Turn back to Hebrews chapter
12. Our God is a consuming fire. You know, those words are scary,
aren't they? Our God, the living God, is a
consuming fire. Look what he said in the previous
verse, Hebrews 12, 28, Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which
cannot be moved, let us have or let us hold fast to grace,
whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. Now, the only way to serve God
acceptably is with reverence and with godly fear, for our
God is a consuming fire. The fact that He is a consuming
fire tells us that there is service that is not acceptable to Him. We read in Deuteronomy 4, verse
24, for the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. Now, this has to do with his
holiness, with his hatred of sin, his utter intolerance of
that which is contrary to him. This is the God of the Bible.
This is the living God, is a consuming fire. Now, we have so many instances
of this in the scriptures. What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? Fire came down from heaven and
consumed them. What about Nadab and Abihu? They
were priests and their job was to offer up incense. And they
ran out of the right kind of incense. And they said, well,
this incense will do. I mean, as long as we're sincere,
as long as we have the right motive, this will be fine. So
they offered up a different kind of incense, a strange incense. And the scripture says fire came
down from heaven and consumed them. What about the sons of
Korah? The sons of Korah took it upon
themselves to take upon them the office of the priest and
even to offer up incense when they had no business doing it.
And what happened? fire came down from heaven and
consumed them. You see, God is holy. Utter purity and all of his attributes
are holy. God's sovereignty is a holy sovereignty. His wisdom is a holy wisdom. His justice is a holy justice. His love is a holy love. His
power is a holy power. God is holy. A consuming fire. And since He is a consuming fire,
there is an acceptable way to worship Him. And to not serve
Him in this acceptable manner will cause us to be consumed. Our God is a consuming fire.
Now, if we have the fear of God in our hearts, we fear not doing
what he calls acceptable service. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. The fear of the Lord, the respect,
the reverence, the awe of his person. Fear God and keep his
commandments. This is the whole duty of man. Now, verse 28 says, Wherefore,
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, the kingdom
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdom of grace, an immutable
kingdom, a kingdom that cannot be changed. And we've received
this kingdom. Thank God for that. Since we've
received this kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have, let us,
my marginal reading says, hold fast to grace. whereby we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear. Now, the first thing I see is
it takes the grace of God to serve him acceptably, doesn't
it? With reverence and with godly
fear. The only acceptable service is
through and by his grace, so may we hold fast to grace. You know, the way I can tell
if God has given his grace to somebody, they hold it fast.
I mean, they hold it tenaciously. It's the only hope they have.
They will not listen to anything contrary to grace because they
know in their hearts that the only way a holy God can accept
them is through His free grace, His favor. And they hold fast
to grace. Now, the only way I'm going to
serve Him acceptably is by His grace. You've got to begin right
there. It's impossible without the freeness
of His grace. He's made us grace. He's made
us accepted in the blood. Now, what is grace? What's the
Bible mean by grace? Well, there's law and there's
grace. There's law and there's grace. Now, what's meant by law? Law
is salvation dependent upon something you do. That's what it meant
by law. Now, you can say salvation depended
upon you keeping ten commandments. That's law. You can say salvation
depended upon an act of your will where you accept what God
did and that's what makes it work for you. That's law. That's
law. Anything that makes salvation
in any way dependent upon you before God can save you, that
is salvation by law. That's all it is. Grace is salvation
dependent upon what God does. Not salvation dependent upon
what I do. Salvation dependent upon what God does. His free
favor. And I love to think of the freedoms
of His grace. Now, though His grace has freed
us. You know, we use the term unconditional
election. I like that term. It means there's
no condition I need to meet in order for me to be one of God's
elect. His grace is unconditional insofar as us meriting it, but
oh, it was costly to God. It was costly to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, I think of that scripture,
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He
was rich, rich in God's favor, Rich in God's love. Rich in God's
acceptance. He was rich in righteousness.
He was rich in praise. Everything you can think of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, He was rich. Yet, for your
sakes, He became poor. And who can describe the poverty
of the Lord Jesus Christ? When he was hanging on that cross,
he was utterly destitute of God's favor. He was utterly destitute
of the smile of God. He was utterly destitute of righteousness
because the sins of God's people became his. And he became guilty
of it. He knew nothing but the awful
frown of his father. And you think of the... I don't
know how to explain this. You think that the father was
indifferent about doing this to his son? I mean, this is the
son of his love, his well-beloved son, and yet he do nothing but
the awful frown of his father. Now, he became poor that you
and me, through his poverty, might be rich. And that's grace. Turn with me
for a moment to Ephesians chapter 2. There's all kinds of scriptures
that tell us what the grace of God is, and this is the one that
came to my mind at this time. Ephesians chapter 2. Now remember,
the writer of the Hebrews says we need to hold to grace, hold
fast to grace, that we may serve God acceptably with reverence
and godly fear. So for me to serve God acceptably,
I'm going to have to hold fast to grace. So what is this grace
that he tells us to hold fast to? Look in here, Ephesians chapter
2. He says, and you, verse 1, hath he quickened, hath he given
life to, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now, if we're going
to understand what grace is, we're going to have to first
understand what guilt is. what sin is. Grace is meaningless
if I don't have some understanding of what it is to be dead in sins
with no way of saving myself. Totally helpless in God's hand
for Him to do with me whatever He's pleased to do. Let's go on reading. We're in
times past. This is his description of us. We're in times past. You
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we were by nature
the children of wrath, just like everybody else. And that's our
state. guilty before God, dead in sins. What's dead mean? He's dead.
What can a dead man do? The one thing a dead man can
do is stink. That's it. He cannot perform the functions
of spiritual life. He's dead in sins. Now that's
us. Here's grace. But you turned it around. But you, of your own free will,
decided to accept Jesus as your personal Savior. But God, who is rich in mercy for His
great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. When I read those
verses, the first thing I need to understand is who's the us. Does the us mean all men? Obviously
it doesn't, because all men are quickened with Christ. This is
talking about everybody Christ died for. This is talking about
God's elect. This is talking about every believer. Here's
their hope. Here's their hope. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us. Every believer,
even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us, hath given
us life together with Christ. Now, what's that mean? When Christ
was quickened, you know who else was? Every believer. That's when I was quickened.
When Christ was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He was quickened, I was quickened. And Paul says in this
parenthetical statement at the end of verse five, here's what
I mean by all this. By grace, you are saved. That's what that
means. By grace, you are saved. Verse six. And he has raised
us up together and made us. This is how complete this is.
He's raised us up together and made us sit together in heaven,
in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ is sitting
up in heaven at the right hand of the Father right now. And
you know who else is there sitting at the right hand of the Father?
Every believer. That is the hope of the believer.
Verse 7, here's the employment of heaven. Verse 7, that in the
ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Now, this is what
heaven is going to be all about. He's going to be showing us the
exceeding riches of His grace. Verse 8, for by grace are you
saved. Don't you know that so? Your
heart resonates. That's the only way I'm saved.
By grace, you are saved through faith. No salvation apart from
faith. By grace, if you say, through
faith, and that, that faith, it's not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. If
you think that faith comes from you, you believe in works, he
says. Not of works, lest any man should
boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. That's grace. That's grace. Nothing short of that is grace.
I am what I am by the grace of God. I have some understanding that
I'm a sinner, and that's by the grace of God. I have a hope in
Christ, and that's by the grace of God. I've been redeemed, and
that's by the grace of God. I've been justified, and I'm
justified by the grace of God. I'm kept, and I'm kept by the
grace of God. Every aspect of every believer's
salvation is all of grace. Not 99% grace. Like I said recently,
99% grace is 100% worse. No, it's 100% grace. Don't you
love it that way? Now let's go back to Hebrews
chapter 12. He says, Let us hold fast to
grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. Now there are a lot of things
we can say about acceptable service. I want to serve God acceptably,
don't you? Whatever it means to serve him acceptably, I want
to serve him acceptably. And I know it takes his grace
for me to serve him acceptably. But there's so many things you
could say about acceptable service. Acceptable service has got to
be from the heart. I mean, it can't be just going through the
motion of religion. It's got to be something from
the heart, the heart that he's given you that loves him. My
son, give me your heart out of it of the issues of life. Peter
said to Simon Magus, your heart is not right in the sight of
God. Acceptable service must come
from the heart, and that has to be the new heart which he
gives. You know, I've heard preachers
say, I've heard preachers say, won't you give Jesus your heart?
And my thought is, what would he want with it? As far as your
heart, is it any good? Is there anything he can do with
it? As far as, I mean, it's no good. You ask him to give you
a new heart. Create in me a clean heart, oh
God, and renew a right spirit within me. That's what a believer
desires, a new heart of his giving. And this is what you serve God
with, the new heart that he gives. And acceptable service must be
done to him and for him. I love the way The Lord commended
that woman who broke the alabaster box of ointment at his feet.
The disciples criticized her. I mean, they were very pragmatic.
They said this could have been sold for 300 pence and given
to the poor and all kinds of good could have been done. And
she wasted it just for a good smell. And the Lord said, let
her alone. She hath done a good work upon
me. That's the difference. She hath
done a good work upon me. We love his person and we do
what we do for him. And we're always aware in serving
him acceptably that what we have, we've received. Did you notice
he said, wherefore we receive him? A kingdom that cannot be. What do you have that you didn't
receive? Now, do you love the Lord Jesus
Christ right now? Now, if you do, you know He gave
you that love, don't you? You know it's something you received.
Do you believe? Well, you know He gave you that
faith. It's something you received. You know, I don't have to convince
a believer of this. They know this. It's their experience.
What we have, we've received. Acceptable service is by the
Holy Spirit. In Philippians chapter 3, verse
3, we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit. There isn't any worship without
the Holy Spirit. The only way I can worship the living, invisible,
infinite God is as God the Holy Spirit enables me to worship. I've said this before, I don't
tell people, come worship with us. I say, come hear the gospel. I want you to hear the Gospel,
but I'm not going to tell a man who I don't even know if he's
a believer, come worship with us, because you can't worship unless you
have the Holy Spirit. You could hear the Gospel, but you can't
even hear the Gospel without the Holy Spirit. We need the
Holy Spirit. And there's no acceptable service
without Him, and there's no acceptable service without faith. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. Now, let's look at what
he says in our text, in verse 29, wherefore, we receiving a
kingdom which cannot be moved, let us hold fast to grace. Oh,
hold on to it so tight, whereby we may serve God acceptably with
reverence and with godly fear. Now, here's acceptable service
with reverence and with godly fear. Now, that word reverence
is also translated shamefacedness. That gives us some idea of what
is meant by reverence. Shamefacedness. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
6. I think this will teach us what shamefacedness means. Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah says, in the year that
King Uzziah died. Now, what happened in the year
King Uzziah died? Well, King Uzziah decided, I'm
going to offer up a sacrifice. And he wasn't a priest. And he
went into the temple and the priest said, don't do this, Uzziah.
This doesn't appertain to you. You don't have any business trying
something like this. Only the priests can offer sacrifice. Only the Lord Jesus can represent
me, my great high priest. But he said, no, I can do it.
And what happened? As soon as he went in, the leprosy
spread through his skin and God killed him. Now, Isaiah loved
Uzziah. Uzziah was a good king, but he
saw when he came into God's presence without the Lord Jesus Christ
coming on his own, God turned him into a leper, and he died. And Isaiah said, I saw something
of the holiness and the unapproachableness of the Lord. In the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, and if you ever see
the Lord, this is how you'll see him, sitting on a throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood
the seraphim. Now, what kind of creatures are
these? I don't know. But each one had six wings. With
two of his wings, he covered his face. With two of his wings,
he covered his feet. And with two he did fly. And
one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Who are these seraphims? I don't
know. I've read some say they represent
the preaching of the gospel. Whether that's the case, I don't
know. But they were living creatures. And they had six wings. And the
first thing that's pointed out about them is with the first
two wings, they covered their face. They were ashamed of themselves. They covered their face. Although
we draw near, we never lose the apprehension of the majesty and
the holiness of his person and of his nature and of the severity
of his justice and the jealousy he has in worship. We cover our
face. We don't have a presumptuous
attitude toward the Lord God. We cover our face in fear. That's shamefacedness. And with
two wings, the scripture says, he covered his feet. Your feet
represent your walk. Are you aren't you aren't you
ashamed of your walk? When it comes right down to it,
aren't you ashamed of it? And you cover it. It's not something
you feel good about. You cover it. Even these seraphims,
they cover their feet. They're ashamed of their walk.
Now, this is a holy shame. Face it. This is what this is. And with two they did fly, ready
to do his will. We serve him acceptably only with reverence. Reverence. You know, every time
we say the Lord's name, it ought to be done so with fear. Don't
anybody make the Lord, what is this? What is what people say
almost more often than anything else in our days? Oh, my God.
Oh, that's blasphemy. He's the God of glory. He's the
living God. He's the holy God. Don't use
his name in a flippant way. Don't use his name in any way
but fear and reverence. Holy is his name. I don't even
like the way people refer to Jesus in the way they do. You
know, the disciples never came up to him and said, Jesus, I
want you to do this for me. Never anything like that. And
he said to them, you call me master and Lord. And you do well,
for so I am. Reverence. And next, he says,
godly fear, the fear of caution. The fear of God makes you cautious,
afraid of offending him, afraid of sin, afraid to look anywhere
but the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here is the fear of God. I fear God this much. The only
way I want Him to see me is in His Son. Nothing else. I don't want Him
to judge me for my preaching, for my praying, for my zeal. I don't want Him to judge me
for any... No, I simply want to be found
in Christ so that when God sees me, All he sees is his son. That's all I want him to see.
Now, that is godly fear. The fear of caution. Now, he says all this in verse
29, for our God, our God, the living God, the God of the Bible,
is a consuming fire. Now, what a way to speak of the
Lord God. He is a consuming fire. Now, would you turn with me to
First Kings, Chapter 18? This is the story of Elijah. And fire coming down from heaven
and consuming the sacrifice. Verse 17, 1 Kings chapter 18, And it came to pass, when Ahab
saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth
Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled
Israel, but thou and thy father's house, and that ye have forsaken
the commandments of the Lord, and ye follow Balaam. Now, therefore,
send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets
of Baal 450, and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat
at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children
of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. I
love to picture this. You've got Elijah, and you've
got 850 false prophets. Verse 21, And Elijah came unto all the
people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not
a word. Then said Elijah unto the people,
I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord. But Baal's prophets
are 450 men. Let them therefore give us two
bullets, and let them choose one bullet for themselves, and
cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under
it. And I'll dress the other bullet, and lay it on wood, and
put no fire under it. And call ye on the name of your
gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. and the God
that answers by fire. Let him be God. And all the people answered and
said, It is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets
of Baal, Choose ye one bullet for yourselves, and dress it
first for your many, and call on the name of your God, but
put no fire under. And they took the bullock which
was given them, and they dressed it and called on the name of
Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any
that answered. And they leaped upon the altar
which was made. I can just see them dancing around
and leaping and trying to get their God's attention, a lot
like a lot of religious services that go on in our day. Verse 27, And it came to pass
at noon that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud, for he is
a god. Either he's talking or he is
pursuing. Somebody says, What's that mean?
It means perhaps he's going to the bathroom. That's exactly
what I mean. That's crude. That's what Elijah
said. That's what that word means. He was making fun of it. Is that
what he's doing? Or he's on a journey or adventure. He sleepeth and must be awake. And they cried aloud and cut
themselves after their manor with knives and lancets to the
blood gushed out on them. And it came to pass when midday
was passed, and they prophesied unto the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor
any to answer, nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the
people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near
unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken
down. And Elijah took twelve stones,
according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob,
unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be
thy name. And with the stones he built
an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the
altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he
put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid
him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and
pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. Douse it down.
Make it soaked. And he said, do it the second
time. And they did it the second time. And he said, do it the
third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran
round about the altar. And he filled the trench also
with water. It came to pass at the time of
the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came
near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be
known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am
thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy
word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that
thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart
back again." Then the fire of the Lord fell. and consumed the
burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and
licked up the water that was in the trench. Now, think of
all these people looking at this. It's soaked. The trench is filled
up with water. And all of a sudden, the fire
from heaven comes down and the stones are consumed, the water
is consumed, the sacrifice is consumed. There's nothing left. Can you imagine how they must
have felt when they saw that? There was nothing left because
our God is a consuming fire. And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, he is the
God, the Lord, he is the God. And Elijah said to them, take
the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they
took them and Elijah brought them down to the brook of Kishon
and slew them there. There was another time that the
fire of God came down and fell upon the sacrifice. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
nailed to that cross, the fire of God's wrath came down upon
him. But unlike Elijah, and his sacrifice. This time, the sacrifice consumed
the fire. God's fire came down upon him,
and he consumed it. You see, our Christ is a consuming
fire. And he consumed the wrath of
God to where now there is none left. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. He consumed the fire of God's
wrath. He drank it all dry. And now
for every believer, there is nothing but grace, nothing but
mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ is a consuming
fire. Yes, God the Father is a consuming
fire. But so is God the Son. And so
is God the Spirit. Let's pray together.