"The Holiest of ALL" part CXXI

OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE.
Hebrews 12:25 - 29   See that you refuse not Him that speaks. For if they escaped not, when they refused Him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape, who turn away from Him that warns from Heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He has promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the Heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have Grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: For our God is a consuming fire.

Continuing on in the SECOND HALF- PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters 10:19 - 13:25
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.

Now in THE FIFTH WARNING
Hebrews 12:14-29
To beware of Sin and rejection of Jesus.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

See that you refuse not Him that speaks. The writer is fully aware of the danger of their falling short, tarrying under Sinai, and perishing there. For the third time (see 2:2; 10:26) he urges the Hebrews to remember how much more terrible the punishment of sin will be under the New than under the Old. The certainty and the sureness of the punishment under the Law give us terrible Warnings of the Danger we will incur. Greater privileges bring Greater Responsibility; the neglect of  these, greater punishment. If they escaped not, when they refused Him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape, who turn away from Him that Warns us from Heaven. The terrors of Sinai will be far surpassed by the awful judgment and wrath on those who refuse Him that speaks from Mount Zion. Mount Zion has its terrors too; let these, far more terrible than Mount Sinai, rouse us to accept its wonderful Blessing. He whose voice then shook the earth, has spoken, Yet once more, I will make to tremble not the earth only, but the Heavens also. And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that these things which are not shaken may remain. In that final shaking all created things will be removed, that only the things which cannot be shaken, the city that has foundations, may remain. In that day nothing will stand but that Mount Zion, which shall never be moved, and they that dwell there.

Wherefore, receiving the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. There is only one thing that cannot be shaken: the Kingdom of God--- that Spiritual World in which His Will is done and His Love revealed. This Kingdom we Receive by Faith into our hearts. The Kingdom of God is within you. And the more our faith Knows and owns this Great Truth by receptivity, amid the things that are shaken and shall not remain, the unmovable Kingdom, the more will itself be come firm and steadfast, and enable us to stand unshaken and immovable too.

Wherefore, receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us also receive His Grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God, with godly fear and awe. Let us receive His Grace--- let us accept it, and realize, and always hold fast this Grace promised at the Throne of Grace ( 4:16) for every time of need. Whereby we may offer service well - pleasing to God. We have been cleansed by the Blood from dead works to serve the Living God. Our entrance into the Holiest and our drawing near was that we might serve Him day and night in His temple--- serve Him so that we obtain the witness that our service is well-pleasing. Nothing less can satisfy either our heart or His heart. But this is what Grace will indeed effect. It will not only pardon, and not only accept and cover what is defective; it will enable us to offer service well-pleasing to God. Let us have Grace and faith for this; without faith it is impossible to please God.

That we may offer service well-pleasing to God with godly fear and awe: for our God is a consuming fire. Jesus was heard for His godly fear. Noah was moved with godly fear. The Father of Jesus, the God of Noah, is our God; surely it becomes us to serve Him with godly fear. It will be one of the sure fruits of Grace produced in us. The awful realities of sin and judgment that Noah and Christ had to deal with still exist and surround us. The Holiness and the Glory of God, the power and the curse of sin, our own utter weakness and the terrible danger of the multitudes around us, call every Christian to offer his service to God with godly fear and awe.

For our God is a consuming fire. The fire and blackness and darkness of Sinai were but shadows--- the reality that will be seen when God breaks forth in His judgment and great wrath on those who reject His Son and the New Covenant sealed with His Blood. His Holiness is a fire, which, by the Eternal Law of His nature, must consume all that is evil. His Love is a fire, which must burn up and destroy all that hinders or refuses the triumph of that Love.


Fire may be either a blessing or a curse. All depends upon my relation to it whether it meets me as a friend or an enemy. The fire of God, as it comes to purify, to consume the sacrifice and convert it into its own Heavenly Light-nature, to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire, to transform our being into flames of Love,--- Blessed the man who Knows His God as a consuming fire, a Jealous God. But woe to him on whom the fire of God descends, as on Sodom and Gomorrha, in wrath and judgment. Oh! that in the fulness of faith all believers might see and fear this impending judgment with accompanying wrath, and, be moved with the compassion of Christ, give themselves to Warning men and snatch them from the fire. For our God is a Jealous God a consuming fire. (He requires our wholeheartedness to love Him with a true love and to cleave only unto Him as He cleaves unto us with a Jealous Love of compassion that man does not comprehend. emphasis added)

1. I know almost nothing that makes one feel his own impotence more than when a sight is given of the approaching fate of so many around us, and it is as if nothing avails to arouse or save them. Our only hope is to place ourselves persistently at His feet who is mighty to save, and wait on Him for the fire of His zeal and great Love to burn within us.
2. Godly fear and awe. "For as good as God is, so great is He; and as much as it belongs to His Godhead to be loved, so much it belongs to His greatness to be dreaded. And this reverent dread is the fairest worship that is in Heaven before God's face. And as much as He shall be loved, overpassing that He is now, insomuch shall He be dreaded overpassing that He is now. And well I wont that the Lord has shown me no souls that love Him but those that dread Him." (TREES PLANTED BY THE RIVER.)