I read and hear a good many sermons
in a week's time. I read more than I hear, but
I hear a good many as well. I tape and so forth. A good many
when I travel. And sadly, far, far, far too
often, the messages written and preached can't really be called
messages at all. Rather, they are simply the attempt
of a man to defend some doctrine or defend some issue, and they
are dry, lifeless, and dead. And the only benefit I find from
them is that calls me continually to cry out to God, Lord God,
don't let me so waste my time in the time of others. Speak
to my heart and speak through your word to your people. If you'll do that, then what
I have prepared for this evening for you will bless your heart. I want to talk to you about Christ
in the flame of fire. Our text will be Exodus chapter
3 verse 2. But let's begin back in Genesis
15. Genesis 15. Here the Lord God
appeared to Abraham and made his covenant with him and made
promises to him with regard to himself And his seed for generations
to come indeed made promises to his seed for all eternity. Those promises were exemplified
in his physical seed, the nation of Israel throughout the Old
Testament. But after the promises were made,
God confirmed his covenant to Abraham in a sacrifice. as he caused the flame of fire
to pass between the pieces of the sacrifice and consume them. And it came to pass that when
the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace
and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the
same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, unto thy
seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great
river, the river Euphrates. And then when the Lord was about
to send Moses back to Egypt to deliver his people in fulfillment
of that covenant promise, he made Abraham, we read it in verses
13 and 14 here in Genesis, and we'll get to Exodus 3. The Lord
God is sending Moses in Exodus 3 to fulfill this promise. Look
at it. Verse 13. He said to Abram, Know
of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that
is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they, these strangers,
shall afflict them four hundred years, and also that nation Whom
they shall serve will I judge, and afterward shall they come
out with great substance. Now, let's turn to Exodus chapter
3. When the Lord was about to fulfill
his covenant promise, delivering Israel out of Egyptian bondage,
we read in verse 2, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him. The angel of the Lord appeared
to Moses, in a flame of fire. Now the message of the burning
bush is such a profound, instructive message that I intend, if God
will enable me, to bring several more messages on it. And you
can just read it and study everything you can on it, and I promise
you it won't be wasted time. Here we see Christ in the flame
of fire. And we have a clear example given
by inspiration that in a typical way this flame of fire portrays
our blessed Savior. We have before us a vision of
Christ the angel of the Lord in a bush burning with fire,
and we're told specifically here that our Savior appeared to Moses
in a flame of fire. He speaks to him in the bush.
And specifically in the flame of fire, he reveals himself to
Moses, and by type reveals himself to us. Now the afflictions of
Israel were great, and certainly they are represented in the bush
burning with fire. But the mercies of our God were
greater. The Son of God appeared in the
flame of fire displaying his incomprehensible deity, majesty,
and glory as our Deliverer. And in this flame of fire, he
speaks to Moses, identifies himself to Moses in a way he had never
identified himself to anyone before as the Deliverer who is
God Himself, our Savior. Now, fire certainly has numerous
things associated with it, and there is nothing profound or
deep about what I'm about to say, but connect the fire with
the Savior and you'll find great consolation. Fire is a good instructive
type of Christ in that light is always associated with fire.
I was over here working today and needed to get down under
my desk trying to get an internet service set up correctly, and
I didn't have a flashlight. If I had one, I said, no, he
said, do you have a lighter? I said, yeah. Got down under
there so he could see. Light is always associated with
fire. And our Lord Jesus Christ declares,
I am the light of the world. Not a light, the light. The only
light there is. He gives light to every man that
comes into the world. He gives the light of nature
and the light of conscience. But he comes to chosen sinners.
in his mighty grace, and gives the light of life to his own,
scattered through all the earth. He is the brightness of his Father's
glory, and the express image of his person, and his glory
is described as the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. Now, turn to 1 John chapter 1.
Let me show you something with regard to this light. All who
follow Christ And by following Christ, this is what the scriptures
intend. All who believe Him. To believe Him is to follow Him. Multitudes there are who think
they shall obtain eternal life by following His example. To
believe Him is to follow Him. Faith causes men and women to
walk in His steps. All who follow Christ, all who
believe Him, walk in the light as He is the light. And walking
in the light, we confess our sins, and we confess that He
alone is the light. And let me show you what that
means. 1 John 1, that which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked upon and our hands have handled, of the word of life."
Now certainly that may be applied to the book you're holding in
your lap, but it is speaking specifically about him who is
the word, in whom alone is life, the word who is himself life,
and the word who gives us life, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know
that because John's talking about handling it, handling this word,
handling Jesus Christ himself. Verse 2. For the life was manifested,
and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that
eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto
us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you. that you also may have fellowship
with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ." We have a tendency these days to use religious terms
to talk about the most insignificant, carnal things on this earth.
Folks get together and play ball and say we're having fellowship.
Not in this sense. You get together with some friends
and have a party and say we're just having a good time with
a fellowship. Not in this sense. You get together and have a party
and say we're having a party. You get together and play a ball
game and say we're playing a ball game. It's not talking about fellowship.
Not talking about that. It's not even talking about fellowship
in the sense that we use it with regard to a family. This is talking
about fellowship. And the only way you and I can
enjoy this fellowship of heart and of life, one with another,
is if we have this fellowship that Christ enjoys with His Father. And the only way we can have
it is walking by faith in Him. Read on. He says, truly, our
fellowship is with the Father. That's where real fellowship,
real union of heart is found. And with his Son, Jesus Christ. Verse 4. And these things rightly
unto you, that your joy may be full. I love how God the Holy
Spirit tells us so often in the Scriptures that those very things
that the religious world make to be points of doubt and suspicion
and uneasiness God tells us are written for the joy of our hearts,
that our joy may be full. So that tells us immediately
what follows here is not something that we ought to look at and
say, well, boy, I don't know whether I've done enough to measure
up or not. It is a matter of terrible consternation
and damnation to those who believe not. But now he's going to tell
us what this fellowship is, what it is to walk in the light. Read
on, verse 5. This then is the message. This
is the message. The message we have heard of
him. This is what God revealed to
us and what God sent us to declare. To declare unto you that God
is light. Wow. What a word. Light. We talk about light. and you see the light. That fact,
that fact, you talk about seeing that light, tells you that's
not light. If it was really light, you couldn't
see it. You see, light has nothing impure. Nothing that in any way can be
connected to the senses of the flesh. We simply walk in light. We don't see the light. We see
by light. There's a huge difference. God
is light. Absolute purity. With nothing to defile or corrupt. Absolute holiness. And in Him
is no Darkness at all. Nothing corrupt, nothing hidden,
nothing deceitful, nothing under the table, nothing that has anything
to do with what we commonly look at as darkness. Read on. Now,
if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness,
in deceit, in hypocrisy, in cunningness, in covering. We lie and do not truth. But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
his Son, cleanseth us continually cleanseth us from all sin, so
that walking in the light, having fellowship one with another,
we are constantly given to witness by God the Holy Spirit, through
His Word, that Christ's blood is eternally effectual for the
cleansing of our souls. Well, what's he talking about?
Verse 8. If we say that we have no sin,
we walk in darkness. We deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. Anybody who says, I have no sin,
speaking of himself personally, of his own experience, of anything
done by him, he walks in darkness. Oh, but he's so sincere, he walks
in darkness, he deceives himself. Verse 9, who is it who walks
in light? Who is it that has fellowship
with God who is light and with his Son if we confess our sins? Now that is not talking. I've
told you this so many times, but it needs repeating and it
needs hearing. That's not talking about coming
up here to this church and confessing your sins to this people. I don't
need to hear about them. And you don't need to hear about
somebody else's. We confess our faults one to another. We acknowledge
our sinfulness and we acknowledge our faults and if we offend we
confess our offenses by all means. But this religious world has
got the idea somehow you can do something with men and thereby
absolve yourself of guilt and gain God's favor. You just as
well go to a Roman Catholic priest in a confessional booth and confess
your sins to him as to come before this preacher or before this
church and confess your sins to us. That's not what's going
on. That's easy business. It's easy for me to talk about
my sins to Oscar Bailey a little. I guarantee you I'm not going
to tell you too much about them. And you won't either. You're
going to hide a lot. Otherwise, you will not be able
to look Oscar Bailey in the eye, because once he knows you're
what he is, then the two of you will despise each other in nature. That's the way things are. It's
easy to confess our sins to men, because we're talking to sinners.
Once you talk about confessing our sins, this is what it is
to walk in the light. God is light. And I can't hide
anything from Him. And He showed me that I am in
His light. And all that I am is manifest
to Him. Now, I can either rebel against
it, or I can bow to Him and acknowledge sincerely what I am. To confess
your sin is to open your heart to God Almighty, acknowledging
your sin. All that you are. All that you are. Not just what
you've done. All that you are. Trusting Christ
alone before Him. Now the two are connected right
here in the passage. If we confess our sin, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sin. and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. That's exactly what he was talking
about in verse 7. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth
us from all sin. And then it goes on. I don't know anybody, I have
in my lifetime met a few people who claim they didn't have any
sin, but I don't know anybody that I've talked to in recent
years who makes such an assertion. But I know a whole slew of folks
to whom verse 10 applies, and it may apply to you. If we say
we have not sinned, have you ever met anybody in your life
or ever heard tell of anybody in your life who said, I've never
sinned? Anybody? That's not what it's
talking about. Brother Merle read Proverbs chapter
7 back in the office last Sunday night, that harlot She wipes
her mouth and says, I haven't seen it. That's what it's talking
about. In the exercise of harlot religion,
in free will works religion. Read their Bible and say, now
there I've done good. Or they give their offerings
and say, now there I've done good. Or they say their prayers,
oh how I hate those words. Say their prayers and say, now
I've done good. Or they attend church and say,
now I've done good. If we sin with regard to anything
we have done or are doing, I have not sinned. What does it say?
We make God a liar. And his word is not in us. These things write unto you that
you sin not. Don't do it. And if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous
and he is the propitiation for our sins. Oh, now my joy is full. Walking in the light. In Him
who is the light, acknowledging all that I am, confessing my
sin to God in the teeth of everything I
know about Don Fortner. I have absolute confidence of
peace with God Almighty, for Jesus Christ the righteous is
my advocate on high, and He is the propitiation for my sins. Something else about fire, it
provides warmth and heat. When the Lord Jesus comes to
us and opens the scriptures to us, and shows things concerning
himself out of the book. He causes our hearts to burn
within us. How often have you found yourself
repeating the words of those disciples on the Emmaus Road?
Did not our hearts burn within us while he walked with us and
while he opened unto us the Scripture? Oh, how blessed, how blessed
it is to read the Word or sit and listen to the preaching of
the Gospel and suddenly God get hold of your heart and Christ
reveal Himself to you in His Word. How often I have found
myself coming to the house of God in spite of everything I could
do, and usually I have to acknowledge the cause of what I do. Coming
to the house of God with a heart as hard as iron and as cold as
ice. And I was sitting here, back
there in the office, One of the men will read just the right
passage, or say just the right thing. The Lord God graciously
makes Himself known. And like that, this heart of
ice and steel is melted like wax before the burning sun. Because
He is fire to inflame. Tell you something else about
fire. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Fire purifies. When Christ the Son of Righteousness
arises in our hearts with healing in His wings, giving us life
and faith in Him, we stand with Him and in Him, pure before God,
with what Paul calls by inspiration. Now listen. This is what Paul
calls it. by inspiration, a pure conscience and a pure heart. Pure? Before God? Oh, preach I'd give anything
but I'd have pure conscience and pure heart before God. Well,
if you give anything, give everything and you've got it. Give up everything
and you've got it, but no other way. Give up all your righteousness,
all your claim to goodness, all your distinctive qualities of
character by which you think you really ought to be accepted
of God. Trust Christ alone and the blood
of Jesus Christ sprinkled on your conscience by God the Holy
Spirit purges your conscience from all your dead works and
you stand before God with a pure heart and a pure conscience. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
6 verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God." Have I missed anybody? You fit in there somewhere. You
fit in there everywhere. Read on. And such were some of
you. That's what we are by nature.
But ye are, what does it say, Bobby? Washed. What does that
mean? Ye are sanctified and justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
What a word! We were washed by Christ at Calvary,
sanctified through His blood by His one offering, perfected
forever, He did, them that are sanctified, and justified by
His one great sacrifice for sin. But here Paul says this is done
in the name of Christ, by the Spirit of God. Oh, Don Fortner's
a heretic. Look at him now. He's talking
about justification and washing and redemption being performed
by the Spirit of God. No, he's not. No, he's not. But
I'm telling you, you'll never know anything about it until
the Spirit of God makes the blood of Christ effectual to your heart
in regeneration and faith, causing you to see the accomplished washing
and sanctification and justification that belongs to all God's people
in Jesus Christ. The Spirit applies these things
to us and purges the conscience and purges the heart. We all
know fire is consuming as well. I told you many times referring
to this very passage here in Exodus 3 Our God is a consuming
fire. Let me show you the passage from
which that passage in Hebrews 12 is quoted. Turn to Deuteronomy
9. Deuteronomy 9. When the Lord Jesus comes in
grace, he comes as our light to purify. By his presence and
his grace, we are warmed and invigorated. But when he comes
upon his enemies in wrath and in judgment, he comes as fire
to consume. But now listen carefully. Even
then, he comes in mercy and grace to his elect. Even then. Was it not an act
of mercy and grace that overthrew Pharaoh and the Egyptian army
in the Red Sea? Was it not mercy and grace that
conquered the enemies of Israel at Ai? Was it not mercy and grace
that caused Jehoshaphat and Israel to prevail? Of course it was.
Of course it was. And so it is that even in judgment,
God exercises mercy and grace to his own, ridding himself and
us of all that would hinder that which is his good purpose for
us. Look in Deuteronomy 9 verse 3. Understand, therefore, this
day, that the Lord thy God is he that goeth over before thee,
as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring
them down before thy face. So shalt thou drive them out,
and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee."
He goes before you as a consuming fire. Now, look back here in
Exodus chapter 2. Or chapter 3, rather. There's
something in the appearance of Christ to Moses that was startling
and great. He looked, and behold, the bush
burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. I find that as beautiful as it
is blessed. The fire completely engulfed
that bush. Completely engulfed that bush.
And yet the fire didn't cause any harm to the most tender twig
or the most tender bud in the bush. The same fire which consumes
the wicked blesses us. You remember at Mount Sinai,
when God gave the law, the Lord Jesus came down to Sinai and
He was in the fire? And yet it was in that same fire
that He appeared in saving mercy to Isaiah, though when Isaiah
saw Him, he was at first terrified and said, Oh, woe is me! Before
the day was over, he said, Oh, blessed is me! When the Lord
God first appeared to Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 1, He appears as fire
in the midst of the wheels of His providence, declaring plainly
that the providence of God moves according to His purpose of grace
in Jesus Christ for the good of His people. And when the Lord
God appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos in Revelation chapter
1 and 2, when John saw Him, his eyes were as a flame of fire. He saw him as fire walking in
the midst of his churches to protect and care for them. Malachi
speaks of our Lord Jesus coming in Malachi chapter 3, and he
describes his priestly work, the work that he's doing right
now, as the priest on his throne, as the work of a refiner's fire. A refiner's fire is not set for
the destruction of the object in the fire, but rather it is
set for the purifying and the solidifying of the object that's
in the fire. As John the Baptist asserted,
though he shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire, he baptizes
his own with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Isaiah calls God the
Holy Spirit twice. He calls him this, the spirit
of judgment and the spirit of burning. As the spirit of judgment,
he comes to convince, to convict. eliminating us and convincing
us of sin, our sin, and righteousness, righteousness demanded by God
and righteousness accomplished by God our Savior, and of judgment. For the prince of this world
is judged. And then he comes as the spirit
of fire, the spirit of burning, to inflame our soul. For when
he convinces us of sin and of righteousness and judgment finished,
he sheds abroad in our hearts the love of Christ that inflames
our souls with faith and love and devotion to him. William
Huntington made this observation after declaring that by the shedding
abroad of the Savior's love in our hearts, he makes us, as he
did John, a burning and shining light in this world of darkness.
Huntington wrote, In the light of the Spirit there are such
views of Christ person, loveliness and fullness, and such beauties
in God, his word and ways, as give heat and fervor to all our
devotions. while the promises which flow
into the heart come as live coals from the altar and increase the
ardor. And the joy that springs from
love is at times like the visible flames which on the altar ascended
up to God from the hallowed place. And that ardor is being pent
up within must burst forth in praise and worship to Him. There
are numerous other appearances. When our Lord Jesus appeared
to men in fire, when Israel walked through the wilderness those
40 years, the Lord went before them by night in a pillar of
fire to give them light. Our blessed Savior will not let
us walk in darkness. Won't happen. When he entered
into the covenant with Israel at Sinai, the Lord descended
upon Sinai in fire. And thus he displays his purity,
his holiness, his inflexible justice. And yet at the same
time, he is sending forth a word clearly, clearly identified in
the latter part of Exodus 20. He said, you can come to me.
Even though I stand as fire before you, and you tremble in my presence,
there's a way you can come to me. You come to me on the altar
I have erected, an altar of earth, on which you dare not lift up
your own tool, and you dare not ascend by stairs to me, but rather
you come to me by Christ, the altar I have erected. And He,
He is the sacrifice. which has satisfied all my justice."
The Lord God had a fire, we're told in Leviticus 6, that burned
continually before the altar, or on the altar, burned continually. The priests were required to
keep the fire burning on the altar day after day, night after
night, throughout their generations. Why? Why? Because the Lord God is declaring
that Christ, represented in the sacrifice consumed in that fire,
is a sacrifice of everlasting unfailing, perpetual efficacy,
giving us everlasting, unfailing, perpetual acceptance with Him. One of the most instructive and delightful
appearances of our Lord in the Old Testament is in Judges 13
when He appeared to Manoah and his wife. The angel of the Lord
appeared to them Manoah asked, what is his name? And he said,
my name is Wonderful. And Manoah made a sacrifice.
At first, they were terrified. They said, if we're going to
die, we'll see God face to face. That's what always happens when
the Lord first comes to a sinner. And Manoah's wife said, I don't
think so. I don't think He came here to
kill us and to offer the sacrifice. And as He offered the sacrifice,
they stood back and looked. And they saw the Son of God dancing
in the fire. Said He did wondrously. He did
wondrously. He whose name is wonderful did
wondrously in the fire. Oh, He has done wondrously in
the sacrifice of Himself, fulfilling all righteousness, bringing in
everlasting righteousness, justifying us from all things from which
we could not be justified by the law of Moses, making us holy
and pure and perfect before God Almighty. And then, as they watched
the smoke ascend up to heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended
up in the flame of fire. Christ, our sacrifice by the
merit of His blood, by the merit of His sacrifice, ascended up
into heaven. But that's not all. Ephesians 2, verses 4 and 5 tell
us that we arose with Him. And when He sat down in heaven,
David, having earned the spot at His Father's right hand, He
made us sit down with Him, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. When it comes again, our Lord Jesus is coming in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. A fire is kindled in mine anger,
he says. and shall burn unto the lowest
hail, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on
fire the foundations of the nations." Our Lord speaks of the worm that
never dies, and the fire that can never be quenched. Now religious
folks like to fuss and argue, is that talking about literal
fire, or figurative fire, or is it just a hyperbole? Well,
you can argue and fuss about it until you go to hell if you
want to. But it doesn't matter whether the fire is literal or
figurative. Whatever it is, it is exactly
suited to perform its intended purpose, to punish God's enemies
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord,
lest they hurt or defile at any time His Holy Kingdom. Seeing it is a righteous thing
with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and
to you who are troubled rest with us, Here's the reason for
rest. When the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God, that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory
of his power, when he shall come to be glorified
in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that
day. And the angel of the Lord appeared
in a flame of fire. Now he's going to appear that
way to you. Will the fire be your everlasting joy and consolation? or your everlasting consumption
in the wrath of God. May God give you no rest until
you find blessed satisfaction in the fact that He is a consuming
fire. Blessed satisfaction in the fact
that Jesus Christ, the fire of God, has consumed all your iniquities,
transgressions and sins, and made you pure by his blood before
God himself. Amen.