from Sinai spoke his gospel from Mount Calvary. Now you think
about that a minute. It's the same God It's the same
God, and it's the God who remained the same. By that I mean, there's
not a change of gods from the old covenant to the new covenant,
and there is no change in God from the old covenant to the
new covenant. Same God, God exactly the same. Therefore, When we read, our
God is a consuming fire. Well, that was first said by
Moses in Deuteronomy 4, verse 24. The Jews are about to enter
the promised land. And so Moses is going over that
old covenant with them again. Moses had received it nearly
40 years before on Mount Sinai. They'd spent all that time in
the wilderness because of unbelief, but now they're about to go into
the land and Moses says, let me say the covenant to you again.
See, Moses wasn't gonna be allowed to go into the promised land.
So he said, let me tell you again what God said to us from Mount
Sinai. And he told them, you be very
careful to keep this covenant. Why? Because your God is a consuming
fire. Now that was Moses warning under
the old covenant. He says, you better keep this
covenant. You better do what it says, because our God's a
consuming fire. And if you break this covenant,
that consuming fire will consume you. That's what Moses is saying. 1500 years later, somebody, and we don't know who,
wrote the book of Hebrews. And he's doing it to declare
the superiority of the new covenant of the gospel over the old covenant. And yet, when he would warn us,
us who claim to believe, when he'd warn us not to depart this
new covenant of the gospel, what words does he use to warn us
and to sober us up? Our God is a consuming fire. Now, Actually, there's a word
that nearly every translation leaves out of Hebrews 12 29 and
It's the word normally translated and but it can mean also And so what the writer here was
saying he says for also our God is a consuming fire in other
words he put that word in there and So they would realize nothing
has changed about God between Mount Sinai and Mount Calvary.
Same God. Also our God is a consuming fire. Why? Because he's the same God.
Same God. Matthew Henry said, God is the
same just and righteous God under the gospel as under the law.
Our brother John Chapman, I imagine most of you remember him. Heard
him preach a message when I was in Lexington, and I loved one
of those, well, I thought the message was great, but this line
stuck in my mind. Calvary did not make God into
a kinder, gentler God. It didn't. He's the same God. Calvary did not change God. In fact, Calvary is the clearest
expression of the truth, our God is a consuming fire. We'll
get to that in a bit. Under both covenants, old and
new, we have the same reason for fearing the displeasure and
wrath of God. And that is our God is a consuming
fire. Under the old covenant, God's
fiery nature was used to frighten people into not sinning. Now, it didn't work. You know,
there's not a fear great enough to make a person utterly stop
sinning, is there? Why? Well, we've all been pretty
scared, you know. I remember it, Just a little
fella, seven years old I think I was, and we just moved to West
Virginia. And I'm sitting there in church,
and as was typical of me, my mind was anywhere but on what
was being said, and I was probably about to drop off to sleep. And
the thought went through my mind, as a seven-year-old kid, someday
you're going to die. I remember it startled me away.
Someday you're gonna die. And you know what all of us know
by instinct? Not just that we're going to
die, but like the Hebrews, book of Hebrews says, is appointed
unto man once to die, and after that, the judgment. After that,
the judgment. And so we've all experienced
somewhat of this fear, and yet it hasn't been able to make us
stop sinning, has it? Anybody here stopped sinning?
I haven't. I'd like to, but I don't, I can't. I've tried to, I can't. But that's what, that's what
it was, that's what that phrase was said for in the old covenant,
to terrify people into not sinning. In the new covenant, God's fiery
nature is used to warn us from departing the only place of safety
in the midst of divine fury. Now, when it says our God's a
consuming fire, he's not saying that in this sense. Well, I know
you're a believer and your sins have been forgiven, but our God's
a consuming fire, so you better make sure you never sin again.
That's not what it's saying. He's saying in Christ Jesus is
full and free forgiveness. And to leave Christ is to expose
yourself again to God who is a consuming fire. There is a
place of safety in the midst of God's judgment. It's Christ. This book had already declared
this idea a couple of times. It says, Hebrews chapter 2, for since
the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every
transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,
means under the old covenant, if every sin, every rejection
of the way of God received its proper punishment, how shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? That is, if God Injustice
made a law and punished everyone who broke that law. How much
worse is it going to be for us who have received the message
of God's mercy and then we reject that? Now, whenever we say things like
this, as though someone who believed the gospel could later on come
under condemnation again, Someone's bound to think, well, don't you
believe that once a person is saved, he is saved forever? I
most certainly do. I most certainly do. The scriptures
teach that truth, but it also teaches that those who have been
born again by the Spirit of God never quit believing the gospel,
because the Spirit of God will never quit working in them to
believe the gospel. You see, we don't believe this
idea that just because somebody on a certain day made a, quote,
decision for Jesus, that they are saved forever. Lots of people
will make a decision for Jesus under the emotional pressure
of a crafty preacher. We all make decisions and later
regret them. A decision and faith are not
the same thing. Faith that saves. Faith that is a connection to
Jesus Christ and all the blessings that come by Him. It's something
created by the Spirit of God. And that creation will not die. But here's the thing. The only
way we know that that's the kind of faith we have is that we don't
leave off believing the Gospel. That we don't go off to something
else. One of the ways that the Spirit of God works in us to
persevere and keep believing is by instilling in us a spiritually
healthy fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord, the scripture
says, is the beginning of wisdom. True fear of the Lord will make
us realize there is no way in the world that we can live in
such a way as will please Him and spare us from his wrath. And therefore the fear of the
Lord will drive us to Christ Jesus to find mercy and forgiveness
and grace in him. Now let's quick make some general
observations about our God as a consuming fire. He is a consuming
fire. Fire's got some beneficial characteristics,
doesn't it? Fire can make us warm. I imagine
everybody here has had that wonderful experience of being near a fireplace
on a cold day. That's really nice, isn't it?
I think fireplaces make a more comfortable heat than forced
air furnaces. May not be as even a heat, but
it's more comfortable. I like them. But this scripture
doesn't say our God is a warming fire, it says our God's a consuming
fire. Fire can give light, and up to about 150 years ago, it
was the only kind of artificial light that men had. I mean, once
the sun went down, the only way to have any light was to light
some kind of fire. But this scripture does not say that our God is
an enlightening fire, it says he's a consuming fire. And I
fear that our religious generation, and I'll tell you, we got more
religion in the United States than we know what to do with. Really, there's a big difference
between religion and worship. There's a big difference between
following a religion and believing God. And there's a whole lot
of religion in our country, a whole lot of what passes under the
name of Christianity, but it seems to be devoid of the fear
of the Lord. Actually, in our day, outright
atheism is growing, and they're becoming bolder and bolder. Over
in Sioux Falls, they even got billboards up. I don't ever remember
seeing that in my day. But they got billboards up promoting
their atheism. They declare there is no God.
And there certainly is no fear of God before their eyes since
there's not even any existence of God before their eyes. In
modern Christianity, God is no longer a consuming fire. He's
just a warm fuzzy. He's somebody we go to church
on Sunday and we sing songs that make us feel good and the preacher
says things that make us feel good. And a God is set before
us who really has no wrath in him. He really never wanted to
send anybody to judgment. And won't you just cooperate
with him and let him save you. That's the God that's preached
up in most places. It's not the God of Scripture. Our brother, in reading the scripture
he read from Proverbs 16, said, God's made everything for his
purpose, even the wicked, for the day of destruction. That's a pretty tough God. It's
not the God you hear preached. We always need to make sure we
don't just talk about them and not talk about us. Sometimes
I fear that I preach up the grace of God so much that we might
forget the awesome holiness of the God on whose grace we depend. I don't like to talk about judgment. I delight in mercy a lot more,
don't you? I delight to talk about God, our Heavenly Father,
who loves and embraces his children, and yet we must realize that
our Heavenly Father, our God, is a consuming fire. I'm certain of a couple of things.
Whenever a group of professing Christians becomes careless about
sinning, That is, they think it doesn't
matter anymore how they live. Well, it's evidence that they
do not know the fear of the Lord. No matter how correct and God-honoring
their doctrine may be, they are denying the truth of their God
by the way they live. Now, all of us sin. There's no question about that.
All of us sin a lot. In fact, We must confess that
in everything we do, including coming here this morning for
worship, including me preaching, all of that, there's sin in it.
There's nothing we do that doesn't have sin in it. We recognize
that. But the child of God hates that aspect about himself and
tries to avoid as much of it as he can. And when you find
a person or a group of people that no longer think it's an
important matter of how they live in this world. It's evidence
of this, they don't fear God. I think it's interesting that Scott
chose the scripture he chose as he was reading it there. I've
got it right here, written down here, Proverbs 16, verse six. By mercy and truth, I think our
translation says love and faithfulness, but it's the same idea. By mercy
and truth, iniquity is purged. And what mercy and truth is that?
It's the mercy of God in Christ. It's the truth of God in Christ.
That's how iniquity is purged. But then it goes, by the fear
of the Lord, men depart from evil. The fear of the Lord made us
run from Christ, excuse me, run to Christ. for the mercy and
truth to be found in him. And the fear of the Lord caused
us in every way we can to depart evil. For grace has, well, it
says, Paul says, the grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to all kinds of men, teaching us that denying all
ungodliness, we should live our lives soberly, righteously, decently
in this world. In Romans chapter three, Paul
summarized all the sin of humanity under this statement, there is
no fear of God before their eyes. Here's another thing, when I
see people, a group of religious people, treat truth carelessly, as though
it really doesn't matter what you believe. Here people say,
well, I don't want to hear doctrine, just tell me about Jesus. Well,
how in the world am I supposed to tell you about Jesus if I
don't tell you about the doctrine of Jesus? Truth means something. By mercy
and truth, sin is atoned for. Fear of God brings a desire for
truth. and a hatred of sin. God is a
consuming fire that actually consumes. You know, once fire
has consumed a thing, there's no way to put it back together,
is there? I mean, fire, boy, once it burns up a log, you can't
put that log back together again. It's gone. Destruction. Our God is a consuming, destroying
fire. Now, what sort of things would
move a people to depart from Christ and expose themselves
to the consuming fire of God? Well, here in the book of Hebrews,
the issue was persecution. You know, the Jews were the first
to persecute the church of God, and they reserved their most
fierce persecution for their fellow Jews who had believed
that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. And so it was Jews persecuting
Jews, and that's why this book is written to the Hebrews, to
the Jews. This was written to Jewish Christians who were suffering
at the hands of their Jewish brethren. And you know, they
were suffering everything from just losing their property, or
being shunned, all the way to some of them were killed. Remember
Stephen? One of the first deacons in the church. He also became
a preacher. And as he preached the gospel
to those Jews in his day, they got so mad, they picked up rocks
and stoned him to death. No trial, nothing. They just
killed him. Persecution. You and I have not suffered any
significant persecution. Some of you may have lost some
friends for the sake of the gospel, maybe even been shunned by some
of your family. But I don't know that any of
us has had anything taken away from us, and certainly none of
us here, or that's ever been associated with this congregation,
has ever been put to death because of the gospel. But these folks
were suffering persecution, and here's the thought that came
into the mind. Some of them were trying to avoid
this persecution by disassociating themselves from the church, from
others of God's people. They were refusing to suffer
reproach with the people of God by pretending to be faithful
Jews. They were saying, and I'm using
the language of the book of Hebrews here, they were saying that they
could go unto Jesus without going outside the camp. Now, here's the thing. You can't
go to the Lord Jesus without leaving natural religion, natural
human religion. Can't do it. And it doesn't matter
what the name of that religion is. You cannot go to Christ unless
you're willing to go outside the camp of accepted, approved,
and applauded human religion. And that's what some in the church
were trying to do. In Hebrews 10, 25 it says, not forsaking,
and that word actually means deserting, not deserting the
assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. And
there in Hebrews chapter 10, it goes on, this forsaking of
the assembly was not just, you know, somebody saying, I'm not
going to go to church today. These people quit going. They
didn't want to be associated with it. They didn't want anybody
to know that they were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, because
they knew that if it were found out, they would suffer persecution.
And it goes on to say in the book, there in chapter 20, excuse
me, chapter 10, that really that is essential apostasy. They're
not just leaving church as such, they're leaving the gospel, they're
leaving Christ. Some depart from Christ for the
sake of pleasure. Now not everyone who falls into
the temptation of sinful pleasures has forsaken Christ. If that
were true, then all of us have forsaken Christ, right? Because
we all fall to temptation. But there are those who pursue
pleasure with such a passion that they leave off pursuing
Christ. You see, it's written in our conscience, you really
can't pursue Christ and sinful pleasures. You can pursue Christ
and fall into sinful pleasures, we do that all the time. In the parable of the sower and
the various kinds of ground that the seed fell on, It says the
thorny ground stood for those who heard the gospel, but whose
interest in the things of God was choked out by cares, riches,
and the pleasures of this life. It is written that Moses chose
to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than enjoy
the fleeting pleasures of sin. What's it tell us? You can't
have both. You can't pursue both. and some sadly choose the wrong
direction. Some have been drawn away from
Christ by the love of riches. Paul says the love of money is
the root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have
wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Our Lord said how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom
of God, and it is. In fact, it's so hard, it can't
happen unless God makes it happen. But that's true of all of us.
But still, those who love riches, I mean if they love them, and
you say, well, Joe, don't you love money? Well, I sure like
it a lot, I'll admit to that. I sure like a lot. I don't know
any of us here that turn down more of it. But I'll tell you
this, every one of you born again by the Spirit of God would turn
down any of it if it meant giving up Christ for it. And there are
people who have been willing to pursue riches with such a
passion that in their hearts they left off Christ. And we could go on to mention
those who forsake Christ for worldly religion, Religion is
more fun and acceptable for love of other people, like family
and friends they fear to lose if they continue with Christ.
There's a host of things in the devil's toolbox to pull professed
believers away from their profession. But what's common to all of these
is that if a person is lured away from the hope of Christ,
when he comes to the end of his life, He meets a God who is a
consuming fire. Friends, let us keep in the forefront
of our minds, even as we believe, even as we rest comfortably in
Christ Jesus, let us remember our God is a consuming fire so
that we never allow ourselves to be lured away from our place
of safety the wrath of God, the judgment
of God. Now, wrap up by turning to one other scripture, the book
of Lamentations. Book of Lamentations, chapter
one. Our God, is a consuming fire. And that truth has been revealed
in a lot of circumstances. The residents of Sodom and Gomorrah
found out our God is a consuming fire. Those poor wretched souls
in hell are learning what they would not learn here. Our God
is a consuming fire. And it says here in Lamentations
chapter one, beginning in verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all you
who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering
like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought
on me in the day of his fierce anger? From on high, he sent
fire. He sent it down into my bones. Now, who is it that says this? You might think, well, it's the
prophet Jeremiah who wrote the book of Lamentations. You know
something? There's no doubt that as Jeremiah
wrote these things, he gained some sense of the judgment of
God that was impending upon the Jewish nation. And it would certainly
feel like fire to them. And he wept for their sake. Some
say this is actually the nation of Israel speaking. And there
is no question that when God dealt with Israel, there when
he sent Nebuchadnezzar down with his armies and came down and
dealt with Israel in the north and then years later with Judah
in the south. And he brought that army in there
and all the awful things that happened. And it says that they
came and they laid siege to it. They laid siege to the city such
that, I'm not even going to tell you the kind of things that went
on inside the city as people tried to survive. And finally
they breached the walls and they tore down the walls and they
put everybody to the sword. And this, I know this is gruesome,
but just to give you an idea, it says that they even cut open
the bellies of women with child. That's how ruthless those soldiers
were as they came in there. Why? Because God sent them to
exact judgment. And they went into the temple,
and they took everything of value out of the temple, and then they
burned it to the ground. Well, that's kind of a revelation
of our God as a consuming fire. But it really wasn't Jeremiah
and it wasn't Israel speaking here. It was the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the Lord Jesus Christ as
he came into this world, God in human flesh, man without sin. And He took upon Himself the
sin of all God's chosen people. He was nailed to a cross, hung
between heaven and earth. And what did God do? How did
God appear to Him in that day as a consuming fire? Now, you know, no one other than
the Lord Jesus Christ experienced that fire that day in any way. Nobody could see it. Now when
the Lord burnt Sodom and Gomorrah, anybody looking could see it.
And anybody, if we were, of course I don't know what hell is in
a literal sense, but nonetheless, they're aware of the consuming
fire of God there. But when you're standing, if
you had been standing there on that day in Calvary, you wouldn't
have seen any fire. You would not have seen the judgment
of God. What you have seen was simply
another Jewish man being crucified under the authority of Rome.
But our Lord Jesus, as he experienced this, there were things going
on in his soul that were hidden to the eyes of men. And he describes
it this way, that from on high, God sent fire, he sent it into
my bones. As God the Son ascended Mount
Calvary, God the consuming fire descended on Mount Calvary. If the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ tells us anything, it tells us that God is a consuming
fire. You know, every frightening truth
about God can find a way to comfort us in the cross. But much of
the truth of God displayed on the cross is very frightening. That's why I say, you know, well,
you hear people say, well, we take people to the law in order
to show them their need of Christ, and then we take them to the
cross to show them how Christ supplies their need. And in some
sense, we do that. But you know what? All we need
to do is take them to the cross. The whole story is told right
there. Right there, we find out that God is holy. We find out
that God will by no means clear the guilty. Because Jesus Christ
was made guilty with the sins of His people. In fact, in verse
14 of Lamentations 1, Christ says, My sins have been bound
into a yoke. By His hands, they were woven
together. Here's a remarkable thing. It
says that the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He
bound those sins together upon Christ. And so closely were they
identified with Christ that Christ doesn't call them our sins. He
says, my sins. You say, well, Christ knew no
sin. He did no sin. There was no sin in Him. All
that's true, but I'll tell you there was sin on Him on that
day. And He owned them. And He said,
they're mine. He owned them before the Lord and he paid for them
before the Lord. We learn at the cross that God
is a consuming fire. Mount Sinai was frightening,
Calvary is more frightening. If God would do that to his own
son as he bore sins committed by other people, what's he gonna
do with us if we come before him with sins that we ourselves
committed? Mount Sinai was wrath threatened. Mount Calvary was wrath poured
out. Mount Sinai was a consuming fire
ignited. Mount Calvary was a fire consuming. But Mount Calvary brings comfort
by the very same truth that Sinai used to bring fear. You might
ask how our God, being a consuming fire, can ever be made into a
comforting message. The comfort of that message lies
in the very nature of a consuming fire. Once a fire has consumed the
fuel, what happens? The fire goes out. Now you think
of that. The fire goes out. And the sins
of God's people were laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And God,
the consuming fire, came down and burned him up. And burned
away all the sins on him at the same time. And you know what? The fire went out. It went out. Why? Ran out of fuel. Ran out
of fuel. God is still a consuming fire
outside of Christ. But in Christ, that fire's gone
out. And that's why the book of Hebrews
says, don't leave Christ out there. God's a consuming fire. In Christ, the fire's gone out.
Our sins were burnt up, were consumed with Christ. And with
all things that have been consumed and burnt up, they can never
be reconstituted. Remember how we mentioned that
at the first of the message, the thing burned up, can't be put back together.
Brethren, our sins were burned up, they can't be put back together.
Even more than this, we who are in Christ, we're consumed with
Christ. And that old man consumed with
Christ can never be reconstituted again. The scriptures say, if
any man be in Christ, old things are passed away, Or if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. You want to know why? Because
if any man be in Christ, he's been consumed with Christ. And
that old man cannot be reconstituted. That old man under sin and judgment
can't be put back together again. All those old things of sin and
judgment and wrath are burn up with Christ. And with Christ,
He is a new creation, a new man, a new person, a new person on whom there is
no sin. And someday you and I will stand
before the one who is a consuming fire. If we're believers in Christ,
we'll stand before him like everybody else. but that fire's not gonna
find anything to burn. I'll leave you, I'll finish up
with this story. I've told you before, but it's
such a perfect illustration. The days of the pioneers, as
they went out across this prairie, once in a while they'd run into
a prairie fire, a grass fire in the prairie, and that was
dangerous. Well, you know how the wind can blow one of those
up, and there's a wall of fire coming for you, It'd kill you
if you were in the way of it. But what they would do is go
around a fire and get behind it. Well, the story is told that
such a wagon train was going across the prairie and here they're
confronted with a fire. The fire went one way and the
wagons went around the other and they got on the place where
the fire had already been, the burnt ground. Now they stayed,
and the little boy was there with his daddy. The little boy
was afraid, because he was looking at that fire. Oh, it looked terrible,
frightening. And he said, Dad, I'm scared.
He said, don't be afraid, boy. Everything's okay. Why? We're
standing on burnt ground. And fire can't burn the same
place twice. Jesus Christ is burnt ground.
And the consuming fire of a holy God has already passed by there
and is not coming back. And if you're standing on burnt
ground, my friend, you have no reason to be afraid of God who
is a concerned consuming fire. But if you look over at that
grass that's not been burned, you say, that grass is prettier.
There's some things in that grass I like. And there's more people
out there on that grass than on this burnt ground. And they
seem to be having more fun than me. I think I'll go over there.
Our God's a consuming fire. Stay on the burnt ground. Heavenly
Father, bless your word. Make it powerful in our hearts.
In Christ's name we pray, amen.