...Then the question with you and with me today, and all time is, 'How shall we be so separated from sin that we may meet Him in flaming fire!?' How, how, how!?
Look at yourself and your record, and I will look at myself and my record. We will look at the evil traits that are in us, at the struggles we have made, and the longing we have had to overcome these besetments, and to separate ourselves from all the evil, that we might indeed be ready. Where is there time to get ourselves ready? In the short time that intervenes between now and that day, -- is there time? and if so, when shall be that time when you and I have that thing so accomplished, shall have so separated ourselves from sin that we shall be ready to meet Him in flaming fire? The answer is, Never. That time will never, never come.
What, then, shall we do? Do not misunderstand, I did not say that the time will never would come when we could be separated from sin. I said, Look at yourself, and I will look at myself, and we will see what we are, how full of evil traits, and what little progress we have made in this work of overcoming, and ask the question, when will the time ever come when you and I will ever have separated ourselves from sin that we can meet Him in flaming fire? It is that time which I say will never, never come. But, Bless the Lord! there is a time to be separated from sin. No time will ever come when we can do this work ourselves ; but that time is now, JUST NOW, to be separated from sin. The time to be separated from sin is right now, and that now is all the time; for "now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation." Only God can separate us from sin; He will do it, and He will do it just now. Bless His name!
Yet, what every one must understand is this: the only way that God does, or can, separate anybody from sin is by that very consuming fire of His presence. The only way, therefore, in which you and I can ever be so separated from sin as to meet God as he is, in the flaming fire that he is, in that great day, is to meet Him TODAY as He is, in the consuming fire that He is. The only way that we can be prepared to meet Him at His coming in that great day is to meet Him in His coming today. For there is a coming to men now, as really as to the world in that great day. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will COME TO YOU." John 14:18. But do not forget that whether He comes to you or to me now, or whether He comes to other people in that great day, He comes only as a consuming fire.
Listen:"If any man hear my voice, and open the door,"--what does he say?--"I will come in to him."
Good. Thank the Lord! And "He is a consuming fire," and when he comes into you, that coming will consume all the sin that is in you, so that when he comes in the clouds of heaven in flaming fire, you can meet Him in joy in the consuming fire that He is.
Then do you hear His voice? "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: and if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I WILL COME IN TO HIM."
Do you hear His voice? Then swing open wide the door, and keep it everlastingly open. Bid Him welcome, in the consuming fire that He is: and that flaming fire of His presence will consume sin in all your being, and so will thoroughly cleanse and prepare you to meet Him in flaming fire in that great day.
When I meet Him today "in a flaming fire," when I welcome Him today "a consuming fire" in me, shall I be afraid to meet Him in flaming fire in that day --No; I shall be accustomed to it; and knowing what a blessed thing it is to become familiar with meeting Him as "a consuming fire," knowing what a blessing that has brought to me today, I shall be delighted to meet Him on that other day, when He shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire.
"Our God is a consuming fire." Bless the Lord!
God is altogether clear; for Jesus said: "If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him." John 12:47,48.
Now let us find out that "one." It is not Jesus Christ: He says it is not. It is not God; for the Lord Jesus said, "If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not." That is not the "one." But there is "one" that judges him, and I think we can find him out. Look again: "if any man hear my words." That word is the word of God. It is the word of life of God, because it is the word of God. The word of life of God is eternal life, because eternal is the life of God. Then there is the word of eternal life. That word is spoken. All men hear it. "If any man hear my words, and believe not;" and "he that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words,"--
that word being the word of life, when it comes to you, or to me, or to that other man, eternal life comes to you, or to me, or to that other man. In the "words of eternal life," eternal life comes to him to whom the word comes. And when he rejects the word, he rejects eternal life. And in choosing to reject eternal life, he chooses eternal death. It is his own choice to reject eternal life; and in rejecting that, he chooses death.
Then when that death comes to him which he has chosen--who brought him to it? Who counted him worthy of death? Who judged him? Who sentenced him to death?--Only himself. Nobody else is concerned in it at all. God did all that He could: He set eternal life before him; He surrounded him with every possible inducement, and every persuasion, to receive it; He made it attractive to him; it was adorned, decorated, made as beautiful as God's truth itself could be made, and his own heart approved of it; the Spirit of God said to him, "That is the right thing, that is the truth:" but he "had pleasure in unrighteousness." He rejected the word, and in rejecting the word of eternal life, he rejected eternal life; and in that he chose eternal death. And when he receives eternal death, it is only what he chose. He himself is the only one who counted himself worthy of it.
When Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch, and the Jews contradicted and blasphemed against those things which were spoken by Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles, these men of God waxed bold, and said, "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." Acts 13:46. Mark; it was not said, We judge you unworthy of eternal life. No; you "judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life." Every man who meets destruction passes upon himself the judgment of that destruction.
All the Scripture is founded upon this thought--that it is not against the person, but against the thing to which the person has fastened himself, that the wrath of God comes. Then as the Lord executes vengeance primarily only against sin, as His wrath is only against ungodliness and unrighteousness, and He has done everything He could to get the people to separate from sin, then in that burning day when He comes, and reveals Himself to the world, and the world sees Him as He is, it will still be only sin against which He will execute vengeance.
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