Where's the Fire? -- 2/24/13

 Sunday, February 24, 1013

WHERE'S THE FIRE?

*These notes are briefer than usual.

            Please know this morning that I am preaching first of all to me.  I'm not just saying that.  You might suggest, "Ron, if it's for you, why don't you just preach it to yourself?"  I have.  I figure I need to hear it a dozen times; you need to hear it at least once.

            Earlier we read about God on Mount Sinai... Ex. 19:17-19;  20:18-19;  24:15-17; Deut. 5:22-27

           

            Is it any wonder that Moses recorded the words that Jude read earlier:  "The Lord your God is a consuming fire" (Dt. 4:24).

            Understand that this is not an isolated passage...

                        Moses at the burning bush..... Ex. 3:1-6

                        Gideon...   Tell the story........ Judg. 6:19-21

                        David...     Tell the story........ I Chron. 21:23-26

                        Solomon/Temple...................  II Chron. 7:1-2

                        Elijah......   Tell the story......   I Kings 18:30-40

           

            The Lord God is a consuming fire. 

... Talk about fire.  It is the most destructive thing we can imagine, and yet when it is harnessed its power has been beneficial to mankind throughout history.  Our God is a consuming fire.

... "Is the Lord a tame God?  Is He safe?"  (As a lion can never be considered tame, so God is not tame.  No man can put God in a cage, much less control Him with a leash.

            This is the God of the Old Testament.  Now let's come to the New Testament.

            Read Heb. 12:18-29.......................... Our God is a consuming fire.

            The Israelites saw the glory of God on Mount Sinai.  They saw Him as a consuming fire, but that's nothing.

Heb. 12:22 -- But ye are come unto...        Our God is a consuming fire.  He is no safer today than He was at Mount Sinai.  He will not be tamed. 

- - - - - - - - - - - -

            So what do we do with that?  Does it have anything to do with the Holy Spirit?  If it has to do with God, it has to do with the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ.

           

            Will this be a study?  Or will it be more?

            Jesus will immerse in the Spirit.  All four gospel writers tell us this (rare for all four to tell us anything).  In Acts 1:4-5 Jesus Himself assures His followers that He will do so.  Furthermore, Matthew and Luke record that John's com-

plete statement about this immersion reads...

                       

Matthew 3:11... "I indeed immerse you in water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will dip you in the Holy Spirit and fire."

Luke 3:16... "John answered, saying to all, "I indeed immerse you in water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.  He will dip you in the Holy Spirit and fire."

                                                           

            In light of the fact that John said Jesus would immerse in the Holy Spirit and fire, I have this recurring question that I cannot escape:  "Lord, where's the fire?  You said you would dip us in the Holy Spirit and fire.  I have always believed that I was immersed in the Spirit, but where's the fire?"

            Our God is a consuming fire, but where's the fire?

            Jeremiah said:  "'I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.' But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not."  ...  Lord, where's the fire?

            Jer. 23:29...  " Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" ...  But Lord, where's the fire?

            The Lord answered Elijah by fire...   But Lord, in my life where's the fire?

            Please come back to Acts 1.  Before we read it, let's read Luke 24:48-49, "And you are witnesses of these Things. 49  Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued [clothed] with power from on high."    Now let's read Acts 1:1-5...        Jesus told them He would immerse them in the Holy Spirit.  He said that when He did, they would receive power, power to testify of Him in all the world.  We like to apply that verse to ourselves, and rightly so, but where's the power?  Where's the fire?

            Our God is a consuming fire.  We know this.  Not up for debate.  We claim Him as our God, His Son as our Lord.  We would like to believe that we have been dipped in His Spirit and fire...   But where's the fire?

            I'm 60 years old; I've been a pastor in this church for over 30 years...   But where's the fire?  Where's the power?  I see little of this power in my life?  I cannot say that I have been clothed with power from on high.  I know the forms and formulas.  I can speak the biblical language.  But where's the fire?  I am conditioned by what I see around me.  Do you want to know what I did this week?  I spent my time walking among giants...  Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Paul... and then some giants of more modern times -- Hudson Taylor, D. L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, A. B. Simpson, Amy Carmichael, A. W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, Paul Washer. 

            And the Word of God tells me that they were basically just like I am.  James 5:16b-18...  He was a man like I am, yet this is the man who cried out to the Lord and He answered by fire.  "O Lord, I'm a man like he was, but where's the fire?"

            What was different about these people?  They believed that God is true to His promise.  They cried out to God until He answered.  They weren't satisfied with the religious status quo, but they followed hard after God.  They spent much time alone with God.  Like Jacob, they refused to let Him go until they were blessed with His presence. 

            Blunt:  I'm His child, but I lack the fire.  I say that I believe the promise of John 7:37-39, but where are those rivers of living water? 

            Let's not be deceived.

            Jim Elliot was a young missionary, along with four young friends, to the Waodanis in Ecuador.  To the horror of many, they were all killed by the very people they sought to reach.  But that's not the end of the story.  God used their brief ministry in a powerful way.  Many of those people later came to Christ.  Before Jim Elliot went to Ecuador he wrote these words in his journal...

"He makes His ministers a flame of fire." Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of 'other things.' Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame. But flame is transient, often short-lived. Canst thou bear this, my soul-short life? In me there dwells the Spirit of the Great Short-Lived, whose zeal for God's house consumed Him. 'Make me Thy Fuel, Flame of God.'

            Those last words were not original with Jim Elliot.  He took those words from a poem by Amy Carmichael, who was a missionary to China.  The poem goes like this...

Flame of God

Amy Carmichael

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified)
From all that dims Thy Calvary
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire;
Let me not sink to be a clod;
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God 

            Oh that we might say, "Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God."