So, but look at Hebrews chapter 12 there.
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 18,
it says, for ye are not come unto the mounts
that might be touched and that burned with fire,
nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest.
And of course this is speaking about Mount Sinai
in the Old Testament when the Lord came before Israel
and he was on that mount, that mountain was on fire.
Okay, one thing we learn about God's presence,
he is a fire.
Look at verse number 29, Hebrews chapter 12 verse 29.
It says, for our God is a consuming fire.
Our God is a consuming fire.
And that is the title of the sermon this afternoon.
God is a consuming fire.
Now, when we think of fire,
I mean, you can think of it in two ways,
either as something negative, right, very destructive.
You know, we tend to put our attention
toward the fires that we had last year.
You know, I mean, we get bushfires every year,
basically, here in Australia, of course.
You know, our vegetation sort of needs it,
but just the destructive nature of fire.
And no matter how many firefighters
have sent across the nation,
even from other countries to help fight it,
they really can't really stop it.
They try to control it to some extent,
but if the forces of nature are contrary,
that fire's just gonna keep burning.
And the only real hope is that the Lord sends rain
and he, you know, cools the weather down,
things like that.
And so, you know, fire can be extremely destructive.
You know, it can be a negative in a sense, right?
And of course, when we consider God as a consuming fire
for the unbelieving world, for the wicked world,
you know, that's kind of negative, right?
To think about a God that can consume,
a God that can destroy.
Hey, but just like the bushfires in Australia,
they are necessary for our vegetation.
It gets rid of the old life
and also allows new life to develop from the ashes.
And so it is kind of necessary in our country
to have those fires from time to time.
And of course, fires, you know,
you wouldn't be able to operate your car
if not for fire, right?
The fact that your fuel is being consumed
allows us to have motor vehicles and things alike,
or just cooking, you know, cooking on the stove,
you require the heat, you require the fire
to cook your food.
And so fire is also very positive, isn't it?
You know, we can use positive if it's controlled,
if it's measured, if we are applying it
in the right place, fire is extremely beneficial
just for heat, for light, all of these two things.
And so when we consider that our God is a consuming fire,
I wanna make sure it's a fire
that can be used in a positive way, right?
I'm afraid to be, for the unbelieving world,
for the wicked world,
that we'll have to face the same fire
that I'm happy to deal with,
but they deal with it in a very negative sense.
Can you please now turn to Deuteronomy,
Deuteronomy chapter four, Deuteronomy chapter four.
And I just wanna show you how two other references
where God is a consuming fire, okay?
But it's a consuming fire for the believers,
for God's people, and it's also a fire
for the unbelieving world.
World, Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 22.
Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 22 says,
but I must die in this land,
I must not go over Jordan,
but ye shall go over and possess that good land.
So of course, that's Moses,
the fact that Moses was not permitted
to go into the promised land.
And then he says in verse 23,
take heed unto yourselves,
lest ye 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.
For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire,
even a jealous God.
So Moses is telling this to the children of Israel.
He's telling this to that nation,
to God's people, hey, here's a consuming fire.
Don't turn your back on God.
Don't go and set up idols and worship some false God.
Hey, he's going to consume you if he does that.
He is a jealous God, right?
And so we need to keep that in our mind.
He can be a consuming fire even to his own people.
Look at verse number 25.
When thou shalt beget children, and children's children,
and ye shall have remained long in the land,
and shall corrupt yourselves,
and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything,
and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God,
to provoke him to anger,
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,
that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land,
whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it,
ye shall not prolong your days upon it,
but shall utterly be destroyed.
Okay?
So we need to be mindful.
We love God's consuming fire,
but if we are wicked, we turn against him,
that same fire can even destroy his own people.
Okay, now I'm not talking about hell fire.
I'm just talking about judgment
and destruction upon this earth, okay?
The Lord can chastise you in a serious manner
if you turn against the Lord.
Now go to chapter nine, same book.
Go to, do you know what I mean, chapter nine?
Please?
So we saw how God can be a consuming fire
to his own people.
But chapter nine, verse number one, it says here,
Hear, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this days,
okay, so this is the same idea,
they're going into the promised land,
and go into possess nations greater and mightier
than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven.
So it's talking about now the Canaanites,
the unbelievers, the people that worship false gods,
right?
Verse number two, a people great and tall,
the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest
and of whom thou hast heard say,
who can stand before the children of Anak.
Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God
is he which 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 have said unto thee.
Okay, so hey, this is when the consuming fire
is on your side, and that same consuming fire
can destroy the wicked, okay,
can destroy those that are against you, right?
And so we can love the fact
that God is a consuming fire,
that whatever God wills for our life,
to live Godly, to live righteously,
if there are people that are trying to stop us,
if there are people that hate God
and not want us to worship God,
that God can be a consuming fire to destroy them, okay?
But don't forget, he's also a consuming fire
if you turn your back against the Lord, okay?
And so we can see that this fire of God,
this consuming fire can be to his people,
or it can be toward the wicked, all right?
One way or another, that fire you can't ignore,
you can't escape, okay?
That fire will have a work either in your life,
but also in the life of the unbelieving world, okay?
And so I've got six points here,
how our God is a consuming fire, okay?
In our daily life, in our Christian life,
in what sense is God a consuming fire?
Well, if you can please now go to chapter 33,
you don't meet chapter 33,
and while you're turning there,
I'm going to read to you from Jeremiah 23, 29,
because point number one is God's word is a fire, okay?
God's word, the Bible that you're holding
your hands today is a fire.
In Jeremiah 23, verse 29, it says,
is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord,
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
You know the word of God, the Bible,
is like as a fire, okay?
Look at Jeremiah chapter 33, verse one.
Jeremiah chapter 33, verse one,
in what sense is it a fire?
Look at verse number one.
And this is the blessing where with Moses,
the man of God blessed the children of Israel
before his death.
And he said, the Lord came from Sinai
and rose up from Seir unto them.
He shined forth from Mount Paran,
and he came with 10,000 of saints,
now look at this, from his right hand
went a fiery law for them.
Yea, he loved the people.
All his saints are in thy hand,
and they sat down at thy feet.
Everyone shall receive of thy words, okay?
So the words of God is a fire,
and as God passed his commandments,
you know the 10 commandments and his law,
it says that out of his right hand
went a fiery law for them.
So in what sense is the word of God like fire?
The fact that it just burns sin, okay?
That God tells us this is how
you are to live your life,
and when you say, when you come to the Bible,
and you realize, man, I come short of God's standards,
I come short of God's commands,
and what he wants me to live in my life,
hey, that ought to be a fire that burns in your life,
and gets rid of the inconsistencies,
whether it's sins that you're practicing,
whether it's your philosophies and your thoughts of life
that are not compatible with the word of God,
you have to allow the fire of God's word to burn away
whatever it is that you thought you once believed
or what you once knew,
and come and understand the true word of God, okay?
It's to set us right, okay?
Just like a fire burns away the fuel or the dross
or whatever it is,
so too the word of God as a fire
should destroy or burn the sins,
the iniquities that we have in our life.
It ought to change you.
It's the only book, it's the only thing
that can change you from a wicked ungodly person
to someone that is living righteously for God.
You're not gonna be able to get that
from your self-help books
and your philosophers and your life motivational coaches.
It's, you need the fire of God's word, okay,
to change your life, okay?
And this leads into my next point, leads into my next point.
If you go to Jeremiah now, go to Jeremiah chapter five,
because if God's word is a fire
and we can all access that fire, okay,
to burn away the problems that we have in our life,
well, what about preaching, okay?
Because preaching ought to be,
ought to be the preaching of God's word.
It ought to, you know, when I come before you
or any preacher comes before you,
it ought to be the word of God
that is being proclaimed to the people, okay?
And so the second fire that I have here
is the fire of preaching, okay?
Now we have some friends in the United States
where they've got a red hot preaching conference.
What's red hot about it?
It's supposed to be the preaching.
The preaching is meant to be a fire, okay?
Where does that come from?
Jeremiah chapter five.
Now the book of Jeremiah tells us a lot
as to how we ought to preach.
It gives us a lot of instruction and guidance
how a preacher ought to be,
but in Jeremiah chapter five verse 12,
it says, they have belied the Lord and said,
it is not he, he, neither shall evil come upon us,
neither shall we see sword nor famine, okay?
Now there are some people, some preachers
that are basically, hey, it's all gonna be good,
you're gonna live a great life,
you're not gonna go through problems, okay?
You'll be taken away before God,
you know, God allows any problems to come in your life
and it's all good, it's all positive.
Hey, that's what the people want.
They don't want any to consider
that evil come into their life, right?
Let's keep going, verse number 13.
And the prophets shall become wind
and the word is not in them,
thus shall it be done unto them, okay?
And so this is sad when you come to church
and the preacher gets up
and he's not using the word of God,
the Bible says they become like wind.
It just, it's gone.
It has no substance, okay?
It just passes through.
Look at verse number 14.
Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts,
because ye speak this word,
behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, okay?
And this people would and it shall devour them.
Boy, you know what, preachers,
you get up to preach,
you wanna use the fire of God's word,
you know what, God wants to make your mouth fire.
He wants to make you devour, okay?
Devour the wickedness,
you know, devour the inconsistencies
that people are living contrary to his word.
That ought to be the effect of your preaching, okay?
So think about that.
You know, God wants to light your mouth on fire, okay?
Go to chapter 20, Jeremiah chapter 20, verse seven.
You know what?
You replace God's word with jokes.
You replace God's word with stories of men
that you don't even know.
It's not, you put the fire out, okay?
It's gotta come from God's word.
Everything we preach and say
should come from God's word as a preacher.
Jeremiah chapter 20, verse number seven.
It says, and this is a time
where Jeremiah's a bit low in his life,
a little bit down spiritually, okay?
He says, oh Lord, thou hast deceived me,
and I was deceived, thou art stronger than I,
and has prevailed, I am in derision daily,
everyone mocketh me.
So Jeremiah's a prophet of God, right?
He's trying to serve God faithfully,
he's preaching his word, and he gets discouraged.
He goes, man, you know, every day I'm in derision.
Every day someone's mocking me
for being a bar believer, for preaching God's word.
So he starts to get a bit discouraged, Jeremiah, right?
Look at verse number eight.
For since I spake, I cried out,
I cried violence and spoil,
because the word of the Lord
was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily.
So he's like a different preacher.
He's preaching damnation, he's preaching,
you know what, God's gonna judge us
if we don't get right with God.
People are laughing at him, people are mocking him.
He said, is this worth it?
Is it worth going every day
being mocked for the things the Bible says?
Look at verse number nine.
Then I said, I will not make mention of him,
nor speak any more in his name.
He quits, right?
He gets to a point, he says, I'm done.
You know, let's say me as a pastor,
you know, I just ring you guys up on a Monday,
guys, I'm done, right?
I quit.
I can't stand the mocking.
I can't stand that the world laughs at the word of,
I just can't handle it, brethren.
And of course, things would have been worse for Jeremiah,
and to have an entire nation kind of mocking him
and making fun of the Bible.
He's done, he quits, right?
For a little period, for a very brief period, right?
Then he says this,
but his word was in my heart as a burning fire
shut up in my bones.
And I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay.
So he quits for half a verse, okay?
And he goes, but the fire's too much,
I've got to get it out.
I can't stop, okay?
I've got to keep preaching God's word
even though I'm being mocked every day.
And brethren, that's the preacher.
If you're getting up to preach, your words,
your preaching should be like a fire.
It's coming from the word of God.
And even when you think about quitting,
you know what's gonna happen inside of you?
You know, it's probably right now.
I used to, a lot of you guys were preaching
on a regular basis and I've sort of taken over it for now
because we're heading down for 12 months.
I'm sure some of you are kind of just edgy.
I can't wait to preach.
I can't wait to get out there.
You know, when we stopped soul winning for a few weeks,
you know, I couldn't wait to just get back out there
and knock doors.
You know, the first Sunday that we went out,
knocking doors up for the, you know,
when we were sort of allowed to get back out there,
you know, so many of you guys said,
oh, it's so good to get out there.
Yeah, you had a fire in your bones, right?
You had a fire that had to come out.
And of course we talk about preaching,
but you know, when you go door to door,
you're also preaching.
You're also, you've got a fire
that destroys false doctrine,
that destroys a false religion,
the false gospels that are out there,
the things that people are trusted in,
their works or their church,
whatever it is that they trust in to go to heaven.
And you're trying to show them
that salvation is by grace through faith alone
on the finished work of God.
Hey, that's a fire.
It burns, okay?
That's why people reject it.
They don't like being burnt.
And some people receive it.
They don't mind being consumed.
They don't mind their pride being consumed
and say, well, I need to come before God humbly
and accept the gift of salvation.
So there's a fire when we come and preach God's word.
Okay?
And this of course manifests itself
in a very physical way.
A couple of times in the Bible,
the first time is, I won't go to the reference,
but in Acts chapter two, you know,
when the, on the day of Pentecost,
when the disciples are all gathered together
and the Holy Ghost gives them boldness
and they have a cloven tongues of fire upon them.
Okay?
And that fire is, you know,
represents the fact that the Holy Ghost has empowered
them, has, you know,
they were able to speak in tongues in other languages,
and they were able to go out and preach the gospel
to all the people that were gathered
on the feast of Pentecost to be, you know,
from different nations, from different languages.
And they were able to be bold and going out
and preaching the gospel and, you know,
the gospel was being heard in all these other languages.
You know, God was able to fill them
and make them powerful.
Hey, they had the power of the fire of God
on this side.
Okay?
They were preaching the gospel.
But if you can now go to Revelation for me,
Revelation 11.
So that's a bit of a, you know,
you get a bit of a physical sense of that fire,
that cloven fire that came upon those disciples,
but even more so, even more literal,
even more physical in the sense is in the book
of Revelation chapter 11, verse number three,
you guys probably know where I'm going with this,
but we have the two witnesses that come on the scene
during the final seven year period.
And it says in verse number three,
and I will give them, these are the two witnesses,
power unto my two witnesses,
and they shall prophesy 1,203 school days,
clothed in takoff.
That's three and a half years,
the second three and a half years.
Verse number four, these are the two olive trees
and the two candlesticks standing before the God
of the earth, and if any man will hurt them,
fire proceedeth out of their mouth
and devoureth their enemies.
And if any man will hurt them,
he must in this manner be killed.
Listen, the same thing was said about Jeremiah.
They're gonna have this fire in their mouth
and you're gonna be able to devour the people, okay?
Now that's not a physical sense, right?
Just a word of God, the fact that it would devour,
like I said, the sin and stuff like that,
but in a very physical sense here,
these two witnesses in these last days,
when they preach, anyone that tries to stop them,
hurt them, prevent them, literal fire is gonna come
out of their mouth, okay, and consume the enemies
that are trying to stop them, okay?
What an amazing thing that the preaching of God's word
is considered from God's perspective as a fire, okay?
Let's get to the third fire now.
If you can please go to, let's go to 2 Kings.
Go to 2 Kings, chapter six.
2 Kings, chapter six, verse 13.
So we have an army here from ancient Aram.
I think that's Syria today, I might be mistaken,
but this army from Aram's coming to capture Elisha,
the prophet, okay, because the king knows
that Elisha can foretell the future,
that God's given a helping hand to the Israelites.
Look at verse number 13.
It says, and he said, go and spy where he is,
that I may send and fetch him, and it was told him,
saying, behold, he is in Dotham.
Therefore sent he hither horses and chariots
and a great host, and they came by night
and can pass the city about.
So they're trying to get Elisha, verse number 14,
sorry, 15.
And when the servant of the man of God was risen early
and gone forth, behold, and host come past the city,
both with horses and chariots,
and his servant said unto him,
alas, my master, how shall we do?
Okay, so the servant of Elisha is like,
Master Elisha, we're surrounded.
There's an entire army here coming after us.
What are we gonna do?
Okay, verse number 16, and he answered,
fear not, for they that be with us
are more than they that be with them.
Okay, what's he talking about?
Verse number 17, and Elisha prayed and said,
Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes,
that's the servant's eyes, that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man,
and he saw and behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariots.
Now these are not the horses and chariots
of the army of Aram,
full of horses and chariots of fire
round about Elisha.
Could you imagine if you just opened your eyes,
somehow God gave you a spiritual awakening,
where you could see the spiritual realm,
and you could see across this church, hopefully,
all these horses, all these chariots,
and they're on fire, okay?
They're on fire.
What is going on there, right?
It's God's protection.
Verse number 18, and when they came down to him,
Elisha prayed unto the Lord,
and said, smite his people,
I pray thee with blindness,
and he smote them with blindness,
according to the word of Elisha.
And so the next point, point number three,
is that God has the fires of protection.
Fires of protection.
You know, God is a consuming fire,
and that same fire can protect you,
can keep you, okay?
And I know I've preached on this before,
but it's important for us to remember,
we cannot see the spiritual realm.
I don't know if one day,
God will open our eyes supernaturally on this earth.
Probably not, because God wants us
to operate out of faith, okay?
And in this sense, the servant here was lacking faith.
He didn't know what was gonna happen.
Elisha knew, Elisha knew he was protected.
Now, I don't believe Elisha could see these horses.
I think it was just something special
given to the servant, okay?
For him to see this.
But listen, there's an army.
God has an army, okay?
Spiritual army, an angelic army of chariots of fire.
You know, they can just blind an entire army,
if they want, okay?
They've got that power from God to do amazing things.
And I sometimes just consider, you know,
in my life, just how often that army,
that army of God of fire was around to protect me,
or protect my family, or protect this church, protect you.
And we don't even know, we don't know how many times
that army has stepped in and defeated our enemies
before they've even, probably even come close to us, okay?
How they protected us, and we don't even know.
We just had faith, God, you're gonna see us through.
You're gonna help us.
And somewhere in that spiritual realm,
those chariots of, and horses and chariots of fire
were just rolling around, destroying the wicked one,
you know?
This is biblical stuff, you know,
that this stuff happens, right?
And so, there are the fires of protection.
Now go to Exodus 14, please, Exodus 14.
The fires of protection.
There's another really famous story
about the fires of protection of God.
And better, you know, better that fire protecting me
than being on the opposite end of that fire, right?
And receiving the pain and the hurt
that might come from that flame of God.
But Exodus 14, verse 21, of course,
the story of Israel coming out of the land of Egypt,
and they go to the Red Sea, right?
And so-called, they think they're at a dead end.
And then Pharaoh, again, another army,
another worldly army, sends his armies,
sends his chariots, sends his horses
to go and recapture the Israelites
that came out of Egypt.
And in Exodus 14, verse 21, it reads,
and Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
and the Lord caused the sea to go back
by a strong east wind all the night
and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
So this is how they're able to pass through the Red Sea.
Verse number 22, and the children of Israel
went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground,
and the waters were a wall unto them
on their right hand and on their left,
and the Egyptians pursued and went in after them
to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses,
his chariots, and his horsemen.
And notice verse 24, it says, and it came to pass
that in the morning watch, the Lord looked upon,
so unto the host of the Egyptians
through the pillar of fire, the pillar of fire,
and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians.
I'll just keep reading, verse number 25,
and took off their chariot wheels,
and they draped them heavily so that the Egyptians said,
let us flee from the face of Israel
for the Lord Fighter, for them, against the Egyptians.
The Egyptians realized God's fighting for the Israelites.
Let's get out of here.
What was going on in this time?
Of course, when Israel were being led out of Egypt,
well, God's presence was there.
You know, during the day, there was a pillar,
and you know, a pillar is something
that stands upright, of course, right?
There was a pillar of cloud.
It's not like just a cloud that's over them,
but a pillar standing up basically from the earth
all the way into the sky,
a pillar of cloud during the day,
and a pillar of fire at night, okay?
A pillar of fire.
And God used that same pillar,
whether that's himself, a representation of himself,
his presence, I don't fully understand,
something supernatural took place there,
and God used that same fire
to discourage, or to frighten off the Egyptians, okay?
And so we see that the fires of God's protection
was helping Israel as they were passing through
the Red Sea.
Now that's a scary thing, right?
You confront, you're at a dead end.
There's no way forward, you think, right?
It's impossible to proceed.
There's a sea here.
God opens up.
There's dry land.
You think, well, do I take a step?
What if the water's closed down on me, right?
But sometimes you just need that step of faith
to step forward, and they did.
And at the same time, God was still,
even though it was a scary time to pass through that sea,
God was protecting them with that pillar of fire,
you know, against their enemies.
And so brethren, you know, we all need protection.
We need God's hand to protect us, okay?
And he can use that same fire,
the consuming fire that he is, to look after us.
Now please go to Exodus 13, you're in chapter 14.
Please go to Exodus 13,
just continuing this thought of the pillar of fire.
You know, not only did God use that fire
to protect the Israelites,
but there was a purpose for that pillar of fire
in Exodus 13, verse 21.
Exodus 13, verse 21.
So the next point that I have here
is the fire in the night, the fire in the night.
It says in verse number 21,
and the Lord went before them by the day
in a pillar of a cloud and led them the way,
and by night in a pillar of fire, what's it for?
To give them light, to go by day and night.
Verse number 22,
he took not away the pillar of the cloud by day,
nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
Okay, and so what is the purpose
of the pillar of cloud and of fire?
To lead the Israelites, okay?
Now during the day, they didn't need the lights.
They have the sunlight, of course,
and it was just a pillar of cloud, all right?
And probably out in the wilderness,
I think the cloud was probably protecting them
from the harsh sun, okay?
And then at night, you've got the pillar of fire,
which the purpose was to give them light
so they can continue in their journey
even in the midst of darkness,
and probably very cold in the wilderness at night.
That fire probably gave some level of warmth as well, okay?
But the point is that God is a fire in the night, okay?
In a time of darkness,
no matter how wicked this world can become,
how dark this world can become,
guess what?
We have the Lord God as a fire
to shine a light in this place
so we know what to do.
We know how to live our lives, right?
In the midst of this pandemic, we don't need to panic.
We don't need to worry.
We don't need to go,
well, what's the future gonna hold?
Say, God, you're a light, you're a fire.
I need your light.
I need your light, you know,
especially in a time of darkness.
And Brevin, I'm not overly concerned about the pandemic.
I'm not like, what's gonna happen?
You know, is the world gonna end or what?
I don't know, I don't care.
You know what?
I've got God's word, which is a fire, hasn't changed.
We've got God's presence, the Holy Spirit,
indwells every believer.
You know what?
And he's gonna be the light in the time of darkness.
And personally, you know, what happens when,
you know, the light shines brighter when it's dark, right?
The light shines brighter.
You know, when things get extremely wicked at nights,
we're gonna see a greater presence of God in our lives.
You know, I think the pillar of cloud
was pretty impressive,
but I think even more impressive was the pillar of fire,
you know, in the middle of the night,
you know, shining forth and giving direction.
That's what's beautiful about being a Christian,
a Bob-believing Christian,
is that we know what to do.
You know, if, if, as long as we listen to good preaching,
as long as we pick up our Bibles, we have clear direction,
and it's not complicated.
Jesus says, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
You know, it's not that complicated to live for God,
to, you know, sing his praises in church,
to live in accordance to his commandments,
to preach the gospel to the lost,
and go about, you know, and living your life
and being, you know, loving your family,
men loving your wives, loving your husbands,
children obeying your parents,
you know, being a good employee,
working hard for the Lord, working hard for the boss.
I mean, the Christian life is not complicated.
It's not like, well, in this, in this scenario,
things all of a sudden change.
Now, you know what?
It doesn't matter how difficult things get.
Proclaiming God's word remains consistent.
Winning souls remains consistent.
Nothing changes on the agenda of God.
That's what I love about God.
He's stable, you know, and he shines in the darkness.
Look at, look at, sorry, Genesis, please.
Go to Genesis chapter one.
Genesis chapter one.
Speaking about the light that the fire gave,
and, you know, I love Genesis one, one specifically,
just for something that I love about God, right?
In Genesis one, one, it says,
in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,
and the earth was without form and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep,
and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the water.
So we see at the very beginning, it's dark.
There's darkness, right?
Darkness upon the face of the deep, verse number three,
and God said, let there be light, and there was light.
Verse number four, and God saw the light,
and he was good, and God divided the light
from the darkness, and God called the light day,
and the darkness he called night,
and the evening and the morning were the first day.
You know what I love about God,
what I love about the Bible?
There's a distinction between light and darkness.
You know, our God is not a confusing God.
It's not like we live in this gray area,
where I don't know what to do,
I don't know, is God happy with this,
is God happy with that?
Listen, the Bible's black and white, okay?
Just like light is divided from the darkness,
just like day is different to the night,
you know, when it comes to God, it's not confusing, okay?
We live in accordance to God's word,
he is the light, it shines during this dark world,
and we don't need to be confounded,
we don't need to be tossed to and fro
with every wind of doctrine,
of whatever is that's going on in this world.
You know, we used to believe abortion was wrong,
but maybe now it's all right, okay.
You know, we don't have that crazy idea.
You know, I went door to door,
so I can't remember who I was with,
I think it was Brother Michael.
And you know, we knocked on an elderly man's door,
and you know, I started to explain,
we're from New Life Baptist Church,
and he said to me, well, I can't believe in a God,
because why do so many children suffer in this world?
You know, why do so many children die?
And you know, I've learned how to respond to that now,
because I've had it so many times,
I learned how to respond.
So my response was, oh, so you're against abortion,
like I am, praise God, you know,
you must be against abortion then.
And he's like, oh, actually, no, you know,
no, well, abortion can be okay.
No, no, but I said to him, no, no,
but you just told me that you can't believe in God,
because, you know, you can't, you know,
just seeing children die and suffer is too much.
You know, so I assume you must be against abortion.
And he said, well, I guess, you know, yeah,
there's too much abortions going on,
but you know, there are times when abortion can be right,
you know, when women are allowed to choose.
So I said, okay, so you're telling me
that you can't believe in God,
because you don't like children suffer,
but in some cases, it's good for children
to die and suffer.
Then what's the problem?
Because what I wanted him to admit
was not that I can't believe in God because children suffer,
I want him to understand, mankind are sinners, okay?
Man is killing babies in mothers' wombs,
and you're worried about God?
It's man doing these wicked things.
It's man who sins.
It's man who makes children suffer, okay?
That's why we're sinners and we need a savior.
That's why I was trying to lead him eventually, okay?
But he couldn't, you know,
he was trying to find a reason not to believe in God,
but he also was pro-abortion.
How does that make sense?
That's great, you know?
The Bible's black and white, light and darkness,
and the preacher's job is to differentiate
between what is right and what is wrong, okay?
And according to God's word, clear distinction.
In Isaiah chapter five verse 20,
it says, woe unto them that call evil good
and good evil, that put darkness for light
and light for darkness and put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter, you know?
And Jesus says in John chapter eight verse 12,
then spake Jesus again unto them saying,
I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life.
Praise God, we don't have to walk in darkness anymore.
Since you put your faith on Jesus Christ,
the finished work of Calvary, you know,
and you put your faith and trust in him,
his death, burial and resurrection,
then you can be someone that no longer
has to walk in darkness.
You become a disciple, a follower of Jesus,
you live in accordance to his commandments,
you can always be able to differentiate
between what is light, dark, what is evil
and what is good, right?
There's a clear distinction.
That's what the fires of God allow us to do,
you know, the fire, the consuming fire of God
allows us to differentiate between right and wrong.
This world does not know what is right and wrong.
They keep flipping it around.
They got no idea.
They got no idea, okay?
Can you please now turn to 1 Corinthians chapter three?
1 Corinthians chapter three.
And the last one, which is I guess
the most obvious type of fire, consuming fire that God is,
you know, I'm thinking here point number five
on the fires of judgment, okay?
The fires of judgment.
And you know, we tend to think about the wicked,
you know, and the fact that there's a hell,
there's a lake of fire.
I'll get to that eventually, but you know what?
There's a fire that we also will experience, you know,
when we're judged before Jesus Christ.
And again, you know, either that fire
can be used for positive things or for negative things.
And this fire for us will be a very positive thing though.
And in 1 Corinthians chapter three, verse 11,
1 Corinthians chapter three, verse 11,
this is speaking of the fire of judgment to believers.
Okay?
All of us, all of us will stand before Jesus Christ,
okay, and be judged, okay?
All believers, if you're saved, will be judged by Jesus,
not for our sins, praise God,
but for what we've done for him, okay?
The works that we've done in this life.
And in 1 Corinthians chapter three, verse 11,
it says, for other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ, okay?
Now, let me just quickly say
that salvation is built on one foundation.
That foundation is Jesus Christ.
You cannot mix faith in Jesus and good works.
That is not the foundation.
You know, it's not faith in Jesus and my local church.
It's not even faith in Jesus
and faith at New Life Baptist Church, okay?
This church is not gonna get you to heaven.
It's not faith in Jesus and my baptism.
What, it's not gonna get you to heaven, okay?
You need the blood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus did it all, okay?
He paid for all of our sins,
and if he's paid for it all,
you don't have to pay for anything.
It's a free gift, the Bible calls it, okay?
The foundation of Jesus Christ.
Now, let's pretend right now that this area here
is the foundation of Christ, okay?
This is Christ, we place our faith on Christ.
Amen, we're saved, we're going to heaven
because of his death, burial, and resurrection.
Well now, now that we have the foundation,
it says in verse number 12,
now if any man build upon this foundation
gold, silver, precious stones, okay?
So I'm gonna make my keys.
My keys represent,
because one's kind of gold and one's kind of silver.
That represents the gold, silver, and precious stones
built on the foundation.
Now this is not my foundation, okay?
The good works, the gold and the silver works
that I've done is not my foundation,
but it's gonna be built on the foundation of Jesus,
all right?
And then it says wood, hay, and stubble.
So we'll just make this plastic cup
because it can deteriorate or whatever.
That's the wood, hay, and stubble, right?
So there are some wood and hay, hay, and stubble things.
There are some things you're doing in your life
that have no eternal value, okay?
We're just gonna put it there
on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
And that's what's gonna happen.
You're gonna come before Jesus and show him your works.
Hopefully you got a lot of these, hopefully, right?
And not too much of that.
There's gonna be some of that,
but hopefully it's not too much, okay?
And then verse number 13.
Every man's work shall be made manifest.
For the day shall declare it, look at this,
because it shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every man's work
of what sort it is.
And so God will send a fire
to the works that you bring before him.
And listen, that plastic cup, the wood, hay, and stubble,
what's gonna happen during the fire?
That's gonna melt away, it's gonna be destroyed.
All right, I better be careful, there's still water in there.
That's gonna be destroyed.
Hey, but the gold, the silver, the precious stones,
when it passes through the fire,
all the fire does is make it more pure,
purified even more so, okay?
And so that will remain on the foundation
that we've laid on Jesus Christ, okay?
So we will be judged by fire.
Verse number 14.
If any man's work abide, so that's this one,
which he have built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward, okay?
And so whatever's left on the foundation
after the fire passes through,
you're gonna be rewarded
for the works you've done for Jesus, amen?
Okay, not because you're trusting that
to get you to heaven,
but because you've used the foundation of Christ
to build those works that you've done for him, okay?
Look at verse number 15.
If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss.
So oh man, he loses his salvation.
No, okay, what loss did he lose?
That one, okay?
Now listen, you can get saved.
You can have the foundation of Jesus Christ, right?
And if someone just doesn't live for Jesus Christ,
he probably has a lot of this going on, right?
The plastic, there's the wooden pencil,
he's built all this stuff, right?
The fire passes through, it's all burnt.
What does he lose?
Well, remember, if the precious metals remained,
he gets a reward.
But if there's nothing there, it all gets burnt up.
Well, he has lost because he gets no reward, okay?
No reward, there's nothing eternal of value
in that person's life.
Now some people will say,
well, see, that proves that he was never saved.
Look, there's nothing left, they'll say.
That's, no, what's the foundation?
Jesus Christ is the foundation.
Even if all your works get burnt,
you've got the foundation.
Look at verse, let's read verse number 15 again.
If any man's work shall be burnt,
there it is, all burnt, nothing left, all right?
Which he have built thereupon, oh sorry, burnt.
He shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved.
So he doesn't lose his salvation
just because he doesn't have the works, okay?
Why is he saved?
Yet so as by fire.
The fire, even though it's burnt all that dross,
all that waste, the fire reveals the foundation, okay?
So all that's left for that man,
even though it's all gone,
he doesn't get any rewards from God,
all that's left is the foundation of Jesus Christ, amen.
Okay, that's all we need, brethren, to go to heaven.
To build our foundation on Jesus Christ.
Make sure your foundation is not Jesus plus baptism.
There's a bit of water there.
That's not the foundation.
Not foundation plus my good works.
That's not the foundation.
The foundation is Jesus Christ and we build on that, okay?
And so the fires of judgment is gonna reveal
whether we have that foundation
and hopefully we have some additional things
on top of that foundation, all right?
Some gold, silver, precious stones
that the Lord Jesus Christ will reward us.
And so we have the fires of judgment.
Please go to Revelation chapter 20 now.
So we do have to look at the unbelievers,
which is the saddest part of all.
And yet it is just, okay?
It is righteous because our God is a just
and righteous God to those that reject Jesus Christ.
I mean, we don't even need to look at Revelation really.
I mean, we can just look at an example
in the book of Genesis where God sent his fire,
fire and brimstone to destroy entire cities, all right?
I'll just read it to you.
Genesis 19, 24, while you go to Revelation 20.
Genesis 19, 24, and the Lord rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire
from the Lord out of heaven.
You know what?
God was so angered at these cities.
He didn't even wait for them to die and go to hell.
He sent hell upon those cities immediately.
The fire and brimstone, the consuming fire,
he destroyed the wickedness of that city.
What was the wickedness?
Homosexuality.
The LGBT agenda was throughout Sodom and Gomorrah, okay?
What's happening to our world today?
It's exactly what's happening.
I don't know how long God's wrath
is gonna stay off this land, okay?
Maybe it's already started.
I don't know, okay?
One thing we definitely know though is at the end of times
when the Lord opens up the seven trumpets
and the seven vile judgments are poured out,
his wrath will burn a fierce heat upon this earth.
Just a sample of his hell fire for all eternity.
You're in Revelation 20 verse 11.
Revelation chapter 20 verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it
from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away
and there was found no place for them.
Now this is not our judgment.
This is the judgment for the unbelievers
because look at verse number 12.
And I saw the dead, okay?
Now listen, if you're saved, you can never die, okay?
Now this body will die, okay?
But when you believe on Christ,
you've been given everlasting what?
Life, life, everlasting life.
That means you will never truly die.
When the unbelievers body stops working
and it's in the grave, Jesus is just asleep, okay?
Because we know that that body will one day
be resurrected a new glorious body
like the body of Christ and the soul and the spirit,
you know what, will be with the Lord God in heaven.
So we never truly die as believers, right?
But these are the dead that stand before God, okay?
So this is the unbelievers, small and great,
stand before God and the books were opened
and another book was opened, which is the book of life
and the dead were judged out of those things
which were written in the books according to their works.
Okay, so they haven't got the foundation of Jesus.
They've just got their filthy rags of works, all right,
that have been presented.
Verse number 13, and the sea gave up the dead
which were in it and death and hell
delivered up the dead which were in them.
So you can see people are coming out of hell, okay?
And of course, you can only go to hell
if you're an unbeliever, right?
Which were in them and they were judged,
every man according to their works.
Verse number 14, and death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
That's a scary thought.
Imagine dying twice, you know?
Yeah, we may experience a death of the physical body,
but as I said, we're never truly gonna die.
In fact, we're gonna be more alive than ever
when that body's gone, you know,
that flesh, that sinful carnal flesh of ours is gone,
but these people are gonna experience a second death.
Verse number 15, and whosoever was not found
written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.
You know what?
God's fire, God's consuming fire,
God's wrath, God's judgment,
in upon those that rejected Jesus.
You know, if you were here for the morning service,
you just remember the sacrifice of Christ.
You know, how much God loved this world
to give his only begotten son,
and how much his son suffered for us, okay?
And listen, he suffered to the point
where even the Father had to forsake his own son, right?
And then you can start to process and understand,
well, those that spit, you know, on Jesus Christ,
those that blaspheme Christ,
those that reject the free gift of salvation,
those that think they can,
oh, my works are good enough to get to heaven,
you can understand God's justice, his righteousness,
and say, look, I made your way to heaven possible.
It was a free gift.
You know, I sent preachers
with the fires coming from their mouth
to expose the false gospel that you were trusting in.
You know, God sends missionaries and people,
you know, God does everything he can
to help people come to Jesus Christ.
They still reject, I'll be right, mate.
I'll worry about that when I get there.
It's too late then.
You'll be standing before God,
judged at this great white throne judgment,
and cast into the lake of fire.
And so God is a consuming fire, you know?
Let me just go through those points one more time.
Hey, I hope he's a consuming fire
in a positive sense for us.
Okay, that's right.
I want God's fire to pass through on the day of judgment.
Hopefully there's some gold, silver, and precious stones,
right, and then I can get that reward.
Praise God for the fire, right?
Just purified it even more.
Got rid of the stuff that wasn't eternal.
But the six points was, you know, God's word is a fire.
Number two, the preaching of God's word is fire,
fire from your mouth.
You know, God has the fires of protection
to look after us, point number three.
Point number four, God is a fire in the night, okay?
He will shine the light in darkness.
And number five, the fires of judgment, you know?
God's fires of judgment.
So our God is a consuming fire, you know?
Fire can be positive.
And you know what, if you're a believer,
if you choose to live for the Lord,
you know, choose to live in accordance with his word,
you know, the fire of God's gonna look after you.
It's going to empower you.
It's gonna give you the boldness to preach his word,
you know, see people saved.
You know, the fire of God is an amazing thing.
And I hope, you know, you utilize the fire
that God wants to give you in your life.
Okay, let's pray.