Hebrews 12:25-26

Can we not see that he is making a contrast here? He is showing that, in one way, our position is actually worse off than theirs was - simply because we have been given so much and the responsibility upon us is so great.

Are you afraid of the Lake of Fire? Are you afraid of the consequences of sin? The consuming fire is the consequence of sin! We can see that whenever God chooses to reveal Himself in ways that can be appreciated by the senses (by eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and the sense of touch) the occasion is so majestic and so awesome and so dreadful that people cannot endure it! And might I remind you that this did not seem to do Israel any good, either. The older generation of ancient Israel, all those who had experienced that about which we just read here, all perished in the wilderness. Symbolically they did not make it into the Kingdom of God - even though they experienced, through the senses, God actually being in their presence.

We are beginning to see that godly fear has a spiritual element to it. It has nothing to do with anything that a person can perceive with the eyes, ears, nose, or any of the other senses. And I think we can see, too, that there is an element of terror involved in this fear.

Hebrews 12:25-29

We can learn in Hebrews 12:25-29 that those people in the wilderness rejected Moses and the warning is to us to be careful that we don't reject Christ. Now how did they reject Moses? By rejecting what he stood for. He stood for the Old Covenant. He stood for the way of life that God revealed through him. They rejected him in the manner of life that they lived while they were out in the wilderness.

What we have to understand is that now is the decisive time for you and me; now is judgment on the house of God. We want to be careful that by our way of life, and by our attitudes that are motivating this way of life, that we do not do the same thing they did. It is far more serious because we stand in the position of being able to reject Christ—not His type, but God.

That section there ends with, "For our God is a consuming fire." What we have to understand, brethren, is that God is not to be trifled with. He is implacably opposed to evil, so do not tempt Him. Stay away from the edge of the cliff. Be willing to sacrifice yourself, and not play with sin.