FEAR THE LORD......Be quiet before Him, He consumes by Fire

FEAR THE LORD

Introduction

The Almighty God deserves to be honoured and praised by all His creation.  He is a wonderful and merciful God, full of love.  Yet God has the other side of Him that is very fearful.  This other side of God is dreaded by the wise and prudent of all people, including unbelievers.

Moses warned the people of Israel that God was a Consuming fire, that destroys without a remnant.  In Deuteronomy 4:24, he says: "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." God is a jealous God, who will not share His glory with a man.  God cannot be served and worshipped with other gods, No way!  He will not permit the worship of other gods.

Calling God a consuming fire is to tell us, that if we provoke God to anger, in His wrath, we are consumed.  The fire of His presence does not spare the wicked. The fire of His presence has consumed men in the past, the two sons of Aaron is an example.

When the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu got drunk in the sanctuary and decided to offer a strange and profane sacrifice unto God, the fire from the presence of the Lord consumed them, and they died before the Lord - Lev. 10:1-2.  They were destroyed by fire.  In the confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, God answered Elijah by fire.

The concept of God as a consuming fire includes both the idea of God's jealous, holy nature and His judgment upon those who oppose Him. Used in more than one way in the Bible, the overall idea is one of power, both positively in the sense of deserving worship and negatively in punishing those who oppose Him.

I am sharing this message for all and sundry to know that God cannot be mocked, ignored or despised.  The creator cannot be humiliated by a mortal being, so let all foolish speaking about God stop.  No one speaks evil about God and lives on. 

God is the giver of life, and without God, there is no life, and no tomorrow.  Without God, there is no future.  Moses warned the Israelites against idolatry (Deut 4:23-25) when he told them that God is a “jealous God”, who will not share His glory with worthless idols. Idolatry provokes Him to righteous anger. 

God cannot be Mocked

The fact that God is patient with us does not mean that a man can say that God does not exist.  Even the bible predicted it that the fool says there is no God Prov. 28:26.  

It is true that God cannot be mocked, but we have seen men who became too proud and began to speak words that mortal beings are not expected to speak.  Speaking evil of God is the worst thing a man can do.  It is foolishness for a man to exclude God in his or her plans, and go ahead to declare that it will happen as he has said.  

That is the same thing as saying,  that God does not exist.  It is an error.  God will not allow anyone to lift himself above the limit and continue to live.  God cannot share His glory with a man.

The owner of the Titanic ship, after spending millions of dollars on the boat, looked at the size of the ship and the glory of being one of the biggest ocean-going cruise boats at the time, got carried away by his pride, and declared that " Not even God can sink this boat ′′ and you know what happened. The boat Titanic sank on that same journey and people's lives were wasted because of a foolish statement.

He reveals Himself

Many people have cried to God to reveal Himself to them if He indeed exists, and within a short time, they saw the hand of God in their situation and they have also come back to confess that God exists and that Jesus Lives.  But, when someone is careless with his or her words spoken about God, it could be so costly.  A woman, Marilyn Monroe said: I don't need JESUS, 3 days later she was found dead.

Recently, a man gave testimony about himself.  He said he was sick and died after some days in the hospital.  His people put him into the morgue and after 9 days, they went to carry him from the mortuary and bury him.  

They took his body for washing, and as soon as they poured water on him, he woke up from the dead. His testimony is that he saw Jesus and the Lord asked him to go back into the world and tell them He is coming...9 days in the morgue. 

God is the creator of all things and everything is before Him.  He is present at everywhere at the same time, and nothing can be hidden from the Lord.  Without God, there is no hope, and certainly, there is no future without God.  

Be quiet before the Lord

Without God, no journey is worth taking.  God asked the Jews to go with the angel of His presence, but, Moses insisted they will go nowhere without the Lord, going with them. 

A man told his Son, may God protect you, and the son said my Friends will protect me more than God.  But, on his way back home, a stray bullet hit him and he died instantly.  His friends could not protect him from the stray bullet.

It is simply amazing that people can gather enough courage to say that ' there is no God.  Let us all fear God and serve Him, who is able to do all things.  He honours those that honour Him, and people that despite the Lord shall harvest shame and untimely death - 1 Samuel 2:30

It is written in the Bible: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sow,  that shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7.  No one mocks God and go unpunished.  Here are examples of people who mocked God in the past and how they ended.

Famous people who mocked God and died Untimely

1. John Lennon (Singer): Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said: Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple, today we are more famous than Him' (1966). Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times, and he died.

2. Tancredo Neves (President of Brazil ): During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from the Presidency. Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, and then he died.

3. Cazuza (Bi-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet): During A show in Canecio (Rio de Janeiro) While smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said: "God, that's for you." He died at the age of 32 of LUNG CANCER in a horrible manner.

4. The man who built the Titanic: After the construction of the Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be. With an ironic tone, he said:  "Not even God can sink it." The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic

5. Marilyn Monroe (Actress) She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said:  "I don't need your Jesus". A week later, she was found dead in her apartment.

6. Bon Scott (Singer) The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he sang: 'Don't stop me; I'm going down all the way, down the highway to hell'.  On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.

7. Campinas (IN 2005) In Campinas, Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend..... The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends that she said to the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car: "My Daughter, Go with God And May He Protect You." She responded: "Only If He (God) Travels In The Trunk, Cause Inside Here.....It's Already Full."

Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact. The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, and none was broken.

8. Christine Hewitt (Jamaican Journalist and entertainer) said the Bible (Word of God) was the worst book ever written. In June 2006 she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle. Many more important people have forgotten that there is no other name that was given so much authority as the name of Jesus.

Let us also fear the Lord.  

CONCLUSION

We are living in the end times promised in the bible.  There is a joyful life God has planned for everyone that believes His Son and walks according to His word.  If you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, do so now.

Say this simple prayer:

Heavenly Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus Christ.
I believe that Jesus died for my sins and rose again for my justification. I repent of my sins and ask for forgiveness. I ask Jesus to come into my heart and reign as my Lord and Saviour.  I receive Him by faith, I am born again!

FIRE...