Exodus 19, I was going to read
this, but for the sake of time, I won't. And some of these scriptures
I'm going to turn to in a hurry. I'll tell you where they're at.
If you want to look at them, turn with me. This is a vital
message everyone needs to hear. But everyone's not hearing it,
but you are, we are, and I'm thankful. This is a declaration,
this is a description of the living and the true God. The
God of the Bible. And that's the title of this
message. The God of the Bible. Not the God of man's imagination
or the God that men, the way he thinks men think he is. But the God of the Bible is a
consuming fire. That's the What we see here in
these verses, if you read it beforehand, the mountain that
burned with fire and the people couldn't come near it. And we're
going to go to Hebrews 12 that speaks of this story. But to
know this God, the living and true God, is life eternal. Our Lord said that. This is life
eternal. I know Thee, the living and true God. Fools don't believe
God. Fools don't know God. Fools don't
fear God. And so they don't worship God
and thank God. Romans 1. I want to go through
Romans 1 again very soon with you. It's a description of this
world we live in. And chapter 2, a description
of the religious world we live in. But the world, and even so-called
Christians, don't fear God. They don't fear God. If He is
God, He's certainly not like the God of the Old Testament.
He's changed. And no, I remind you, and you
know this, in Malachi 3, right before the New Testament, God
said, one of His last words, right before the New Testament,
I am the Lord, I change not. And Hebrews 13 says, Jesus Christ,
the same, yesterday, today, and forever. The same yesterday. Jesus Christ lived long before
He came to this earth. He's God. He's just like this
God. When Christ came on the earth,
He said, I am come to send fire on the earth. He said this, and
you won't hear this quoted today. He said, suppose ye have come
to bring peace on earth? Nay, but rather division, a sword. So this is the Jesus of the Bible. This is the God of the Bible.
Amos 4, 12. You've seen this quoted. You've
seen it on signs by wild looking fellows on the street corner
of New York City. Prepare to meet thy God. Have
you seen that? And people scoff and laugh as
that being some just wild man that's a right-wing extremist
or something. No, that's Amos 4.12. Prepare to meet thy God. And
before that, the whole book of Amos is about the God who is
a fire. Have you read it? Sure you have.
All the way through there. Fire, fire, fire. Meaning, consuming. You're going to burn everything
up. That's how you get everything, how you do away with everything,
you burn it. So, one time a woman said to
Ralph Barnard, she said, after he preached, this God who is
a consuming fire, God who is sovereign, holy and just, will
by no means clear the guilty. That's scripture. That's God. She said to Barnard, you're God's
monster. And rather than argue with her,
all he said was, then prepare to meet a monster. We don't apologize for God. I
apologize to God for man. What does this bring, this realizing
who God really is, what God is really like? Fear. Doesn't the scripture say the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, saving wisdom? Fear
brings repentance. What repentance really is, is
fear. Against thee and thee only. You're
going to be clear when you judge me. That's repentance. It's fear,
isn't it? And repentance brings faith. If God gives you repentance,
He's going to give you faith and cry. You're going to come
to this holy God one way, and you're going to know why. You will come to Him through
the death, the blood, the crucifixion, the horrible death of Christ
on the cross. That's what God will do to sin.
Fear brings repentance. Repentance brings faith. Faith
brings comfort. How can you both fear and comfort? I've been trying to preach on
fear for a long time now. I don't think it's something
you can explain. It's something God gives you. You fear Him, but you're not
afraid of Him. But you are afraid of Him, but you come to Him. Those who fear Him know what
I mean. They understand. Psalm 130, I love it. If thou, Lord, should mark iniquity,
who shall stand? He said, I'll be by no means
clear of the guilty. That's why Christ had to die. But there's forgiveness with
thee. These two messages today are going to go together, though
they seem like contrasts. The next message is on the kindness,
the tenderness, and the forgiveness of God. The first message, our
gods are consuming fire. They go together. Same God. But Psalm 2 says, Kiss the son
lest he be angry, and you perish from the way when it is what?
Wrath is kindled but little. Serve the Lord with fear. Rejoice
with trembling. How can you be fearful and rejoice? I don't know if this is a good
illustration, but you know, thunderstorms, have you seen that? That's something
of the Lord's power and God had in the creation. Sometimes I
go out and stand in it. Lightning is the most fearful,
it's the most powerful thing known to man. It is. I don't know how the heat of
it, I've read somewhere, the wattage of it. And it strikes
where it will, where he will. The storms and the wind and hurricanes,
that's God. His wrath, Romans 1, 18, his
wrath is revealed from heaven every day against what? All ungodliness
and unrighteousness of man who hold the truth. Yes, God. That's the God of the
Bible. I'm not afraid of being struck
by lightning. He'd be a great mercy. Not tempted, God. I love to behold. Mandy and I were down in Florida
one time in the midst of a hurricane. I forget which one it was. We
were right there. We didn't leave. Probably should have. We'd never
been in one. Dumb mountaineers. But what we
saw, I saw those palm trees laying flat on the ground. The wind.
It was awesome. That's my God. Fearful in praises. Fearful in praises. Do you understand
what I'm trying to say and not able? People in our day don't fear
the Lord. They believe that that man named
Jesus was just that. Back then and now, that's why
they call him Jesus. A man, well, the chaplain of
Farrum College came by yesterday and studied. He's new and a nice
man. I liked him. And he came in and
invited me to a prayer breakfast with all the pastors in this
county. And, you know, this is not the
first time it's happened, but I said to him as nicely as I
could, tried to be kind, And I said, I probably won't come
today. I've been invited to those before. I said, I cannot eat
with men that I believe are lying on God. I can't do it. I cannot
meet with people that are lying on God and lying to people. I
said, most men that I've heard are lying. They're telling everybody
so much that God just loves them and Jesus died for them. So nobody
fears God. There's no fear of God, and the
scriptures doesn't say that. And you know what, he agreed
with me. He said, you're right. He says, Esau hath a hate. I
said, that's right. That's not the only one he says
he hates. I said, I just can't do that. He said, well, I'd like
to come by sometime and talk to you about what you believe.
I said, that's fine. Better yet, come to the service with him.
He said, I might do that. So I don't know. But this is
the problem. And David said, Psalm 36, that
the transgression of the wicked saith, in my heart, there's no
fear of God before they're out of that. The world, the religious world,
there's no fear. The way men use his name tells
me they don't fear God. They couldn't possibly fear God
and use his name, put his name down here on their bumper and
over here at Dale Earnhardt. You can't possibly know God and
put His name alongside Donald Trump. Jesus is my Lord. Trump is my
President. There's no fear of God. So, we're so blessed. If you fear
God, if you fear His name, then you know something. Where are
we? Exodus 19. Look at this. Exodus 19. Look at verse 10. The Lord said unto Moses, Go
unto the people and sanctify them today. You remember this? God is to
be approached to be worshipped with fear in every way, in every
respect. God is to be approached with
reverence, with fear, with respect, with protocol, with dignity,
with humility. The way we dress in our songs
we sing, the prayers we pray, especially the preaching, the
way we read the Word of God, the way we hear the Word, in
fear. He deserves that honor. Everything we do in the house
of God, around the worship of God, should be tempered with
this spirit. Okay? Look at verse 11. Be ready against the third day.
The Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon
Mount Sinai. And then he said here in verse
12, set bounds unto the people round about. Take heed yourself.
You don't go to the Mount. Don't touch it. Whoever touches
the mount will be put to death. That's a little strict. God doesn't give an account of
these matters to anybody. But hold on now. He didn't say
why. He just said don't do it. We're
going to see why. But this is the God of the Bible. Verse 13, touch it, you'll be
stoned or shot through, man or beast. When the trumpet sounds,
verse 13, trumpet sound, all through the scripture it talks
about the trumpet sound. Verse 14, people, Moses went
down from the mount to the people and sanctified the people, set
them apart. We've seen that represents Christ in it. He must set us
apart. He must make us holy, righteous,
unblameable, unapprovable, sanctify us through the body of His death
once for all, through the sacrifice of Christ, make us holy and righteous
and clothe us. He washes us and He clothes us
in His clothes. You know what that means, don't
you? You know why. You know why. God's holy. That's too strict. We've got some nurses and doctors
in here. What if a surgeon didn't wash, didn't scrub? What if a
surgeon, anybody can come in here that wants to, that's alright.
A nurse guy comes in off the fishing bank and you know, he's
an anesthesiologist. He comes in off the fishing bank
and I'm sorry I'm late, you know, he's all dirty and filthy. That's
okay, he'll be alright. One germ, one staff germ will
kill that person. Sin killed humanity. One sin. And have a look at it. This whole world is vile. Vile. God's creating a new heaven,
a new earth. Wherein dwelleth righteousness. No sin. He can't allow one sin. And never again. Sin is all our
trouble. Sin is the reason for all the
pain, all the suffering, all the sorrow, all the death, all
the cancer, all this sin, sin, sin. God's going to create a
new one. He's already prepared. After
He burns this one up, who's going to be there? He's got clean hands,
pure heart. How? Nobody like that. Well,
yes there are. Yes, sir. A whole bunch of people
clean in Jesus Christ, washed in His blood. Let me go on. I was enjoying
that. So he said, be ready. I'm coming
down. God's coming again. Christ. And
in verse 17, where's your time? Moses brought the people out.
brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God
and they stood at the nether part of the mount. Mount Sinai
was on smoke and it was on fire. The furnace, see that? The whole
mount quaked greatly. We're going to read that. The
voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder
and louder. Do you remember that? Do you
remember a story we had looked at? Rahab? Jericho? God hadn't changed. Same story.
In Revelation, Trump will sound. In the very end, Trump's going
to sound. Jericho heard the Trump. First day, they heard it. What's that? Maybe some of them
feared. Maybe some of them asked, what's
that? Rahab said, Joshua's coming. Get in this house. Maybe somebody
went in. Second day, Trump. Third day,
Trump. Noah's Ark. There were some curious
people, you know they were. But after a hundred years, where's
the promise? He's not coming. The trunk kept sounding so loud
and yet after a while, he didn't hear it. My grandparents used to live
right beside a railroad track in Tecumseh, Georgia. You're
talking about a one-horse town. There wasn't even one red light. Old General Store, Rutherford
Lawrence's General Store. Mail keg, checkers, coal stove,
crank phone. I loved that place. And they
lived right beside a railroad track. And this was back in the
50s and 60s. And when we first went there,
we all slept, all four kids, in a feather bed. We all sunk
in the middle of that bed. Left every minute of it. But
the first night we ever slept there, that train came by. And
that track was as close as 40 west right there. And we all
thought it was going to run right over us. We were all going to
die. Next night, woke us up, but went back to sleep. Next
night, didn't even wake up. No beer. No beer. And the trump's been sounded.
I tried to sound the trump. The trump of alarm. The trump
of alarm is the trump of revelry to the, is that how you say it?
Revelry to the troops, the army. to muster, to gather the army. You heard it, didn't you, Ron?
John, you hear Trump? Do, do, do, do. Ready. We're going out of here. Trump kept sounding. Look at
verse 20. The Lord came down upon Mount
Sinai, the top of the mountain. The Lord called Moses up to the
top of the mountain. Moses went up. Oh, all this picture
of Christ in it. The Lord said, unto most, go
down, charge the people lest they break through. Verse 19,
God answered by voice. God has spoken once, yea, twice,
unto men perceived not. God at divers times, and God
in sundry times, and divers in different manners, spake unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son. God spoke through the prophets.
Men didn't believe. God spoke through Christ, people
didn't believe. Some did. That faith, where does it come
from? It's a merciful, gracious, kind gift. We hear the trump, and we hear
the promises. Oh my, a voice, a blessed voice. My sheep hear my voice. All right,
he said in verse 22, the priest, let the priest sanctify himself,
lest the Lord break forth upon them. People can't come to Mount
Sinai, verse 23. Set of bounds around it, verse
24. Get thee down, lest the people break through and gaze. Where
did it say that? Oh, verse 21. People will gaze
out of curiosity. You don't approach God in curiosity. I now go with me to Hebrews 12.
This whole story is told here in Hebrews 12. Let me close with
this. Is all this relevant? Has God
changed? No. Read with me. Read this with
me, OK? You can't come to Mount Sinai.
You can't come to God by Mount Sinai. And brothers and sisters,
people in this community and everywhere that I like, we call them German Baptists,
Amish, and some things in their lifestyle that are commendable. But you're not going to get to
God by your morality. You're not going to get to God
by keeping the law. You're not going to get to God
by being a Levitical priest. And that's every one of those
fellows that wear their beard and their hair like that. They're
ignorant, I know. But that's establishing your
own righteousness. And God hates that. Because here's
how serious it is. If righteousness comes by the
law, if God accepts anything about us, what we're doing, on
the basis of us doing it, Christ died in vain. Paul said this,
if you'd be circumcised, if you wear your beard a certain way,
if you do all of this so that God will take notice of what
you're doing to keep His law, he said, Christ profits you nothing. Christ came for publicans and
harlots, not self-righteous. That's how serious it is. Mount
Sinai, you can't get to God by Mount Sinai. You only get to
God by Mount Calvary. You only get to God by Mount
Sinai. Look at Hebrews 12, verse 19,
the sound of the trumpet. Verse 18, you're not come to
God by Mount Sinai that burned with fire, darkness and tempest. The sound of the trumpet and
the voice. I told the people, don't come
near. Verse 21, it's terrible, so terrible that Moses feared
and quaked, shook, trembled. You come to Mount Sinai, that's
the church, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
the innumerable company of angels, the general assembly in the church
of the firstborn. Which are written in heaven,
the God, the Judge of all the earth. Spirits of just men made
perfect. How were they made perfect? Did
they make themselves perfect or not? Made perfect by Christ. And verse 24, Jesus, the man. There's one mediator between
God and men. The man. There's a man in glory. Jesus is His name. He's not just
a man. He's the God-man. He's the Lord
Jesus. Blessed name, Jesus, Savior.
But there's a title that goes in front of it. Lord. And that's
what we call Him. Fear and Rejoice. Alright, read on. The mediator
of the new covenant. Not by law, but by grace, He
said. The blood of sprinkling. covers
everything, speaks better than things of able. Read on. See
that you refuse not him that speaketh. If they escape not
who refuse him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we
escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose
voice then shook the earth. But now he promised, saying,
once more, I shake not the earth only, but heaven. And this word
yet once more signifies the removing, the destruction of those things
that are shaken, everything, things that are made, everything.
And those things which cannot be shaken may remain. What's
that? All those in Christ, all those
on the rock. See, if God's not sovereign,
you don't need to fear Him. If Jesus Christ is not sovereign,
don't need to fear Him. If God's not holy and just and
righteous and will by no means clear the guilty, don't need
to fear Him. Don't need to fear Him. But He is. But Christ is. And if God's not sovereign, if
God's not holy, don't need to fear Him. But if He is, you know,
you got people foreign militias, you got people stacking guns
and arms and, you know, hiding things in a cave. If God is sovereign,
we better run to the hills and hide in a cave. But isn't that
exactly what Isaiah 2 says? Isaiah 2 says, hide yourself in the cleft of
the rock. Find you a cave and get in it. Because when this
overflowing scourge of God's wrath comes by, it will not come
to you. Are you in a cave? Are you in
a cleft of the rock, Sister Carol? Give me one word what that rock
is. Go ahead. A woman can speak louder. He's our armor. He's everything.
He's our armor. Can't be shaken. Not the people
in that ark. The people in that ark. That rain couldn't touch them.
Verse 28, We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us
have grace, hold fast, whereby we may serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear. Why? Read this with everyone. Verse 29. For our God is a consuming
fire. That's a new testimony. Now stay
tuned. We're going to talk about our
kind, tender, forgiving, gracious God for Christ's sake.