By Robert Wurtz II
OUR GOD IS STILL A CONSUMING FIRE
By Robert Wurtz II
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28, 29)
Our God IS a consuming fire. The same God that destroyed the sons of Aaron when they offered strange fire under the Old Covenant is the same God in the New Covenant that desroyed Ananias and Sapphira. Adam Clarke comments on this saying, " The apostle quotes Deuteronomy 4:24, and by doing he teaches us this great truth, that sin under the Gospel is as abominable in God's sight as it was under the law; and that the man who does not labour to serve God with the principle and in the way already prescribed, will find that fire to consume him which would otherwise have consumed his sin. "
It is the mercy of God that we are not already consumed. And when God lifts the hedge (as it were) in our life the enemy will come in like a flood and disaster awaits. If God does not judge sin in the New Testament dispensation what are we to make of those in the book of Acts who were smitten dead or smitten with blindness or the like? As it is written, "And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand." (Acts 13:11) Is this not akin to the judgment that was leveled upon those in Sodom when their sin had driven them to madness?
We read also in I Corinthians 11... For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. What was their crime? They had not examined themselves and prepared themselves to partake of the Lord's Passover (Supper). They took the things of God lightly and were sick and dead. This is chastisement at least and judgment at worst.
As for reprobation to commit sin, I would argue that God reprobates men's minds at their request in order to cut themselves loose from their conscience and the dealing of the Holy Ghost. They ask for it by so great of striving and resistance as to all but beg to be cut loose. God gave them over to a reprobate mind that they might do those things which are not convenient. What is it? They could not sin as they wished unless God would give them over. "Just cut me loose God... just cut me loose..." They want to sin with a seared conscience and God gives them over. This is no doubt a judgment.
Moreover, he that defileth (Phtheiro) the Temple of God him shall God destroy (Phtheiro)! This is a one to one judgment. This is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. This is a warning against Fornication that had best be heeded or those who do not will likewise receive in themselves the just recompense of reward which was meet (deserved). This is the law of sowing and reaping in effect that shows explicitly that God will not be mocked in the New Testament any more than He was in the Old.
This is the type of preaching that will bring revival and none else.
