Wall of Fire from 5.4.17 https://youtu.be/lz4TkbaAcHQ
Personal Matters
Adultery, pornography, divorce are no longer scandalous or rare amongst the people of God (Matt 5:27-28). In an age whose motto is; “Surely God wants me to be happy!”, this is hardly surprising. Wisdom however teaches, “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” (Prov 25:28). This image for spiritual destruction recurs throughout scripture. When a people refuse God’s messengers but pay heed to lying prophets who plaster over the breaches in their moral/spiritual defences they incur God’s wrath. “I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground”; with no one to “stand in the breach” the Lord “consumed them with the fire of my wrath” (Isa 30:8-17; Ezek 13:10-16; 22:28-31). Given that God’s wrath is handing people over to their own wicked desires so they “burn with lust for one another”, our age is witnessing a massive outpouring of divine anger (Rom 1:24, 26, 27-28). The breaches in the wall of the Western Church can be repaired so that the invasion of ungodliness into her is stemmed, but only if fire is met with fire.
Unguarded
The Lord commissioned Adam to “tend and guard” Eden (Gen 2:15 cf. Num 3:7-8; 8:26; 18:5-6). His command, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” was no dead letter (Gen 2:17). As the Word of the Lord it was surely “burning like fire” in the heart of sinless Adam (Jer 23:29 cf. Luke 24:32). If he had stood up as a sentinel guarding his “heart” and “spirit” by the divine Word humanity would never have fallen (Prov 4:23; Mal 2:15). As created in the image of a God who “yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us” Adam was naturally jealous for his relationship with the LORD and Eve (James 4:5). He was inwardly disposed to oppose everything lustful and idolatrous that would interfere with these intimate exclusive covenant bonds (James 4:1-4). How then did Adam and Eve, who were “partners in the divine nature”, become subject to “the corruption that is in the world due to lust” (2 Pet 1:4)? Why didn’t Adam take the flaming sword of the Spirit God placed in his heart and speak out a word cutting the snake, who he knows is not Eve’s covenant partner, into pieces (Gen 3:1, 24; Jer 5:14; Eph 6:17)? Adam and Eve chose to live by every word that came from the mouth of the serpent because they believed his word that they could make choices solely for themselves. Satan’s speech perversely enlightened the heart of Eve and Adam so that they “saw” that they could desire moral wisdom, physical pleasure and aesthetic delight for themselves (Gen 3:6). Anyone who can rule for themselves (autonomy) has no need to guard their own heart, watch over a spouse or preserve God’s creation. From this point of opposing God’s Word, which holds all things together, everything bonded by covenantal love – personal integrity, marriage, creation itself – began to break down (Rom 8:20; Col 1:17).
Pure Jealousy
When we understand the LORD “whose name is Jealous” manifests this passion in “consuming fire” our minds are illuminated about much of the Old Testament (Ex 20:5; 34:14; Deut 4:24 etc.). The burning fire at Sinai signifies God’s holy presence bringing Israel into exclusive marital relationship with himself. His commands are “a lamp and their instruction a light” to keep the people free of spiritual immorality (Prov 6:23-24). Yet no matter how many times the fire of the Jealous Husband broke out against the Israel’s infidelities she continued to be an “adulterous generation” (Deut 32:16-21; Jeremiah 15:14; 17:4; Lamentations 4:11; Matt 12:39; Mark 8:38 cf. Hos 2:6). Whilst God prophetically promised “a wall of fire… and glory” to sovereignly protect his people they chose instead a wall of law-keeping and religious effort (Zech 2:12). Jesus alone can free us from the trap of relying on legalism and cultural customs to guard the purity of the people of God.
The Fire of the Lord
Adam and Eve ate in the Garden to satisfy their lustful desires, but Jesus refuses Satan’s temptation to eat in the wilderness because he knows, ““‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”” (Matt 4:4). Christ denies himself the temporary pleasures of this world for the greater joy of a marriage that will never end (Acts 20:33-35). Whether Christ saw bread or power or fame or women, or anything else a man’s heart might desire, his first thought was never about the satisfaction of his own felt needs, but how all these things could help him live closer to God. As the Bridegroom come in the flesh (Mark 2:20)Jesus possessed a zealous passion for his Bride that would in the end “consume him” (John 2:17). A burning not of selfish lust but the “consuming fire” of God’s wrath which unfaithful humanity deserves (1 Cor 7:9). God loves his chosen Bride so much that he consumes himself in the anguish of the cross. On the cross Jesus must endure the flames of wrath without the guarding illuminating light of the holy fire of his Father’s intimate presence (Mark 15:34; Luke 3:16; 12:50). This sacrifice of supreme self-deprivation is the opposite spirit to the selfish heat of the Fall and so saves us all (1 Tim 2:5; 4:10).
Church on Fire
The Western Church needs to repent for being unlike Jesus. Instead of seeing men, women and material goods etc. as things to fulfil us we need to discern them in the holy fire of Spirit-Word as vehicles for living to God. Many fail to discern the false fires of self-illuminated teachers and are falling subject to “another Jesus… a different spirit… and a different gospel” because they prefer leaders that don’t look or live like the crucified Lord (Isa 50:11; 2 Cor 11:4)! Following Christ however Paul “humbled himself” that his hearers “might be exalted” preaching the gospel free of charge because he shared in the jealousy of God (2 Cor 11:2, 7, Phil 2:5-11). This attitude and action is totally against our fleshly popular culture. The fire of the cross is so deeply hated, even in the Church, because it burns up and devours our ability to make decisions for self rather than for Jesus (2 Cor 5:14; Gal 2:20). The more this fire burns in us the brighter our illumination in Christ becomes and the more we die to self-interest. But who wants this way of life today?
Conclusion
The jealous fire of God burns forever against all infidelities because in the end it is the fire of the passion the 3 Persons of the Holy Trinity share for each another and for creation. In this Light all idolaters are “haters of God” who “deserve to die” in the flames of his unrequited Love (Rom 1:22ff, 30, 32). The Lord will most definitely be a consuming inferno to all who do not love him, because only those in whom the fire of the Word of Christ lives can “dwell with everlasting burnings” (Song Sol 8:6; Isa 33:14). The solution to the problem of unruly passions and depravities in the Church is not self-stoked religious zeal. If we desire our “hearts (to) burn within us” it must come as it did to disciples long ago, through the Spirit’s exposition of the Word we will no longer see our own passions and desires but “their eyes were opened” to SEE JESUS (Luke 24:31-32). May seeing Jesus be our one great passion for only in his light and heat can we be enlightened and holy inflamed (Ps 36:9; John 1:4).