3/7/26 Purifying Fire

The final portion of our series is the most overlooked, the most under appreciated form of biblical fire.

Hebrews 12:25-29  See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

The writer of Hebrews gives us perspective of Jesus time here on earth as it relates to the eternity we all long for & discussed in the first portion of this series. The question is before us all because Jesus is still warning us from heaven through multiple methods. There are plenty of warnings in the Bible regarding the consequence of eternity. We have to realize that this is before us now & it is a choice that we make to follow Jesus or follow the fallen world that gives no hope. We can follow the spiritual form or the material, We can chase the things of God or the lures of the world that will rust & dust.

Who rules your steps, who rules your decisions? Is it the law of jungle or the law of God? Is it for your own gain or is it to love & benefit of others? Are you led by your flesh & ego or led by Holy Spirit in obedience to God? How you answers these questions is how you will address this topic, & the value you should have in this teaching.

²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” ²⁷ The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

This is about proving what is uncorrupted & cannot fall when the storms of life come. What could that possibly be? If you noticed every sermon in this series ties the Savior of the world to your allegiance & faith in him. Last week we spoke on the inheritance in heaven that is coming to those who stay the faith & endure the fire of trials.

Here this is prophetic, there is a quaking that is forthcoming. While we are not going to delve into the prophetic end of this in order to stay on topic again it serves a as warning of a consequence to a warning to those who refuse Jesus in creation. The bottom line here was made that creation is corruptible all of it & it will be shaken. Have you ever noticed that in order to sift bad stuff and separate it from the good you need to shake the substance? This is the principal here. What falls through the sifting has been refined, has been purged & pruned to become more pure. This that has been, which is able to slide through the sifting is taken to a different environment. It is removed from, it is separated from that which is not pure & purged & refined, which brigs us to the final form of biblical fire.

²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our “God is a consuming fire.

Before we address the fire, look at the draw of heeding the warning. The Kingdom. This is what will not be affected by the voice of authority that is the Savior of the world. The sentence displays to us how to show gratitude for that. Worship God acceptably with reverence & awe. This is absolute gratitude, this is also bewilderment & it is based on the understanding that we are not God.

The final verse hones in on what the fourth form of biblical fire, the consuming fire. In GR it reads “for the God of us, a fire consuming.”

The fire mentioned here is uniform with the original GR word pur (poor). The difference is this fire is of & is God consuming. Let’s dig deep, a consuming fire is a fire that is not contained. It is not stopped, & what it touches the entirety is engulfed. Our God is wrapped in Shekinah Glory. Pure glory, in the OT he is a fire consuming the bush known as the burning bush, but that bush was not destroyed by the fire, rather it is shining brightly, piercing the darkness around it, exposing the essence of what is in the presence of!

The difference here is the word consuming, in GR there are 2 meanings for consume katanalískō – properly, consume all the way (“up to down“), i.e. exactly (decisively, conclusively). 2654 (katanalískō) means “to consume utterly, wholly (”  and only occurs in Heb 12:29. It is all of the Lord consumed in this fire. This means when he touches you, when he enters into your presence, you are going to get transformed. You are going to be changed. You are going to get purified as he is pure. Leave no doubt that once you experience it, you will long for the presence.

In his presence you will be humbled, in his presence you will learn to revere, in his presence you will be in awe of the one who spoke the universe into existence, the one who threw the stars in to the black blank slate of the stratosphere, then took those hands to be pierced for our wrong doings and yet hold you so tightly he declares that no one will very pluck you out of my hand!

But loved one it all depends on if you are holding that hand, because that hand which is a consuming fire is going to lead you through temptation, lead you through into a trial by fire because you need refined! Through refinement you gain faith as pure as gold. But you overcome all this biblical fire!

Overcoming by clinging to the Lord