A Consuming Fire, Hebrews 12:18-29
Introduction
What is your motivation for attending church today?
You say, "Well, it's the Sabbath and we're supposed to keep it holy." Actually, it's not the Sabbath. Today is the first day of the week. It is the day the early Christians chose instead of the Sabbath to worship Jesus Christ. "You're right, the day has changed," you interject, "but it's still one of the Ten Commandments." Did you know that because of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, "he forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations"? The Living Bible adds, "So don't let anyone criticize you…for not celebrating…Sabbaths. For those were only temporary rules that ended when Christ came. He brought a new order." We worship God on Sunday because over the past twenty centuries it has become customary. But there is a higher reason--"Christ's love compels us" to worship God in unity. The writer of Hebrews probably said it best when he wrote: "Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe (Heb. 12:28)." (Sermon Illustrations, E-Sword)
Transition
Two major themes of this passage: (1) man in accountable before God. This primarily comes in the form of receiving or rejecting Him. The text draws a great contrast between the coming of the law through Moses and the Gospel in Christ.
The man who rejected his accountability before God under the law, the incomplete revelation of God, was liable for that rejection and would be consumed. How much more shall the man who rejects the Gospel, the complete and perfect revelation of God, be consumed by the fire of God’s wrath.
(2) God is passionate about His glory. He calls us to express His glory through worship. In worshipping God we find the fulness of joy because that is the fullness of the purpose for which we have been created.
God’s wrath is a parallel attribute of His passion for His glory. In other words, the wrath of God falls upon those who reject Him because His glory is so intense that whatever it comes into contact with is affected.
If that with which it comes in contact is consistent with it, it is purified. If that with which His glory, His truly perfect love, is inconsistent with it, it is burned away and blows away in the wind like chaff from the threshing floor.
Exposition
Man is accountable before God. Here is an oft neglected doctrine and a scorned biblical teaching in our time. God does exist for our good pleasure. We exist for His. God does not worship us in the manner of an excessively doting parent who makes of their child an idol to their own vanity.
The common notion in our day that Church is supposed to be a weekly seminar for life skills or pep rally, could not be further from the core teaching of the Bible regarding the purpose of the Church, nor could it be a more bankrupt philosophy.
Man has made of himself an idol in our day and in so doing, He has cut himself off from the true source of peace and joy for this life. We have more self esteem than ever and more despair. We are all of us puffed up with our own worth and are yet, each one of us, unable to affect our own happiness.
The hub upon which the wheel of the universe turns is God’s ultimate glory, not man’s immediate pleasure. In abandoning this core principal of the Church we have abandoned the source of our ultimate joy.
We have traded the peace and power which came from the wealth which was ours in knowing the ultimate worth of God, for the half-pence of vanity and pride.
Our ultimate worth is found in His ultimate glory. Our ultimate satisfaction is found in abandoning ourselves to His ultimate worth.
We, certainly as a society, and often as the people of God, have forgotten that while we are free in Christ, we are nonetheless accountable to God.
“Say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you.” (Jeremiah 26:4 NIV) “But I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.” (Jeremiah 7:23 NIV)
In our sin, dear saints, even as believers God will often allow us to go through the consequence of rebellion to instruct our hearts in the way of righteousness. Salvation in Christ is not a “free pass,” a license to sin or to disobey actively or even in negligence of our command to worship God with our whole heart.
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2 NIV)
We are collectively and individually accountable for our lives before an awesome and holy God. John 3:16 is not the only passage in the Bible. Peace comes from knowing the whole counsel of God. What engineer would build a great towering building on the streets of Chicago with only half of the blue prints?
Indeed we are accountable for the keeping of the Law. That is, the highest principals of the Law. The Law of the Grace which has come in Christ is not a new law, it is the fullness of the revelation of the Law.
God used Moses as His mouthpiece to deliver the Law, which is the school master to prepare us for and draw man’s attention to his need for Jesus Christ.
“Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:21-27 NIV)
The Law was never intended, nor did it ever, save anyone. The holiness of the lifestyle of one who strived to keep the Law prefigured the holiness that would come unto us in Jesus Christ. The standard of the Law taught us that God is pure and holy and demands perfect holiness of those who would commune with Him.
We are now accountable for receiving the Law of Grace in Jesus Christ. However, that does not free us from the purpose of the Law.
Surely the Bible teaches that we are not bound animal sacrifices and blood offerings, which were merely foreshadows of the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
“God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:25-26 NIV)
While we are freed from such activity we are not free from living lives of sacrificial service to God, to fellow believers, and being living sacrifices to the world.
If we would follow Christ then we must count the cost. Salvation is free. The gift of freedom in Christ which flows from the heart of God is a gift like none other. It is the greatest treasure ever offered and it is given at no cost to those who will but receive it by faith alone in Christ alone according to the grace of God alone.
It is an inheritance. It is the gift of God the Father to His children, chosen before the foundation of the earth, foreknown in the mind of God. It is wondrous, marvelous and far too great to fully comprehend.
Yet, though it is free, requiring only faith, in another sense, there is a cost; the cost of your entire life. God requires only all that you are.
After examining the keeping of the law of a wealthy young ruler who came to Him asking how to be saved, the rich young man says, “All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?" Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.” (Matthew 19:20-22 NIV)
It was not his wealth that kept him out of the kingdom. It was the wealthy man’s unwillingness to sacrifice this life in order to gain eternal life.
God does demand from us. We are commanded to obedience to the higher law of the grace. We are still bound to pursue the holiness of the Old Testament Law, only now we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so!
We are still required sacrifice ourselves on the alter so that we may die to self and live for Christ, for the purpose of extolling God’s ultimate worth and glory to the world around us.
Note
A discussion regarding our accountability before God begs for at least a brief discussion with regard to accountability in our lives. God shows radical love and mercy to us and yet holds us accountable for our actions; what of those who wrong us? In Mathew chapter 18 Jesus commands us to forgive not seven but seventy times seven. This is not a legalistic approach, a specific number that we should keep track of. He is saying that forgiveness must flow as freely from us as it does from the bleeding side of Christ on the Cross.
Forgiveness though, does not imply a lack of accountability. Often when Sebastian is wronged by his brother or a friend, if they apologize by saying “sorry,” Sebastian will reply, “Oh, it’s not your fault.”
This is kind of him to let them off of the hook, but it’s not entirely accurate. Forgiveness, in biblical terms, in the Christian life, is not about minimizing the offense; rather, it is about offering grace. It may be their fault.
Forgiveness is the offer of grace which should flow naturally from the heart which has received grace. Forgiveness does not imply a lack of accountability. Look at the life of David. Though God forgave him for his sin, there were consequences.
“Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.” (II Samuel 12:7-10 NIV)
When we are wronged we must forgive in order to avoid the disease of bitterness taking up root in our heart and to be right before God. That does not mean, however, that there may not be consequences for the party who has wronged us.
“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16 KJV) There are those who, though forgiven, may need to be removed or limited in access to our lives to avoid their destructive behavior. We must protect our own children, for example, from an abusive relative.
Conclusion
The writer of Hebrews draws a contrast between the Law, the 10 Commandments, which came at Mount Sinai, the Sinaitic Covenant of the Old Testament and ascending the Mount Zion, the Holy Mountain, upon which the sacred Temple stood in days of old.
The author is telling us that while Moses went to receive the Law with much fear and trembling, we have come as a pilgrim to the holy mountain of God where we are surrounded by a joyful assembly of angels.
In Old Testament times the people were bound the law and could not keep it. We are likewise bound to the law of grace and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live lives of radical sacrificial love, forgiveness, service, and holiness.
But more than that, since we are a part of an unshakable kingdom, we rest assured in the confidence of the truth that while all of the world will one day pass away, shaken by the awesome power of the wrath of God, we shall stand secure if we are secure in Christ!
That security does not come from our emotional status, but the power of the word of God which tells us that he whom the Son has set free is free indeed, he who is in Christ shall in no wise be cast out, he who was once a slave to sin and has been set free by faith in Jesus Christ is not longer a slave to sin but a bondservant to Christ!
God’s glory is an all consuming fire. It will one day burn away; destroy all of the brokenness of this world which is inconsistent with it. However, it will also light the streets of eternity with the beauty of His glory. Allow that burning flame to ignite passion for God within you and there find the peace and joy which comes from participating in God’s work of expressing His glory to the world in and through us. Amen.
