Let’s turn to Exodus 3, Exodus 3.
Let’s do a little quiz. How many books in the bible? How many books in the bible? Everyone say 66. How many in the Old Testament? Everyone say 39. What’s 3x9? So therefore how many books in the New Testament? Very good. So if you’re new 3x9 is 27. there’s 39 books in the Old, 3x9=27, 27 books in the New.
My parents live in Florida. They were here for Easter and they decided to move out here so they’re back packing their house and they’re moving from a house. They got like 3000 sq. ft. for $2 and they’re coming out here to get an apartment for 90 million dollars. So they have to get rid of a lot of stuff and they’re going through packing, getting, just making plans for the trip and you know my dad’s stressing. He’s ah just stressing over all that stuff. But I can imagine all the packing they have to do cuz whenever I go visit them I spend about the first hour in the house walking through all the rooms looking at all the pictures. They have a lot of pictures I don’t have of our family, of our immediate family, brothers and sisters and then parents and grandparents and aunts and vacations and football, and my brother was, I have another brother who was a professional boxer. I have another brother who was a professional football player and he was a Heisman runner up. So we got all these pictures and all this stuff that I don’t get to see. So we go through all the house and I you know grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandfather got a picture of him. um he was probably about 317 years old in this picture but you know it’s just great to see your ancestors.
But if you came to my parents house and didn’t see a picture of me amid all these pictures you would doubt whether I was their child. Amen? I mean I would be hot because I am their son and if they had pictures of everybody else and didn’t have a picture of me.
The same is true of the bible. If Jesus really is the Messiah, the logos, the word, if He really is God and He’s eternal there should be pictures of Him throughout the whole bible. It’s very important for you to understand that. Jesus did not come on the scene when He was born of Mary. He’s been on the scene since before, matter of fact the bible says is through Him everything was made. But not only are there pictures of Him metaphors and 1 metaphor would be the lamb of God. In the Old Testament right before the Jews were being delivered from Egypt they had to kill a lamb, put the blood on the door. Jesus is the lamb that was slain in the New Testament. In the Old Testament in the holy of holies they had the holy, holy place they had a candle that gave light. Jesus is the light of the world. They had the bread in the holy place for the priest to eat. Jesus is the bread of life.
There’s a whole lot of metaphors of Him and a lot of stories that point to what He did on the cross for us. There’s actually scriptures that describe Him dying on the cross but there are also incidences of Christ Himself as a man, as a person or someone you see in the Old Testament. And then in the New Testament obviously is Jesus.
What we’re gonna do today is we’re gonna look at the common thread of all these sightings of God because in every one of the ones I’m gonna talk about today He was dealing with fire. Everyone say fire, fire.
Ok let’s look at, read our opening statement there. It says – The Who, the Who is Jesus Really series is designed to maximize the ability of the people of the Rock to understand and defend the identity of Christ as outlined in the bible. This series is designed to help you identify and understand who Christ is as the bible says. Did He say He was God?
Today we’re gonna look at Christ in the whole bible and again you can do, there’s volumes of books on all this stuff. We’re just gonna look at a few and each one is gonna, each one of the ones we’re gonna look at today we’re gonna see that He’s dealing with fire. That’s why the title is Fire Man, I am.
Let’s go over a new word we’re gonna teach you. Say theophony, theophony. Theo is God in Greek. Theology or theology is the study of God. Biology is the study of bio-systems. Ok? Psychology is the study of psyche. Theology is the study of Theo, God. We’re gonna look at theophony. Theophony is an appearance of God before man like an epiphany. A theophony is an appearance of God. Now in the New Testament we have Christ so we don’t need, He’s the theophony. He’s God in the flesh.
In the Old Testament we’re gonna look at these theophanies and we’re gonna look Old and New but in the Old Testament they call them theophanies. Every single one is gonna be with fire. Now what’s interesting about fire is when you think of fire you think of something that’s painful. You think of something that’s harmful. You think of something bad, death, hell, heat. Stay away from it. Fear it. Respect it. But you have to understand God uses fire for good things. God uses fire to purify us, to test us. He uses fire to take us to another level. We’re gonna see some of that in a minute and in the bible God speaks from fire. He led the Jews through the wilderness in a pillar of fire. He was in the pillar for 40 years the bible says. That God, He approves of sacrifices with His fire. He answered prayers and judge the sinful with fire but He answers the prayers of His godly prophets by fire. So He uses fire in a good way.
And the interesting thing about fire is that we all know we don’t mess with fire. What was the one thing your parents told you when you were little? Don’t play with fire. Why? Because fire will jack you up.
Matter of fact the bible says in 2 Peter 3 that in the day of the Lord is gonna come like a thief in the night and all the elements, the earth, everything is gonna melt with fervent heat. God is going to judge the earth with fire. The first judgment was water, Noah’s ark. He flooded the earth. The second judgment is fire. He’s gonna burn us up. We don’t want to mess with fire.
So look at, point #1 we’re gonna look at Jesus validates His divinity by fire, by 1-Establishing His divine presence and introducing His name. Chapter 3:1 Moses is walking in the wilderness with his sheep. It says – Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, verse 1, chapter 3 Exodus, his father-in-law the priest of Midian and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb the mountain of God. The Angel of the Lord, everyone say Angel of the Lord.
Anytime you see Angel of the Lord with a capital A in the Old Testament, they’re talking about Jesus. Anytime you see Angel of the Lord with a capital A in the Old Testament they’re talking about Jesus. He is the representative of God. This is a theophony. This representative of God shows up as an angel, man or whatever is His appearance and He is representing God. That is a theophony. That is God.
So here the Angel and you’ll see in a minute how, will confirm it. It says in verse 2 – The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flame of the fire from the bush. He looked and behold the bush was burning with fire but it was not consumed.
So Moses is walking and he sees this fire burning and this bush in the fire. The bush is not burned and the verse 3 says, Moses says – I will go over and see yonder and see this great sight, why this bush does not burn. Verse 4 – He went and when the Lord saw that he turned aside God called to him. Who called to him from the midst of the fire? Who called him from the midst of the fire? And who’s the Angel of the Lord? Same person! It’s God. He’s saying – Look the Angel of the Lord is in the fire. He says – Moses come over here and look what He says to him. He says – Moses, Moses and Moses says – Here I am. He says – Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet for where you stand is holy ground.
Couple things you have to understand: You never worship angels. The only person that can be worshiped is God. So whenever you see this Angel of the Lord or Jesus Himself accepting or commanding worship, He is saying – I’m God. Jesus Himself told Satan in Matthew 4 – You shall worship no other God but God alone. Worship nothing, no idol, God alone.
So here the Angel of the Lord, God is saying – Take off your shoes. You’re standing on holy ground. This is who’s speaking, the Angel of the Lord, capital A, God same person, commanding worship, same person. All this is tied together that this is God.
Now look at verse 13. Verse 13 now Moses said to God – Indeed when I come to the children of Israel and say to them – The God of your fathers has sent me to you and they say – What is His name? What shall I say? This is the first time God revealed His personal name to man. And look what it says in verse 14 – God said to Moses, who said to Moses? Who’s the Angel of the Lord? God. God said to Moses – I am that I am. This is my name. He said – Thus you shall say to the children of Israel – I am sent me to you.
I am is the name of God. It is Jehovah, we call Yahweh, Jehovah. It is a word the Jews would never say. They took the vowels out of it so no one would pronounce it cuz it was so holy and so we don’t really know how to pronounce it so we say Jehovah or Yahweh. It means I am that I am. I’m independently exist. That means I have eternally existed from past. I will eternally will exist in the future. And I’m existent right now. I have not been created. I’m the undisputed champion of the whole world ever to be ever champion. No one will ever dethrone me. I am that I am always was, always will be. I am now. This is His name. It means more than all that. That’s what He’s saying – I am. Now that’s God saying His name.
Now turn to John 8.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Everyone say Matthew, Mark, say Luke, John. These are the 4 gospels. Say Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Now same them all by yourself. What are the 4 gospels? Gospel means good news. What does gospel mean? What does gospel mean? That’s what gospel means good news and the good news is that Jesus died for us and provided us a way out. That’s the good news. Very simple. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
Look at John 8. Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and they’re grilling Him. The Pharisees are the religious uptight, out of sight, up stuck up, I’m all that and a bag of chips religious leaders who thought hey had something on Jesus, could always try to trick Him and they’re questioning Him, interrogating Him, seeing if He is legit, trying to catch Him in a lie so they could stone Him. Can’t catch Jesus in a lie.
Look at verse 48. This is hilarious. The Jews answered and said to Jesus – Do we, do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus you have a demon. Jesus says – I don’t have a demon but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Most assuredly I say to you – If anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death.
What is Jesus saying? Would a prophet say – Obey me and you’ll live? No! Only God. God’s word is the only word we obey to see life. What Jesus is saying – Look you do what I say, you’ll live. He can only say that if He was the Lord. No angel would ever say that. No prophet would ever say that. He’s saying – If you obey me, you’ll live. Ok? He’s, and they know what He’s saying.
Look what He, let’s keep reading verse 52 – The Jews said to Him – Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham’s dead and the prophets and you say – If anyone keeps my word he shall never see death. Are you greater than our father Abraham who is dead? And the prophets are dead? Why do you make me, who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus says – If I honor myself my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me of whom you say that He is your God yet you have not known Him but I know Him and if I say I do not know Him I shall be a liar like you a liar. But I do know Him and keep His word.
Look what He says in verse 56 – Your father Abraham, by the way Abraham’s the father of faith. He is the father of Jewish nation. He is the man to the Jews. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad.
Now here’s Jesus is 30 something years old saying – Your father Abraham thousands of years ago rejoiced to see me. And they’re like – You’re tripping, cuz look what it says next.
Verse 57 – You are not yet 50 years old and have you not, and have you seen Abraham? And look what Jesus said – Most assuredly I say to you – Before Abraham was I am.
Ooh-ooh, now you may think – Well He’s just playing on words. No, no He’s saying – The I am that you all know about Jew boys, you know. Remember the fire? Moses? I am? The first time you heard God’s name Jehovah? See we’re reading I am, what He’s saying is Yahweh. We’re reading English, in Hebrew He says – Before Abraham was Yahweh, I am.
Now ok I’m making it up. Let’s keep reading. Look what they did. They took up stones to throw at Him. Why? Because they wanted to kill Him. By Jewish law you had to kill Him. Cuz they knew exactly what He was saying. But Jesus hid Himself and went out the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by. Now you know when it says Jesus went into the midst of them? It’s very critical. All these guys surround Him getting ready to stone Him and because it wasn’t His time, He just walked by. Bye, see you all later. No one can touch Me. It wasn’t His time.
What He said is = Look before Abraham was, I am. I am Jehovah. I am God. And so this Angel of the Lord in the fire is Christ Himself. So Christ uses fire to establish His divine presence.
#2-He uses fire to execute divine judgment on sinful man. Turn to Genesis 19, Genesis, I’m sorry Genesis 18, the first book in the bible. All the way to the beginning. If you don’t know anything about the bible, you know where the beginning is. Genesis 18. 18 is the # of the chapter. Genesis 18 Abraham is sitting by his tent in the cool of the day just relaxing and it says in 18:1 that we’re gonna see God, the Lord is going to judge by fire. The Lord appeared to Abraham by the treabin trees of Mamre and as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day he lifted up his eyes Abraham did and behold 3 men were standing by him and when he saw them he ran from the tent to meet them and bowed himself to the ground and said – My Lord, if I have found favor in your sight do not pass by your servant.
What happens is the Lord comes with 2 angels and they’re on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah to judge Sodom and Gomorrah because of the sin in the city because the bible says the outcry of the people in the city were crying out to God because of the wickedness. This city had sexual sin and they’re crying out to God. And by the way the sexual sin was homosexuality, it was one of the sexual sins, it was sexual perversion and these angels go down to the cities and these men come to the city banging on the door saying – Bring those men out that we may have sex with them. And so they’re in this city, the people are crying out to God because of the wickedness in the city.
Now let me tell you something – When you pray you do not pray to angels. You do not pray to saints. Saints cannot answer your prayers. I know some of you believe they can. You’ve been told that. It’s not true. It’s not biblical. It’s not in the bible. And you pray to God alone.
So this God, this Angel says – The outcry has come to me. We’re not gonna read it but it’s in the story. I’ve been, people have been praying out to me and I’ve come down to see if it’s so and if it’s so I’m gonna judge it and He’s gonna judge it by fire.
Turn to 19:22, 19:22 The angels go down. They rescue Abraham’s relatives and then it says in 19:22 – Hurry escape for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. The Angels are telling Lot and his family they have to get out of the city. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar which is where they ran to. The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar and the Lord rained down brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah for the Lord, from the Lord out of the heavens.
The rained down fire. The bible says in Matthew 25 that there is a hell and the bible says that the hell was designed for the devil and his angels/demons really what they are. And that the people who in that particular story is talking about people who don’t minister to other people. One of the evidences of people who don’t walk with Christ is that people who don’t have any compassion for other people and He says that they will be in that fire.
When you die, if you die with your sin unforgiven you will stand before God and God has to judge you. He cannot let you into heaven without your sin being forgiven. It wouldn’t be fair to those who repented. He wouldn’t be keeping to His word because if He says – If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead you will be saved from the fire where there be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
He’s just giving us a little warning here – I do judge sin. Sin does have consequences. The bible says sin has consequences. Think about it for a minute. Have you ever had a consequences for your sin? Say amen if you have. You know why? It’s law. It’s spiritual law. God set it up. He can’t contradict Himself. You have to suffer for your sin.
Now because of God’s grace He’s protecting you, the only reason we’re still alive is because He’s giving you time to repent but in the end, in the end when you die the punishment for sin is death. And the death is fire.
Now I know we didn’t, no one, death is never a happy thing but there is some good ways to die and some bad ways to die. What do I mean by that? A good way to die is you’re a hundred something years old, you’re family’s all walking with God and you’ve done your duty and you just fall asleep then you wake up in heaven. That’s a good way. Amen, amen? You and you know everyone’s around you and you just kind of, and you just fall asleep and go to heaven. That’s a good way to die.
I was witnessing to a man, I don’t know how old he is, he’s in his 70s and it was about a week before Christmas and he got saved and it was like 2 weeks before Christmas and the next week, actually it wasn’t even a week, it was a few days later, he called all his family to his room. He said – I have an announcement to make. Sons, wife, grandkids, great grandkids and he said – I asked Jesus into my heart. He just wanted them all to know. Man, and that’s how, he’s still alive but that’s how you want to go knowing – Hey I’m good.
Here’s a way you don’t want to die by fire. Now I hear drowning is a peaceful death. I don’t want to find out but I heard that it’s just very peaceful. You know as you’re freaking out knowing you’re gonna die, somehow there’s peacefulness to that. I don’t know. I would imagine that what they’re saying is as you breathe the water it’s not painful. You just kind of expire. You know, I don’t know. That’s what I heard and you know who’s gonna tell you that? Oh yeah it happened to me 3 times. It was really good. I’m sure CSI could figure out how, why that is. I, but I know one thing, fire by death is not a good thing but you don’t think about hell is that you don’t die, you suffer. Hell the bible says where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. It’s ongoing pain and misery.
We did a story, we did a sermon on Sodom and Gomorrah, we actually had pictures of the asphalt pits that archaeologists found in the ground that burned up the city. They actually found these little asphalt balls that coincided with, that confirm the story that God rained down fire and brimstone on the actual location.
God’s just saying – Look, don’t mess with me. The fire that I have is a good fire. If you respond to God’s fire, and you let it purify you as we’re gonna see next, it’s a good thing but if you fight it, it’s a bad thing.
#3-God validates His divinity by fire by initiating a purifying process through baptism. Turn to Matthew 3, a purifying process, Matthew 3, the first book in the New Testament. Everyone say Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
Gospel means? How many books in the bible?
John is baptizing in the water.
When you get baptized and you get dunked in the water, the water does not purify your sins and because we do it in the bay, you are probably more funky when you come out then when you went in. I’m just saying, just saying.
All that is symbolic. It’s symbolic of you going in the grave and resurrecting. It’s symbolic of you being washed of your sin but it is just symbolic.
Look what Matthew says in 3:11. I indeed baptize you with water on to repentance. He who is coming after me, it’s Jesus he’s talking about, is mightier than I and whose sandal I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit in fire.
Everyone say fire. He’s gonna wash you with the Holy Spirit’s gonna come live in your heart and fire. Not physical fire, Holy Spirit fire. It’s gonna cleanse you. When you’re born you’re a sinner and you have sinful thoughts, sinful feelings. You can’t help yourself. You’re just naughty by nature. And the, as you grow up you become naughtier. It doesn’t mean you can’t do good things. It doesn’t mean you can’t help people. No, no, no, but your nature is always about self-preservation. It’s always about me in one form or another and we all express that differently. That sinful nature is doomed to die. Christ came and died for us, paid the penalty for our sinfulness, that He may grant us eternal life. He can’t grant it to you unless you ask for it and repent of your sin.
And so here you are walking around realize you know what? I don’t want to die and go to hell. When my body’s heart stops beating I want to go to heaven but because I’m a sinner I need someone to forgive me and cleanse me. Not all physical water but Holy Spirit fire. Jesus came and He’s offering that to you.
So what John’s saying is – Listen, this stuff is symbolic and you know yeah let’s get baptized, but the guy coming after me, He wants to cleanse your soul with fire but He can only do that if you ask Him and repent of your sin and let Him do the supernatural work in your heart that only He can do. He’s the only one that can change your desires, change your thoughts, change your perspective. He’s the only one that can change what you say and how you react to stressful situations or positive situations. Only He can do that!
Here’s the thing about fire, what’s the interesting thing about fire is have you ever seen fire go down? Fire never goes down. It always burns up. Now it may burn down and around something but eventually it’s gonna go up. Like if this is on fire, the fire on the bottom may come down to get around it but then it will eventually go up. Fire always goes up and fire doesn’t destroy. Fire separates. If this whole building burned down we would say it was destroyed because the form changed but everything, all the matter of this building, it would not be destroyed. It would just change form.
What God wants to do with His Holy Spirit fire is change your form, how you think, how you reason, how you act and He wants to take your form to a whole nother level. That’s what He wants to do.
And so when you get baptized, what John’s saying is – Look, there’s a guy coming after me. He wants to (woosh) you with Holy Spirit fire, change the way you think and take your whole spirituality, your whole level of sensitivity, and peace and patience and kindness and power to a whole nother level. That’s what God wants to do with His fire. He doesn’t want to kill you with it. He wants to transform you with it and purify you with it. That’s a good thing.
4-He wants to display His divine approval of your intentions. In other words God is going to test your works with fire.
You know that in the end when we all die we’re gonna stand before God and everyone’s gonna be judged, even Christians. You’re gonna come before God and God’s gonna say – Bring all your good works. I don’t know how it’s gonna happen but He’s gonna do it and all your good works are gonna be before God and all the good deeds you think you did, all the money you gave, all the prayers you prayed, all the encouragement you gave, all the service you did in ministry and He’s gonna lay it all out before us. It’s all represented somehow and God’s going to test to see if it’s legitimate and He’s gonna test it with fire.
If your boyfriend ever buys you a ring, diamond or if he bought you a chain, it was real gold, or it was gold in color and you put that ring on or that bracelet on, after awhile if it was fake it would turn what color? Green. Now that cheap bracelet didn’t need to be tested by fire. It fooled him at the store or he thought to fool you in the dark movie theater where he gave it to you.
When we go to God and say - God look at all this good stuff I did He’ll go – Uh-hum, ok we’ll see. I don’t know if this is gonna happen but He can call one of His angels – Gabriel bring out the fire. (Whoosh) and all the stuff that you’ve done that is not done by faith is gonna be burned up. Some of you all think you’re gonna be bringing truck loads of all these good deeds and it’s gonna end up being 1 little kernel and that little kernel is your salvation. That’s the only thing you did. 1Corinthians 13, 3:13 you can read that later, it talks about that.
Next one is fire, God, Jesus validates His divinity through fire by exercising His divine vision, exercising diving vision. Turn to Revelation 2, Revelation 2. The book of Revelation is about the revelation of Jesus Christ. Those are the first 5 words of the book. It says the revelation of Jesus Christ. So you get a glimpse of many aspects of Christ but in 2:18 we’re gonna see that He has eyes of fire. 2:18.
Revelation’s the last book of the bible. Genesis is the first book. Revelation’s the last book. How many books in the bible? So that means that Revelation is the what book? 66th book and Genesis is the what book? First. Genesis means book of beginnings.
Look at 2:18, it says – And the angel, and to the angel of the church of Thyatira, the angel of the church is the pastor, write these things says the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire. Now what does that mean? That Christ, is He walking around with eyes of fire like this, flames coming out. He sees everything differently than you. Man looks at the outward appearance. The Lord looks at the heart. He don’t care if you got Christian Dior or Gap on. He don’t care if you got mascara or just no mascara cuz some of it’s scary you know what I’m saying? I ain’t trying to gossip. That’s not His issue. His issue is your heart. His eyes of flame see everything in your life.
If you are fronting, fronting, FO, FRONG. What does fronting mean honey? It means being fake, acting one way but nor really being another. Coming to church with your bible but yet you beat your wife Saturday night. Coming to church with your bible, drunk up in Tijuana acting crazy. Little peep shows with prostitutes, you’re fronting. Drunk all weekend, praising God on Sunday. You’re fronting. God knows. He’s not stupid. He’s got eyes of fire.
He don’t even need eyes of fire to see that. But He sees even beyond that. He sees your thoughts. Some of you now are thinking some bad things right now. Who does he think he is saying that? You may be tripping that you were thinking that. God knows! And God says – I know you’re a sinner. I know you’re doomed to hell but guess what? I died for you too and I want to forgive you too and I want to bless you too. That’s why we’re here! That’s a good thing. That’s a real good thing.
Last one: Is Jesus validates His divinity by using fire by displaying His ability to protect believers from judgment. Turn to Daniel 3, Old Testament prophets, major prophet. Daniel 3, this is indeed one of my favorite stories in the whole bible. Nebuchanezzar’s king, Nebuchanezzar was thee man. Nebuchanezzar built an idol of himself 60’, 90’ high, 9’ wide and he had a ceremony and he said – When the music plays, everybody bow to my idol. When you hear Michael Jackson go ooh I want you to bow and acknowledge me as the man. Well Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were Jewish boys now grown up said – No we don’t bow to any idol. That’s one of the 10 commandments. So we ain’t bowing.
Now the punishment was you get thrown into the fiery furnace and they heated the furnace to 7 times its normal heat. Fire! So they have the idol, the statue, the crowd is there. The music’s playing boom-boom-boom, boom-boom-boom-boom then Michael goes ooh and everyone goes – Oh you the man Nebuchanezzar, you the man, you the man. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego say we ain’t bowing. We ain’t bowing. And then Nebuchanezzar’s like what? Let’s take it from the top. You all better bow or you’re going in the fire. This is what happened. You all have to read the story on your own. It’s an amazing story. They played the music again, they rewind da-da-da-da oh everyone bows. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego say we ain’t bowing. So they tie them up.
Chapter 3, look at 3:20, let’s go to verse 20. The bible says, verse 19, my bad, bible says verse 19 – Nebuchanezzar was full of fury and the expression on his face changed towards Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace 7 times more than it was usually heated and he commanded certain mighty men of valor, big Mike Tyson looking brothers with gold teeth said to his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and cast them into the fiery burning furnace. These big ultimate fighter dudes tie them up.
Verse 21 – These men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans and their other garments and they were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. It says therefore because the king’s command was urgent and the fire exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
In other words the mighty men of valor who tied them up and was taking them in, the fire leaped out and killed KILT those dudes. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are all tied up going looking at these crispy critters on the ground thinking – They’re dead, we’re not. The bible says they fell in. My theory, this is my own personal theory that they jumped in. Why would I believe that? 2 reasons, 1-If someone who’s taking me to throw me in the dead, how’s he pushing me in? and #2-I believe they saw that God was with them cuz they didn’t get burned. They didn’t even get singed as we’ll see in a minute. And they said – Ok we’re going in and they went in. It doesn’t matter, they ended up in the fire.
Look what it says in verse 23 – These 3 men, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego fell down bound in the midst of the burning fiery furnace. King Nebuchanezzar was astonished and he arose in haste and spoke to his counsel and said – Didn’t we cast 3 men into the fire? And they said – Yeah king. He says – Look, verse 25 – I see 4 loose walking in the fire and they’re not even hurt! And the form of the 4th is like the Son of God, Jesus.
Who’s the man? Now let me, let me clarify: This is not the angel, it’s the Son of God. Jesus is walking around in the fire. Now you have to understand something Jesus used fire to judge sin. He used fire to reveal His name and to attract attention to the bush so Moses would go over and then tell him His name. He spoke from fire. He baptized you with fire. He purges your sin with fire. He tests your intentions with fire. He led the Israel, the Jews through the wilderness by fire. He’s also the only one who can protect you from fire. When you die the bible says it’s appointed for a man to die 1 time.
I was talking to a lady recently who was talking about reincarnation. You know what the bible says? You die 1 time and then you face God. You do not die once and then come back and die another time. You die 1 time and you face God. And the only question God’s gonna ask you is – What did you do with my Son Jesus? He was in the bible from the beginning to the end. You heard the sermon about the fire didn’t you? Remember that? He was in the beginning, Genesis all the way to Revelation. In every book there’s some illusion to Christ. He died on the cross, claimed He was God 8000 different ways. That’s just a # I picked out of a hat. It’s not necessarily 8000 but a whole bunch. And there were illustrations and blatant statements that He is the one who can deliver you from the fire.
The bible talks about us snatching people from the fire. IN Peter when you share the gospel and get someone saved, God gets them saved through you, you are snatching them from the fire.
Some of you if you die, not some of you all of you if you die without Christ you have nothing to look forward to but fire. No one’s praying you out of anywhere. There’s no holding tank before hell. Once you die you face God after that. There is no intermediate stage. Nothing can be done for you.
So in a few minutes you’re gonna have an opportunity to say, to acknowledge yes Lord I want to be forgiven. I want to repent of my sin and accept the salvation and forgiveness that only Jesus, I am, the fire man can give me, the forgiveness, the cleansing, the purification and the safety from fire that only He can give because no one else can save you. There is only 1 plan of salvation. If you know of one you need to tell us. But let me tell you something – You would call Jesus a liar because the bible says there’s no name under heaven by which men may be saved but His name. That means the bible’s not true. So we can answer all these illustrations and you can’t, we can’t miss it that He’s the one who can deliver you from the fire.
And as these guys were going in the fire I believe, and again this is my opinion again, once they saw the mighty men of valor dead, they realized – We’re safe cuz God is on our side.
If you ask Christ to be your Savior you are safe. You know what? I’m not going to hell! Hmm. I’m gonna die and go to heaven. Now I hope to be an old crusty old man but I know I’m going to heaven. We want the same for you. You don’t want to play with fire, just like your mama told you because the bible says a man cannot scoop fire in his lap and be burned, without being burned. You can’t.
Let’s all bow our heads and pray.
Dear Lord, we thank you so much that you a God who forgives. We thank you so much that you are a God who cleanses and purifies. We thank you so much that you a God who knows all of our sins, all of our faults and yes you love us anyway. Lord there may be somebody here this morning who realizes they are a sinner and they know the penalty is death and that death is by fire. Nobody wants to die by fire or suffer by fire but they also know that you as God can protect us from the fire. You are the one being that’s immune to fire’s heat. You inhabit flames. You speak from flames. You ascended into heaven in Judges 13 in the flame. You judge with flame. You baptize, purify with flame.
If you realize today that you are a sinner, that Jesus died for your sin and rose from the dead and you want Him to forgive you, you want Him to baptize you with His fire, pray this prayer with me in the privacy of your heart but as you pray you must have faith and believe these things are true that He loves you, that He died for you and rose from the dead and that He indeed will forgive you today. So in the privacy of your heart if you would like Christ to forgive you pray this prayer. Pray:
Dear God, I believe I’m a sinner. I believe my sin is wrong and that the penalty is death, death by fire but I believe Jesus is the Lord. He can save me from fire, deliver me from fire. Jesus please forgive me of my sin. Please come live in my heart. Please be my Savior and my master. This morning, right now I ask.
As our eyes are closed and our heads are bowed if you prayed that prayer in a minute I’m gonna ask you to stand up by, and acknowledge His forgiveness in your life. If you prayed that prayer to surrender your life to Jesus I’m gonna ask you in a minute to stand up and by standing you are acknowledging yes I belong to Him now. He has taken my life to another level and I’m committed to that. Eyes closed, heads bowed if you prayed that prayer right now just stand to your feet and acknowledge His forgiveness in your life, acknowledge that HE is now your Lord and your Savior. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless all of you. God bless you. Good. God bless you. God bless you. Very good. God bless you. Stay standing. Good. God bless you. God bless you. Very good. God bless you. God bless you. Good. Very good.
Eyes closed, heads bowed. This is the best decision you ever made in your life. God is gonna do an amazing thing in your life. Anybody else, stand to your feet. Many of you are standing. Good. God bless you. Very good. God bless you. Take advantage of this opportunity. Anybody else? God bless you. Many of you are standing. Good. God bless you. Stay standing please. God bless you. Eyes closed, heads bowed, just be praying. All of you who are saved be praying for these people. God bless you. Good.
Now we’re gonna ask all of you and you are many of you standing, to do one more thing. As we welcome you into the family of God we’re gonna ask you to come out of your seat and walk down here to the altar. Let’s give them a hand as they come on down.
God bless you. Stay right here, stay right here. God bless you. Come on. God bless you. God bless you. Stay right here. Actually stay right here, stay right here. God bless you. God bless you. Stay right here, stay right here. God bless you. Stay here. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Amen, amen! Who’s the man? Who’s the man? God bless you. God bless you. Amen, amen, amen! How you doing? Hello how you doing?
The bible says that if you confess your sin, God’s faithful and just to forgive you. God can’t lie. That means you’re forgiven. That means He has a whole new plan. That fire He’s burning now, He wants to change your life. That’s it. Life is so simple, it’s simply this: Do what God says. That’s it. If you think back on your life all the trouble comes when we don’t do what God says. Period. End of story. God is not an opinion, He is thee opinion and that book is the book He gave us. He didn’t get it right, He didn’t get it wrong. He got it right the first time. We all know amen? When we get in trouble we get – Oh yeah I did it. We don’t like people telling us that but we know it. You all made a good decision today. In a minute we’re gonna ask you all, amen! Let’s pray for these people and in a minute you’re all gonna walk, follow that young lady right there and we’re gonna walk you this way and give you something.
