Bowing Before A Consuming Fire

Receiving the grace of God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is very simple and requires faith alone. However, the grace of God and the gospel of grace is the easiest thing in the universe to dilute, compromise, and change into nothing more than religious candy. All over this world the name of Jesus is being used to promote false gospels that provides false comfort to millions of church goers who only desire a false sense of eternal security, but in reality want nothing to do with the genuine and authentic Jesus.
Heb.12:25-29 - See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Here we have the Spirit revealing an aspect of God that draws little attention today and is very unpleasant to the natural man. This is not the facet of Almighty God that draws crowds or builds large churches. In fact, this revelation of Almighty God is no longer believed because lying tongues preach a false Jesus and a false Jesus. And as the end approaches, the caricatures become more and more detached from the revelations of God and Christ in the written Word.
And those of us who see these things and write and speak that which we have seen, are often unsettled about what we believe we see. “How can these things be, Lord,” we ask. "Perhaps I am being too harsh; perhaps I am letting my emotions get the best of me; perhaps I should tone it down a little". These thoughts and demonic taunts are ever with us, and we would surely give in to them were it not for the power of God’s Spirit as well as the deep humility we feel since we ourselves are deeply convicted while we speak and write. God forbid we ever give the impression that we speak from some lofty mountain top and that we speak from the well of self righteousness.
No, a thousand times no! How may times have we wept over our own sin even while we speak? Oh that I might be more like Jesus, but regardless of my own journey, I cannot remain silent about what the Spirit reveals. We who speak such things have received them by God’s grace and not our own intellect and superior insight. In His grace we not only stand, but in His grace we live. And in the midst of the onslaught of apostasy, we speak with trembling lips and broken hearts, and many, many times we feel so inadequate. Why would God use such an one as I? Surely He could find others much more gifted that I.
But we cannot refuse His call even if we do not understand His choice. Millions upon millions upon millions of professing believers are headed to a lost eternity even while wrapped inside the garments of the religion called Christianity. The pulpits have become as wind and the preachers as the Pied Pipers from hell. You would not think that too harsh if God would allow you one second in hell and one second before the Risen Christ! And if God granted us all those two seconds, would we not return to earth as mad men and lunatics in the eyes of the world?
This is no lighthearted game. Consider for one unguarded moment that the church has so violently veered off course that she no longer knows or preaches the True and Living Christ. Most of the baptisms, most of the church memberships, most of the communion services, most of the worship experiences, all of them are creations of the fallen religious mind. And if that is so, then we are undone and the situation is extremely dire. But still the outward religious construct goes on with vigor, activity, and a monstrous nexus of self centeredness. In short, the entire structure is hollow and nothing more than religious window dressing along the corridor to hell.
Can it be that bad? It is worse. Do you think that God will not avenge those who put His Son to an open shame? Should a Holy God look the other way when the church doesn’t just live a life that satisfies their own flesh, but also preaches that kind of life is what God desires? We cannot imagine the weight of God’s wrath when that day arrives. To be uncovered when Jesus comes in flaming fire is unthinkable. And on that day millions upon millions upon millions will suddenly realize they have lost everything. And once it begins there is no stopping it and no second chances. The day has come and woe to those who stand before Him while still in their sin.
Well, you ask, what makes you so perfect. What do you have that will impress God? Nothing! And that is the very point. We who speak these awful things offer nothing unto God except the blood of His Son. Like Paul, there is no good thing within us except the Spirit of God. We have faith but still we tremble. We love God but still we tremble. We have the Spirit but still we tremble. We have been saved but still we tremble. We have confidence in Christ but still we tremble. Do you still not see it?
If you do not tremble then you have not known Him. Yes, we love and adore Him; yes we enjoy the intimacy He gives us by His grace; yes, He walks with us and gives us assurance; yes, He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. But STILL WE TREMBLE!! No flesh can stand upright in His presence. And to all you false preachers and followers of the diabolical falsehoods, you will one day stand before Him and tremble. And on that day you will wish you had just five more minutes to repent, but it will be too late.
Call it hyperbole and spiritual hysteria if you must, but many are being called out today. There are a people who are hearing the voice of the Spirit and who either feel led to humbly speak truth within their church, or who feel led to come out completely from the institutional church. Regardless, God’s Spirit has come alive in these last days and He is speaking with boldness and clarity to those who will hear. And again and again and again we would not claim perfection since we are still on a journey that has more ahead of us than has already been trod. We are more nothing than you could ever imagine, but we have caught a glimpse of the Risen Christ and we tremble!!!!
I watched a video about how the fear of God is lost in the church and my heart was broken. And I was undone personally and I publicly admit I have much ground before me, but I still cannot close me ears and remain silent. And sometimes we may be harsh, and sometimes we may speak without salt, and sometimes our own flesh may find an entrance. But make no mistake. Jesus will return soon and the eternal day of reckoning will be upon us all.
But in today’s ecclesiastical climate, the grace that is preached is nothing more than a hollow support for any and every lifestyle sinners wish to live. God’s grace is free to all, but millions are receiving a grace that comes from man’s devious and self serving hearts.
Jude: 3-5 - Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
Oh how have wicked and deceived men have turned the grace of God into uncleanness and logs for the fire of the flesh! Do not be deceived. Grievous wolves have entered into the flock and are presently scattering and slaughtering the flock. Gullible people who are content with religion sit week after week and hear fleshy and carnal messages that excite and satisfy the flesh.
Jer.5:21-31 - Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
No one can be saved but through the grace of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on your finest church clothes, avoid all bad habits, and help one thousand old ladies across the street every day and you will find yourself no closer to salvation than is Charles Manson. But God will not allow His matchless grace to be used and abused so that man can revel in his own sin and still claim to be living in grace. Legalism is poisonous, but hollow religion is equally as deadly. The grace that was purchased for us at an immeasurably high cost must never be treated as an invitation to sin with impunity. When a sinner truly receives Christ, he will not be perfect, but he can never sin knowingly without any pangs of conscience. If he can, and if he can live a life of selfishness and debauchery without the chastening of God, that sinner is in an extremely dangerous predicament.
I urge you to reevaluate what you are being told about God and His Christ. When the Spirit describes God as a “consuming fire” he isn’t just waxing metaphorical. In fact, human words fall embarrassingly short when they attempt to paint an image of God. And when a redeemed sinner dies and spends his first moment in the presence of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah he will not squeal and lightly clap his heavenly hands. That sinner, now clothed in eternal skin, will fall before the King of All Heaven and worship with a wonder not available upon this earth.
That experience will not be some “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride at Disneyworld. To behold the figure of the Lamb that was Slain and the Risen Christ without a shred of doubt or the buffer of earthly flesh will be the colossal crown of our eternal redemption. Just to be in His presence physically, spiritually, visibly, and in ways unknown to our finite minds, well, that will reverberate throughout our immortal bodies. And like the Levites, He alone will be our reward. And if we are granted any rewards by His grace, we will quickly place them at His feet for indeed they all belong solely unto Him.
We have no idea, none. The glory that radiates from His very Being lights the expanse of heaven, and the incandescence of that glory showers the endless throngs of white robed saints. And throughout eternity we will reach deeper and deeper for more inward resources with which to worship Him. The imagery is staggering, but much greater will be the reality. And as Spurgeon once observed,
“Upon the very first glimpse of the Risen Savior, we will all think ourselves a thousand fools to have ever been attracted to anything upon the earth!”
Amen, amen, and selah.