In conclusion, I ask what will you do with this in your service and giving to such loving Father?
V. Now, lastly, there is another thing to be remembered in acceptable services. We must cultivate A PROFOUND SENSE OF THE DIVINE HOLINESS and of the wrath of God against sin, “For our God is a consuming fire.” Observe, then, from this most solemn sentence that the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. Read Deuteronomy iv., at the twenty-fourth verse, and you will find these words, “For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” The same words describe the God of the New Testament. I know the boasted wisdom of the age tells us that we have made a great advance upon Old Testament revelation. It is not so. We may understand the Book somewhat better, but the revelation is the same. God wears the same character as in the days of Moses, and David, and the prophets.
The Lord God who is to be served by us, even as our covenant God, is a “consuming fire.” In love he is severely holy, sternly just. We hear people say— “God out of Christ is a consuming fire,” but that is an unwarrantable alteration of the text. The text is “Our God,” that is God in Christ is a consuming fire. “Our God” means God in covenant with us; it means our Father God, our God to whom we are reconciled, He, even our God, is still a “consuming fire.” A large proportion of nominal Christians do not believe in this God. They profess to reverence a merciful God, but the moment you preach his justice they are indignant; the God who is a consuming fire is not accepted by this proud “nineteenth century.” I do this day most solemnly declare my faith in the God of the Hebrews, who will by no means spare the guilty. The God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob is the one and only God, and I avouch him this day to be my God. Jehovah is the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called. He that smote Pharaoh at the Red Sea, he that smote kings and slew mighty kings, is my God, and I believe in him as the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I know no God but Abraham’s God, Jehovah, the I AM. Under the New Testament God is not an atom less severe than under the old; and under the covenant of grace the Lord is not a particle less righteous than under the law. We are so saved by mercy that no sin goes unpunished: the law is as much honoured under the gospel as under the law. The substitution of Jesus as much displays the wrath of God against sin as even the flames of hell would do. While the Lord is merciful, infinitely so and his name is love; yet still our God is a consuming fire, and sin shall not live in his sight. If your offering and mine be evil, it will be an abomination unto him. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; if our worship and service are mingled with hypocrisy and pride, he will not endure them.
You will be rather surprised when I say that this dreadful sentence is my hope: it is a joy to me that our God is a consuming fire. Behold two altars upon Carmel. The Baalites have laid their victim upon one of them. Do you see them as they prance about the altar, and even leap upon it? Do you hear them as they cry and cut themselves with knives and lancets? “O Baal, hear us! O Baal, hear us!” There lies the sacrifice: there is no trace of Baal’s hearing them, for their god is not a consuming fire. Now comes Elijah. “Pour water,” says he, “on the bullock. Do it a second time, do it a third time”; and they fetch up from the sea huge buckets, and pour the water over everything until the trenches are filled with it. And now the prophet lifts up his prayer to heaven. Down comes the fire! It is God’s sacrifice, and God accepts it. He is a consuming fire, and the token of his presence is so manifest that the people cry, “Jehovah, he is the God, he is the God.” Turn your eyes again to Solomon’s temple, gorgeous with gold and precious stones. The king pleads with the Lord of the whole earth to accept the shrine. Lo, the priests are present in their robes of office, and the sacrifice is waiting on the altar. If no fire descends, there is no acceptance; but we read, “The fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house.” If I am a true and sincere man, and I am believing in Jesus, and I have brought my humble sacrifice with fear and reverence before God, then it will be accepted; for he is a consuming fire, and my sacrifice will be consumed, and go up to him.
It may be, some of you who have been working this week will think to yourselves, “We did very well, we hope to be honoured for it.” So you shall be; but if you take credit to yourselves, you will be robbing the altar of God. If God accepts your sacrifice, it will all be consumed by his fire. See the accepted sacrifice is all gone, it is utterly consumed. When God enables us to serve him, and takes away from us all self-congratulation, we ought to be very thankful. This proves that it is all burned with fire. If God had not accepted it, then we might have reserved portions of it for ourselves, whereon to feed our vanity, and that would be to feed ourselves without fear; but if the Lord has taken every morsel from the mouth of self we have great cause for rejoicing. If the Lord accepts us, his fire will consume us; the zeal of his house will eat us up.
When we go home to the Lord above, we dread not his presence, though he be a consuming fire. Those whom he has purified and made white are not afraid of the flames of his holiness. Remember that blessed text, “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that Walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high.” It shall be the glory of the gracious and the true that God is their element; it shall be their bliss to live in the full splendour of his perfect holiness. They shall be like their Lord, for they shall see him as he is. Everything that is holy will endure the fire, and as for all within us that is impure, let it be consumed speedily. So let us serve the Lord with fear, but not with terror, and let this service be continued all our days.
Let us bring the sacrifices of the last week to him, with repentance for every fault, humbly pleading that of his grace he will accept it, and earnestly desiring that all we have done may redound to his glory through Jesus Christ his Son, to whom be honour, world without end. Amen.” – Charles Spurgeon
On which altar are you offering? Baal’s or the Lord’s? You are in control of the choice to make going forward. Shalom.
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