I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibbert. In Hebrews chapter 12, beginning
in verse 28, we read these words. 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. I've entitled this message, Our
God is a Consuming Fire. Now there's something frightening
about this verse because of the image it brings to our mind. Our God is a consuming fire and
it should have that effect. And I pray by the end of this
message that every believer will find this to be comforting as
well. Now how could our God is a consuming
fire be comforting? Well, may God give us the grace
to know the answer to that question. Now notice it says our God is
a consuming fire. It doesn't say God was a consuming
fire, but God is a consuming fire. God is. He said, I am that I am. God is. God is the creator. The reason there is life is because
God is. I think it is amazing that some
people think that in some primordial stew, some chemical reaction
brought forth life and all life comes from that. No, life comes
from God because God is life. God is. I am that I am. He that cometh
to God must believe that He is. Not merely that He exists, but
that He is. He is as He makes Himself known
in this book, the Holy Scriptures. Now the Bible claims to be the
inspired word of God. 2 Timothy 3, verse 16 says, all
scripture is given by inspiration of God. And if you have a hard
time believing that, I'm sorry, but if you believe that God created
the world from nothing, it's not hard to believe that God
inspired a book. And what would we know with regard
to the character of God apart from him making his character
known in this book. If we don't have this, all we
have is my opinion and your opinion, which are not worth a hill of
beans when you put them together. God is as he says he is in this
book. God is light. These are scriptural
terms. God is light. In him is no darkness
at all. God is love. Not here is love
and God fits that description. No, God is love. God is holy. He is other. There's nothing in this created
universe that he created that's like him. He says there's none
like unto me. He's altogether other. God is
good. He's good all the time. Somebody
says, well, how could a good God allow that to happen? I don't
know, but I trust His character. And God is good, and whatever
He does is good. God's on the throne. That means
God is sovereign. That means His will is always
done. David put it this way, our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Everything that takes place on
this planet and everywhere else in the universe takes place according
to the sovereign will of God. God. God is all-powerful, omnipotent. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Is there anything beyond His
grasp and His ability? Whatever He is pleased to will,
He has the power to do because He's omnipotent, all-powerful. God is immutable. He said, I
am the Lord, I change not. There's no change with God. In
him is no variables, neither shadow of turning. God is immutable. You and I are so changing. We
change a thousand times in one day in our attitudes and our
thoughts, but not God. God is immutable. God is independent. He's not worshipped with men's
hands as though He needed anything. God has no needs outside of Himself. So if you think He needs you,
forget it. He doesn't. He doesn't need me. He doesn't
need you. He is utterly independent. God is Spirit. That's why He's
omnipresent. He's not confined by space or
time. God is a consuming fire. Now this, when the writer to
the Hebrews makes this statement, he's quoting a passage of scripture
from Deuteronomy chapter four. Let me read it to you in verse
24. Verse 23 says, take heed unto
yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God,
which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness
of anything which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. Now,
idolatry was making a likeness of God. I think this represents
God. I think that represents God.
It can be a material idol. It can be an idolatrous thought
in your mind thinking, I think God is like this. I think God
is like that, when he's not. He is as he's revealed in his
word. Now look at this word, verse
24. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. He's jealous of his own glory,
of his own person, and he will not tolerate false images of
himself, whether they're material or in our mind. The Lord thy
God is a jealous God, even a consuming fire. Now, in our text, in Hebrews
12, verse 28, it begins with this, wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot
be moved. Now the only kingdom that cannot
be moved is the kingdom of God. Every earthly kingdom is temporary. Every earthly kingdom is so fragile. One's raised up, another's brought
down, but the kingdom that cannot be moved is the kingdom of the
eternal Now let's back another verse and see what he means by
this kingdom that cannot be moved. He said, yet once more signifying
the removing of those things that are shaken, that are fragile,
that can be shaken, as of things that are made, created, temporary,
that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Now, the only thing that cannot
be shaken is that which is eternal. Not anything that's made. Not
anything you can see. The things that are seen are
temporal. They're temporary. The things
that are not seen are eternal. And the kingdom that cannot be
moved is the eternal kingdom of God. Listen to this scripture
from Revelation 13, verse 8. Christ Jesus is called the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Before there was ever
a creation, Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain. Slain from before
the foundation of the world. Before there was ever a sinner,
there was a Savior. This is His eternal kingdom.
Hebrews 4.3 states this, all the works, speaking of the works
of salvation, all the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1.9, he
saved us, he called us. Now what, in the way Paul presents
this, as far as the order goes, what comes first, the saving
or the calling? The saving. This is speaking of all of God's
elect. He saved us and he called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace which were given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Now that's the kingdom that cannot
be moved. It's what God does. Not what
you do. Not what I do. But what God does and whatever
God does is eternal because He's eternal. We receiving this kingdom. Now, we receive it. Every believer
receives it. Somebody says, well, I haven't
received it. Well, it was never given to you then, because if
it's given to you, you will receive. We receiving this kingdom, which
cannot be moved. He says, let us have grace. whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Now, what does it take to receive
this kingdom? Let us have grace. I love the
word grace. I love what it means, the grace
of God. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Now
the only way I'm going to be enabled, the only way you will
be enabled to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear
is if we have grace. The grace of God. It takes grace to serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear. It's not in the natural man.
It takes the grace of God to enable a man to do this. Now
what is grace? Most of us have heard the term
the grace of God. I've even heard unbelievers say
there, go I but for the grace of God. What is grace according
to the scriptures? Grace is what God does for the
sinner. Works are what we do. Grace is
what God does. Salvation is by grace. Salvation is what God does. Now, salvation by works makes
salvation in some way dependent upon what I do or what you do.
For instance, in most pulpits today, here's the message. God
loves you, Christ died for you. But what he did for you won't
do you any good unless you do something about it. You have
to accept him as your personal savior. Now my dear friends,
that's salvation by works. That's all it is, it's foolishness.
The issue is not will you accept him, the issue is will he accept
you. God's grace, God's grace is saving
grace. It's not grace that's offered
and it's up to you as to what you're gonna do with it. No,
God's grace always saves. Now that's the grace the writer
to the Hebrews is talking about. To serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear, I'm gonna have to have the grace
of God. Now, God's grace is saving grace. Ephesians 2.8, by grace you are
saved. Through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man
should boast. Now, if you believe yourself
to be a sinner, do you believe that? Someone says, well, I'm
not a sinner, then I don't have a good message for you. I don't
have good news for you. But if you do believe yourself
to be a sinner, someone who cannot be saved by your works, God's
grace is saving grace. It's electing grace. God chose
who would be saved. Now, this choice was made before
time began. Listen to this scripture. For
the children, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand not of works, not of works, but of him that calleth." Now,
this tells me that God's electing grace is not dependent upon my
works. Now, that's good news to you
if you're a sinner. If you don't believe yourself
to be a sinner, you won't care anything about election. You'll
think it's not fair and you'll find fault with it. But if you're
a sinner, You'll rejoice that God saves freely by His grace
and salvation begins with Him. He chooses who will be saved.
God's grace is redeeming grace. He makes full payment for the
sin through the blood of His Son. God's grace is justifying
grace, being justified freely by His grace. Now, if I'm justified,
that means I have no sin. That means I have no guilt. And
that is what Christ did. He put away my sin. It's life-giving
grace. He doesn't offer you life, he
gives life. He preserves the grace of God. Let us have grace, the writer
to the Hebrews says, saving grace. And here is why we need this
grace to accomplish this end, that we may serve God acceptably. Now, what does acceptable service
look like? that we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear. Now please listen carefully.
There is no acceptable service with the living God, the God
of the Bible, without reverence and godly fear. Now this word reverence in our
text is used one of the time in the New Testament. It's translated
shamefacedness. This is what reverence means.
Shame-facedness. It has to do with your eyes looking
down, like the publican in the temple who would not so much
as lift up his eyes to heaven, but he smote upon his breasts,
saying, God, be merciful to me, thee, sinner. That is reverence, shame-facedness. And I think the most powerful
illustration of what shame-facedness would be, would be with the seraphims. Those angels, those mighty, magnificent
creatures that are the highest of the order of angels, those
angels that are said to fly around the throne of God, and that's,
what all that means, I don't know, but it says they cry, holy,
holy, holy, and they have six wings, and with two wings, they
cover their face. Shame-facedness. You see, they're
in the presence of the living God, and they cover their face. Shamed-facedness. With the two,
they cover their feet. They're ashamed of their walk.
Now somebody says, how could a seraphim be ashamed of its
walk? Why does it have to cover its face? Because that seraphim
knows that the only reason he is God's servant and not fallen
like Satan and the angels that fell is because God preserves
him. And he knows that he would fall,
he knows that he would sin. Did not God keep him from it?
He knows he's a mutable creature. I love that scripture, the elect
angels, the only angels that were not fallen were the ones
God chose not to be, and these seraphims know that, so they
cover their face. They cover their feet, and with
two they did fly, always ready to obey the commands of the Lord. Now, this is acceptable service. reverence, shame-facedness, and
godly fear. Now, the scripture says the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the only
acceptable service, and that's only done by grace. That's only
done through Christ. But what is the fear of God?
You know, I've heard people talk about good, God-fearing men and
women, and I never have liked that statement, because they're
talking about people who live a certain way, and they say,
well, they're good, God-fearing people. There's none good but
God. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that's good. There's none that understands.
So, what is the fear of God? It's that reverence and respect
and awe of His person that makes you afraid to look anywhere but
Christ as your only ground of acceptance. That's the fear of
God. If you look anywhere other than
Christ, you really have no reverence. You have no fear of God. There's
no fear of Him before your eyes, because if you have a true reverence,
if I have a true reverence and fear of God, I'm afraid to look
anywhere but Christ alone for my only ground of acceptance
before God. Now, he says, let us have grace. that we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire."
Our God. God said, I'll be to them a God,
they shall be to me a people. This is for every believer. Our
God is a consuming fire. The word means an utterly consuming
fire. Sodom and Gomorrah found this
out. There were no survivors when God rained fire and brimstone
from heaven. The sons of Korah found this
out when they presumed to take on the office of a priest and
said to Moses and Aaron, we're just as holy as you. We can offer
up incense to God and God sent them to hell immediately with
the shoes on. The ground opened up and swallowed them. Nadab
and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, found this out. They were priests
under the Old Testament economy. And they offered strange fire
before the Lord. What that means is they burnt
the incense with fire that didn't come from off the altar. They
thought, well, any fire will do. And in doing this, they bypassed
the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way I can be accepted
is the sacrifice of Christ. And anything must come from that.
But they thought, well, any old fire will do. We're sincere.
And God sent fire down from heaven and consumed them. And Moses
said to Aaron, their father, don't you run your clothes. They
had this coming. God said, I'll be sanctified
of them that come near me. And they failed to do that. I
love the story of Elijah. The story is found in 1 Kings
18 where he said, the God that answers by fire. He was talking
to the people when they were worshiping Baal. He said, let's
make two sacrifices. The God that answers by fire,
he's God. And if you know the story, the
prophets of Baal, they offered their sacrifices and fire never
came down from heaven. But when Elijah put up his sacrifice,
doused with water to prove it wasn't trickery and put it on
the stones, fire fell down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice
and the stones and the dust and licked up the water. God accepted. The sacrifice was completely
consumed. That's the God who answers by
fire. Now, I wanna read a passage of
scripture to you from Luke chapter 12. These are the words of the
Lord. And he says in verse one, I'm come to send fire on the
earth, and what will I if it be already kindled? And this
is the consuming fire he's talking about. But I have a baptism to
be baptized with and how am I straight until it be accomplished? Now
on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ became the sinner's substitute. When he drank that cup in Gethsemane's
garden, that was the sins of his people. All of his life,
he knew this was ahead of him, that he was going to bear the
sins of his people. And he's, what all that means,
I don't really understand. I know he took our sins in his
own body on the tree. That's true of every believer.
And he became guilty of the commission of those sins, though he himself
did not commit them. When he took them to himself,
he became guilty of the commission of those sins and the fire of
God's wrath fell on him and something happened. When he died, he didn't
go through the process of decay because the fire didn't consume
him. He consumed the fire. You see,
that fire only blazes when there's fuel that causes its blazing.
And that fuel is sin. Christ consumed the sins. He paid for the sins. He put
them away. He consumed the fire of God's
wrath. And now there is no wrath. for
any believer because God is a consuming fire. He put away the sins and
every believer is saved and secured by what He did. We find confidence
in this consuming fire. Now let me try to illustrate
this. This is a true story as I understand it. This was back
during the days of covered wagons and people were going out west
on the gold rush and there was a company of covered wagons going
toward the west and they were in the Great Plains. And there
would be raging fires. Lightning might strike and there
would be a fire that you couldn't possibly outrun. And they saw
a fire raging, coming at them in the distance. And they knew,
well, we can't outrun this thing. So a very wise man set the ground
on fire where they were at. And it went out quickly, but
he let a large amount come to where there was nothing but burnt
ground, and they put all the wagons in the middle of that
surface that had been burnt. And when the fire was coming,
a little boy looked at his father and said, I'm scared. And his father said to him, son,
don't worry. The fire cannot burn ground that
has already been burnt. Now, on Calvary's tree, Christ
bore the fire of God's wrath, and he paid for the sins. They're now gone. He's ground
that's already been burnt, and every believer has the total
security of Christ dying for their sins. Now, my dear friend,
If Christ died for your sins, your sins are gone. Somebody
may be thinking, well, how do I know if he died for my sins?
How do I know if he died for me? There's one evidence. You look to Christ only. You
look nowhere else. You look to Christ only as the
only grant of your acceptance because of what He did. Plus
nothing, minus nothing. You believe that what Christ
did is all that's needed to make you perfect and holy and accepted
before God. You don't need to offer up anything.
Christ has already made the offering. Where the remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. Don't you try to bring
one. You look to Christ only, who he is and what he did as
all that's needed to make you accepted. And that means he died
for you. May the Lord give you and I the
grace. to serve him with reverence and
godly fear, knowing he is a consuming fire. This is Todd Nyberg praying
that God will richly bless you for Christ's sake. Amen. To receive
a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send a request to
todd.nyberg at gmail.com, or you may write or call the church
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